Lux Capital reposted this
A week after giving birth to my third child last September, I was preparing to take our first walk around the neighborhood, when I was hit with the worst headache of my life. Fifteen minutes later--and thanks to quick triage from Maven Clinic's Neel Shah, I found myself going over my will on the way to the hospital, where I would stay under intensive care and stroke and seizure watch for the next five days. Thank you to Emma Hinchliffe for sharing more about my harrowing experience with rare and often deadly postpartum preeclampsia in Fortune's Broadsheet today--and how it has re-invigorated my passion for women's health innovation and investment.
Deena Shakir was eight days postpartum with her third child last September when she got a bad headache. Just over a week after a C-section, Shakir still didn’t think her headache was an emergency. After going to the hospital, Shakir stayed there for five days; it took three days for her blood pressure to stabilize. If she’d arrived 30 minutes later, a nurse told her, she’d likely have had a fatal stroke. She almost couldn’t believe that after spending years becoming an expert in women’s health, she’d come so close to dying after childbirth. For Shakir, the experience reinforced why she invests in women’s health companies. “A lot of my investments are trying to democratize everyone to have access to healthcare in your pocket,” she says. “In this case, it’s literally the difference between life and death.” Read more here: bit.ly/4dul37p
Deena, your strength and resilience are truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing your deeply personal experience. It's a stark reminder of the critical need for advancements in women's health. Your dedication to innovation and investment in this field is more important than ever. How can we support this mission and help raise awareness? Looking forward to share more & connect with you!
So glad that you got immediate medical care and are doing well. Unfortunately, US still has high instances of postpartum complications. CDC has a great campaign to raise awareness about postpartum complications. This is one of the big reasons, we at Newmom.me are heavily focused on providing postpartum care services and training to enable our trained Doulas to be aware of and watch out for the signs for pregnancy and postpartum complications. We believe that all moms should have access to Postpartum doulas, who can offer invaluable support to moms during this time.
Not surprised. Personal traumas, incidents and matters are what inspire us and the severity of that is the drive that is needed which ultimately results in our own determination to get it done by any means necessary
Would you like to join us for a Startup Grind fireside chat to tell your story and why we must change the way we are addressing women's health and VC?
Thank you for sharing your story and for investing in women health. Wishing you health and joy
How many more women need to die? How many more neonatal deaths associated with ART need to die? How many more infertile couple have to remain childless before we recognize the desparate need to allocate funding toward women’s health?
WOW. Thank you for sharing your story – it's so vital for people to understand these types of life-threatening scenarios and the true war being waged against women's health in the US. SO glad you're doing well xx
Thank you for your leadership and sharing your personal story - it’s so impactful.
Oh my goodness. This is so scary to hear about. I had preeclampsia with 2/3 babies and this very well could have been me! It's so hard to take care of yourself when you have a newborn to think about. So glad you are ok! If childcare is a part of your thesis, I'd love to chat about my startup in the space. I too am a mom of three and working hard to help other working moms with all things #childcare!
I am SO glad you’re okay. And SO grateful to women willing to put your harrowing personal experiences out in the world to shed light on the very real, very terrifying state of women’s health. While the country is putting women and our childbearing roles/responsibilities up as a point of debate, I hope this helps people remember the life and death nature of carrying and bearing children. Even when you have already (a proven pelvis, as they say, in language obviously not written by women…😜). Your advocacy and impact never go unnoticed.