"Turning Pain into Power" with Huda

Patient Family Partner, Huda A., speaks about her birth story including preterm birth, cardiac arrest, hypertension, bleeding, clotting, respiratory effects, and amniotic fluid embolism. She also talks about her recovery and advocacy including working with an MMRC (Maternal Mortality Review Committee), a PQC (Perinatal Quality Collaborative), the Amniotic Fluid Embolism Foundation, and how she was pivotal in establishing AFE Awareness Day.

“I have no memory of waking up. I didn’t know that I even had a baby…9 years later and I have no memory of that at all.”

“How it is literally ok to not be ok, while feeling blessed to be alive.” 

“I highly recommend the moment that you feel like you are someone who can advocate for yourself and for others.” 

About MoMMAs Voices
MoMMAs Voices (Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Advocates) is the first-ever maternal health patient advocates program bringing together real patient and family voices. We're made up of dozens of maternal health organizations who represent all types of maternal health conditions, as well as cross-cutting topics like maternal mental health, racial equity, healthcare delivery, and patient-provider partnership. We sit at the center of maternal health improvements, connecting and training patients with lived experiences, providers, quality improvement leaders, researchers, and policymakers to move forward improvements in maternal care. We are a program of the Preeclampsia Foundation.

Episode Transcript

Bekah (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to today's episode from Power of
MoMMAs Voices.
My name is Bekah Bischoff and Iam the Education and
Development Coordinator.
Today we get to highlight acertified patient family partner
and talk about her experiencein her pregnancy as well as how
she came to MoMMAs Voices.
We hope that this will giveinsight to our listeners about

(00:23):
different conditions while alsocreating a great sense of
community.
I'm so excited to introduce ourguest today, Huda Al Tamimi.
Huda is a maternal healthadvocate and certified patient
family partner in the Michiganarea.
She survived an amniotic fluidembolism during the birth of her

(00:43):
first child.
She also endured manycomplications following her
cardiac arrest, such as DIC,rds, 40 blood transfusions, and
two surgeries.
She was intubated and wasimmediately admitted to the ICU.
She graduated with a Master'sof Public Health in 2022.

(01:04):
She's so passionate to utilizeher training and education to
speak with providers about theimportance of making sure that
their patient's concerns arefully taken into consideration
as that alone could potentiallysave a life.
I am just so excited to haveher with us today.
Huda, it has been such a joygetting to know you and work

(01:26):
with you, and I would just lovefor you to share a little bit
more about your birth story withus.

Huda (01:32):
Oh my God, Becca, thank you so much for having me.
Okay.
So like many women who arepregnant for the first time, I
didn't think much about thevarious complications that may
occur during pregnancy or labor.
On February 9th, 2014, I wasabout 31 weeks pregnant, and

(01:53):
that's when I startedexperiencing painful cramps.
So I instantly texted my OBdoctor and she said to
immediately go to the labor anddelivery room.
And after examining me, theyfound that I was about three
centimeters dilated and wasimmediately admitted to the
preterm labor.
I was given magnesium sulfatefor neuroprotection and some

(02:15):
other drugs like penicillin.
The following days, on February10th to the 11th exams showed
that there was low fetal heartrate, so the medical team made
the decision to have anemergency C-section on February
11th, around 10:00 PM.
Thankfully my daughter wasdelivered at two pounds

(02:36):
successfully.
However, as soon as my OB wastrying to stitch the first
lining of my uterus I went intocardiac arrest with no pulse.
My blood pressure started todrop, and code blue was
instantly called.
CPR was performed for severalminutes.

(02:57):
I then was intubated and on mymedical records I read this last
night, it said it was unclearfrom notes what rhythm the
patient was in or when a pulsewas regained.
I do not understand that atall.
I was also hypotensive intachycardia with gushes of
vaginal bleeding.

