The Things I Wish I'd Known About Postnatal Health

Linnea Lones is a new mom and co-owner of Just Lift Fitness, a personal training studio in Clarendon Hills.

As the co-owner of a personal training gym, I have always been passionate about following a holistic approach to health and fitness. So passionate that I wanted to have real life experiences of fitness training while pregnant, having a natural, non-medicated birth, and working out postpartum to stay strong.

But as I was navigating through my first IVF pregnancy in 2023, my perspective drastically changed when I developed preeclampsia, a persistent high blood pressure that happens during pregnancy or after giving birth. According to the Preeclampsia Foundation, 75% of maternal deaths related to preeclampsia happen in the postpartum period, up to six weeks after delivery. Most women with preeclampsia will deliver healthy babies and will recover but may not know what can lie ahead in order to fully recover.

My postpartum journey was challenging, and there are several things I wish I would have known when I started that journey.

The things I wish I knew ahead of time:

1. Any woman can develop preeclampsia after her baby is born whether she experienced high blood pressure during her pregnancy or not.
2. You should monitor your blood pressure for at least six weeks postpartum but especially during the first week. If high blood pressure goes untreated, a woman is at risk for seizures, stroke, organ damage and even death.
3. Warning signs to look out for include stomach pain in the upper right quadrant, swelling in hands and feet, severe headache, seeing spots, and even shortness of breath.
4. 1 in every 25 women will have preeclampsia, and there's nothing she can do to prevent it.
5. To eliminate your risk of seizure or stroke, your midwife or doctor may have you take magnesium or do a 24-48 hour magnesium drip.

My goal in sharing this is to encourage all pre- and post-natal women to make sure they listen to their bodies and self-assess. One of the great tools that helped me listen to my body was my Apple watch. It gave me clues to my personal fitness and told me that my resting heart rate was trending upward.

My anxiety grew two days after I gave birth. If it wasn’t for me listening to my body after my discharge from the hospital and my midwives telling me to get a home blood pressure cuff, I might not have been lucky. My blood pressure spiked to 176/100, and the headache in my eyes was never ending. Even after doing a 17-hour magnesium drop and five days of blood pressure medicines, It took my body 11 weeks postpartum for my resting heart rate to go back down to my normal.

What I have learned while navigating my pre and post-natal health is to build a support team you trust and can rely on, set realistic goals and prepare for them while having a backup plan, just in case.

Remember every pregnancy is unique, so listen to your body, trust your instincts, and enjoy the incredible journey of motherhood ahead. The reward in the end of holding your little one was worth it all.