In her own words:
Before pregnancy, I had heard of the phrase ‘pre-eclampsia’ but I had no idea what it was.
At around 24 weeks I kept thinking my baby wasn’t moving much. It was my first pregnancy so I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to feel. So I went to the hospital to get checked a number of times. At the same time, I was experiencing swelling of my feet and legs, which I actually thought was a normal part of pregnancy, especially since is was a hot summer time.
Then in the middle of the night at 29 weeks, I felt my baby move a huge amount and then I experienced a lot of pain.
I also started to get a few migraines around this time and my midwife had said it could be pre eclampsia but my urine sample was negative.
I went back to the hospital at 29+4 and my baby’s heartbeat was fine at that point but they noticed my blood pressure was getting higher and higher. I was sent to the antenatal ward where I saw very heavily pregnant women so I was quite nervous from that point, knowing these were women who were about to give birth, was that the case for me?
I spent the next day and a half on the ward where they confirmed I did have pre eclampsia and they kept tracking my baby’s heartbeat, which eventually kept decelerating.
A scan revealed that my son’s organs were shutting down and he needed to be delivered right away.
Ché Alexander was born weighing 870g at 29+6 and spent the next two and a half months in 3 different hospitals.
I had been researching pre eclampsia during my second trimester because I was concerned about the swelling, but I never knew how serious it could be and I didn’t realise at the time just how unwell I was. There was no history of it in my family and I didn’t know anyone who’d had it.
It has been a long journey and we are still learning to live with the effects of having a premature baby and advocating for support in his health and education.
We will always be thankful to everyone who played a part in helping both my son and I to survive.