(03:17):
After I was somewhatstabilized, that's when they
transferred me to the ICU.
But the following day I wentinto DIC.
It's a condition that causes anabnormal blood clotting
throughout the body's bloodvessels.
My blood pressure was abnormaland they noticed that I wasn't
ventilating really well.
That indicated that I had thecompartment syndrome the one

(03:39):
that you explained earlier,acute respiratory syndrome.
They instantly took me to theoperating room for abdominal
decompression evacuation ofhematoma.
I needed a placement of a woundvac, which removed 1600
milliliters of fluid with clots.
After the procedure, I was sentback to the ICU and I was still

(03:59):
intubated.
In that moment, anotherphysician came in to check me
and they noticed that my oxygenlevels were not getting better
and that I may need to be on theECMO machine.
The ECMO machine was not in thehospital that I delivered my
daughter in.
They needed to transfer me viahelicopter to the neighboring
hospital that did carry it.

(04:19):
But when I arrived, thankfullyafter the new staff taking over
they realized my oxygen levelswere somewhat getting stabilized
and thankfully I did not needthe ECMO machine, but they still
had it on standby just in case.
I think after maybe a few daysof that, of getting into the

(04:40):
neighboring hospital, that'swhen I started to slowly regain
conscious.
I have no memory of waking up.
I had no memory of who anyonewas in the room.
I didn't know that I even had ababy, so they had to slowly
talk me into what happened.
Being really careful of notgetting me triggered.

(05:00):
I had to ask questions like,why am I here?
Like, I had no idea.
And as soon as they told me,oh, you're, you had a baby, I
was like, where is my baby?
I wanna see her.
They said that she was in awhole different hospital, so
nine years later, I mean, duringthat time they said my memory
would come back, but it's beenalmost nine years and I have no
memory of that at.

Bekah (05:22):
Oh my goodness.
Wow.
Well, I appreciate you sharingall of that with us.
I know that no matter how longago your experience was or how
many times you have shared thisstory, it is still so hard to
uncover some of that and to sayit again.
And I just like hurt my heartto hear you say all of that, but

(05:44):
also so incredibly gratefulthat you are here.
And I'm sorry that you had tolearn all of this in hindsight
and reading records and talkingwith your family, but I'm just
so thankful that you are heretoday.
I would love for you to sharewhat made you want to get
involved with sharing your storyand how you found out about

(06:07):
MoMMAs voices.

Huda (06:09):
Thank you, Becca.
After learning what happened tome from my OB after my six week
visit postpartum care, I thinkit's called and the medical
staff after recovering, prior tobeing discharged and through
stories from my loved ones, Ihonestly was really terrified of
requesting my medical records.
It took me seven years torequest them.

(06:32):
And that was with the help ofMiranda from the AFE Foundation.
I found them through my ownresearch because I was afraid to
read my medical records.
I would just go online,research AFE, and try to figure
out.
Several weeks after that, Ifound the AFE Foundation and I
instantly felt like a sense ofcomfort knowing there were women

(06:52):
out there that I was able toconnect with.
Seven years post AFE I reachedout to Miranda on exactly July
21st, 2021.
And that was during thepandemic.
I was just asking her to helpme share my story, so she
instantly asked if she can callme.
That phone call literally meantthe world to me.

(07:13):
I was able to share with herthe ideas that I had for the
future, that I wanted to speakto hospitals about my AFE, and
ways to connect with OBGYNs onhow to get them better trained
and ready for when an if theyare faced with a patient
experiencing an amniotic fluidembolism.
She then introduced me toMoMMAs voices and asked if I was

(07:39):
interested in taking a coursecalled patient family partner
training to help me become amaternal health advocate.
Then I met with you and I metwith Nicole and you both guided
me through my training, whichmade the experience so much
easier for me, especially whenit came to my mental health.
I learned so much about ways toregulate my emotions, how it is

(08:00):
literally okay to not be okay,all while feeling blessed to be
alive.
I heard that so many times.
Like, be thankful that you'realive and your baby's alive and
healthy.
And I know those were one ofthe main reasons why I held in
my emotions for such a longtime, and I literally cannot
express how bad that made mefeel through these years.

(08:20):
I am so thankful that I reachedout for to Miranda, and she
introduced me to you, Bekah,MoMMAs Voices and put me through
this training that helped metremendously.

