Preeclampsia & Me

Written by Adele Buckby

Preeclampsia is a complete game changer! People are not aware enough of this condition; I personally think parents should be told about this more at your midwife appointments.

I was 30 weeks pregnant & I was just going to a normal routine midwife appointment, not going with the idea anything was wrong at all! Over Christmas people had noticed that my feet & ankles had swollen (struggling to get my shoes on!!) but we just put it down to normal pregnancy problems along with the rest.

I gave over my water sample which came back as 3+ of protein, and then she took my blood pressure but I could just tell by her face something just wasn’t right. She took my blood pressure a further 3 times. But it didn’t improve so the midwife rang the hospital & told them that I was on my way. Luckily my mum was with me so we went to MAU (Maternity Assessment Unit) to get checked over. I was petrified with it being my first baby, I had no idea what was happening.

When we got to the hospital I was attached to a couple of monitors and my blood pressure was taken every 10 minutes for nearly 2 hours. A doctor came to check me over and mentioned my swelling & without me even realising my legs ankles feet face hands had all swollen but looking at yourself everyday you don’t notice it, or if you do you just think that it’s ‘normal pregnancy’ symptoms – well I did anyway!

When that doctor looked in my eyes she told me I would be lucky to last the next few weeks with my baby inside of me & I would 100% not be going full term with our baby. What did that even mean??! I didn’t know what to think or say to anyone, you literally just don’t think things like this happen to you.

Please share your own experiences in the comments to raise awareness of this scary condition!