Undiagnosed eclampsia

[Clairesimsandboo]

Posting here as the pregnancy boards are quite.

I am pregnant with my second baby. Dd is 7. I spoke to my midwife about my previous pregnancy and she has informed me symptoms I had after dd birth would indicate eclampsia. I remember being very unwell, my feet and legs were so swollen I couldn’t walk. My doctor told me I had an infected insect bite and it will go down in a few days. It took 2 weeks. I also had seizures on many occasions. I had an MRI and eeg under the impression I had epilepsy, but they stopped by themselves after a few months. My midwife has told me I’m lucky to be alive. She has transferred me to high risk care to ensure it doesn’t happen again or I’m treated in time if it does.
Im shocked how my health issues were overlooked and no Health professional considered the link between them and eclampsia. I feel like my general care was neglected and to be honest I’m scared to go back to the same hospital as they must have missed signs in my blood or urine samples.
Can anyone advise on my risks again and how I should deal with this information? I’m feeling very nervous and also relieved that I and dd came out unharmed. If anyone has been through this can you reassure me please?

You will be very closely monitoring this time with regular BP and urine checks. Try not to worry and familiarise yourself with the symptoms of pre eclampsia (headaches, strange changes in vision, pain under your right ribs)

It might be worth talking to an obstetrician about it rather than a midwife who may not have seen all the results of the tests you had/wasn’t there. I can’t imagine it genuinely never occurred to any of the multiple people you must have seen that pre-/actual- eclampsia wasn’t a possibility. It would also be vanishingly unusual for eclampsia to just get better by itself - eclampsia seizures are signs of severe organ damage and need very specific management, usually in intensive care. Bet the MW’s got the wrong end of the stick completely! Hope things turn out well.

Thank you, I’m guessing it’s too late now as it needs to be current for them to know for sure what it is. It did make sense though as I can’t think of any other reason for someone to swell up and have seizures after giving birth, maybe I’m wrong. Is there anything I can do to lower my chances or is it just luck of the straw?

it’s not too late to have someone review your bloods results which there will be a record of. I find it hard to believe no one made the connection so I imagine there’s been some confusion between this midwife and you

Fucking hell, that's shocking @Clairesimsandboo. I had suspected eclampsia after the birth of my second and when I presented with it about four days PP I was rushed to hospital with the baby (was breast feeding) and not let go until a barrage of tests had been done. Turned out to be an infection but they were really on the ball. In your position I might consider changing hospitals, that's a serious error. I'd also ask for a debrief of your notes from last time if possible.

If it turns out there was indeed preeclampsia it would generally be recommended that you take baby aspirin (prescribed) during early pregnancy and I had an ultrasound around 21 weeks I think to see if there was any restriction in the blood flow to and from the placenta that was called a notching scan. Although there was restriction in my case I didn’t go on to develop preeclampsia and gave birth without any further issues despite having severe preeclampsia that came out of nowhere at 32 weeks in pregnancy 1. I was under consultant care throughout.

I think they're very hot on looking for pre-eclampsia / eclampsia. I had it without realising. I'd gone in for something else and it was discovered quite early on. My dc was born around the same time as yours. I think they must have done the checks and ruled it out for you. It's good it's been flagged though as you can talk to a doctor about it and have the extra monitoring.

Did you have high blood pressure op? I swelled up after all my births and very suddenly about 2-3 weeks after each one the swelling would very suddenly disappear. I was told it was water retention. I didn’t have seizures I had headaches and my blood pressure was actually low so I knew it was eclampsia. Hope all goes ok this time round

There are quite a few things that can cause seizures peri-partum. Hope the obstetricians are able to shed more light.