American Heart Association volunteer expert, Karen Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH, assistant professor, Washington University School of Medicine, Associate Program Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Cardiovascular Fellowship Program, Co-Director, Center for Health Economics and Policy, Institute for Public Health at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

Offering perspective on AHA Scientific Sessions 2020 Presentation 209 
copyright American Heart Association 2020

"For both mom's health and baby's health that's extremely important to know your numbers. And that means before the pregnancy, during the pregnancy, and after the pregnancy. Sometimes it can be hard especially for young women who may never have been diagnosed with high blood pressure before. And it may feel foreign and scary and all of those things, but really taking charge of it and staying on top of it is the best thing that we can do. We also need to increase awareness around it. I don't think that that many people actually realize that high blood pressure during pregnancy can be a sign of cardiovascular risk in the future. 

And we really need to make sure that people know that high blood pressure during pregnancy means not only does it need to be followed during pregnancy to make sure that mom and baby are healthy throughout the process, but also that it means we need longterm followup and careful control of high blood pressure. It can be the silent killer and people may not know they have high blood pressure going forward but if treated, outcomes can be much better. So this is really a wake up call to make sure that we take women's cardiovascular health very seriously before, during ,and after pregnancy."