I'm going for positivity as I long for second child

[lornarose]

Greetings and love to all the courageous women on this forum

I developed PE at approx 33 weeks. My bp started to misbehave at 32 weeks but protein in urine was within in normal levels and blood work was normal. However I was admitted to hospital at 32 weeks 4days as bp was too high. PE developed and bp became uncontrollabe so I was delivered at 34 plus 3 days. I was given magnesium and epidural which brought down bp and became favourable for v delivery. DD became distressed so I had to have emergency section at 2am. DD arrived into the world at 4lbs 3oz and crying which to me was the most beautiful sound in the world. She was sick for first few days with suspected sepsis. It was the most difficult and traumatic time of my life. My fears proved to be unfounded and results for sepsis came back negative. She started to thrive and she is a bouncy happy healthy 5 month old. I took her home after 18 days in SCBU. DD has no health issues as a result of her prematurity and is average size for her age. Everyday I give thanks for my beautiful girl. I just adore her and realise how lucky I am. I was very traumatised at the time of her birth and before it when my bp went through the roof. I was terrified I was going to die.Since baby started to thrive and I got over the early arrival, I am at the happiest I have ever been. I would now love another baby and would think of TTC in approx 3 to 4 months. I have some questions.

1. I did not develop HELLP, could I with next pregnancy?
2. Could I develop PE earlier than 32 weeks? I dont think I would be able to cope. is it true that it is normally less severe second time.

I regained health soon after delivery and do not have underlying disorders to the best of my knowledge.

Thankyou to all the inspirational ladies on this forum. Your strength and determination are source of strength and inspiration to me in my desire to follow my dreams and have the family I have always wished for.
love
lornarose

[riehlism]

It is a possibility to get hellp in a subsequent pregnancy. Although I do believe that is rare. The published recurrence rate for someone who has already had HELLP is 5% (if I remember correctly). However, the chances for preeclampsia are different and tend to be higher.

It is possible to have preeclampsia earlier the second time around. I recently posted this question and ladies did post that it was worse the second time around. That said, most of the ladies who posted also did nothing differently between pregnancies.

Severity has to do with how sick you get and/or how early the symptoms arise. Typically it is less severe the second time around (you don't get as sick and it may come at a later gestational age). Then again, you just never know with this disease. There are no black and white answers, unfortunately. The chance of getting hellp, PE, it being worse the second time around are all possibilities. I offered you some generalizations. But for each of those generalizations there is at least one active member on this site who went against the grain.

Just make sure you educate yourself about options in future pregnancies and find the right provider with experience in preeclampsia. Good luck.

[angieb]

1. I did not develop HELLP, could I with next pregnancy? Yes, unfortunately. But this is pretty unlikely, because if anything they will be watching you more closely than the first time and they definitely do not like to wait until pre-e turns to HELLP to deliver. (There are a few rare ducks like myself who get HELLP without the typical pre-e symptoms first, but that's *extremely* rare and unlikely to happen to you as it didn't go that way the first time around. Usually, it goes something like: pregnancy induced hypertension> mild pre-eclampsia > pre-eclampsia > severe pre-eclampsia > HELLP, so if they are monitoring you and you are monitoring yourself, they'll generally try to deliver before it gets severe, definitely. Obviously it doesn't work like that with everyone, but that's how it *generally* progresses, at least as a stereotype.)

2. Could I develop PE earlier than 32 weeks? I dont think I would be able to cope. is it true that it is normally less severe second time.
It is true. There's nothing scientific or research based that I've seen to indicate you are at especially high risk to get sick sooner, but in the couple of years I've been watching women with subsequent pregnancies on this forum, it seems like the women who get sick the second time around earlier are *usually* the ones who got sick in the mid-30 week range the first time. Maybe it's because doctors are a little more nonchalant about women who get sick later and don't do underlying condition tests, recommend low dose aspirin, monitor as closely, etc. Maybe it's because those women tend to wait a little longer between pregnancies than those of us who had losses. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it's just a trend I've noticed just purely based on observing this forum. (And the women who do get sick earlier that I'm referring to usually only start getting sick a week or two earlier, not 2nd trimester early.)
That being said, according to the research, you have a good chance of making it a lot farther next time.
I delivered from HELLP, IUGR, and fetal distress at 23 wks +2 days the first time, this time I'm 30 weeks and things look fairly decent.