Rachael's Story

I am a solicitor specialising in family law but am currently studying for a Masters degree in Employment law. My husband, Paul, and I have been living in Kuwait for the past 2 1/2 years.

I first became pregnant in March 97 and we moved to Kuwait in June that year. All my ante natal checks were fine until about 28 weeks. At that time I happened to be back in the UK for a wedding and saw my midwife who told me that the baby was slightly small for my dates but that it was nothing to worry about.

On returning to Kuwait I saw my OB at 29½ weeks, he told me that I had pre-eclampsia as I gained a lot of weight, my blood pressure was up and the baby was small. I was prescribed bedrest and told to come back in 2 days time. In the meantime, I had decided to fly back to England as felt I would receive better medical treatment there. However, on returning to the clinic to receive an injection to mature the baby's lungs and to stabilise my BP I asked the Dr. if I could listen to the baby's heartbeat but it could not be found. A scan reveled that our precious baby had died.

Labour had to be induced as the pre-eclampsia was then starting to affect my health. Our little boy was born the next dat at 30 weeks weighing 950 grams. I cannot remember too much as I had received so many drugs but do remember that he looked like his daddy.

Once I had been discharged from hospital the next day, we decided to fly back to England so that we could hold a funeral for our little boy. On arriving in the UK a few days later I was checked by my midwife who decided that I should go back into Hospital as my BP was very high, I still had 3+ of protein in my urine had the worst headache imaginable. After 5 days I was discharged.

3 months later I found I was pregnant again but unfortunately miscarried at 7 weeks. However, this did not put me off trying again and 3 months after that I was pregnant again. I decided to return to the UK when I was 22 weeks (the date was brought forward slightly by the problems with Iraq and I didn't want to remain in Kuwait if a bombing campaign started).

I received fetal monitoring from 24 weeks and had been taking baby aspirin from 5 weeks with regular scans. Paul remained in Kuwait for most of the time and the separation was very difficult but worth it in the end. I asked to be induced at 38 weeks and my consultant agreed given my past history and my level of anxiety over developing PE in the last weeks of pregnancy. Emily was born after a straight forward labour weighing 6lb 1oz.

I did not develop PE at all during my pregnancy with her even though I was convinced that I would. I know that this does not mean that I would not develop it again in a future pregnancy but I am much more positive of being able to deal with PE should it rear its ugly head again.

Rachael