Susie's story

I just had my first child (Fred) on July 9, 1998 and was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia in my 35th week. I had liver pain earlier in my pregnancy but it did not occur to me that it could be associated. I had hepatitis A seven years ago and kept thinking it was related to that, although my doctor ran some sort of liver test and said there were no problems. They attributed my pain to gas, which I never felt was right.

I had severe swelling and several fainting spells, which I attributed to the heat of summer. I was put at home on bed rest which lasted for about ten days - my blood pressure continued to rise and my swelling increased so they admitted me to the hospital where they could monitor me closely. I was induced at 37 weeks and after 40 hours of labor delivered by C-section. It was terrible, but my baby was born healthy so I was happy. He was small (5 lbs. 14 oz.).

At about five weeks he developed pyloric stenosis and had surgery. The doctors have not indicated that this was related to my pre-eclampsia. He is doing great now as am I and the more I read the more I realize how lucky we are. I plan to get pregnant again next year and am very interested in learning how to prevent pre-eclampsia from recurring. I don't want to go through it a second time and I worry that it could be worse.

Susie