You mentioned seeing signs of preeclampsia around 18 weeks. Could you explain what you experienced?

Beginning around 18 weeks I’d started having severe headaches that wouldn’t respond to Tylenol and severe itching. While this is early to diagnose preeclampsia, hindsight tells me that further testing was probably warranted at this point. Instead, I was told these were normal pregnancy symptoms. At my last Maternal & Fetal Medicine (MFM) appointment, I had intermittent high blood pressure, but this alone wasn’t enough to raise alarm bells for my medical team. I’d been having visual disturbances that morning, and I didn’t report them because I didn’t recognize them as symptoms of anything serious. If I had known at that time the indicators of preeclampsia, I would have definitely had a conversation with my team, and I likely would have been hospitalized right away.

How did your experience with preeclampsia influence your approach to your subsequent pregnancy?

I was extremely anxious during my subsequent pregnancy. I no longer had the privilege of naivete the second time around, but, if anything, this made me extremely vigilant about monitoring my health and advocating for myself. I opted to see only an MFM, pushed for more frequent appointments, and came to each visit prepared with questions. In the year leading up to my subsequent pregnancy I had joined a Facebook support group sponsored by endpreeclampsia.org and learned so much about the disease. Knowledge is power, and because of this, I felt I could work with my healthcare team to manage risks in a way I could feel confident about.

What do you think are the most important actions that can be taken to raise preeclampsia awareness among women and healthcare providers?

Healthcare providers should be staying up to date on preeclampsia risk factors, symptoms, and treatment. Education is key – a patient won’t ask about something they don’t know about, so there should be educational resources offered at prenatal visits. In my case, I was more concerned with following doctor’s orders without necessarily knowing the why. It wasn’t really a partnership. Had I fully understood why I was seeing an MFM, why I was labeled high-risk, why we were taking urine samples and monitoring my blood pressure, I likely would have been much quicker to report my preeclampsia symptoms as soon as they started. I also think preeclampsia survivors should take every opportunity to share their stories and spread awareness. Retelling can often be like reliving the trauma, so I understand the difficulty here. But ultimately increasing awareness can help save lives and also feel less isolating for someone who is in the thick of a preeclampsia diagnosis.