WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)- The American Heart Association says nearly 45% of women 20 or older are living with some type of heart disease. Less than half of pregnant women have good heart health.
Krystle Brevik’s journey with heart health began when she was born and diagnosed with a heart murmur. But it was when she was pregnant with her daughter that things got more serious.
“Pregnancy was hard because of course my heart had to work harder to support her,” Brevik said.
When she was eight weeks pregnant, she learned she’d been living with multiple heart conditions.
“A bicuspid aortic valve is instead of three chambers in my aorta I have two chambers. So it’s stenosing which is calcifying and getting hard. And the flap also now doesn’t close all the way so the blood’s going back into the heart instead of closing and staying out. So it regurgitates,” Brevik said.
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Brevik has to be careful in her daily activities to not put herself under too much stress.