This may have been better posted in Pregnancy, but, what are the long term effects of PreEclampsia.....?

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

I gather, assuming that you dont suffer the Eclampsia convulsions, that there is also a risk of various things - particularly Kidney damage. Is this right?

I had pre-eclampsia nearly eleven years ago and I was never told the full implications, so I am of no use to you whatsoever, but would be interested to hear others input.

I was never told of the long term complications, but have been reading this

HELLP

Which covers the more serious effects and some after effects. The website has lots of useful information.

Three months after I had DD (severe eclampsia) I lost my sight temporarily - this was due to eclampsia.

www.apec.co.uk is also helpful. I still get my blood pressure checked.

Thank you all. Will have a look at that site when work has quietened down.

Did you have pre-eclampsia VVV?

'mildly' apparently. BP was higher than average, quite a bit of protein and blood in urea.

After DS was born I was being kept in and they were concerned about my kidney function. At one point they werent going to let me go home without having my kidneys scanned. Then they got an influx of patients in and needed the bed....

Have you had your kidneys scanned since? I have to say I was severe and I was still only in hospital just over a week with 4 days in Intensive care. I think it is something that can come on pretty quickly and you can recover just as quick btu I still had recurring problems up till 18 months later and I still get my blood pressure checked.

Oh I did have the convulsions as well though but dont remember as that was just before during and right after birth (I had emergency c-section)

i had it with ds1....
my only symptoms were ridiculously high bp and swollen feet then finally protein in urine

monitoered closely with ds2....only had high bp.....

took ages to settle - almost a year and has now just shot up again even though i feel great

ds2 is now 20 months (and sleeping throuhg....did i mentioned that bit

no other effects as far as i know

No, no follow up at all. They kept me in for several days and made a big ol' hooha about how I must have a water infection and does it not hurt when I go for a wee "er, I've just had a 8lb 12oz baby - please tell me what soreness I should notice that isnt normal"

Then, they said I could go after a scan. I think they got fed up, there was a huge miscommunication between two consultants as to how my care should go - one felt I should stay in, one felt I could go as long as I took antibiotics.

I was just glad to get home in any case as I was utterly fed up at their uselessness.

My sypmtoms were raised BP which was 120/130 over 85/90. Which is normal for alot of people, but my booking BP and usual BP is 100/110 over 60. I was incredibly swollen. All over. You could pretty much grab a hand around my calf and it would leave an imprint for ages afterwards.

I had blurred vision - but put this down to tiredness and utter swollenness. Then I started to get protein showin up. The day the admitted me for the second time to be induced it was really quite high apparently. It remained high after birth which is what their concern was. Also blood showing. But I did point out that after the birth, it was qutie likely to be polluted with blood from the lochia anyway.

I even had to do several 24 hour urine collections before I was admitted to make sure the protein levels werent a one off. That was fun. NOT.

That must have been quite scary for you though LVT? I've never had a convulsion before.

Popsy - I wouldnt be surprised if your BP was raised after all this time - even though DS is finally sleeping

I will watch with interest as I am currently having my protein levels monitored, my bp is steadily rising although I am on medication and I am starting to swell. I am led to believe that if I was in the Uk i would have preeclampsia. I have an appointment on wednesday where they will decide whether to admit and induce me. I'm 35 weeks pregnant.

Itc an vary. I never had any long term effects bar PTSD after my pre-eclampsia, although there is a possibility DS's sn is related. Mys ister however is still on meds after almost three years for her BP, and has been told she may always be. She also has PND still (her DS was quite ill and in NICU a month though).

If you want info, have a look at the PETS 9pre eclampsia and toxaemia society) and e-mail the group leader dawn giving my name (I'm on the committee though I do sod all thee days)- she knows pretty much all there is to know and is v helpful indeed.

Oh thanks Peachy

I might well do that.

I would get it checked out anyway. Have you spoken to you GP. I must admit my anti natal care with my GP was 100% amazing and he referred me to hospital at 35 weeks and again at 37 weeks - sent home both times as hospital couldnt see the problem. I doorstopped the hospital at 2am (37 weeks) and the registrar on duty was the first to see me and diagnosed full blown eclampsia straight away. Convulsions were only distressing for DH cause by the time you have convulsions you'll know nothing about it. I took convulsions during and after borth at which point I was unconcious.

I think I will, thank you LVT. Its improving every day, but, there are still some lingering problems.

I had preeclampsia first time round with my daughter, she was born 12 weeks early. The only symptoms I had was high blood pressure, which the doctors did not believe. My blood pressure returned to normal after the birth.
With my son I had very regular check ups but managed to keep the blood pressure down, by resting.
The one thing that I wish was done sooner, when the doctors started to get concerned was to give steroids to help the lungs develop.

I had severe pre-eclampsia leading to HELLP syndrome before the birth of dd. I was very lucky not to have convulsions like LVT. My reflexes were amazing, if someone toughed my knee my whole leg flew up in the air uncontrollably, a sign of cerebral irritability which means that you are very likely to fit. I too had to do several 24 hr urine collections. The first two showed a bit more protein than normal but the third one showed loads, about 100 times normal, and then that day my bp suddenly shot up uncontrollably and my liver and kidney function became really derranged, my platelets and red blood cell counts started to drop as my body started to destroy them and my clotting became very abnormal. I was swollen beyond belief. Dd was born by emergency section that day at 32+ weeks. I was in hospital for a week, then back in later because of wound dehiscence, and dd was in for 4 weeks.

At my 6 week check the consultant said that although the danger of fitting passed after 1 month on a microscopic scale my kidneys and liver could take up to a year to get back to normal. I only needed to take bp meds for 6 weeks until my bp normalised but they said that pre-eclampsia is a risk factor for having high bp later in life.

They gave me a 10% recurrence risk for future pregnancies but said that they couldn't say when or how severe it might be.