Over the nearly 10 years since the Apple Watch was released on April 24, 2015 (which is considered a day of mourning in Switzerland), we’ve chronicled the many times that the timepiece was able to save a life thanks to one of the device’s health-related features. Doctors are now saying that pregnant women are more and more turning to devices like smartwatches and rings to monitor certain health metrics during their pregnancies.
One doctor who can’t help but agree about the importance of such monitoring is Dr. Rachel Manalo who not only is a pediatric cardiologist (which means she treats children with heart conditions) but is also one of the pregnant women who was smart enough to be wearing an Apple Watch during her pregnancy. Back when she was pregnant in early 2022, after carrying her child for 18 weeks, Dr. Manalo felt her heart racing on and off. When it continued happening, she knew that this was not a good sign.
Apple Watch EKG indicated an issue with Doctor Manalo’s heart
Also disturbing to her was feeling short of breath and tired after examining a patient. She said, “I remember sitting down with the patient and giving a diagnosis. And I felt dizzy just sitting in my chair like I was about to faint. When she reached 33 weeks, the rapid heartbeats wouldn’t go away so she used the electrocardiogram (EKG) monitor on her Apple Watch. The EKG tracks the electrical activity of the heart and the heart’s rhythm. If you have an Apple Watch Series 4 or later (not including the Apple Watch SE models), you can get an EKG reading of your heart.
“I click the EKG function on my watch. And then you place your finger on the crown and lay your arm still on the table. And it takes a recording for 30 seconds.”-Dr. Rachel Manalo
Her EKG was “inconclusive,” a reading that the doctor says should be followed up with an EKG performed by a doctor. Instead of beating at the usual 60-100 beats per minute, Dr. Manalo’s heart was beating 150 times per minute for over 40 minutes. If you watch many medical shows, you might be familiar with her diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia. This means that the lower part of her heart wasn’t working as well as the top part and not enough oxygen was getting into her blood. Additionally, her heart was already working for two.
The doctor rushed to Los Angeles where she saw maternal and fetal medicine specialist Dr. Tina Nguyen who was concerned. “That type of heart issue, if not taken care of, can lead to a heart attack. And then you add on that she was pregnant. We talked about everything. I said ‘So when did you start noticing this irregular heart rate, you know, when did you have symptoms’ And she said, ‘You know, my Apple Watch told me.'”
Dr. Nguyen is also a specialist in informatics and she loves it when patients bring in plenty of data sourced from their smartwatches, rings, and other wearable devices.
“I want all the data. I want, you know, the patients to all wear Fitbits, all wear OURA rings and bring me all that information. Just having someone’s blood pressure when they’re at home and their heart rate can really change their pregnancy from the first visit forward. So that information is like gold to me.”-Dr. Tina Nguyen
Another doctor has a huge warning for pregnant women wearing an Apple Watch
Dr. Nguyen does warn that an Apple Watch owner should not self-diagnose and interpret the data unless they are a doctor. “Raw data is not a diagnosis, right? It’s just symptoms,” she said. “So you have symptoms. You have concerns. Yes. You can Google, you can Web MD, but you still have that symptom. You still need the human touch, you know, and hopefully that’s your doctor to kind of figure out what’s going on.”
As it turned out, Dr. Manalo needed to have a C-section performed since her heart was no longer able to handle a vaginal delivery. Her daughter, Samantha, was born weighing five ounces. Dr. Manalo remains on medication to control her heart problem.
If you know someone who is pregnant, you would be doing them a big favor by gifting them a smartwatch that can monitor the user’s heart or a ring that can also do the same thing. You might end up saving the life of the pregnant mother-to-be and her child.