Charity Watkins was a doctoral candidate when she was pregnant and she did everything right. Still, her pregnancy caused heart failure.

"I took all of the classes. I went to birthing classes at the same hospital I was giving birth. I did a hospital tour. I did prenatal yoga. Anything that I could sign up for to prepare for this amazing experience of giving birth, I did.

I also talked to my OB about my family history. So my mom had heart failure. Had a history of having heart attacks. My dad had heart failure, and I shared that information. It was in my record that this was my family medical history.

However, it was never a part of any discussions during my prenatal care. And I didn't realize that was something that should have been a part of my prenatal care."