help!

[Richardellis]

hello, new here so forgive any glaring errors ...

my wife and i are expecting twins, shes currently 30 wks and has been hospitalised for the past week with pre eclampsia. her protein is +2, blood pressure being medicated and is down from highs of 100+ to around 90

i just wondered if anyone had been/is in a similar situation as i'm finding it hard to get decent advice from the nhs, and i'm struggling to work out what it all means in terms of how bad does it have to get for the babies to be delivered etc

thank you very much
richard

Hi Richard - welcome to MN and congrats on the twins. I'm afraid I don't know anything about pre-eclampsia, but will bump your thread (put it to the top of the list again) and hope someone else can help.

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I had pre eclapsia with my 2nd, took weeks for them to diagnose.I was stuck on two lots of tablets to help my blood pressure,felt so spaced out on the medication.Spent so much time in hospital.
They refused to induce me,even thou my blood pressure kept rising to 150/95.
In the end i just broke down screaming at the mw to help me , and that i didnt want the baby anymore(which i did) as i felt so ill! Luckily babe came later that night,although got distressed on way out!
Dont know whethe things will be different for your wife as shes expecting twins!!!

Hello Richard
I had pre eclampsia with my first.
Her protein and blood pressure will be monitored closely, they may also take blood samples to make sure her blood is doing what it should.
It is usually the bottom figure of the blood pressure that they are most concerned about.
They leave the babies where they are for as long as possible.
The deciding factors for delivery are blood pressure climbing and not going down, protein in the urine (mine went off the scale) and if your wifes blood is functioning as it should.
They may want to give your wife injections before delivery to mature the twins lungs.
They will do scans to make sure that there is a proper flow through the umbilical cord to the twins.
My son was born 8wks early. He was taken to special care, and put in a incubator. They then start feeding through a tube which goes down the nose and into the stomach.
You can ask to speak to your wifes consultant about it .
They do not generally volunteer information you have to ask everything.

Welcome Richardellis. Congratulations on the twins.

I have repiled on your thread in health but incase you log into this one first, I can't give you any information on pre eclampsia however, there are some wonderful midwives which log onto the the site and have been an excellent source of information and support to me durring my recent pregnancy. The name which springs to mind first is Mears.

A friend of mine has had two babies now 16mnths and 7mnths at 31 weeks due to pre eclampsia and they are doing well.

Hope your wife is getting plenty of rest.

It is only necessary to open one thread as most of us open up threads with current messages but as you are new you wouldn't know that. There is a great anocronym list here somewhere which could be useful.

hi richardellis

Welcome to mumsnet by the way, and no there were no glaring errors lol!

Sounds just like me. I had incredibly high blood pressure when pregnant with my twins (DTs). It occurred at 17 weeks and remained incredibly high throughout.

If she's in hospital then she's being monitored and all should be well. I managed to carry the DTs until 36 weeks.

High blood pressure doesn't necessarily mean a difficult delivery. I was on course for a vaginal delivery but ended up with an election c-section as the DTs were transverse (lying on their sides) and the cord was presenting (over the cervix). Clearly that was too dangerous and so I was booked in for a section and wasn't allowed to go into labour.

I was hospitalised several times during the pregnancy.

All in all as long as you have a good team of people looking after your DW(darling wife) then all should go well. Will be thinking of you.

Post regularly and keep up updated please. Have got everything crossed that she holds on to the DTs for a few more weeks.

Just wanted to say i hope everything goes okay. I had mild pre-eclampsia and was monitored rather than medicated.

But mine occured towards the end of my pg (37 weeks) and i had a singleton pg.

I was booked in to be induced in the end as when protein levels get too high they worry about kidney function, plus there are other risks which i am sure the doctors have gone through.

Doctors and mws are usually more cautious with twin pgs as there are additional complications with these pgs.

Oh, and Marslady is a good source of advice IME (in my experience).

Hi there,

afraid i have nothing constructive to say at all, but wanted to add my voice of support and say i hope it all goes well from here.

also good to get thread bumped up to top of list so anyone who does have a clue what theyre on about will see!

thoughts are with you all... good luck and best wishes.

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Hello Richard any news. How is your wife doing.

evening, shes ok thanks, not had a great day though - i took my son up to visit and it made her very emotional, i think she was just having one of those miserable days. it's very difficult to judge the balance of how often to take him up there, as she really misses him, but it does upset her to see him as well.

her condition is much the same, bood pressure in the high 90's despite all the rest and medication.

we've been told not to expect the pregnancy to last past 32 weeks, so only 2 weeks max to go - frightening to think how small they will be

and without being incredibly self centred i've also got work to try and fit in somehow - alongside school run, packed lunch, reading, shopping etc etc

god that feels better !

Bless, glad she is ok. Yes they will be quite tiny and probably spend time in the scbu but if my friends little ones are anything to go by they should be ok. Premmies tend to be fighters.

Don't worry about feeling selfish. Mumsnet is a great place to let off steam and get those feelings off your chest.

It's very hard when your in hospital and you have other children.
Will they do a scan and get a rough weight for them.
Ask to go to special care so that you can see other prem babies.
If your not self employed you can always go to your doctor and get him to sign you off work. (I know this isn't alway an option.)
Good luck

It sounds like you are coping really well RE.

Your DW is in the best possible place, and she is bound to be emotional (on top of all the usual pg hormones). Although not ideal, to get to 32 weeks with a twin pg is quite an achievement in itself.

I think the suggestion to see the special care unit is a good one. It will come as less of a shock then when the babies are delivered.

I wish you and your family all the best.

Congratulations for holding on in there and being so strong for your wife. It must be worrying for both of you. Getting as far as you have with twins is postive already and I'm sure they will be fighters (all the twins I know are!).

It's hard at the moment when there is little information, but your wife is in the best place and they will be monitoring her very closely. Try and present a positive front for her when you visit as its horrible being stuck in hospital for so long. You can always come home after visiting and have a moan on here to let it out again. Try to support her in there and let her talk as much as she wants to about it. Can you tkae in magazines or a portable DVD player and DVDs or something to take her mind off the wait a bit. Try and arrange for different friends to visit on different days so she's got enough support too.

Do as much research as you can online about PET (pre eclampsia) and maybe print some information off for your wife to read in hospital if you find it hard for the consultants to provide information. It is unfortunate that it is you who will have to ask all the questions and keep on top of all the information just when you feel you need a little gentle teaching and mollycoddling. But believe me you'll be an expert before long on blood pressure and blood levels.

Sorry I dont have any words of wisdom, do try and keep your chin up, she really is in the best place now and they'll keep the twins inside her for as long as they can and then look after them very well when they arrive.

Very best wishes, Richard, to you and your family. I can't add much to the other wise words on here as have no experience of your situation, but agree MN is a great way of letting off steam.

BUMP for the evening crowd.