“I wasn’t having any symptoms early in pregnancy,” Nishida said. “No red flags at all.”
Still, at 23 weeks and 6 days, her provider decided to enroll her in remote blood pressure monitoring through Babyscripts because of her medical history. That decision would soon prove critical.
Not long after starting with Babyscripts, Reina began noticing persistent headaches and elevated blood pressure readings at home — spikes that weren’t showing up consistently during office visits. “At first, my doctor thought it might be an error with the Babyscripts cuff,” Nishida said. “But then I bought a second cuff to compare my at-home readings, and they agreed.”
Having reliable data from two sources — including the Babyscripts device — helped shift the conversation.
“It was so nice to have the data and the care managers backing me up,” Nishida said. “I could bring that to the doctor and it showed that I wasn’t making it up in my head.”
[Read: Care Managers Play a Vital Role in Maternal RPM]
At 26 weeks and 1 day, Reina was diagnosed with preeclampsia and started medication to manage her blood pressure. She continued monitoring through Babyscripts and was ultimately induced at 35 weeks and 2 days due to her condition, giving birth to a healthy baby girl.
Nishida also stayed enrolled in Babyscripts postpartum hypertension monitoring, where she continued to receive regular check-ins from care managers. “It was nice to have someone watching over my blood pressure the whole time,” she said. “It really made me feel safe.”
Now on the other side of her experience, Nishida hopes her story can help others.
“There’s not a lot of stories out there about women getting pregnant after a kidney transplant,” she said. “I looked for them when I was deciding to have a baby. If I can share my story, maybe it will let other women know there’s a safe way forward.”