Georgia's story

Of course, getting pregnant for my husband and I was a real thrill. We looked forward to the birth of our baby with the nervousness of new parents with with a joy that our lives would have new meaning and purpose. We live in Melbourne Australia and I was scheduled to deliver my baby in a low risk birthing centre, where we attended ante natal classes and were generally very well prepared ( except for the completion of the nursery!).

Everything went well with the pregnancy, I did experience some odema in my feet and especially my fingers which I had trouble bending first thing in the morning. I advised my doctor of this and was assured it was just normal bloating. My doctor went on holidays and we joked about him not being here to deliver my baby, however I had 6 weeks to go so he was sure he would be back in time, he had delivered my husband 30 years ago!

I was left in the hands of his practice partner, who luckily is a cautious lady. At approximately 37 weeks gestation I experienced extreme back pain which I felt just under my bra strap area late at night. They only thing that would relieve the pain was very hot showers, of which I had many that night. In the morning I felt good and dismissed the pain as normal pregnancy problems ( little did I know that the back pain was almost as bad as a contraction). My husband convinced me to not go to work that day and to call the doctor and explain the sypmtoms. I went in to see her and my blood pressure was quite high, I had put on 2 kilos (approximatley 4 pounds) in two days and had suffered with two urine infections during the pregnancy as she was not taking chances.

She insisted that I go immediately to a large hospital close by - not the nice birthing centre I had my hopes on and she would call and advise the registrar I was coming in to be checked immediately. I had my blood, urine and blood pressure checked and then we had to wait for 6 hours for the results, which they did twice. I felt ok and was glad to see my active baby on the monitor. My husband was anxious at missing boxing training that night!

A surgeon then came into the room to explain that my liver enzymes were critical, that he thought my kidneys were about to shut down, and my blood pressure was high as well as protein in my urine and that I would be induced and we would deliver the child immediately. Then I had so many checks, doctors inspecting me, IV inserted, a catheter and told that could not have a pethidine shot as my blood was unstable, I definately could not have an epidural ( not that I had asked for one yet, but the idea was reassuring!) due to my blood platlet count and that a ceasarean was definately out of the picture as they were worried I would bleed to death from the cut it would make. Which surprises me when I read later of other women with HELLP who have had ceasareans. The delivery was very intrusive and with alot of medical intervention, I was told I could not push the baby out until my platlet transfusion had arrived and was inserted ( OK for them to say don't push heh?)

So 5hours 55 mins later with no drugs I delivered my precious 7pound 2oz ( 3225kg) baby boy Marlon who scored a 9 and then another 9 on his apgar scores. He was perfect and I was fine, apart from having to have blood tests every half and hour, iron and protein medication, constant monitoring and the IV left in my hand for 12 days - just in case!

I breastfed my son till he was 13 months old and is now a intelligent, gifted and normal 3 year old. I am very grateful that the registrar was able to diagnose HELLP syndrome early upon admission ( although my doctor never detected it), however I still think more information on this condition needs to provided to doctors/obstertricians and midwives so we can have more success stories like this one rather than tragic outcomes.

I am pregant now with our second child ( a girl) due in September 2002, and so far everything is normal, as it was with my son so I will wait and see and carefully watch for the signs - blood pressure, protein in urine, odema - swelling, headaches. I have recently been researching the effects of magnesium sulphate in the form of epsom salts and the value of bathing in it while pregnant which may reduce chances of getting pre - eclampsia and HELLP again. More test need to be done on bathing in epsom salts, however I am trying it in very low doses under medical supervision as hopefully I won't suffer with this pregancy. I hope my story and symptoms might help another identify or atleast consider pre eclampsia or HELLP syndrome, even if the medical profession don't.

Good Luck

Georgia