My husband and I decided to try to have a baby this summer, and I'm looking for information on pre-eclampsia risk for women with strong family histories (my mom had it with both her pregnancies). All I can find is that my risk is greater, but I have no idea what that means. I'm hoping that there are people on here who've had strong family history and can say if they have or haven't had pre-eclampsia in their pregnancies. Really I just want some idea of what to expect. Having my doctor tell me that I'm at "increased risk" is immensely frustrating because increased risk could mean 15% or 90% or anything in between.
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My mom had really bad pre-e. Had to be induced at 37 weeks and even delivering didn't bring her blood pressure down so she had to stay in the ICU for a few days. My doctor really wasn't concerned that I would follow in her footsteps. With my first pregnancy I had no blood pressure issues at all. With my second my blood pressure got pretty high around 36 weeks and I had some protein in my urine. They put me on bedrest at that point and bedrest totally controlled the issue (even to the point that my doc said she had no intention of inducing me any earlier than she would for a patient with no blood pressure issues), but they did say I needed to stay on bed rest until delivery. Luckily my water broke at 37+6 so I only had to deal with two weeks of bed rest because it was BORING.
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I don't have a history of Pre-E in my family but we do have a history of high blood pressure. My blood pressure was great until around 30 weeks and it slowly started creeping up. Never had to do bed rest but I was borderline Pre-E when I delivered (labor started naturally).
Honestly, stressing about it will only make things worse! Every pregnancy is different, every person is different. Talk to your OB about your concerns. They will monitor your blood pressure regardless. With a history they might have you start taking your blood pressure at home once you are in your third trimester, depending on how your office visits go (I did this, wasn't a big deal).
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@truthbombs Thank you for sharing your experience. It's so hard to find any info. My mom was induced at 34 weeks with my older sister and on bed rest from 32-37 before being induced with me, so it's nice to hear that it can go smoothly.
@KT326 I know stressing is bad, but I'm way too type A to not try and get hard info particularly since I'll be the first to have kids on my side of the family. I also wouldn't really say that I'm stressing because I know that all statistics are meaningless in micro, but it's really had to hear "you're at increased risk for this potentially life-threatening baby-threatening thing" and have no idea whether that means "buckle up cause it's coming" or more like "you have a 4% chance as opposed to a 2% chance."
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My mom had elevated blood pressure but no pre-e with me (her first) and nothing with her remaining 3 children.
I had extremely elevated BP's with my first and pre-e with my second.
It is probably just because my dr left but I did not feel like my practive looked for it all with my second because I was never diagnosed with my first (although I was induced due to the high BP, I never had protein in my urine). Therefore it snuck up on my dr. I'd had elevated BP but they felt they weren't that high and didn't think my symptoms were that bad. Finally at 38 weeks they listened to me that between the elevated symptoms and some of the symptoms we should probably proactively due a urine protein test which they ended up sending me to the hospital for and they induced less then 24 hours later. Any protein above 120 they'll induce at 37 weeks, mine was 1200.
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My doctor said it is very likely to run in families and I shouldn't be concerned because neither of my parents have high blood pressure. I did have preeclampsia, fortunately at the end of my pregnancy when it was safe to induce.
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My mom had it with both me and my brother, and was on bed rest.
I've had no problems with pre E with either pregnancy, and my bp has actually been on the low side.
Because of having a family history of Pre E my doctors were a bit more proactive about having me come in to have my blood pressure and urine checked when I had weird pregnancy side effects, but it really was nbd. -
My mom and sister both had severe pre-e.
I didn't have a magical pregnancy free of complications, but my blood pressure was never of issue. -
My mom had pre-e with me (oldest of 3) but not with subsequent pregnancies. She was able to carry to 39 weeks and then was induced.
I had pre-e with my only LO so far and was induced at 36.5 weeks (delivered at 37 exactly). My BP also didn't go down for several weeks post-delivery, and was even a struggle to control with medication. I was in the hospital for 5 days post-delivery until they felt comfortable sending me home (due to stroke risk, I believe).
I recently spoke with my doctor about preventing pre-e in a future pregnancy and she said they would probably have me take a baby aspirin daily from very early on (I think she said starting before 8 weeks) and be monitored more closely by perinatology. I believe the aspirin is meant to help prevent pre-e from developing and the monitoring is more to be prepared for it, I guess?
It might be worth asking your OB about those options if you feel you have strong risk factors. They did not consider me high risk just based on my mom's pre-e for my first pregnancy, though. Luckily baby was healthy at birth and only suffered some jaundice.
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I think the scary thing about preeclampsia is that they truly don't know why it happens... As far as I know, no one in my family had had it, and no one had hypertension either in or outside of pregnancy. My blood pressure was perfect the whole time and then bam on my due date, I went into labor and developed not only preeclampsia but HELLP syndrome! I wanted to know my chances if I have another and my ob told me don't worry about it, but I think someone in the hospital said there could be a 1 in 5 chance of developing it again?
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My SIL had severe pre-eclampsia, and oddly, her OB told her that it was because her mother-in-law had it -- somehow the baby induced it? This seems odd to me, but that's the story. She was totally fine, though; they admitted her and she delivered that day. It didn't become an issue until she was almost ready to deliver.
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No family history of it (at least on my side, DH wouldn't know).
I had it at the end and also had trouble controlling it after delivery and stayed 5 days in the hospital.@Paddington10: that's interesting, my doctor said it was similar to an autoimmune/allergic reaction but they don't know why it happens.
Also, I'm Rh- and DS was + (no Coombs)... -
My mum had really bad pre-e when she was pregnant with me, so much so that I was delivered by emergency c-section at 29 weeks and my dad was told that both my mum and I would pass away. Thankfully we both lived and my mum went on to have two healthy pregnancies with no pre-e.
I was actually never told that I was at an increased risk and have had two full term pregnancies.
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nobody in my immediate family ever had pre-e
with my first I did at 37 weeks, and was induced at 39, went right away after deliveryas I was proactive and concerned I continually discussed this with my doctor and went on a baby aspirin and calcium supplement around 20weeks or so with #2,
no pre-e, easy RCS -
While I was never diagnosed with pre-e, both of my kids were induced due to worsening blood pressure. My doctors were worried it would develop into pre-e, hence the induction. Anyway, my doctor said that if you've had pre-e previously, the research indicates that you are more likely to have it again for subsequent pregnancies IF the babies had the same father. Weird, huh? So there's some indication that pre-e is a result of some sort of interaction with the dad's genes.
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My mom had severe pre-e with both of her pregnancies, and I didn't have it with either of mine! My BP was a little high at the end of my second pregnancy, but not high enough for them to really worry.
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