SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Some new research might help expecting mothers to receive the right care when it comes to the risks and treatment of gestational hypertension.

Shana Kettunen never needed to own a blood pressure cuff until twelve years ago when she suffered a near death experience.  

“You know, my first pregnancy was going completely normal,” Kettunen said about her prenatal care, up until her third trimester.

“And I had gone into my regular appointments at 32 weeks and all of a sudden my blood pressure was a little high,” she said her doctor put her on a few weeks of bedrest before she delivered early with a healthy 5 and half pound baby girl.

Overcome with the joys of becoming a new mom, the now former ultrasound sonographer, knew what danger signs to watch out for, but she said she ignored symptoms of headaches and lightheadedness.

“I was feeling really off,” she said about why her family rushed her to the hospital six days later.

The new mom was readmitted with the unthinkable.

“My blood pressure was 220 over 120,” she said about the dangerously high and almost deadly numbers that can cause strokes or heart failure. Kettunen was diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia.

“And it was a really, really scary time,” she said about the difficult diagnosis. The incident created a series of health concerns, including an enlarged liver and chronic hypertension. To this day, she still must take daily medication to control it.

So when she became pregnant again a few years later, her doctors took her hypertension history into account and prescribed something still considered controversial.

“I was on blood pressure medication for the whole second pregnancy,” Kettunen said.

The pills, at the time, were thought to potentially cause lower birth weights, but Kettunen and her doctors took the risk.

“Which actually helped me get to 38 weeks and delivered [an] almost seven-pound baby,” she said.

Now, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, co-authored by UW Health OB-GYN Dr. Kara Hoppe suggests the benefits and safety of this treatment plan for mild gestational hypertension.

“I hope this gives [expecting moms] hope and the opportunity to be able to, you know, have healthy pregnancies in the future,” Kettunen said.

It’s why today she serves as a preeclampsia activist; she turned her pain into a passion and volunteers with the National Preeclampsia Foundation.

“I had to do additional education on preeclampsia so that we understood more of the disease process, what the latest research was so that we can answer those questions and be able to talk through with people dealing with preeclampsia,” she said.

And because of her health care nightmare, she helped launch and now lead the startup Strive Medtech.

“So I’m actually a chief operating officer for virtual health care companies to help remote monitor people that have chronic conditions,” she said about the effort that one day she’d like to expand to support high-risk pregnancy monitoring.

Learn more about the symptoms of preeclampsia at https://www.preeclampsia.org.