Becoming the Confident Mom Journey 4: My Postpartum Experience - Postpartum Preeclampsia

Hello moms!! I love being a mommy but it has been a journey to get to this point! Over the next 2 blogs, I want to go into detail about my postpartum experience. I have personally found it very helpful and encouraging to hear other moms chronicle their experiences through postpartum EVERYTHING. There were a lot of things I was not privy to before becoming a mother. Complications, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and a host of other things really crippled me for a while. As always, I would love to hear other mom’s experiences with postpartum anything. I enjoy this kind of dialogue and I do not think we talk about it enough.

In this blog, I want to concentrate on postpartum preeclampsia. Preeclampsia in a nutshell is high blood pressure coupled with excess fluid. It is very dangerous for mommy and baby. While I was pregnant with my first child, I heard a lot about preeclampsia. My doctors educated me on what preeclampsia was very well. So, at about 40 weeks pregnant I went to one of my last appointments. When my blood pressure was taken and it was very high. I did not think anything of it because the nurse did not want to panic. My doctor then came to the back and told me that they were sending me to labor and delivery for observation. I was ready to not be pregnant anymore, so I was excited! I just knew I was going to meet Bailey that day. Long story short, my blood pressure stabilized so they sent me home. Fast forward to the next week I had Bailey via an emergency cesarean section. I thought that was the end, but I was very wrong. I had a really hard time urinating and they would not let me leave the hospital until I did. Little did I know my blood pressure was not getting better. They eventually sent me home. However, the last doctor I saw said that she wanted to see me in a couple of days for a follow-up. While I was at home breathing was difficult. I thought it was due to the pain from my c-section incision. My sister Tiffany advised me to ask the doctor about my breathing at my follow up appointment.

At my follow up appointment, the nurse took my blood pressure. I noticed that she had a funny look on her face. She told me to wait a couple of minutes so she could take it again. She then took me and my husband to our designated room and told us to wait. She told me my BP was higher than normal. She also told me I had protein in my urine. Two signs of preeclampsia. I had no idea what was about to happen. The doctor came in and told me he was sending me to labor and delivery to have my BP monitored.

As we sat in the triage room of the hospital my BP continued to climb. My main doctor walked in to have a conversation with me. She explained to me that I was going to be admitted to the hospital for a few days. She said she was very happy I came in. She told me that I had postpartum preeclampsia. She also explained that I could have had a stroke or a seizure at home if I had not come in. At this point, I am crying because I had no idea that it was this serious. I never imagined my "routine" check up turning into this. I was also grateful for the doctor who made the follow up appointment. I still call her my Shero to this day whenever I see her! My baby was only a week old and I wanted to get back to her! Thankfully, family came into town and helped with that. It was still very hard to leave her and not be able to see her.

I ended up spending several days in the hospital. I even had to spend some time in the cardiac wing due to a low heart rate before going back to maternity. I had never heard of postpartum preeclampsia prior to having it. It was a scary experience, but the signs were there. I had excessive swelling after I had my child. My breathing was very labored. I was having issues releasing fluid from my body, which caused a lot of fluid retention. I did experience postpartum preeclampsia with my next two pregnancies, but I feel that it was more due to the anxiety of the situation.

I really do not think postpartum preeclampsia is discussed enough. I was blindsided by this. I was always told that after the baby got here your body would go into healing mode. Or at least that was what I thought. I'm going to be honest, this was not the lead in to motherhood that I thought I was going to have.

I would love to hear your feedback and your postpartum experiences. Are there any other mom's who experienced preeclampsia or postpartum preeclampsia? Let me know what you think.