I'm happy to hear that your midwife spotted the signs and escalated your care. It is traumatizing though. Angie gave good advice. Your chances of getting this again are significant, but it's likely it will be less severe and at a later gestation. It's generally recommended to get tested for blood clotting or autoimmune disorders because they can be (arguably) triggers for pre-e, and there may be treatment for them. My advice is to do all the research you can about this disease and your own body, and get a doctor - or team of them - that you can feel very comfortable with.

That said, I just had a really successful pregnancy following a preeclamptic one. My son showed signs of severe growth restriction at 20 weeks, but I didn't show signs of HELLP & pre-e until 25-27 weeks. I was hospitalized at 27 weeks with climbing blood pressure and had him under GA at 27w5d. Similar to you, my liver and kidneys had shut down and I was just in bad shape. My son was in NICU for 92 days. By God's grace, he's now a healthy 3 year old with no complications.

His baby sister was born almost 2 weeks ago at full term on her scheduled C section date at 38w3d. The pregnancy was very normal (though monitored very closely), my BP remained around 110/65 throughout, and it was such a blessing to be awake during the delivery with my husband as we welcomed her screaming little precious self into the world. We were home 2 days later, and this time at home since has been so different. I'm so glad we took that leap of faith.

Welcome! I am sorry about your first pregnancy.

I am one that had a worst case scenario first pregnancy (severe preeclampsia and HELLP at 23 weeks, no time for steroids, emergent delivery and our daughter passed away shortly after she was born), and went on to have a healthy baby boy (36 weeks delivered then on purpose but not for preeclampsia or any other issue except my previous classical c-section incision), and am now pregnant again and though I'm only 18 weeks, it's clearly going a lot better than my first pregnancy was at this point.

There are a lot of posts like this on the trying again forum, you may want to read some of them. There are definitely people who decide not to get pregnant again, but there are also many of us that do, and for the most part, the odds are in your favor that *if* it does recur, it will be later and less severe. There aren't any guarantees though, it's certainly a risk you have to decide if you are willing to take.

I moved this topic to this forum where I think you'll get the most replies. Welcome!

Hello everybody.
My name is Toni and i live in New Zealand. I am glad i found the site, as there seems to be limited information out there and what i can find is fairly upsetting or uninformative. This site seems great, with people on here who can help and give support.
I am new to this forum and would like to ask people who have had pre-ecampsia in their first pregnancy how their 2nd/3rd pregnancies went.
I had my son in Aug '10. He was born 33weeks and 2 days. In week 28 after feeling really rather ill, my midwife spotted all the early signs of PE and sent me straight off to hospital. I was admitted and given steriods and kept under observation. It was so awful, i couldn't stop stressing out and i really needed to. I went down hill and at 33 w 1 day they decided i had reached my final point and they would have to deliver my baby. I was so upset - as you all would know. I didn't know what to expect. They gave me more steriods and wanted to wait to give them time to work, but I became worse and my liver and kidneys started shutting down. i was in alot of pain. I had an emergency C-section but during the operation i stopped breathing and was given a GA and ventilated. My son was born 1.2 kgs. My husband was distraught. I was put in ICU and was there for 4 days. It was about 3 days after the op that i have my first memories. I have a picture of me holding my son- but no recollection of it. The whole thing was just not what was meant to happen, and although i was happy to have made it and happy to have my son, i was so traumatised from the whole thing. NICU was so difficult and my son stayed in hospital untill his due date. I had a councillor and was diagnosed with PTSD and was so petrified of having my son at home and him dying.
My son is 22 months now and doing well, he has survived his difficult start relatively unscathed and for this i am so thankful. The doctors say i have a 'significantly greater risk' of it happening again. I so want another child, but my family is unsupportive, they fear for me, but i am petrified of all the worst-case senarios i have heard/told in my head.
Has anyone had a 'normal' pregnancy after a bad PE experience? I would love to hear from you
Thank you