MILWAUKEE -- Tens of thousands of people are living with pulmonary hypertension but for a specific group, the diagnosis can illicit terror.

Out of every 10 cases, nine are in female patients. Women are commonly diagnosed when they are pregnant, leaving soon-to-be mothers with a choice they can’t imagine facing -- until now.

From the oldest to the youngest, JoShara Rodgers is raising five smart, well-rounded, independent children.

Rodgers’ youngest, Tylen, just celebrated her first birthday -- a celebration Rodgers considers a miracle.

“There were times I thought throughout the pregnancy, 'Am I going to make it? Will my other kids remember me?'” Rodgers said.

It was midway through her first trimester when Rodgers knew something wasn’t right.

"My legs were swollen, I was out of breath,” Rodgers explained. “I couldn't go up the first flight [of stairs] without having to stop. I was like, ‘I can't breathe. I can't breath.’"

Rodgers was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a condition where a person has high blood pressure in the arteries that supply blood to the lungs. When the arteries constrict and thicken, it forces the heart to work harder.

"When I first found out about it, I was told, 'You need to abort the pregnancy,'” Rodgers said. "'You need to abort. You're going to die. You're going to die.' That's when I finally said, I was like, it's in God's hands. If it's His will we'll make it through, OK.”

Nationally, two-thirds of pregnant woman with pulmonary hypertension will not go home with their newborn. To avoid this outcome, just about any medical textbook or study reads the same.

“It says DO NOT get pregnant. If you are pregnant, abort immediately,” Rodgers said. "The issue is that the moms die three days after delivery because their right heart doesn't handle all the fluids and changes hormonally after you deliver.”

The choice for Rodgers was at times too hard to bear.

"It was kind of a toss up because I was like, ‘I have other kids. What am I going to do if I'm not there for them?’ So it was a really hard decision to just decide to go through with the pregnancy,” Rodgers said.

Her decision became easier after meeting cardiologist Dr. Dianne Zwicke.

“She was like, ‘You don't have to terminate this pregnancy,’” Rodgers said. "She kind of told me that we would be best friends through this pregnancy, that she would get me through this."

Zwicke is the director of the pulmonary hypertension clinic at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center and has developed a recipe of sorts for helping a mother with pulmonary hypertension survive after childbirth.

While the top medical centers in the country have a 50 percent to 60 percent death rate, Zwicke has a 100 percent success rate. She has helped 40 women worldwide.

“These guys are pretty incredible. They've all been through the same thing. They've all been told, 'You're going to die.' And you don't have to die,” Zwicke said.

In each case, Zwicke, working closely with obstetricians and gynecologists, monitors the pregnancy and adapts treatment of the pulmonary hypertension based on what the mother’s heart is doing. Early delivery is key.

Each baby is delivered by C-section between the 36th and 37th week of a 40-week pregnancy, before the body produces extra fluids that ultimately put a strain on the heart’s function.

What happens after birth is a calculated and choreographed course of treatment.

"We put them in the ICU and we remove with meds and diuretics 9 liters of fluid over the next 72 hours after delivery,” Zwicke said.

Rodgers spent a week in the intensive care unit but impressed her doctors because she improved so quickly. Rodgers’ “I will survive” attitude became another successful delivery for Zwicke and proved you can’t always trust statistics.

"They say I'm probably not supposed to be here, Tylen is probably (not supposed to be here) because of that mortality rate,” Rodgers said. "It's meant for me to be here so I am here."

Some of the symptoms of pulmonary hypertension that Zwicke said to look out for are anything outside the curve of what is normal for stages in your pregnancy. For example, excess fluid, bloating or swelling, rapid weight gain, shortness of breath and anything you would consider “beyond normal fatigue.”

Sometimes this can be tricky since these symptoms can be shrugged off. But use your instincts and if it doesn’t feel right speak up.