March 12, 2008 my second child (a son) was born at 25 weeks 2 days gestation. I have a daughter who will be five years in May and wasn't planning on another child...but as mother nature would have it, my husband and I found out we were unexpectedly expecting a second child who would be making his appearance the end of June 2008. In the middle of the night on January 25, 2008 I woke up with what I thought was terrible heartburn. I took some antacids but the pain became progressively worse. I... Read more

My story so far....long version:My husband I got pregnant with our first in 2007 and the baby was due 01/31/08. I ate very healthy cause I couldn't stomach sugar or fries. My pregnancy included regular naps and some morning sickness. We found out we were having a girl and things were going fine. At 27 weeks my ankles swelled and raising them was a temporary fix. I went for my monthly dr appt and was excited because after that appt I would start going every other week. I got on the scale ... Read more

I developed the typical signs of preeclampsia. I had the swollen hands and ankles, and my body was acting dehydrated even though I was drinking lots and lots of water. On my birthday I had gotten the flu and was running what I thought was a low grade fever (turns out my body temperature is lower then the average 98, so the 100.1 fever I was running was more of a high grade fever.) After 3 weeks of not being able to shake the dehydration issues a nurse at my doctor's office told me to eat rice... Read more

My name is Laura Pollock and I am pregnant with my third baby.  I have been a Type I Diabetic for almost twenty years, and I have had two healthy children and had preeclampsia both times.  My daughter, Annika, was born at 33 weeks after I was diagnosed with preeclampsia.  I was well taken care of at a major medical center.  I was on magnesium for 24 hours, and Annika was healthy, 6lbs. 10 oz. with just a little jaundice.  She is a healty 4 year old today. ... Read more

Well I start my story saying I had no idea that I was a ticking time bomb. This was my 3rd pregnancy. My other pregnancies were normal. No high blood pressure, or diabetes. The babies were healthy and we went home together. So I am going through my third pregnancy with no morning sickness or fatigue which was uncommon for me because I suffered terribly from morning sickness with both of my girls. I would go to the OB regularly and my blood pressure would be fine. I had severe swelling and ... Read more

On July 3, I found out I was pregnant. It was the happiest day of my life. My husband already had two boys (twins) by a previous marriage. They live with us full time. Their mom is not involved much. I decided I wanted my own child. We waited 9 months to get pregnant. Everything was going fine up until about week 11. I allowed them to do some testing to help out the sonographer. She noticed that Timothy had a larger neck than normal. This was a sign of Down Syndrome. So of course they... Read more

My name is Nikki Blackwood and I am ready to share my story. It began on September 20th, 2006 when I found out that I was pregnant. The next day, I miscarried. Fast forward to November of 2006, a month later. I was pregnant again and we were beyond thrilled. My pregnancy was pretty normal. I had the normal scares that I may miscarry, but all was going well. My morning sickness was pretty extreme, I lost 10 lbs in the first trimester. But I was gaining suff... Read more

Hi, my name is Holly(23@timeof birth) and I wanted to share my story with all of you and hope it helps. My little angle was born on Aug. 25, 2005 and everything was perfect besides having a c-section after 12 hours of labor.  Let me start a ways back, I went to every single dr. appointment  that was set up, and did everything they told me to do. All through out my pregnancy I had morning sickness everyday all day, it was bad! About my 7th month ... Read more

Hello my name is Marchele I am 26 years old I am so glad I found this website so I can talk about my stories and read about other women and there stories.  Me and my fiance had gotten pregnant in April 2004 when we found out we were so happy. I made my appointments as usual and everything was fine.  Then in September I got my ultrasound and my fiance was away at the time so my mom went with me and we found out that we were having a boy, I was so excited I really did not care ... Read more

My name is Kristin, on August 13th, 2005 I delivered our little girl at 24 wks. 5 days gestation due to preeclampsia. The doctors said that it was the only cure for the disease & that it was either me or her. What a choice to have to make huh? All at once my dreams were shattered, and my excitement of becoming a new mom was turned to disappointment. Most of you reading this story know what preeclampsia does to you so I want go into all of it. The truly odd thing is that up until my 23rd week... Read more

