Pregnancy related heart attack

Alaina

In order to raise awareness, I feel like I need to tell my story. Last April I found out I was expecting my second child, my husband and daughter were thrilled, as was I, my pregnancy was smooth with little to no complications, and I delivered my beautiful second daughter on December 19th. A couple weeks after her birth I got pretty sick with an upper respiratory infection, after recovering from my illness I noticed my chest would hurt and I would become extremely out of breath, but it would go away and I brushed it off to leftover mucus from my sickness. When my daughter was a month old I started having numerous episodes of chest pain to the point where it felt like someone was squeezing my heart and i felt pain in my upper back which radiated down both my arms, so my husband called an ambulance and I was rushed to the hospital where they told me my bloodwork indicated a problem with my heart so I was whisked away for a procedure called a heart catheter, where they would insert a small scope through my groin into a main artery that led to the heart to check for clots or blockage. During this procedure I was awake and still experiencing chest pains, before the scope could even go in I started having TERRIBLE pains in my heart, it felt like I was drowning and a million pounds was on my chest, I started screaming and begging for someone to please put me to sleep, which they did. Hours later I awoke with a large incision on my chest and drainage tubes under my breasts, I was told I had a heart attack which required a double bypass open heart surgery, after confusing every cardiologist in the hospital with why a healthy 31 year old would suddenly have a heart attack I was informed that it was a rare side effect from my recent labor, during delivery my hormones put so much stress on my heart that the artery tore and fell down causing a blockage which resulted in my heart attack. My doctors have informed me to avoid future pregnancies, but that I was extremely lucky to have been already at the hospital when the heart attack happened, this information is so shocking and everyone I’ve told is stunned to hear it was from having a baby. I’m almost 4 months post op and have just started being able to lift and care for my children. I’m very lucky and thankful for this second change at life.