Highly specialized B.C. program helps pregnant women with heart conditions

A first Mother’s Day for a new mom is always special.

For Sarah Dixon, that’s doubly true.

“It’s such a cliché but when they smile and giggle, you’ll do anything for them,” said the Courtenay woman, referring to her twins, Charlie and Arthur, who were born in January.

Her journey to motherhood came with twists and turns. But despite having a complex heart condition known as catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), she ended up safely delivering her babies with the help of a highly specialized program out of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

“Sarah has an inherited arrhythmia,” explained Dr. Jasmine Grewal, director of the Cardiac Obstetrics Clinic at St. Paul’s.

“So what that means is it’s a genetic condition in which the electrical system of the heart is impacted. And that particular condition can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias, which need to be considered in the context of pregnancy and labour delivery.”

Explained Dixon, “The risk with pregnancy wasn’t really in the pregnancy itself, it was more the stress of delivery. It’s something more triggered by adrenalin and the beta blockers supress that.”

Because of her condition, Dixon was referred to St. Paul’s. The hospital’s Cardiac Obstetrics Clinic is the only clinic of its kind in the province.

The program sees as many as 500 women a year who have cardiac disease and are thinking about getting pregnant or who are pregnant.

“In conjunction with our obstetric colleagues, we work really hard to look after these sick women,” said Grewal.

In Dixon’s case, a team of doctors carefully monitored her. Then at 33 weeks into her pregnancy, a routine ultrasound revealed one of the babies had a potentially serious issue. Dixon was sent immediately to St. Paul’s and delivered Charlie and Arthur by C-section a couple days later. Both boys were less than four pounds at birth and spent their first weeks in the care of ICU staff.

“They were amazing. It was really incredible. We had so many doctors and nurses come and check on us,” Dixon said.

“It was very moving to have so much care for these tiny little guys and to know that there were so many people that were experts in the area, ready to help them,” said the new mom.

Said Grewal, “It’s a great joy to be able to see (pregnant women) through their pregnancy and do well from a heart perspective.”

“We have our cardiac obstetrics program, but similarly there’s a renal program that looks after high risk women with renal disease. There’s a GI program. So really we span the different medical disorders and look after these high-risk women,” Grewal said.

Meanwhile, Dixon said she’s also grateful for the support of a program called You Are Not Alone (YANA), a community organization helping Comox Valley families who need to travel for medical treatment for a child or pregnant mom. YANA provided an apartment in Vancouver for her and her husband while their babies were in hospital.

The twins are now about 14 weeks and getting bigger all the time.

“They want to feed a lot at night. They want to cuddle a lot at night,” she said, explaining her and her partner tag team in shifts to care for their twins.

Dixon said learning to juggle a lot has been key to parenting so far.

“You figure out how to make a bottle while you’re holding two babies, while you’re dealing with the dog,” she laughed.

But she said the long nights and busy days are all worth it.

“When (the twins) smile and giggle, you would do anything for them,” she said.