They say that ignorance is bliss.  That would be the case in my story.  I became pregnant after a year of marriage and I was thrilled.  Of course, one of the first things I did was get together with my girlfriends to talk about things like maternity clothes, stretch marks and cravings.  Preeclampsia did not come up in the conversation, nor did it come up throughout my entire pregnancy.  I felt pretty well during the pregnancy. There were no signs of trouble at my routine... Read more

I have experienced 4 pregnancies and 2 were full of complications. My third pregnancy was induced at 32 weeks due to toxemia. I didn't experience any symptoms until my 32nd week. There was no drastic weight gain, only severe swelling of my lower extremities. No headache or anything. My doctor insisted on a C-section since I was far along enough for my daughter to have a fairly good chance at life. Delivery went well and I recovered fine without any lasting health problems. However, with my ... Read more

I found out that I was pregnant almost exactly a year ago, on Labor Day of 2006. My husband and I found out that we were pregnant with twins a few weeks later. I remember being so excited for all that we had ahead. After we got through the first trimester, I relaxed. I felt good, and my OB seemed confident that things would continue to go well. At our 20-week ultrasound, we found out that we were having boys. We spent Christmas talking about their names, and just thinking about what they w... Read more

Hi there,My entire pregnancy was completely normal and enjoyable. I went early -38 1/2 weeks...last January and delivered a healthy baby girl. AFter about 6 hours.... I could not urinate and the Dr's noticed I was getting a little yellow in color.. I was sent directly to ICU - where they realized that I had HELLP. My kidneys shut down and I was really sick... I was attached to every monitor imaginable and basically they told my husband that all my organs had shut down except for my Brain ... Read more

On Friday, July 20 I was at a meeting at work, I suddenly had a strange burning feeling in my upper abdomen and felt awful. I thought I was going to throw up and starting salivating. I left the meeting and went to the emergency room. Once there they sent me to OB triage where they had me give a urine sample. A doctor looked at me and gave me an antacid thinking I just had indigestion. I heard her tell the nurse to not bother to test my urine and the nurse tell her she already dipped it and ... Read more

I feel blessed to have found this site, and to read the stories of other women who have lived to tell about this experience. My name is Kerri and I am the mother of two beautiful children. My first pregnancy ended at 30 weeks with the premature birth of my daughter. She spent 21 days in the NICU. Although small, she survived without any long-term health problems. When my daughter was 12 months old, my husband and I found out that we were expecting our second child, a son. Being a registered nu... Read more

Hello.  I too am a mommy with empty arms.  I was a mommy with a head full of dreams and a heart full of love for our Princess Kayla Breanna Leon, who was yet to be born.  But stillbirth, the destroyer of dreams took my whole world away.  ... Read more

Let me start off by saying that I sit here watching my three month old son quietly sleep.  He is healthy, happy and the joy of our lives.  My husband and I want to have many more children...right away!  However, the reality is that each time I get pregnant I put my life and the life of my unborn child in danger.  Baby David was our fifth pregnancy.  Before him we had 3 miscarriages and a neonatal death.  I guess I should take you back to the birth/death story o... Read more

In 2004, just a few short years ago, I learned that I was pregnant.  Being 23, no job, and no help from the father, I was quite afraid.  So at my first prenatal visit my doctor told me that I was measuring larger than I should have been at that particular gestational period.  So she ordered an ultrasound and at that ultrasound I found out that I was having identical twins!  That definitely seemed to have put more pressure on me.  But I got better with it and continued on... Read more

Where do I start with this very long and very personal journey. I am a two time pregnancy induced hypertension/Eclampsia victim.  I still however battle with my blood pressure and although I am not on meds I very closely monitor my salt intake as well as my diet and exercise. It all started with a perfectly "Normal" yet a very moody pregnancy that I thought was perfectly okay. I had had 3 prior miscarriages and was just thrilled that I had actually made it almost to term with m... Read more