HeLLP/Pre E/Eclampsia connection

[jennashell]

Thanks so much for all the info!!!!

[caryn]

You're entirely welcome!

[danielsmom]

jennashell - Were you put on any blood thinners or anything with baby #2? Sometimes even if something doesn't show up in blood work, they'll put mom on profylactic heparin or lovenox to assist blood flow.

[jennashell]

no blood thinners. Would blood thinners cause a problem with c-sections?

[danielsmom]

For a planned C section, they'd take you off blood thinners a day or so beforehand. But as you know, sometimes C sections are emergent, so if you were on blood thinners at that time, they would put you under with general anethesia.

With mine, they said the lovenox wasn't as much a problem as the baby asprin was, which kind of surprised me.

[jennashell]

They couldn't plan any of my c sections, so that my be why they haven't used thinners. I'll have to ask about lovenox, I'm not sure what that is.

[danielsmom]

Lovenox (or the generic heparin) is an injection used to thin blood. Many times if a woman has a pregnancy history with pre-e, eclampsia, HELLP, or even miscarriages, the OB will recommend thinners as a prevention from the beginning of subsequent pregnancies until near delivery. It can depend on if you have a diagnosed clotting disorder, but I know plenty of women who have used this treatment for unexplained miscarriages.

Whether it works is debatable. It's hard to do studies on pregnant women for ethical and practical reasons. Most pregnant women object to being guinea pigs. My doctor said if he could clone women, so they'd have the same genetic & environmental factors, and let one woman go with treatment and one go without, the results would be more reliable. But in the absense of having that ability (or wanting to), we suggest blood thinners because we *think* they might work.

[jennashell]

AH! Okay, thanks for the lovenox info, I'll be sure to ask about it.