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Pre-eclampsia: What is it anyway? & what did it teach me?

My journey to motherhood was a pretty crazy one. Some of you know all of the details and some of you don't so I wanted to post a little something about my experience of pre-eclampsia. When you do a google search there doesnt seem to be that much out there about people's experinces perhaps becuase it's pretty scary! I was an extra tricky case because even now after lots of tests the doctors couldn't officially diagnose my illness. They told me that's because I didn't have all of the symptoms. I'm 99 percent sure that's what I had though because all of my symptoms (post birth) match up perfectly even if all the bloods didn't!


Pre-eclampsia: It's a pretty weird condition...

Pre-eclampsia is a disorder that about 10 percent of all pregnant woman get. It can make you and your baby really, really sick.

How is is diagnosed?

Most people have 2 or 3 (or sometimes all) of these symptoms:
  • Vomiting later in your pregnancy
  • Protein in your urine
  • Swelling (I think I had this mildly but then it further developed during the labour)
  • Headaches
  • Blurry or stars in your vision (I did have this but didn't realise)
  • High blood pressure (this is the number one indicator and this is the one definite symptom I had!)
  • Shortness of breath (I had this too but not until the labour)
  • Pain under your ribs on the right side (I had this REALLY badly but also not until I was in labour)
What I have discovered from reading a lot about it online is that even after this illeness being around for genrations of woman there is still very little known about it. They do know it is most likely hereditary (my Mum had it in both of her pregnancies) but they can't seem to find any other reasons as to why some people get it and others don't. About 10 in every 100 pregnancies in New Zealand has it or aversion of it but not all of those have complications. Some people have suspected pre-eclampsia and then are totally fine or some people (like me ) are not so fine.

This whole experience has been hard for me because I have a very analytical mind and I like to make sense of things. The problem is that with pre-eclampsia there isn't much to make sense of! Long story short is that while I became severely ill I got better so all the doctors can really say was 'We suspect you had pre-eclampsia but it wasn't picked up because you only had one symptom'

The cure for pre-eclampsia is the birth of your baby and so it has taken me over 4 months to feel myself again. My poor body went through the absolute ringer! I had the labour and then needed an emergency c section so it's kind of a worst case scenario in terms of recovery time.

Why am I telling you this?!

I'm not sharing this for sympathy or because it makes me feel better to share (although it does!)

I'm sharing this because from the start of my pregnancy I had a distinct feeling that 'something wasn't right' but I'd never been pregnant before so I didn't know if what I was feeling was normal or not. I guess what I'm saying is I shrugged it off when I shouldn't have!

My number one piece of 'mum advice'?

Trust your body and your instincts! If you think something is wrong it probably is...

I remember telling my midwives (who were both amazing and experienced) that I just felt terrible all the time. Part of me wishes I had pushed that 'feeling' just  bit more. I'm not sure if even then they would have picked up on my illness though? Like I said above I didn't present with enough of the symptoms and the doctors just don't know enough about it! But maybe they would have?

Life is funny sometimes isn't it? hindsight sure is a bitch. I guess that's what I've learnt about myself is that I really do need to listen to that little voice and I hope no one ever has to get as unwell as I did to learn that lesson.

#listentoyourbody




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