My name is Sarah and I am a preeclampsia survivor. It was our first pregnancy after our miscarriage. We were so excited about having a son! I was still working full time as an esthetician. I was 33 weeks and 5 days. That particular morning was my birthday and I was getting ready for work, as I went to the washroom I noticed a bit of blood in my underwear. Of course that made me nervous, so I called my boss to let her know I was going to go get checked out. I then started feeling really intense and crazy contractions, not knowing what was happening because it was my first full pregnancy! I called my husband home and he carried me into the car and we rushed over to the hospital. Once they got me into a bed, they said I was about 3-4 cm dialated ! I didn’t understand how this could be happening so early?! What I didn’t realize is that the day before I had been “leaking” thinking I just couldn’t hold my bladder because I was so pregnant, but it was actually my water that had somehow pre ruptured and had been slowly leaking out!

I had also been mentioning to my OB everytime I saw him that my feet were very swollen and sore, he would push on them and then tell me they weren’t too bad and I’d be fine. He also said my blood pressure was normal consistently as well. So, the nurse came back to check on me a few minutes later and I was 10 cm dialated! They told me we had to get this baby out!

Everything was happening so fast! I ended up having my son naturally without any pain meds. He ended up going straight into the NICU in an incubator. He was 4lbs 12oz and still needed to grow. He ended up staying in the NICU for about 4 weeks. I ended up having to stay in the hospital for a week after giving birth because my blood pressure sky rocketed after birth. To the point where the nurses actually wheeled me to a room closer to their desk to keep an eye on me. It was scary, nerve wracking, and eye opening to say the least. I did end up having a daughter one year later on the EXACT same date! (Yes me and both my kids have the same birthday as me) and I was put on high blood pressure meds for that pregnancy and was highly monitored and everything worked out so well! Shoutout to the Hospital for all of their care!