Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

February is Heart Health Month.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S., according to the CDC.

Doctors with Lehigh Valley Health Network say many people don't know that complications during pregnancy can increase the risk for developing heart problems.

I sat down with a cardiologist to learn more.

In 2006, Patty Scheirer was pregnant with her first baby, a boy.

It started off beautifully.

I loved being pregnant.

But complications would soon change that perspective.

My blood pressure was ridiculous.

The first time mom had pre-eclampsia.

I was 33 and a half weeks and they just basically said that I was, uh.

My blood pressure was too high.

It was impacting him, and that they were going to give me some steroids steroid shots, and they were going to help him grow a little bit faster.

But he was coming.

Within hours, Scheirer was holding her baby boy.

She thought that was the end of her pre-eclampsia problems.

But fast forward ten years in her early forties, she gets what she describes as chronic heartburn.

I remember it was St Patty's Day weekend and you know, you're enjoying St Patty's Day and you're eating meat and having bad life choices there.

And so I just kept taking turns and it wasn't going away.

It wasn't going away.

Patty couldn't believe what she heard next.

And I actually drove myself over to the emergency room over on Cedar Crest because I was like, This is weird.

It was late at night.

They took me right in.

They're like, Oh, so here you're having a heart attack.

And I'm like, I'm sorry.

I'm what?

So here's Patty.

And she's a young woman.

She's in her forties.

She comes in with a heart attack and you look and you'd say, okay, well, what were her risk factors?

Was she a diabetic?

Was she a smoker?

Did she have a family history?

And she didn't have any of those, but she had preeclampsia and she also had borderline gestational diabetes.

Cardiologist Dr. Amy Ahnert treated Sheirer after her heart attack.

She works for LVHN’s Women's Heart Program within the Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute.

What we've learned is that women with preeclampsia can have two times the risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 to 15 years.

Significant increase in risk of high blood pressure.

Ahnert says many people don't know the nontraditional risk factors for heart disease in women, such as adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Things like high blood pressure and pregnancy preeclampsia, which is a severe form of high blood pressure in pregnancy.

High sugar in pregnancy, which is called gestational diabetes.

Small babies.

Preterm babies.

There are many outcomes that a woman can face during their pregnancy that can increase their risk of heart disease.

Women who have autoimmune diseases, inflammatory conditions, women who may have had breast cancer treatments, even depression and anxiety.

As more is known about the correlation between pregnancy complications and heart issues, more is being done to combat the problem.

LVHN has created a program specifically for women who have had pre-eclampsia.

Ahnert says it's not just the mother who is at risk, but the baby as well.

Her colleague, Dr. Joanne Quinones, is the vice chair of research for the Department of OB-GYN.

There is information to suggest that infants of mothers who have had preeclampsia, that there might be fetal programing and perhaps are at higher risk of developing complications during adult life.

And that's something that there's a lot of ongoing research taking place.

Quinones works in maternal fetal medicine and has learned that pregnancy problems don't go away after the baby is born.

These are conditions that are not just related to the pregnancy.

They happen in pregnancy, but they're almost like a window to a future health.

At their Allentown office, the two doctors have made it their mission to educate people about the number one killer of women heart disease and how to prevent it.

We know that if we're able to educate women, if we're able to empower women, if we're able to control their risk factors, if we're able to encourage them to live a heart healthy lifestyle, we can prevent heart disease.

It's not inevitable.

80% of heart disease can be prevented.

Ahnert says Women need to let their doctors know about their pregnancy history.

And those same doctors need to be asking.

So a few extra steps can be taken to prevent future complications.

It's a yearly visit that's really focused on bread and butter heart health.

It's not necessarily a lot of fancy testing, fancy medications or fancy interventions.

It's a lot of it's just how do we get you to be the healthiest that you can in terms of really taking control of the things that are in our control?

Eating healthy.

Exercising, Not smoking.

Watching our blood pressure.

Making sure we're checking our cholesterol and or other risk factors.

Those lifestyle changes are what Scheirer says saved her life so she can continue to watch that tiny baby boy and his brother grow into young men taller than her.

Yeah.

You never would have known that they were that the oldest was a premature baby.

Came out of 4 lbs, five ounces, and he's a beast now.

So we grow them big apparently.

In addition to knowing how to prevent heart disease, doctors say women should know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack because they are different than what men experience.

According to the CDC.

They can include indigestion, shortness of breath and pain in the upper back or abdomen.

That will do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping.

You stay happy.

And healthy.