Preemies
My 32 weeker is now 3.5!
Preeclampsia Question
I have a 3 year old son and he was my first child and pregnancy. I had Preeclampsia with my pregnancy and he was born at 32 weeks. My sister in law is now 25 weeks pregnant and she is 21 years old. She got admitted to the hospital on Monday night for severely high blood pressure and severe preeclampsia. Blood pressure was 165/105 when she went in. What have you all read, your thoughts etc? Anyone deal with anything like this? I find it crazy how we both had preeclampsia when only 5-8% of pregnancies are affected with this horrible condition. Who has had a baby 25-28 weeks and what are we looking at? Thank you in advance.
My 32 weeker is now 3.5!This discussion has been closed.
Re: Preeclampsia Question
I don't have any experience with 25-28 week preemies, but I am sending positive thoughts and prayers her way. I think there are ladies on here who have had little ones come that early.
I don't know how bad her pre-e is, but is it possible they can get the pre-e under control through bp medicine and bedrest? I was diagnosed with pre-e and IUGR a couple of weeks ago. The OB I was seeing (my regular doc was out of town) wanted to induce as I was technically in the severe category...according to this doctor, pre-e plus IUGR meets diagnostic criteria for severe pre-e and with severe pre-e they deliver after 35 weeks...however, MFM wanted to keep the baby in a little longer. They kept me in the hospital for monitoring and now I am at home on bedrest.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge:
After I was diagnosed with pre-e, I found out that BOTH my aunts on my father's side were dx'ed with pre-e during their pregnancies (although, unlike me, they made it to full term). I believe there are hereditary factors. Even though your SIL is not a blood relative, maybe it's possible that there's something that factors from the father's side or something... I don't know because science currently does not know.
As for your SIL, that's lower than my BP was when I was admitted to hospital bed rest at 27 weeks... I was able to hang on until 29 weeks. Two things in her favor are 1) she will get the steroid shots, which will make a WORLD of difference in how well the baby does, and 2) according to my hospital doctors, pre-eclampsia babies tend to do well because the pre-e is a stressor to them in the womb that makes them stronger/tougher. I don't know how true this is, but it seemed to be true with my son who has been a fighter from the beginning!
Hopefully, the hospital will get her on the right meds to keep her BP under control for a few more weeks. Will she stay on hospital bed rest? I hope she does, because trying to do bed rest at home at 25 weeks with that high of BP is playing with fire IMO. Hoping she can hang on for weeks longer, but as I said, the steroids will at least give baby the best chance possible.
Hello ladies,
Thank you for the positive thoughts and prayers. She is in the hospital on bedrest and they ran tests (blood work) the unfortunate part is that the preeclampsia is affecting my SIL's kidneys. She has been given steroids which I myself know works miracles. Please continue to pray tomorrow @ 5am new blood work will be done to see what steps they will take next. C-section or continue to keep the baby inside.
I was diagnosed with severe pre-e at 28 weeks and delivered by daughter 6 days later by emergency classical c-section. Mine got severe FAST (within less than 24 hours). It sounds like what's happened to your SIL. From everything I've read, once the diagnosis is "severe", then you are likely to deliver within 2 weeks of the diagnosis. So, your SIL needs to make sure they give her steroid injections for baby's lungs.
I've also read that one theory of pre-e is that something with the maternal vs. paternal genes react wrong and it causes the placenta to become diseased and causes pre-e. Maybe in your case, it's genetic from your husband's side. I'm not a doctor, so I definitely can't say for sure, it's just my opinion. So, I think there's some coorelation. (not saying you are DEFINITELY going to get it if you get pregnant again...it's like roulette)
I will be praying for your SIL and the baby. I know how scary it is. Any extra day they can keep the baby (safely) in is a blessing. They told me that one day still inside takes away two days of NICU time on average.
What you can expect will very widely depending on how long the baby can stay in. At this point each day makes a difference and a 26 weeker is completely different than a 28 weeker.
Assuming nothing else is wrong, the big issues are breathing, growing and then learning to eat. My dd initially needed cpap because her ribs weren't strong enough to hold her chest open. Some babies need a lot of respiratory support. My dd was lucky and was completely off support by day 9 and never really needed oxygen just room air with a little force.
The good news is that pree babies tend to do better than babies born early for other reasons. The high BP is stressful and signals the baby to mature faster.
Most of the time the pree symptoms are gone as soon as the baby is born. I had a complicated recovery and was hospitalized for 7 days due to uncontrolled BP. I also lost most of my vision for 4 days and it gradually returned after 3 weeks. I'm not saying this to scare you but to say that I was an extreme case and the exception. Even with all that, I'm fine now and my baby is doing well. She is almost 36 weeks and is learning to eat. She was 1 lb, 11 oz at birth and is now over 5 lbs.
I'm thinking lots of good thoughts for your sister.