Liz’s story

My pregnancy was straight forward the whole way until the end.

It had been a year and a half since I had a miscarriage, and I was anxious throughout as I’m generally an anxious person. Despite that, everything was fine. We didn’t want to know what we were having so the 20 week scan showed no issues but was kept a surprise. I was scheduled to work up to March 1, 12 days before my due date. I told everyone that baby and I had an agreement that they were not coming until I finished work. It was my first so I doubted it would be early.

Around 36 weeks I started feeling a bit worse, but I thought it was how you were supposed to feel that far in. I had my 36 week midwife appointment on a Tuesday with a different midwife than normal. They forgot to do my bloods so called me the next day to take them. I bled a lot after the bloods were taken and bruised really badly, which had never happened before, but my blood pressure was ok and no protein in urine. My feet started swelling a few days later and I called the hospital and they said it was probably normal but might be worth getting my blood pressure checked again. I wasn’t able to get in touch with the midwife team and didn’t know how to check my BP over the weekend so I left it.

Tuesday, Feb. 18, I was at work training my replacement at 36 weeks and 6 days. I felt horrible. I spent most of the day sitting, was out of breath walking up and down stairs which had never happened before, and I felt nauseous after lunch, only eating half of it. I also had pain in my back when I breathed. I worked across the street from the hospital, so I called the labor ward before I left work and they said I could come in if I wanted, but it was busy and I might be there a while. I felt a bit discouraged to go in, but thought I would just stop in on my way home. I expected them to tell me that the back pain and swelling was normal, and maybe I would have to be off work for the rest of my pregnancy. I was going to go home and pack my hospital bag that night.

After about half an hour they took me in and checked my blood pressure. It was 170/100, and I had protein in my urine. My husband came to pick me up with our dog in the car and I told him I wasn’t going home yet. At this point we didn’t know the full story, so he dropped off the dog and came back with a night bag for me. By then they had done some bloodwork, and several doctors had appeared and I was moved into the central delivery suite. No one had said the word pre-eclampsia yet, and we didn’t know how serious it was.

I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink. Finally the doctor sat down and said “you’re very ill, but the good news is there’s a cure, and it’s having a baby tonight”. We were shocked. How could this be happening? I had a low risk totally straight forward pregnancy. My bloods had come back shockingly bad. My platelets had come back as 3, which essentially means I shouldn’t have been alive. And my protein in urine was the highest they had ever seen. I also showed signs of liver and kidney issues. Over the next few hours several things happened. It was explained that I had pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. I was put on a magnesium sulphate drip to stop me from having a seizure. I was told I would have to deliver by caesarean under general anaesthetic because my platelets were too low for any other options. I would likely need a blood transfusion and I was in the right place as a haematology centre of excellence. This is when it really hit me how serious it was and I remember saying to my husband “I don’t want to die”. Thankfully after redoing my bloods they found that my platelets had been miscounted and though they were low, they were not as bad as originally thought. We also found out that they had been low at my last midwife appointment but had not been flagged for some reason. This explains the bleeding and bruising I had after my blood test.

At 2:19 am on Feb. 19, 8 hours after I had gone into the hospital on a whim, our son Robin was born by a caesarean with spinal anaesthetic. He needed a bit of oxygen but was otherwise fine. We spent 2 nights in the central delivery suite as I needed monitoring every hour. I still wasn’t allowed to drink anything. No lovely post-birth cup of tea for me as I was on fluid restriction. I was then in the regular maternity ward for 4 more days while my blood pressure remained high. It slowly came down but only with two different drugs. My platelets returned to a normal level after a few days, and my kidney and liver enzymes as well. I was finally released with many drugs on my 7th Day in hospital. I ended up having to go back for another procedure as I had retained products of conception, with my placenta being very deeply implanted, possibly related to the pre-eclampsia. Finally in July, 5 months after giving birth, my protein in urine levels returned to normal and I was officially over it.

I’m still angry that my bloodwork hadn’t been flagged. I’m angry that somehow these signs were missed and I almost didn’t get that help as I was kind of discouraged from coming in. I know that my symptoms came on quickly but it should have been noticed. If I hadn’t worked close to the hospital and gone on my way home, I may not have made it. More awareness and training is needed for midwives and professionals to recognise the signs of pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. Maybe I could have been helped earlier before it was as bad as it got in the end.

But I am forever grateful for the doctors at the St Michael’s hospital in Bristol for taking care of me and making sure I didn’t need that transfusion and Robin and I came out the other side.