There's a lot of things I wish people warned me enough about giving birth - pre-eclampsia is number one of them.
Childbirth has been a celebrated phenomenon in human nature for years. We all know how grueling childbirth is, that's why we put mothers on pedestals like superheroes. However, no matter how well talked-about the topic of childbirth is, in a way, it still seems like an abyss of mystery to many of us. A lot has been said and studied about it and mothers-to-be spend lots and lots of time, money, and effort preparing themselves for this incredible feat - yet there always seems to be something unexpected happening at every birth story, shattering all those well-crafted birth plans to pieces. Mine shattered really hard - and mind you, I made it in Photoshop with all the cutesy custom icons and labels.
RELATED: My birthplan got trashed.
I knew childbirth was gonna be painful, exhausting, and frustrating. Believe me when I said, I prepared myself physically, mentally, and emotionally for it. I was ready for all that pain. What I wasn't ready for was facing the reality that women actually die from childbirth complications. I've always known that was true, but for some reason it didn't sink in well to me until I got a taste of it first hand. I'd be exaggerating if I said I almost died giving birth to my son, but I had postpartum hypertension - pre-eclampsia - and almost had seizures, so yeah you could say in way I could've died.
WebMD defines pre-eclampsia as
a condition marked by high blood pressure in women who have previously not experienced high blood pressure (BP) . Pre-eclamptic women will have a high level of protein in their urine and often also have swelling in the feet, legs, and hands. This condition usually appears late in pregnancy although it can occur earlier.
It is important to note the "pre" in pre-eclampsia as it indicates that it is a condition that precedes a more serious complication: eclampsia. Eclampsia on the other hand, per my discussion with my doctors, is when a patient starts having seizures due to extremely high BP. This is when it becomes potentially fatal as the patient can develop brain injuries from the convulsions among other internal damages. Scary shit.
I never had high BP my whole life. My pregnancy was as smooth and healthy as I've prayed for. No complications at all. Then I gave birth via c-section - as my cervix never progressed after a spontaneous water bag rupture and 18 grueling hours of labor - then BAM! My BP just suddenly shot up along with my entire body swelling with water. Nobody saw it coming, especially me. After a flawless pregnancy, your mind will condition you to only look forward to better things since you're already done giving birth, you're supposed to be done with the difficult part. But there I was, having to spend 5 more nights in the hospital just so doctors could manage my BP to avoid the impending seizures. I was placed under regulated magnesium sulfate infusion for 5 whole days, plus some other IV medicine that helped me with the swelling. I couldn't accept the fact that I couldn't even enjoy this new motherhood experience properly, because how could I with all the fluid lines stuck in my veins? I couldn't hold my baby as long as I wanted to, and it was so hard to nurse him with all those IVs. Plus, IVs hurt so bad. I hated them. They're the worst! I tried my best to discuss my condition with my doctors because I needed to understand how that happened given my super healthy, complication-less pregnancy. Here are few things I learned and I wish I had known about pre-eclampsia before I gave birth:
1. It normally occurs to mothers who've undergone c-sections
For some reason the doctors themselves couldn't explain, pre-eclampsia often occurs among mothers who've undergone c-sections. I was also able to talk to some of the nurses who attended to me and they, too, shared their own experiences with pre-eclampsia after giving birth via CS. My OB-GYN said it's probably a physiological side effect of the surgery, but on why it's heightened blood pressure instead of anything else, medicine could not point out exactly, according to her.
2. It doesn't matter if you had a healthy pregnancy, it just happens
Unfortunately, even if you've had a completely dreamy pregnancy you can still catch this disease after giving birth. Despite the occasional morning sickness and dizzy spells, I still consider my pregnancy dreamy because of how healthy and how pleasant my overall disposition was. So you can just imagine the frustration I felt when I battled pre-eclampsia after my baby's birth. I somehow felt cheated. It felt unfair since I did my best to take care of my and my baby's health during the entire pregnancy.
3. Mothers with a family history of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are at higher risk
Naturally, women who have a history of high BP and other similar conditions in the family are more likely to get this. My Dad's hypertensive. My OB said that's probably where I got this.
4. Not all cases of pre-eclampsia correct themselves right away
Based on my research, most pre-eclamptic moms' BP go back to normal after 5-8 weeks postpartum. Mine only normalized around the 5th month. During the first few months postpartum, I was able to maintain a 130/90 BP, which my doctors considered okay as long as I don't get headaches. My cardiologist said that if my BP doesn't return to its normal 110/80 after 6 months, he'll consider my condition chronic hypertension already instead of postpartum pre-eclampsia. I found that so difficult to accept.
5. It does normally correct itself
Thankfully around my baby's 5th month, my BP went back to 110/80 and never shot up again. And if you'll ask around for moms who've had the same condition, you'll see that most cases do in fact get corrected without further medical intervention. So, yay! I don't have chronic hypertension!
As if giving birth is not difficult enough, women have to gather even more strength to face potentially fatal complications after delivery. It's still hard for me to completely put my head around the fact of mothers having to face really dangerous birth complications like this for millenniums now. What I've learned from this experience are two things: 1) We mothers need to initiate the discussion about other lesser known childbirth complications like pre-eclampsia so we can at least prepare ourselves emotionally and mentally for the possibility, and 2) We really go through scary, deadly shit giving birth to our beloved little ones - MOTHERS 👏🏻 ARE 👏🏻 TOUGH 👏🏻
I'm just happy to finally get over it and be alive to love and care for my son. Because at one point in that scary, lonely hospital emergency room, I was crying my eyes out because I was so scared I could die and my son would suddenly be without a mommy at 4 days old.
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