Bekah (08:33):
It was so beautiful watching you as you work
throughout this training.
I remember that night, it wasaround Christmas time and I
remember sitting just for hourswith you just talking and you
just unpacking some of that andI had shared that same comment
how I was told, just be thankfulyou're alive.
And it wasn't that I wasn'tthankful, but I had all these

(08:55):
feelings and all these emotions,and so it was really nice for
us to be able to connect on thatbecause we know that we're not
the only two people who feelthat way.
So many people who arelistening to this also felt that
way at one point as well.
You really did such a great jobthroughout the training really
reflecting on yourself andhealing.
I know that since becomingcertified, you have had some

(09:17):
amazing opportunities and Iwould love for you to share with
us a little bit about what someof those are.

Huda (09:23):
Oh, definitely.
So I first got offered to joinon quarterly meetings with the
Maternal Mortality ReviewCommittee for the State of
Michigan.
The Maternal MortalitySurveillance was a
recommendations work group.
And these sessions promote thetranslation of findings and
recommendations into qualityimprovement actions at the
provider facility system,community, and patient levels.

(09:47):
They examine opportunities towork with communities to
implement interventions aimed atimproving services and
resources.
They also determine if existingMMRC recommendations should be
adapted or alter to reflectcurrent or emerging needs.
Also one of the amazingopportunities that I had was to
participate in a learningcollaborative for the

(10:10):
Pennsylvania Perinatal QualityCollaborative.
I met some wonderfulindividuals on there who are
striving to create betteroutcomes for maternal health.
And I was on a few of theselearning collaborative meetings,
which allowed me to share mythoughts and my ideas about my
plans were in getting intohospitals and speaking with
OBGYNs and other medical staffto ensure the safety of their

(10:34):
patients throughout their careand to really prioritize
listening to these patients aswell as ensuring the physicians
are well informed on AFE.
Also I was offered to becomethe state liaison for the AFE
Foundation in Michigan.
I'm reaching out to hospitalsto establish relationships among
key stakeholders to provideeducational research offerings.

(10:57):
I also will be collecting datafrom providers and offering
tools that will better preparehospitals to be ready for an
AFE.
I'm on my way with my planswere and goals with all thanks
to these amazing organizations.
I also reached out to thegovernor office requesting to
make AFE Awareness day on March27th, of 2023.

Bekah (11:21):
You are so amazing, and just listening to all of these
things that you have done, I betyou never imagined in your
wildest dreams that even a yearago, that you would have had all
of these amazing opportunitiesand I'm just so very proud of
you.
What advice would you give tosomebody who's listening, who
kind of feels like you did whenyou reached out to Miranda and

(11:43):
you said, I wanna get involved.
I wanna share my story, but Ijust don't know what to do.
What advice would you give tosomebody who's listening and
feels that exact same way.

Huda (11:54):
You really have nothing to lose.
With me the PFP training when Iwas offered to do it, I was so
excited.
And when I started the modules,yes, it was triggering to me
only because I've, I held it offfor such a long time.
I highly recommend the momentthat you feel you are someone
that can advocate for yourselffor take that PFP training and

(12:17):
it helps you so much.
It not only helps you prepareto become an advocate, but it
helps you mentally, physically,emotionally, and I literally
cannot stress it enough foranyone who is planning to become
a maternal health advocate totake this training.
It's helped me so much onregulating my emotions.
It helped me prepare.

(12:39):
I can go and talk with doctorswithout feeling triggered by the
events happening to me oraround me.
And I was able to take chargein a more well prepared manner.
That all came from the PFPtraining.
I don't think I would have beenable to do this no matter how
much educational background Ihad.

Bekah (13:00):
Thank you so much for your time here today.
I know that everyone elsethat's listening to this feels
the same way that I do, that youare just such an inspiration
and all that you have gonethrough and endured and just the
grace that you show and howpassionate that you are about
this work.
I'm so very thankful to havehad you on today.

Huda (13:21):
We all deserve healing and a place to share our stories
without feeling guilty orjudged.

Bekah (13:26):
Thank you.
Well, we're so thankful that wegot to meet you and our paths
crossed, and we've got greatwork to continue together.
Thanks everybody for tuning intoday.