Christina Yarrington MD, FACOG

Dr. Christina Deck Yarrington is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Boston Medical Center. She is also the director of Labor and Delivery and the division director for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. In her clinical work, she cares for patients with complications during their pregnancy or after delivery. She is also actively involved in elevating innovation in obstetric care. She recently implemented a program equipping women at risk for hypertensive morbidity postpartum with a cell-enabled blood pressure cuff. As they check their BP once a day, at a time in the hectic early days of newborn parenting that best represents their health, Her team of nurses reviews their data and reaches out to screen for symptoms and/or start medications according to her algorithm. This work has elevated our ascertainment of BP in the early weeks postpartum – a time of highest risk for stroke – to over 95%. Additionally, equipped and empowered to check and interpret their own blood pressures, women have presented for care and intervention earlier than prior to the program, offering the opportunity to intervene before a hypertensive crisis.

Her research focuses on postpartum hypertension as it relates to two related fields: 1.) cardiovascular health across the lifespan and 2.) health inequities. I am supported by the NIH and HHS in her research on postpartum blood pressure trajectories and predictive value in relation to events of SMM in the first year postpartum. This work is further enriched by a qualitative limb that examines patient attitudes, acceptability, and self-efficacy via semistructured patient interviews. The latter work is fueled by BMC’s Health Equity Accelerator. Enabled by resources within the hospital and supported by generous donors, She is leading a team to implement technology, patient feedback, and targeted QI interventions to address our internal inequitable outcomes attributable to preeclampsia.