Those of you who had PIH/mild PE with 1st preg - second time around...?

[MamaGoblin]

What are you being told by your MW/GP? I'm asking primarily for a friend of mine, whose symptoms in her first pregnancy mirrored mine (raised BP in the last 5 weeks or so of pregnancy; traces, then 1 + of protein right towards the end; and hypertension for a couple of days after the birth - though people were talking about PE before birth, nobody ever actually said we had it, and neither of our blood tests ever showed anything bad happening) but also for me, because I'm hoping to become pregnant again soon. My friend's just become pregnant for the second time and has been told by a GP (not her regular) that she'll be put onto 'shared care' between the GP practice and the hospital because of her history. This would be before she's been diagnosed with PIH or PE - if she ever is!

I just wondered what happens generally when you're pregnant again after PE. We were told in hospital last time that we were at a slightly higher risk of developing PE again, compared with the rest of the population, but that it wasn't very likely overall and we shouldn't worry for 'next time'. Was this so much flannel to stop us worrying, or is it really unlikely to recur?

Sorry, long and boring post! She's really upset at the prospect of going all the way into hospital to have her BP checked, given it's a long trip with a toddler and the prospect makes her anxious. I feel much the same myself!

bump?

I had mild pre-eclampsia in my first pregnancy (raised BP and 1+ protein) from about 35 weeks onwards, and was induced at 38 weeks when BP rose rapidly and protein shot up to 4+ (I think, it is all a bit hazy).

I had it worse in my second pregnancy (but was told that this was unusual). High BP and protein in urine of 2+ from about 20 weeks onwards. I had weekly appointments with the mw at my GP's surgery, and she did 2 home visits per week too to check BP and urine levels (so I was effectively having them checked alternate days). If the protein ever rose above 3+ I had to go into the day assessment at the local hospital for monitoring and also do 24hour urine collection. I think I did that 6 times in total, mainly right at the end.

I felt fine with the first pregnancy, but awful with the 2nd. Never had swollen ankles or saw floating things though.

They let me go to 40+4 weeks with the 2nd pregnancy though because there were never any great surges of BP and protein, it was sort of steadily highish.

Ooh, how horrible for you. Sorry it happened twice. Interesting that they let you go that long the second time (did they induce in the end, or was that your natural term?).

They broke my waters in the end to see if that would get things started (and it did, thank goodness). If that hadn't worked they'd have then applied the prostin [sp?] gel to induce me.