Preclampsia Times 2?

[spoth]

My husband and I would love to have another child. I had an emergency c-section and delivered my daughter at 36 weeks(3lbs 13 oz, very healthy) because I became seriously ill within about 3 hours and her heart rate continued to drop unbelievably low...less than an hour later she was here! I had mild symptoms from about 28 weeks on. I am overweight and working on losing the weight before conceiving again. My question is what is the odds that this will happen again? My daughter and I almost did not make it and I am worried that expanding my family will cost me my family.... My aunt had toxemia with her second pregnancy but she is the only person in our family to ever have it... It seems as though many people in this forum have had it over, and over....

[expert on call]

Since the symptoms occurred at 28 weeks, and if the reason for delivering the infant at 36 weeks were other symptoms and signs (such as high blood pressure and porteinuria) then there is a one in four chance you will have problems again but how mild or severe is not predictable. The fact it occurred in the first pregnancy means there is good chance it will not occur again, but you might want to see a high-risk obstetric specialist for preconception testing. The doctor, for instance, may wish to do some tests to rule out underlying conditions and depending on their outcome, give a more or less favorable prognosis.

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