Libby 123 no offense taken. I have decided to go in for another consult to get some more direct answers. I know that I will never feel pure excitement unlaced with fear while pregnant. But maybe will help me to decide. I go in tomorrow.

I was rereading my response and realized that I might have been incredibly insensitive. I didn't mean to sound like you could have done something differently to help your pregnancy go better! I don't think that at all. I was meaning to question your prenatal care and the method that your doctors used to treat your pre-e, not you. I'm sorry. :(

Becky, I'm so glad you found us but sorry you had to! I know a lot of our members - including me - can relate to your struggle with wanting another child but being terrified of getting sick again. It sounds like you've already done what we suggest - meet with an MFM for a preconception consult and get as healthy as possible before getting pregnant again.

Our Experts have said that *in general*, after developing severe disease at 28-36 weeks, recurrence rate is about 40%. That means 60% chance of NOT getting sick again.
http://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=331
Did your MFM have more specific ideas about your chances? Did she/he have a plan for how your next pregnancy would be monitored? Subsequent pregnancies can be nerve-wracking even when everything goes perfectly, so I think having doctors you trust can make all the difference.

I'm sorry your doctors in your first pregnancy didn't give you the care you hoped for, but just to clarify, bedrest and medication are often prescribed by doctors, but the research says neither prevents nor slows down preeclampsia. Here are a few links from our Experts -
https://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=10150&p=58244
https://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5467&p=58231
http://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1081

and a very good member discussion from a few years ago -
https://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=12455

Bedrest can decrease protein spillage because of the position change - if I'm understanding right gravity puts less stress on your kidneys when you're laying down. Bedrest can also decrease blood pressure because of the decreased physical demands on the body (though not always - I think somewhere in the thread above Caryn mentions her bp was 220/110 on hospital bedrest). However, blood pressure and protein spillage are just symptoms of the underlying damage, and the underlying damage continues regardless of how the symptoms appear - and in your case, it sounds like your bp got very high and your protein was likely bad as well despite two weeks of bedrest!

Many women on these boards report staying pregnant for many weeks while on bedrest, so I do hope that someday the research will figure out if those experiences are just coincidence or if bedrest is actually affecting the underlying disease. It is also possible that bedrest might help certain women and not others, but so far the research has not made a distinction.

As for medication, blood pressure medicine is prescribed if bp gets to a level that is dangerous for the mother - lowering bp to decrease risk of stroke or other organ damage. Doctors have to be careful, though, because decreasing bp can decrease the amount of blood that gets to the baby. I really like this article that discusses the use of antihypertensives in pregnancy -

http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/51/4/960.full
[i]"Of note, with antihypertensive treatment, there seems to be less risk of developing severe hypertension (risk ratio: 0.50, with a number needed to treat of 10) but no difference in outcomes of preeclampsia, neonatal death, preterm birth, and small-for-gestational-age babies with treatment."[/i]

Sorry for throwing so much information at you, but I don't want you to think that you could have done something "better" in your last pregnancy to keep from getting so sick.

Best wishes on working through your fears of being pregnant and sick again - we'll be here to (virtually) hold your hand no matter what you decide!

I was put un bed rest at 32 weeks. I went in twice a week for 2 weeks for nst and to check bp and protein. Still with no meds...though i asked about them. On feb 11th I went in and was spilling protein but to this day I do not know how much. My records are with my Mfm doc so he does have that info. I was put on magnesium and delivered by cesarian bc my bp was dangerous. I know my it was 200's/100's at one point! Very scary! I tried not to look as it got higher and higher as the reality of the situation set in. It was still kind of high for several months but my Mfm doc thought it would be ok to stop meds (procardia 10 mg) 13 months later. Bps now are running 120/70's which is disappointing because I ran really low before I had Maisyn.

Rhodges - You weren't on any medication? How about bedrest? I would definitely get a new ob/gyn. I think that part of why my outcome was so good was because of my prenatal team. At the end I was on 800mg of labetatol and strict bedrest in and out of the hospital for 6 weeks.

It sounds like your outcome may have been like mine with the good prenatal care. Many women on here it wouldn't make a difference for as they had severe, aggressive pre-e complicated with HELLP syndrome at a very early gestational age. However the later, slow moving, less severe PIH/pre-e can often be controlled well with bedrest and medication.

I am shocked that your ob/gyn didn't do anything about it, especially that they didn't put you on meds. What were your pressures at the end? How much protein?

Thanks, ladies! This is so complicated it is crazy! The other thing I wondered is I only saw one Mfm for a consult....did anybody else shop around a bit or have more than one consult?

I chickened out last month too. I felt rushed and not ready. This month I head the courage to go along with it (still in the waiting period). So as you can see this happens. We have to remind ourselves that we all have our own internal clock, and you will know when you are ready, even if scared - but who isn't after the experience of PE? The most important is, that[i] you[/i] feel ready!

It is very normal among the women who post here to struggle with the decision to have another baby. My daughter is about a year older than yours, and I have waffled on that decision several times in the last year. I think that I felt ready when she was around 18 months old. As soon as I mentioned it to my husband and scheduled the preconception consult, I started having the NICU flashbacks, visions of my daughter growing up without me, being sick again, etc. Talking about it made it much more real than thinking about it, and I just wasn't ready. I needed to deal with all of that before I could be ready, so it was good to start talking about everything and talk to my doctor again. I also met with a counselor a few times to help process all of it. Making the decision to use the same OB or get a new one was a big part of that process and very empowering for me.
We discussed it again this spring, and I didn't have nearly as strong of a reaction. I am getting closer, and I think that my husband is too. He is at least as hesitant as I am because PE/HELLP scared the heck out of him. We both want another child, and we will be ready soon. It sounds like you will be ready too, but it may take a little while to get there.
I didn't physically recover until my daughter was almost 18 months old, and i needed a little more time (maybe a lot since I am still on the pill ;) ) to recover emotionally before I could handle the idea of another pregnancy. I think it helped my husband to see me get healthier and happier as my body recovered. I needed to have some faith that I could come back from a pregnancy before I could think about trying again. We are now buying a house with an extra bedroom, which I think is a good sign.

I think if I would have had better care the outcome would have been different. I was never put on any meds or given steroids. They just let it out of control after red flags were being raised. I will not be using the same ob office...in fact my MFN said he would just take me on without an ob. I probably wouldnt feel so scarred from this had I received better care with my daughter. I trust in God and I want to keep faith that this can happen. Thank you for your thoughts.

I can't begin to understand how you feel, as my daughter was born at 36 weeks and needed no NICU time, plus my pre-e was slow moving and not severe. It sounds like you had a much harder time of it. However given the fact that pre-e has affected me enough that I have panic attacks and check my blood pressure 10 times a day or more, I can only imagine how it has affected you. It scared me enough that we aren't having another child, so I am overwhelmed at the courage of the other women on here who had it much worse than I did and are trying for more.

I just want you to know that I understand your reluctancy and please know that your feelings are acceptable and real. There is a very real risk to another pregnancy for you. However I think you will find that most women, with the help of certain medications like Lovenox, have experience pre-e free pregnancies or at the very least their pre-e is less severe.

Please don't let anyone pressure you into another pregnancy. Wait until you are ready. It would be nice if we could just magically have babies, without the pre-e pregnancies and danger risk to ourselves and our babies, but that is just not reality.

We are all here for you as you make this decision.