Alex’s story

I remember learning about pre-eclampsia in medical school and thinking it sounded like a terrifying condition to develop. I silently hoped it would never happen to me.

Fast forward 15 years and I became pregnant – with twins! I was told that due to the type of twins they were (identical and sharing a placenta) there was a higher risk of developing complications in pregnancy, including pre-eclampsia. I was nervous, but closely monitored throughout pregnancy and everything went very well. I had a planned caesarean section at 36 weeks and we were so lucky that the twins were healthy. If the boys hadn’t needed a few days of monitoring we would have been discharged home. I was considered medically well otherwise and had no symptoms.

So, I was completely surprised when the nurses checked my blood pressure on day 2 after birth and found that it was much higher than it had been – around 145/90. I was instantly concerned and asked to see the doctor overnight. They gave me medication (Labetalol) and took blood tests and the blood pressure improved slightly. However, the next morning, it went up again and my blood tests showed my liver function tests were abnormal.

I knew what this meant. And I was absolutely terrified of having serious complications like a seizure or a stroke. However, the doctors could not decide if I had pre-eclampsia or gestational hypertension. So I never had a clear picture of exactly what was going on. My anxiety made this much worse.

We stayed in hospital for 7 days in total. And during this time I was started on two medications and the doses were increased. I was having awful panic attacks. My blood pressure was still not very well controlled even on medication and feeling so anxious would make my blood pressure spike higher whenever it was checked which was a vicious cycle. In the end, we went home and my blood pressure was still not ideally well controlled.

After I went home, I had to get my husband to check my blood pressure every day, 3 times without me seeing the numbers because it would worry me too much. After about 3 days it thankfully improved a lot and was back to normal on medication.

I took medication until my 6-8 week check with my GP and then gradually was able to wean off. My liver blood tests also returned to normal.

Four months later, I attended a de-brief appointment at the hospital and the consultant confirmed that I had indeed had pre-eclampsia. He also advised that I should have had a senior review given the difficulty there had been in controlling my blood pressure.

I feel very lucky that I did not experience any severe complications from pre-eclampsia but I found the whole thing pretty traumatic. I still have an intense fear of having my blood pressure taken and I worry about my future risk of high blood pressure too.

Experiencing this as a doctor has felt profound and it has changed how I practice as a GP. I am hugely passionate about spreading awareness of this illness and advocating for women’s health and good quality postnatal care.