For women · Pregnancy through midlife
Take it to your next visit.
A short history checklist, one question to ask, and space to record the next step, clinician and date.
Download the one-page guide ↓A national women’s heart-health campaign
Every Chapter.
One Heart Story.
Bring your history.
Leave with a plan.
Your life changes. Your history comes with you. From first periods to life after menopause, prepare the questions that matter to you and agree on the next step with your care team.
Start my Heart Story Take a blank checklist to my visitNo account needed. Your entries stay on your device.
My babies needed care.
So did I.
Photo: Maegan Dougherty Photography.
Three steps for your next visit
Make your
next visit count.
- 01
Start with your chapter.
Choose the life stage or conversation that fits. It is okay to be unsure.
- 02
Bring the whole story.
Include earlier history, what has changed and the question that matters most to you.
- 03
Leave with a plan.
Know the next step, who is responsible and when it should happen.
Use the guide whether or not you have been pregnant. You choose what to discuss with your care team.
Our goal
One history.
A lifetime of care.
Make women’s health history a lasting part of heart care. Our first focus is pregnancy history: help her understand why it matters, carry it into ongoing care and complete the next step. Our wider educational guide includes women who have never been pregnant.
Our long-term aim is fewer missed opportunities for prevention and better heart health for women. Start with a proposed New Jersey pilot, measure what changes and build a pathway for communities across the country.
Your whole history belongs in heart care
Every Chapter.
One Heart Story.
Choose the conversation that fits your life. Get questions to bring to your clinician and a printable plan for the next step. You do not need a pregnancy history to start.
- 01 / PERIMENARCHEFirst periods →
- 02 / OVARIAN CYCLINGReproductive years →
- 03 / PERIMENOPAUSEMenopause transition →
- 04 / POSTMENOPAUSEAfter menopause →
Pregnancy history travels with you. Before pregnancy, after birth and years later, include it when it is part of your story. Pregnancy is a life event, not a fifth life stage.
Informed by the October 26, 2026 AHA/AAP/ACOG/SMFM framework. Life stages are not fixed age bands. HEART RESERVE is independent; no endorsement is claimed. Sources →
Made to be used
One message.
A clear job for each piece.
A poster starts the conversation. A one-page guide goes to the visit. A separate NICU sheet makes room for the mother’s recovery and feeding support.
For NICU families
Your care belongs here, too.
Four clear timing reminders, feeding support, and space for your own care contact.
Download the NICU sheet ↓
For clinics & communities
Make the message visible.
A bold poster with a QR code that opens the existing Heart Story tool.
Download the poster ↓QR codes point to the public HEART RESERVE Heart Story. These materials are an educational proposal for clinical review; they do not replace a hospital’s discharge instructions.
Our starting point · Founded by Lisa Zahakos, RPA-C
Pregnancy history
is heart history.
When her sons Peter and Maurice needed fetal surgery and months in the NICU, Lisa learned how easily a mother’s recovery can become the background to her babies’ care.
A physician assistant and mother of four, she brings 15 years of clinical practice, family advocacy, published education work and the experience of organizing Sew Away Corona. HEART RESERVE brings those strengths together around one goal: pregnancy history recorded and appropriate follow-up completed.
Take part
Bring the campaign
to your community.
Women & families
Bring the one-page guide or your Heart Story to a routine visit. Ask for help finding the diagnosis if you do not remember it. Write down the plan you agree on.
Care teams
Ask about pregnancy history. Document relevant complications. Review current risk factors and connect each indicated next step to a clinician and a date. Pair postpartum education with the team’s established urgent-care instructions.
Community & workplace hosts
Use the poster, share the guide, or host a short educational conversation with a qualified clinician. Participation never requires someone to disclose a pregnancy or health history publicly.
One campaign · Every state
A national message.
A local next step.
Find your state's discussion brief, public-health resources and a one-page download. Start with a local conversation about pregnancy history and follow-up care.
State briefs invite collaboration. The first proposed demonstration remains in New Jersey.
NEW JERSEY · A SPECIFIC START
Built with communities.
Connected to care.
Center Black maternal health equity. Work through existing local networks in Newark, Paterson, Camden, Atlantic City, Trenton and other NJ communities. Carry pregnancy history into midlife care.
19.4%
of reviewed NJ pregnancy-related deaths were attributed to cardiovascular conditions.
7.6×
the pregnancy-related mortality ratio for Black, non-Hispanic women compared with white, non-Hispanic women.
NJ review, 2019–2023 · Pregnancy-related deaths during pregnancy or within one year. These describe statewide outcomes, not results of this campaign. NJ Department of Health, January 16, 2026 ↗
ONE HEART RESERVE
A story that leads to a next step.
Use the same Heart Story across our sites. For healthcare organizations, explore how review, responsibility and unresolved follow-up could work together.