Cholestasis/IHCP

[RafflesMaidenSister]

Hi, I’m utterly gutted. Been diagnosed with cholestasis at 36 weeks. Good news: it’s relatively mild. Bad news: still birth risk still up and current plan to deliver at 38 weeks. I’m so scared my baby is going to die.

How do I get through next 2 weeks? Not back for more monitoring until Monday.

Try not to worry! Just don’t be afraid to call hospital if something don’t feel right no matter how little you think it might be.
I had this in my first pregnancy diagnosed at 30 weeks delivered and 38 + 2. All fine and healthy.
The ICP support group on Facebook is really good for support too

@RafflesMaidenSister please don’t worry. I had severe cholestasis from 28 weeks and had ds via ELCS at 35+5. I was terrified given the possible outcome but with regular monitoring all was fine. Ds is now a very happy 19 month old!

If you want someone to talk to feel free to pm me .

Thanks, guys. Lovely to hear some success stories! I'll have a look at the Facebook group, thank you.

I guess I'm lucky only to start suffering so late on - the itching isn't pleasant and I was already a bit obsessive about foetal movement so not sure how I'd have managed for as long as you did!

Any tips gratefully received. x

I was diagnosed with this at 31/32 weeks with the plan being to induce around 38-39 weeks depending on how my levels were doing. Do your trust have some sort of pathway for people with this condition from 37 weeks? If so, you might find that reassuring once you're on it. As it happened, baby came naturally (and quickly) at 36+6 so I didn't actually end up on the aforementioned pathway so don't actually know what it entails where I am but if I had, I wouldn't have been worried as they're hyper vigilant and I found that it was more annoying having to go in for bloods all of the time when I hadn't finished work than anything else.

My baby was ridiculously active which I think helped as I had zero concerns about his movement, other than there was too much of it. I found the triage midwife team to be really helpful as I was continually in and out for the final month for my bloods so I knew I was in good hands, more so than if I hadn't had it and just rocked up on the day of labour.

Yeah - we have a monitoring plan, but I have to get to Monday and I’m panicking I’ll miss something.

I’m probably just being a wussy twat. I’ve not been able to sleep properly for a while - just general hugeness etc - but I’m so tired it’s not helping

It's normal to be worried, particularly with this kind of thing that arrives late in pregnancy when you thought you had your birth plan sorted, although there's no reason why you can't still have your birth plan. There's a spectrum with all of this and if your bile levels were really high then they would have already got baby out at this stage. As it is they've said it's fine for baby to stay inside you for the time being at least and the risks of still birth are still minimal even with this condition, particularly now you're "in the system" and are being monitored. If you think there has been a decrease in baby's movements then go in but otherwise it is a perfectly manageable condition even though it sounds serious. I found the itchy feet more hassle than the possible impact on baby which sounds awful, but it's how I felt, as it didn't really cross my mind that baby wouldn't be ok.

You also said it's relatively mild which presumably means you're below 40 (I think) so if the levels remain similar or stabilise they'll likely let you go until 39 weeks, unless baby comes naturally before then as happened with me.

Thanks, cardboard. Unfortunately I have increased risk of still birth for unconnected reasons, so not sure how the co-morbidities pan out!

The plan they have put in place is for delivery at 38 weeks, with monitoring until then, and I am happy with that - I'm an advice follower, though I have seen some very new research on the ICP group mentioned above which suggests that the risk is more manageable than previously thought, which makes me feel a bit better. You never know, she might make an appearance before then of her own accord.

She has been dancing around all afternoon like usual so I'm feeling a bit more confident now.

Funny you should mention the itchiness, the itching is now contributing to the staying awake and tiredness and, selfishly, making everything more difficult.

Thanks for response though all very encouraging.