Here is our story.....

bride711

Hi Ladies,

I wanted to share our story to see if any of you on this board went through something similar. Because of what we went through, DH and I are scared to death to have more babies which is something that we always dreamed of.

 Our pregnancy was healthy. And, as the doctors put it "uneventful". I gained about 35 pounds and went into labor 3 days before my actual due date. My labor was 22 hours and I pushed for 4. Got an epidural and delivered vaginally. Since we delivered after 8pm, DH and I got an additional hospital night stay ( thank god given what happened) On 3rd day post baby, I was due to go home later that afternoon. After visitors came and went, I asked DH to get the nurse what something wasn't right. I asked them to check my blood pressure. When the nurse did she immediately left the room and 6 people came flying in. My BP was 220/120. Before I knew it they were telling me they had to start an IV with a medication Magnesium which they did. So I did the Mag for 24 hours in L&D, received IV BP medication. Was sent back to postpartum the next day and was told we would stay an additional day for monitoring purposes. At his point I was started on a lose dose of Labetalol. The following day I was getting ready to go home or so I thought. The nurse comes in and checks my BP it was 170/80. She leaves and doesn't do anything with these numbers. I ask DH to have her come back in.  A nursing assistant comes in and I ask her to check my blood pressure as I can feel that it is very high now!! Blurred vision and just feeling very off. Needless to say she checks it and its 200/100. Again I go back on the magnesium for another 24hour run, more IV BP medications, etc. At this point they transfer for me to a telemetry unit where I stayed for 2 1/2 weeks. DH slept there with me every night and our little bundle of joy stayed in the nursery and would come done for intermittent visits. After this hospital stay I was discharged home and had 2 additional hospital stays for high blood pressure, never as high as it was intially, but it was 170/90 160/88. They were trying to find if there were any other causes as to why this was happening. So after all of this I am sure you can see why we are terrified to have another. We are just so afraid and the doctors tell us that we could consider it.

Do any of you ladies have similar situations?? We are thinking Surrogacy might be the best route for us as we don't want to temp fate??

jennigator3

That is post-partum preeclampsia, and it sounds like it was really serious. I don't know a lot about PP pre-e, I got it at 33 weeks but it went away after delivery. Visit preeclampsia.org, there are a lot of women on the forums who have gone through something similar.

pumpkinwife07

I had PP Pre-e, but not nearly as bad. I returned to the hospital about 5 days after DD was born. My BP went as high as 205/110. SCARY! Anyway, are you still dealing with HBP??

I briefly talked about "next time" with my OB at my 6 week PP check up. She told me, the entire pregnancy will be "different" next time. I will have more monitoring right from the start. Also, it's been 4 months and I'm on medication for BP. I had low BP before pregnancy. The OB also told me that because I would likely already be on medication, we'd be able to control my BP better. Also, research shows that women who suffer from pre-e, often only get it their first pregnancy.

Anyway, chat with your doctor. See what he or she thinks, then decide what's best for your family.

Good luck!

gmugrad9

While I know this had to be scary please know there are was to monitor and keep blood pressure in check.

I had Pr-E with DD and had extremely high blood pressure after she was born.  I was in and out of the hospital a few times.  I was on mag when she was born and 24 hours after.  It was scary (I also had other complications) and we too thought no way about more children.  Dh really thought I wasn't going to make it.

While this happened to you this time and it increases your chances it could happen again it doesn't mean that it will. 

Do you have a cardiologist?  If not get one.  Before getting pregnant this time I had to get cleared by my cardiologist to ensure i didn't have polminary hypertension.  If I did it would be to risky to  have another baby.  My cardioligist cleared me and I am with a high risk OB.

My blood pressure did increase to 160/96 already but they upped my meds and now it is a nice 140/80.  They have me come in every other week or so. 

Yes I was scared and it is one reason it there will be almost 4 years between DD and this baby but if you are cleared medically don't be to scared.  They will know to watch you this time and know your history.