Years ago, after a long and emotional journey with infertility, I became pregnant with twin daughters through IVF. Like many moms-to-be, I expected joy and excitement to define the experience. Instead, my third trimester was marked by worsening swelling, abnormal labs, and a sense that something just wasn’t right. I was eventually diagnosed with preeclampsia and admitted to the hospital at 33 weeks when doctors grew concerned that I was developing HELLP syndrome, a severe and potentially fatal complication of pregnancy.

My daughters were delivered six weeks early, and my condition progressed quickly. I was moved to the Obstetric ICU when my kidneys began to fail and my lungs filled with fluid. My daughters spent two weeks in the NICU. I spent a week in the hospital trying to stabilize.

Ten weeks post-partum, I began to hemorrhage due to retained placenta, an emergency I initially ignored because my physician had told me the bleeding I was experiencing was “normal”. By the time I was rushed into surgery, I had been bleeding for hours. As the team attempted to remove the tissue, the hemorrhage intensified. I lost four liters of blood during the procedure alone. I remained conscious as the room filled with people, equipment, and urgent voices. The team began transfusing me as I continued to hemorrhage, trying to keep pace with the blood loss. It was one of the most terrifying and surreal moments of my life.