Nadia's story

The pregnancy was a huge shock to me. I just stopped taking birth control pills that same month, I already missed one period (not when I conceived) the month prior. I did not think I could get pregnant without some kind of hormone therapy, because I skip out of my periods for months at a time if I don't take birth control pills, and even then I might skip it. I was perfectly fine with the notion of being childless, even when the home pregnancy test came back positive and even my OB/GYN confirmed I was only 2 or 3 weeks along, I still didn't believe it. Only when I saw my son for the first time on the ultrasound monitor. My doctor wanted to confirm the gestational stage since we couldn't go by the first day of my last period. I was 11 weeks and one day along at this point. I knew he was a boy from day one, but we knew for sure at my second ultrasound appointment at 21 weeks. Here in the US, women typically only receive one ultrasound in their pregnancy, if I had another one at the end of my pregnancy, they would've seen that my baby's head was to large for my pelvis, and I could've saved myself 36 hours of labor and an emergency c-section due to arrest of labor (his head got stuck at 6 centimeters and I stopped dialating).

My pregnancy was textbook. I had morning sickness, and every other symptom that was listed as typical in my pregnancy book, at exactly when the book said to expect it. I had trouble gaining weight the first 5 months, but by the 6th month I was doing fine. Everything was routine, my urine, blood and other test came back all ok. In my 8th month however, I started putting on at least 10 pounds per week, I swelled so badly that I could not wear any of my shoes, I had to buy 2 sizes larger than my normal size shoe to even accommodate the width that I suddenly acquired. My face didn't even look like mine, I didn't recognize myself when I looked in the mirror, it was so swollen! I looked like the Goodyear Blimp! But the worst was the size of my nose, it grew triple it's normal size and I remembered my mother in her pregnancy pictures with the same kind of nose. So I thought that's just something I inherited from her.Just recently I found out that she also had high blood pressure when she was pregnant with me.

My doctor checked my hands and feet for edema at every visit, and my urine tests always came back within normal range. He did mention that I gained too much weight and it was estimated that if I kept putting in on at the rate I was going to gain Ilb. 100 total! (Which I did!). Even when my blood pressure readings came back a bit high, still nobody was concerned, because women close at to going into labor tend to have elevated blood pressure. The headaches, dizzy spells and constant fatigue were thought to be normal pregnancy related complaints that most have, so I went on counting the days to due date. My OB/GYN was out of town the week before my due date, but since I was a first time mom, he expected me to go over, and after finding that I wasn't even 1 centimeter dilated and only 50% effaced, he felt confident to leave. But sure enough 11 days before due date, I lost my mucous plug that evening and immediately started labor. I wasn't sure if it was labor, and I didn't want to cry wolf, since we already visited the Maternity Ward once before in my 5th month, due to a bleeding scare.

