It wasn’st a great birth [laughs].

OK

Unfortunately the induction kicked the labour off very quickly. Which I think got me into distress and then there was fetal distress as well, which I didn’st realise was the risk also of pre-eclampsia.

But my son, yeah got into fetal distress had to be pulled out pretty quick with Ventouse; had breathing difficult well he wasn’st breathing so had to be resuscitated and then taken to SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit), so it was, it was a very traumatic birth.

And I don’st, I guess I look back and I don’st know how much of that was related to pre-eclampsia or whether that was induction or whether it just would have happened anyway or, I don’st know so, so yeah but it’s -, yeah, it wasn’st a great birth.

I have to say my children’s centre are – , they were very good and, you know I chatted to the manager there about my experience and she instantly was like, “Oh OK well this person had a similar, similar pregnancy to you,” and you know, and introduced us and we chatted about it and that was brilliantly helpful.

Yeah, so and also another mum who’d had pre-eclampsia in the first pregnancy but not in the second which again was nice and sort of quite positive. So yeah the children’s centre and, I think the health visitors were quite helpful as well just providing sort of contacts of who – , good support, but no specific pre-eclampsia support, it was general new mother support so.

And I was just hoping I could reflect about the aspirin you were asked to take?

Yeh

How was that explained to you?

Again once she found out I was in research she; she explained that they felt Aspirin reduced pre-eclampsia reoccurrence by about ten percent or something she said I think. But and she actually gave me a few journals, you know she said you can read these and explained that they felt that again benefits outweighed any risks that are taken, and it’s a very low amount so the risk was minimal, so yeh.

Yeah and were you concerned about taking the medications?

Not really so.

And you reached the hospital what sort of tests and investigations happened at that point?

So, I got there and I remember quite a sort of assertive nurse told me to take a urine sample, and then she came back and went, “No, no you’sve got to take another one; you’sve not done it properly.” And then I came back and did another one and she went, “Ah,” because I’d had obviously a high protein read and she wanted to check it was right.

And then she took my blood pressure and she just sort of said, “Yeah you’re not going home,” and tagged me and put me in a bed so [laughs].

So it was very quick, it was, you know it was no hanging around.

So, I remember being woken up, well having blood pressure tested every four hours I think.

OK

And then in the mornings having-, going on the trace monitoring for about an hour. And then quite often blood-, had blood samples taken in the morning quite often.

And often saw doctors or the consultants would come round then as well. And then obviously it was sort of lunch-time, and then it seemed to be quieter in the afternoon and visitors were allowed in in the afternoon so, and again, you know it was just the regular monitoring really.

I remember being very tired because obviously the later stage of the pregnancy you don’st sleep brilliantly, and then because you’re being woken up all the time, yeh. I remember thinking, ‘I’m pretty shattered and I haven’st even had the baby yet,’ and yeah so, yeah I mean it-, being in hospital is horrible anyway because the food’s not great and your being given the same food all the time and if you don’st feel very well it’s-, yeah it’s, it’s difficult but.