My first baby was born on March 26, 2022. I had a planned induction due to needing blood thinners for a clotting disorder during pregnancy. Other than that I had no real issues with the pregnancy. The delivery went smooth and we brought baby home on day 3. The nurses told me at time of discharge to watch my blood pressure at home and call for any severe readings so I went home and took my blood pressure for a few days. I recognized the readings were higher than I expected (140s/100s) but I was also a nervous new mom that wasn’t getting enough sleep. After a few days I stopped checking because things were so busy with caring for a newborn and I figured my blood pressure would just get better as time passed. On postpartum day 7 I started recognizing I had a really bad headache but I hadn’t gotten much sleep the past week so I didn’t think much of it. Later on that day I was driving and I started seeping flashing spots but it was also really sunny out. I kept finding different excuses for the symptoms I was having that I recognize now, were really big signs. It wasn’t until later that night when I had a throbbing headache, wasn’t able to take any medicine since I had already taken the maximum amounts of Tylenol and ibuprofen, and started feeling my heart skipping beats. That alarmed me so I used my Apple Watch to look at my heart beat and my heart rate was 30-40. My husband and I didn’t know what to think so we re-read the discharge papers. Finally we took my blood pressure and it was 200/120. I was rushed back to the hospital where my blood pressure remained in the severe range and I was started on magnesium and hydralazine. I was on “seizure precautions” and couldn’t hold or nurse my newborn unless someone was sitting right next to me and then I had to give him back to someone else. I don’t think I ever felt so terrible in my life - mentally and physically.