Any one had pre eclampicia in 1st pregnancy and been ok in 2nd??

[lisad123]

I had my DD 4 years ok, and spent total of 6 weeks stuck in hospital on bedrest and meds for pre eclampicia. It took 6 weeks to come down after birth, and complications meant DD was 5lb and ended in C section.
I have seen my consultant already (Im 16 weeks) and he is keeping close eye on things as placenta started to fail last time which was why DD was so little.
I really dont want to go though all this again and cant afford to be in hospital with DD at home.
So has anyone had normal 2nd pregnancy after pre eclampicia in first? I read if it started before 29 weeks its 60% chance of same in next pregnancy ( mine started around 27 weeks)

Thanks

I had pre-eclampsia in 1st pregnancy with DS (although not as badly as you, although was in and out of hospital for several weeks and DS was lighter at birth than probably would have been expected) and was fine with DD.

Thanks good to know

Had PE with first baby, started around 32 weeks though. Was in and out of hospital, very tedious, and then on BP tablets for about 3 months afterwards. BUT was absolutely fine with second and third babies. Very short gaps between them, don't know if that made any difference, 13 months btwn DS1 and DS2, then 15 months to DD. SEcond time i had to be under the consultant just in case, but third time was with community midwife.

I had PE with my DS - he was born at 29 weeks and spent 10 weeks in SCBU - my BP came down during the c-section though and I had no problems afterwards.

Am now pregnant again, currently at 28+3 and so far so good. Have been on 75mg aspirin daily since I first saw the consultant, had a uterine artery doppler scan, get my BP checked fortnightly and having a growth scan every 4 weeks. Consultant is v positive atm, I have no symptoms of PE, baby is growing well and BP going down. I was originally told 50:50 chance of it recurring but all seems good so far. I have found the extra monitoring v reassuring and now feel quite relaxed about the whole pregnancy.

Have had some good advice from bliss .

HTH

abgirl, sounds like a terrible time. My consultant has arranged extra scans at 32 and 36 weeks, but no extra checks with mw or gp which I thought was strange. Im seeing my consulatant at 25 weeks, so maybe he will relook then
Im glad yours is going well this time.
L

I had high bp with both pregnances, but for my second, once my bp had started shooting up I was loaned a digital bp monitor - bit of a double edged sword, but at least it meant that I could keep track and was only sent into hospital at the times I really needed to go - they wanted to keep me in but I refused, and the compromise was that I would go in each time it hit a certain level.

I had an independent midwife though, who lent me the monitor - you can get them on amazon I think. Both pregnancies ended up with a cs - the second was classed as an elective (although there was no option, but at least it allowed for a bit of planning), and was much easier in all respects both before and after than the previous emergency cs.

Was the machine easy to use? They gave me the pee sticks to use at home to monitor the potein levels last time and they let me home one night only
Im off to see my GP today as have had really bad mirgines, to the point of being sick, the pain was so bad. I had mirgaines as a sign last time, so fingers crossed.

Hiya,

I had PE similarly to abgirl- it developed very suddenly & severely and DS was delivered prematurely at 30 weeks- thankfully all is fine with him now (he's v nearly 2). I had a bleed on my spleen & BP took some time to stabilise- on meds for 3 months but all was well after that. I'm now due no.2 in July and all good so far- on daily aspirin (75mg) and being watched like a hawk, seeing consultant every 2 weeks now and BP measured twice a week. I am feeling positive though!

There are many women who go on to have perfectly normal, uncomplicated pregnancies after PE- a great resource is the APEC (Action on Pre-Eclampsia) website- www.apec.org.uk & they also have a very helpful messageboard- www.apec.org.uk/forum/

Don't be afraid to explain your worries to your consultant and maybe ask for additional midwife appts to check BP, protein in urine etc. even just for reassurance.

Really hope everything goes well! xxx

VERY easy - the machine was a digital one and used to display the numbers, so all I needed to do was wrap the band around my arm and press a button - my 3 year old used to do it!

It did help me feel as if I had a bit of control, even though the bp continued to rise, and I definitely sepnt a lot more time at home as a result.

It also made me realise just how much resting did help the bp. It was always shocking if I was doing too much, and far more reasonable if I had been lieing down for 20 minutes.

Sorry to hear about your first experience, lisa. Was talking to someone last week, who said their partner was hospitalised too ages before the birth and gave birth 10 weeks early - and had a similarly miserable experience to yours. But... their second pregnancy was completely normal. I've read that it's most commonly associated with first pregnancies.

Came across two recentish news articles about it: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6382079.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5320832.stm

I asked midwife about extra BP checks as concerned her answer was "if you feel unwell make appointment with GP or nurse to check BP, if not see you in 8 weeks"!!
My BP was high at start of preganncy with DD (not high enough to worry too much 160/80) but been ok this time (100/60).
Thanks for link. will look
l

You can always make an appointment with the nurse at the GPs if you just want your bp checked for a bit of reassurance.

My MIL had fast onset PE when pg with DH (her first), emergency cs at 32wks. Had three more children, normal pregnancies and vaginal deliveries. PE risk is much higher in your first pregnancy, but they don't know why.

Hi again,

Unfortunately my midwife seemed to only really answer to my consultant- so once she requested additional checks these were then quickly implemented. Maybe if you are getting worried leave a message with your consultant's secretary to see if he could write a letter to your midwife or GP asking for additional BP checks for reassurance? Usually they don't ask for additional monitoring until at least 20 or 24 weeks, as it is generally accepted (perhaps wrongly) that PE can't be detected until after then.

There are lots of PE-related articles on the PE 'blogspot'- take a look at:
www.pre-eclampsia.blogspot.com

My GP has been great this time so it may be worth chatting to yours- again he/she may be able to pull more weight with your midwife...

Good luck

Thanks so much for allt he advice and experiences. My BP is still ok, so very happy right now
L

I had PE with DS1 (he was a twin and we lost his twin probably due to PE). DS1 was delivered at 29 weeks by emergency c-section with GA weighing 2lb 11oz. 14 months later DS2 was delivered at 41 weeks weighing 9lb 15 1/2 oz and I never suffered PE once.

Hi, I ahd eclampsia with ds1 (emergencty induction, forunately late on but he does have SN which I firmly believe are linked), both mys sisters had it too- though one went into labour naturally on day first symptoms came on (other one is still ill with PND and kidney trauma 3.5 years alter ).

had 2 more kids, BP spiked a little during labour with ds2 but not enough to force me into a main unit, and ds3 was spot on all the way through.

Hav done some work for a pre-eclampsia group, and the majority of women don't get it second time round unless there's a new dad. SOME (very few) women get it first in second or sunsequent pg, a friend with her second and my nan with her 4th.

I am on the committee of this group, if you e-mail them they can give you immense amounts of information and the number of someone who ahs been tehre to call.