Pre eclampsia second time round ?

[maddiesma]

Wonder if anyone can give me some advice -

I had pre eclampsia with my first baby 2 years ago - on horrible blood pressure tabs for last 3 months endless hospital appointments and altogether very scary culimnating in a c section. We would like another, but I'm not sure I could go through that again ... Anyone had this experience, had a second without probs, or did it happen all over again ?

I had pre eclampsia with the first - sopunds similar to yours.

At 20 weeks with second, BP rose dramtically again....I ended up being on the sick for the rest of the pregnancy....bp hovered around the low end of the high range once it had settled....

DS2 was born 1 day before his due date in a very speedy manner!

Not sure what would have happened had I carried on working though.

I had pre eclampsia with my 2nd baby, and from 28 weeks was on two lots of tablets for bp, and in and out of hospital!
For my third baby everything was fine till 33 weeks then my bp started shooting up, countless stays in hospital again, but it didnt lead to pe!
Dreading this pregnancy incase all this starts again!

I had PE in first pregnancy and was in hosp for a week with ds1 and he was delivered 5 weeks early naturally but with an epidural.

i was closely monitored with ds2 and there wasnt even a hint of PE at all. He came naturally a week early and everything was fine. No pain relief just a water birth and it was fab!

It doesnt mean when you have had PE that you will get it again. Go for it!!!!

Thanks for the info - thought I'd ask here before asking at the doctors as don't altogether trust them after last experience ...

Did any of you do anything differently the second time round to avoid PE, is there antthing you can do ? I am 38 so I imagine age will be a risk factor, and I have to work ...

I did have pre-eclampsia first time around, ending up with a prem baby at 27 weeks, so obviously I was nervous 2nd time around. I ended up on a vitamin trial at Tommys hospital. I do know that APEC (the charity) was running some trials last year ir something, so it is worth looking at their website. Also Tommy's the baby charity website has good informtation.

My only peice of advice is to look at your baby, and decide if it was all worth it. I looked at dd1, and decided that even if I had to go through it all again - 14 weeks in hospital for her, and a lot of stress for us, I wanted another child and would do it all again.

In teh end DD2 was born on her due date, yes I had extra appointments/scans, I was seen in London every 4 weeks and in Colchester (where I live) every 4 weeks, It was great as I knew I wouldn't be allowed to get so ill again. DD was another csection, which I wanted to avoid, but eventually chose as it was better at the time. My blood pressure rose at the last minute, but nothing dramatic.

It is far rarer to have pre-eclampia 2nd time around, I was given a 40% chance of getting it, but with vitamins and baby aspirin my consultant put my risk at 10%.

I had PE with first ds but not ds2 they will monitor you closely. How about seeing your gp before you TTC they may want you to take asprin.

I had pre-eclampsia with my first and not with my second (though I did have high BP and was monitored very closely). My GP said that having had it once does not mean your chances are higher next time around - unless you have a new partner (I have no idea why that is!)

Good luck.

Thanks for yet more useful stuff - especilly re going to the docs and aspirin, I'll make that appointment. And yes the baby was worth it, but it was all pretty awful (I can remember it all too clearly two years later) and I would like to try and avoid it happening again if possible. I'd like to try to have a better experience, if we get the chance to have another.

My SIL had pre eclampsia with her 1st pg and was induced at 38 weeks, 2nd pg she didn't get it at all and had a natural labour and all was fine.

I had pre-eclampsia at 36 weeks and was in hospital until 38 weeks when induced and had natural delivery. Told this time I have to attend the hypertension clinc to be monitored, but lower risk on second babies as they think pe is the result of your body trying to reject something alien!

I've never been told about the 'alien' thing before - so you don't have the same reaction the second time because by then your body has completely given up its attempts to control anything ...

I've heard the alien thing too, thats why if you had another baby, by a different partner you would be more likely to get it again.