college research report

[pat1979]

Hi
I am currently a student at college going to university to study midwifery in September . I am currently doing a research report and have chosen to do about pre eclampsia after having it in my first pregnancy. I am particularly interested in whether, as i did, others have had to go through a c-section because of this. I appreciate this can be quite personnal but would be really grateful if anyone was willing to share their experiences. Thanks xx

[jenh]

I was diagnosed with severe PE, borderline HELLP syndrome (platelets were low enough to qualify for Level II HELLP, but red blood cells and liver enzymes were just short of diagnostic), at 35 weeks in my first pregnancy. The MFM who saw me at that time said, and I quote, "I don't know if you're praying people, but you need to pray the induction works. A c-section would kill you." Obviously, the induction was a success.

I was diagnosed with mild PE just short of 37 weeks with my second. Another successful induction.

Third time around, I was pregnant with twins. I fired one OB because she wanted to "get [my] c-section on the schedule" at my 20-week appointment even though there was no indication for it at that time. I was diagnosed with PIH at 22 weeks, mild PE at 31 weeks, and had another successful induction at 36 weeks, followed by severe post partum PE.

So no c-sections for me. If my children's lives had been at risk, I wouldn't have hesitated to put my own on the line with a surgical birth, but I wasn't about to take on that risk just for fun.

You can read the long version of my story here: http://whatyourunningfor.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-story-part-1.html and http://whatyourunningfor.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-story-part-2.html and http://whatyourunningfor.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-story-part-3.html

Good luck on becoming a midwife. I also am looking for survivor stories to share on my blog. If you'd like to share your story with me, you can e-mail me at whatyourunningfor@gmail.com

[caryn]

Probably most of the forum had Caesareans, simply because we collect worst-case scenarios here, so we skew towards more crash sections following seizure and more emergent sections following decals or what have you.

I am not sure if there are good numbers on this, but I do know that the NIH working group report (stickied in the News forum) talks about Caesarean as something to avoid if possible, to avoid adding recovery from major surgery to recovery from acute disease.

[cgoodi1]

I had severe preeclampsia at 21 weeks. My baby passed away on its own and I was induced to give birth as soon as I was admitted with the pe. I went in to the hospital since my doctor wasn't doing anything about symptoms I was having and they admitted me imediately after taking my blood pressure. We heard the heart beat and then they told me we'd be going for an ultrasound. 10 minutes later we went in and the baby had passed. My blood pressure was ridiculously high but I had no seizures. I did have to be under 24 hour serveillance though in case I seized.

[ktsl123]

I was diagnosed with severe PE at 34 weeks and 6 days then was given the lung injections and was induced at 35 and 2 days. I started off not dialated at all, but only took 9 hours to give birth from the start of induction. I think a c-section is pretty common with severe PE. My Dr said I was lucky... Mild PE probably much more common to have a vaginal birth.