I had a constant menstrual crampy feeling and I was not bleeding at all like the book suggested because of dilation of the cervix. So, I was in too much pain to go back to sleep, but not in enough pain to put in a call to the back up OB/GYN. After taking a long shower the following morning I reassured my husband that he could go on and go to work, since the shower somehow made me feel better, and I believed the cramps had stopped. As I'm getting dressed, my water broke and with it came my first real painful contraction. Luckily my husband worked right down the street from our house and was able to drive me to the hospital minutes later. I was checked by the nurse and the exam revealed not only that my baby had a lot of hair but that I was only 1 centimeters dilated and now 100% effaced. I was walking the halls of the hospital floors, was started on pitocin, and 12 hours later only made it to 4 centimeters! I finally asked for IV drugs and so made it through the night, by 6 AM my pitocin dosage was so high that the contractions came right on top of each other and extremely painful, so I asked for the epidural, because I felt the unbearable urge to push, but I was only at 6 centimeters. 30 minutes after placing the epidural, the staff came back to announce that the doctor had decided to perform an emergency c-section, the baby's heart rate has been low for a while and since the epidural was started, his heart actually skipped one beat. The epidural took away my pain, however it did not numb me enough to perform surgery, I was feeling the pricking. With the Anesthesiologist still trying to numb my abdomen inside the OP, time ran out and they had to get the baby out right then and there, so I was "put under" as the called it (general anesthesia). My husband was waiting outside, following our son into the nursery after he was delivered. Taylen weighed in at 8Ibs 2 oz, 21 inches *14 August 2000! And I felt great waking up, immediately started breast feeding. At this point I had not eaten since Saturday night dinner, and it was Monday morning! I was starving, hoping to finally be allowed to eat. The catheter and IV were removed the following morning, blood pressure was still elevated, but after surgery a normal thing, so they assured me. But I did experience a horrific gastric pain that I can only describe as a tennis ball moving through my intestines, I begged the nurse to give me a suppository, again since it was thought to be normal gas pains after surgery, but I knew something was wrong, because contractions did not feel as painful as this tummy pain, I screamed it was so painful! I asked to be seen by the doctor, because my vision went blurry and I also had a bad headache, it felt like my head was going to explode. I could actually feel my blood pumping! And what happened after that I cannot remember. I was told days later, that I was found staggering down the hospital hallway, and when asked to what I was doing, I became aggressive and verbally abusive, accusing the nurses of hiding my son from me, purposely sabotaging me breast feeding him because I believed the nurses were giving him sugar water and so starve him to death, I was going to get my son from the nursery and get out of here, I was totally delirious. I was escorted back to my room, a doctor was called, and my readings were found to be at 220/150! IV was started again with Magnesium Sulfate, and so was the catheter. The nurses had to hold me down during this, I was going into convulsions. My eyes were covered and my room was darkened at the ICU which I was transferred to. I guess I was unconscious and when I came to myself I wondered what had happened. A nurse was sitting in my room, watching over me and I was told not to move or to speak because the monitor showed I was having an onset of another convulsion. I was also told that I was not to have any visitors, neither my husband or my baby could come and see me, breast feeding was discontinued due to the meds I was receiving, the risk of agitation was too high, but I insisted to have at least my husband and baby be in the same room, even though I wasn`t allowed to interact I could at least listen to them. I begged, cried and pleated with the doctor to at least grant me that, I needed my baby or I would die for sure, so they finally let them come in, but I was discouraged to talk to them. I stayed at the ICU for one week. I was very weak, too weak to even hold my baby, and I was very nauseated, I had to spit up constantly. I remember 2 or 3 days later I asked my husband to stay the night because I feared that I was going to die and I wanted to have him and my son around me one last time in case that I did die, and that night I decided that I was going to make it because my child and my love needed me to be here with them, and soon my health improved. I was finally released to the regular postpartum room I was in before, and finally was allowed to eat after 10 days!

People always say to me "you almost died", and I don't realize that until they say it. My body held on long enough to deliver my son safe and as soon he was out, so was my body.

Taylen was checked out by a Pediatric Specialist after my diagnose of eclampsia, to make sure he didn't have any underlying health problems, but we was fine, so fine in fact he didn't even have one blemish or bruise or any other tale tell "Battle scars" that some babies have after delivery. My kidney's are not fine though, only functioning to 60%-70%, but I seem to live good with them now, I don`'t need any medications for them or anything, but my next pregnancy will be treated as "high risk" and probably won't even be allowed to go into labor, instead be induced. But I believe that surgery is just as bad on your system as is stress during vaginal birth. We shall see in about 2 years when I plan for my next baby, and if all goes well then I want at least one more after that. I was told by my doctor that sometimes preclampsia goes misdiagnosed because it masks itself as normal pregnancy symptoms since they mostly appear at the beginning of the 3rd trimester, but my story has helped create a different, more thorough testing approach for preclampsia at my OB/GYN's office, he was shocked to hear about the events that took place at my delivery, and everybody remembers me as the one who had eclampsia which is not supposed to happen anymore with improved prenatal care for expecting mom's

Nadia