24 weeks into my perfect pregnancy, the nightmare began when we got the IUGR diagnosis. My baby had dropped from the 57 percentile to 7. I started to swell around this time and my blood pressure slowly started to rise. By week 28, he had dropped to 3 percentile and his abdominal circumference was <1 percent. He was starving inside me. Swelling kept getting worse and worse, which led to a trip to L&D at week 31 for extreme edema. I was sent home without any tests for preeclampsia.

By week 33, I had gained 20 lbs in a week. No one seemed concerned but I had a fear of preeclampsia. I was told I didn’t fit the criteria for the official diagnosis. At 33 weeks and 2 days, I suffered extreme bleeding at home while in the shower. I was rushed to the hospital via ambulance almost unconscious. The team could not locate a fetal heartbeat and so a crash c section under general was called. My husband was left in the hallways of the hospital not knowing what would happen to his wife and baby.

I had a complete placental abruption due to severe preeclampsia. My baby was born 10 minutes later, with a 0 APGAR. He needed over 5 minutes of resuscitation efforts and intubation. My lungs collapsed during my c section. I suffered extreme blood loss, I developed a fever and was going into liver failure. I required respiratory support and my baby needed to be transferred to a level 4 NICU because his respiratory needs were so high. I did not get steroid shots or magnesium before delivery, because there was no time. He was in critical condition. I was deemed too fragile to go with him so remained separated for a number of days one hour away from him at a seperate hospital. My son would go on to spend 109 days in the NICU, where he’d code twice. He had pulmonary hypertension, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and bilateral brain bleeds. He did have an MRI at term, which by some miracle showed zero permanent brain damage. He is still on oxygen support at almost 2 years old but thriving in every other area. Every doctor he has met since birth can’t believe he survived what he did and have called him a “miracle.”

Almost 2 years later, we have met with so many experts to find an explanation to how and why this happened. The thought from my new medical team is that I most likely started to develop early onset preeclampsia between 23-25 weeks, right when the swelling and growth restriction started. It’s unbelievable my body held on for another 10 weeks and made it to 33 weeks but the abruption was devastating. I did not know preeclampsia could lead to a placental abruption. I didn’t even know a placental abruption could happen. Every pregnant woman deserve to know what preeclampsia can cause and every pregnant woman deserves to be listened to by their medical providers.