When I first announced to my family I was pregnant, my mom and dad warned me and educated me about preeclampsia. My mom had it with my older brother and he was born premature and had a NICU stay. My dad bought me a blood pressure machine to help keep track during my pregnancy. I never thought anything of it and that it could happen to me as well until I started noticing my blood pressure rising as I got further along.

Due to family history, we started me on blood pressure medicine to keep me and baby safe. I was 31 weeks when I woke up feeling like I had an elephant on my chest. I thought it was because I overslept and forgot to take my morning dose so I took my medicine and rested hoping I would feel better. I wasn’t getting better and nor was my blood pressure. I was 162/121 when we finally decided to go to triage. Immediately they started to give me more meds to bring my BP down but nothing helped. My daughter started throwing D-cells and even the magnesium drip wasn’t helping so the best option was to deliver her to save both of us. Thankfully my OB was on call that night and was able to be the one to perform the c-section. Born 2lbs, 4oz, she entered the world only 5 hours after getting to triage. She spent 8 weeks in the NICU since she was 2 months premature. I’m so glad my parents educated me the risks of high BP during pregnancy and what to look out for. It can come completely out of nowhere and there’s truly no cause other than being pregnant. I’ve learned to understand that I really couldn’t have controlled the outcome. I did everything right by routinely seeing my OB and taking the BP meds to help.