Lydia & Gianna

• Mom Saves

• 05.16.24

“I work for the local health department as a Family Health Coordinator in the Healthy Pregnancy Program and I also do doula work on the side. We encourage all the clients that we have through our healthy pregnancy program to use the app, and we give materials out to every client and community member we come into contact with.

We promote Count the Kicks to the families we work with, but I never really thought to use it for myself until Ebonie Bailey with the Iowa Black Doula Collective told me I needed to download the app and use it too.

I used the app regularly, and Gianna was always active between 10 and noon. The app is easy to use and very user friendly.

Knowing the risks, especially with me being a Black woman, I was always checking and making sure everything was right. Towards the end of my pregnancy I started having headaches. I would have the family health nurse check my blood pressure, and she would tell me it’s high and to go into the OB-GYN—but I kept being told everything was fine. I continued to say I didn’t feel good.

The last time I had a headache that wouldn’t go away, I checked the app and she wasn’t moving as much. That wasn’t her normal. The app helped reaffirm that something was wrong. The nurse at work checked my blood pressure and it was really high, so she told me to go in again.

At first I didn’t want to go because I thought they would just send me home again. But our maternal health nurse strongly encouraged me to go. I called and told them she wasn’t moving much, my blood pressure was high, and I had a headache.

They did a non-stress test and she wasn’t moving a lot, so they sent me to the hospital. My blood pressure stayed high for around 2 hours, and I was diagnosed with preeclampsia and induced that night.

After everything, my care team told me that if I had waited any longer to come in, I could have seized at home. Because I trusted what I was seeing in the app and went in when I did, it truly helped save my life.

I was induced on a Tuesday and had her on Thursday. She came out beautiful and healthy. I did hemorrhage after she was born, but they were able to stop it. I was released a few days later and recovered well.

My advice is to use the app. It’s free, easy to use, and helps you understand your baby’s normal movement. Whether things feel fine or feel off, use it.

Count the Kicks is a resource for everyone, no matter your background. It’s something anybody and everybody can use.” – Lydia H., Gianna’s Mom

Read Gianna’s Story