Chiara's story

My name's Chiara, I'm 33 years old and I live in Milan Italy.

My story begins almost 3 years ago when, after 6 months of trying I became pregnant. The pregnancy gave me troubles since the beginning: I had severe nausea and vomit, and when my ob did a first ultrasound, we could not see the fetus, so she thought, it wasn't growing well or maybe the pregnancy had stopped.

I had to draw blood every 4 days to check the hormone levels, and after two weeks of panic we saw our little boy's heartbeat! It was an enourmous joy, but my husband and I were scared of this new and unknown experience!

I lost some weight during the first 3 months of pregnancy because of the nausea, but the doctors said it was a normal symptom for a pregnant woman, and I shouldn't worry, because it would pass. Well, the nauseas got worse, and I also had these terrible headaches, but my ob reassured me saying that everything was fine, but I was really feeling awful!

All the blood and urine tests were fine, we did a second scan and amnio, and the growth of the baby was fine, they redated the due date from Chrstimas to New Years'Eve.
I was working a lot at that time, I worked for a multinational company in the Marketing Dept, and I was very stressed and under pressure, sometimes, during meetings I would run out of the room to go to the toilet and vomit my breakfast or whatever , and then I would get this pounding headache that wouln't allow me to keep my eyes open!

Doctors still saying everything was fine.

After August, when we came back from vacation, I was 24 wks, I went to have a scan and I remember the look on the doctor's face and the exact words: "I'm sorry but you need to go to the hospital because the baby is not growing well, there's little amniotic fluid your blood pressure is a little high, I'll make arrangements for you ASAP".

My symptoms hadn't changed, they had just worsened a little, besides I had abdominal pain , at the last visit with my ob, pressure was 130/90, she said it was a little high and to have it checked again in a day or so. I was living with constant headache and nausea.

Well, I had the scan on Saturday, on monday I was admitted at the San Paolo Hospital which is a facility specialized in problematic pregnancies.

They started taking 24 hour urine, my pressure was then 150/100 and they gave me Aldomet plus baby aspirin, and they told me to rest and lie down as much as possible. I kept on vomiting…….
Aldomet didn't keep my pressure down, it had highs and lows, on Thursday they decide to do a scan and surprise, surprise … (excuse my sarcasm): my placenta had ruptured, the baby was not moving, I rememember the doctor frantically triyng to perceive some even slight movement, no heartbeat… and then he calls in a bunch of people from the staff … they say " We are very sorry, but you've lost the baby, the placenta has ruptured and we need to bring you in the OR now, and have a c-section to remove the baby because you are risking your life!"

I had 3 minutes to phone my husband and in between sobs I told him to rush over because they were operating me… God I felt so cold and lonely… there was a nurse there with me nad her eyes were full of tears, I was petrified.

They rushed me in the OR room, and prepared me as quickly as they could, I remember when they put me to sleep my legs were shaking…

I woke up about an hour later and I saw my Mom, my husband, my brother (he was crying) at my bed side… I wanted to die! The next two days were a living hell, with the post of a c-section… but no baby…. and I kept seeing all the other mothers with babies, breastfeeding. Thankfully on Saturday morning, this little lady doctor comes in to make the round, she had a nice humour and a very nice manner, she said that if I was feeling OK, they would let me go home the next day, becasue it wasn't very good for me to stay in there, after what I had been through. And so I did, she released me from the hospital and told me to go back after a week to have the stiches removed and gave me plenty of advice on what to for a new pregnancy… and that's how I became one of her patients.

I remember waiting 2 months in order to have the baby's autopsy and the hospital records, well here in Italy in public hospitals they have a lot of bureocracy…. And when I finally had those papers I went in to see this lady doctor.

I already knew I had had PE, because when I came home from the hospital I searched the Net like crazy, I read the stories od many women and I knew that with a second pregnancy I would have to be extra careful.

Well, I lost my son on sept 17th 1998, and became pregnant with Giulia in March, so it's about 6 months gap. I stayed home from work as soon as the pregnancy was confirmed, took baby aspirin from the 1st day, had my BP monitored every 2 days at home, rested a lot, especially during the first months….. but no nauseas, no headaches, I was feeling quite well, apart from BP which was 140/90.

The thing is that with a traumatic experience we were so anxious at every appointment or scan, we weren't really enjoying this pregnancy, we were too worried about what could happen to me. After the 25th week, we started being a little relieved, and after that 28, 30 32!!!! No problems! I was even going swimming to avoid leg cramps ! My weight was fine, I gained 8 kgs, even though I was still 5 kgs overweight form the previous pregnancy, and after 28 wks my BP dropped down to a beautiful 120/80….

My OB gyn was always very careful and realistic, she told me from the beginning what we could do to avoid another ruptured placenta, but of course I could have a premature baby, because id the BP shot up, she would operate me.

But it wasn't so, we set a due date on dec 6th, two wks before the real due date, made all papers to be admitted at the hospital for a planned c-section.

And on dec 6th at 3.09 pm Giulia was born: 3,050 kgs and 48 cm !!!!!!!!!

She is now a healthy baby girl with a lot of energy and the joy of our lives.

Chiara Conti