Itching all over.. 25 weeks pregnant

[squashie34]

Just wondering if anyone has had this in pregnancy? started a few days ago with itching on and off and I have got dry skin that I've tried to moisturise.

However today the itching is terrible, I can't stop! I know you have to take special notice of itchy hands and feet according to my midwife but they're probably the only places I'm not actually itching! No rash except when I scratch it raw! Any suggestions on how to ease the itching?

Thank you! ☺️

I wasn’t itchy, but something just didn’t feel right, so I went to the maternity ward and they told me I had cholestasis and high blood pressure. They gave me steroids for baby’s lungs and drugs to lower the bp and decided to keep me in.
I had a caesarean 3 days later, at just under 34 weeks. I think I was developing pre-eclampsia, and my bile levels were skyrocketing.
My daughter spent a week in intensive care and then a week in a neonatal unit, but never had any complications.
I wish you the very best of luck - so good that you listened to your instincts!

@squashie34 he did need some time in special care because he had a hole in his lung so needed cpap oxygen and a feeding tube whilst it repaired itself BUT this was not necessarily ICP related! Dr said could have been due to a number of factors eg baby being a bit more premature than we thought (difficult to date my pregnancy as it immediately followed a miscarriage and i always had an irregular cycle) or a v quick Labour which gave the immature lungs little time to adjust.

But he was always a big healthy boy - still is!

Glad you got it checked out OP

I had the itchy symptoms at around 35 weeks in my pregnancy. Midwife was really worried, sent me to get it checked - test was negative. I kept getting the symptoms, they kept worrying and sending me to be checked... they constantly reassured me that they would rather continually check for a negative than miss a positive.

Turns out I was allergic to the luxurious smelly soap someone had given me for my baby shower...

@MilkNoSugars awww thank you for sharing that with me! Glad all was safe and well xx

@squashie34 as long as you are being monitored then it's fine - you're highly highly unlikely to lose your baby and if you do it'll be likely something that isn't down to your OC as that's now in check. My experience was similar to what has been described by @MilkNoSugars - I had uero tablets, creams, bloods every couple of days etc. I was already consultant led having extra scans and monitoring of baby for other reasons meaning in the final month of my pregnancy last year I was at the hospital on more days than I wasn't. They said after 37 weeks they'd put me on the OC pathway to discuss exactly when to induce (I was told upto 39 weeks might be ok, so it might differ by trust) but baby came naturally at 36+6. I did have a very quick and relatively easy labour though, so it all turned out great in the end.

So sorry you're dealing with all this worry but glad you went and got seen quickly, turned out a good thing eh?

You'll be closely monitored and cared for now and baby too.

I didn't have OC but pre-eclampsia and dd was induced - but wouldn't bloody come out so ended up emcs and dd in scbu for a while but she's a great big lump of healthy 19 year old now!

Main thing is they know now so they'll keep an eye on you both.

Regarding early babies I've 2 friends who delivered at 24 weeks which is TINY and very risky - both babies great lumps of teens now too and this was ages ago when such early births rarely worked out well.

There's much more knowledge and effective treatment now.

The increased stillbirth risk is from a very small study many years ago. According to the royal college of gynaecologists more recent studies show the risk is around the same as a normal pregnancy (google oc and still birth and a good pdf from the rcog come up) My consultant said most women are induced earlier becasue they just cannot tolerate the itching anymore... which my very scabbed hands could atest to. All symptoms went away once I have birth.

Induction was fine. Midwife who put the prostaglandin gel in said it was likely to be a few days becasue my cervix wasnt closest ready. I gave birth around 12 hours later. Gas and air only. I panicked because I wasnt anticipating it to go so fast and the contractions came very very quickly but pretty straight forward otherwise.

@FormerlyFrikadela01 thank you for sharing that with me - it was the doctor who said last night about the slight increase in still birth, although is the reasoning behind why they induce early, to mitigate this? What week was your gorgeous little one born? X

I was booked for induction at 40 weeks but it was brought forward to 39 weeks due to my bloody pressure and a tiny bit of protein in my urine (I didnt develop preeclampsia thankfully).