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Did you know that two-thirds of pregnancy-related deaths occur after delivery? Or that between 43 days and one-year postpartum is when 38% of these deaths happen?
These realities are not often talked about or considered when family planning is laid out, but in some South King County hospitals, a special program is being implemented to save postpartum lives.
The Postpartum Wellness and Recovery (PWR) Program launched in September 2023, initially starting as a pilot project in Burien at St. Anne Hospital. Now, three years later, the PWR Program is being offered at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way.
“The goal is to create a safety map for patients after they leave the hospital; instead of waiting for a complication to become an emergency, we stay connected to the patients,” said Lacey Parsadmehr, the Perinatal Nurse Navigator for the program. “We monitor them proactively and intervene early, especially for the high-risk patients. The two leading causes of complications or deaths in the postpartum periods are related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders so those are the two things that we focus the most on.”
The PWR Nurse Navigator is the mitochondria of the program – the powerhouse of this particular cell. They help “provide customized care by guiding participants through their health journey, tailoring support and resources to their unique needs and preferences. They also help to coordinate all aspects of care with the healthcare team, including referrals to specialists, medication management, and connecting participants with community resources and support.”
PWR offers the following resources:
• Virtual monitoring: Every patient receives a blood pressure cuff, allowing the Nurse Navigator to monitor readings remotely. “I can see their readings from home and get notified if they’re high or low, allowing us to adjust medications right away,” says Parsadmehr.
• Weekly check-ins: For the first six critical weeks, a Nurse Navigator conducts weekly check-ins, adjusting medications as needed, with the ultimate goal of stabilizing blood pressure and safely weaning mothers off medication.
• Long-term connection: Even after six weeks, PWR supports mothers throughout their first postpartum year, including referrals for cardiac risk assessment and primary care, ensuring sustained well-being.
So far, the program has 512 total postpartum patients, which Parsadmehr says will increase due to Federal Way’s larger population.
In a written statement to The Mirror, a local mother named Jazman DeWitt said that the program not only saved her life, but had given her her life back.
“The PWR Program did far more than simply monitor numbers. It holistically supported my physical and emotional health throughout the entire first year after my baby’s birth. In the beginning, my blood pressure was dangerously high, and I felt scared, alone, and utterly unsure if I would make it through,” she said.
“By the end, I was free of both blood pressure and antidepressant medications, and both my blood pressure and mood were profoundly stable. My PWR nurse helped me navigate an overwhelming journey, one reading, one phone call and one week at a time. The program’s goal wasn’t just to keep me physically safe in those challenging early weeks, but to empower me to build the support networks, acquire the coping skills and cultivate the confidence I needed to truly feel like myself again.”
DeWitt talked about her experience with having an uncomplicated delivery that began to turn into a crisis when her blood pressure skyrocketed once she returned home, something that Parsadmehr says is common.
“Some people think like, you know, once the baby comes out, everything’s okay, but actually, the postpartum period is riskier than the pregnancy period, and a lot of times after somebody has a baby, their focus transitions on to the baby, and so we keep our focus on the mom and make sure that she’s also taking care of herself,” said Parsadmehr.
Funding for the program comes from a three-year grant of $781,799 through CommonSpirit’s Mission and Ministry Fund, and with the expansion into Federal Way, it will provide a Community Health Worker who will give patients “dedicated resources and support of the health-related social needs of St. Francis Hospital patients.”
There is a real need for a Community Health Worker, as they will help patients who may need an interpreter or someone to help them make appointments or even get to where they need to go for their health.
“We help with all the things from transportation to communication and coordination,” said Parsadmehr, who adds that the Community Health Worker they will gain through the grant will help with these things, allowing her and other Nurse Navigators to focus on the patient’s care plan.
The program is provided to every patient who has high blood pressure or is at risk of high blood pressure, along with postpartum depression or anxiety. Before the patients are discharged, they will get a referral from the Nurse Navigator and will be contacted within a couple days of discharge from the hospital.
“A large part of my goal is to keep those patients home with their babies out of the hospital and out of the clinic,” said Parsadmehr. “I tell them in the very beginning, ‘It is my job to keep you home, I don’t want you being readmitted, I don’t want you being separated from your baby, and so in order to do that, I expect you to focus on your baby, and then I’ll be focusing on you. So, when I call, you just answer.’”
The PWR program is not only something that will help Federal Way postpartum patients, the goal is for it to be a “blueprint” for a necessary change in maternal healthcare, something that will influence other hospital systems to follow suit.
“It’s not a future concern – we’re losing mothers,” says Jennifer Fletcher, MC, BSN, RN, AMB-BC, Community Health Integration RN at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH). “The health of families rests so much on the health of the mother. We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this.”
To learn more, visit vmfh.org/about-vmfh/news-media/news-releases/postpartum-care-expands-at-vmfh.
