So I remember the GP saying, because he had, there was a medical student in that appointment with me. So I remembered them talking about it, and he was saying, You know, the reason we’sd send her to hospital, is because we’sre concerned that it could be pre-eclampsia or you know, which And he said, What is that? You know, and she was like, Its high pressure. And he was like, Well no, its not. Its you know, that’s a symptom of it. But that’s not necessarily what it is, and saying, its you know, its an unusual condition, auto immuney may be, but we’sre not really sure. And your symptoms would be, you know, the swollen legs, headaches, blurred vision, the high blood pressure is one of them, and that sort of thing. Protein in urine, that sort of stuff. So I remember him sort of saying that.

And what symptoms of pre-eclampsia did you experience?

None, none in terms of actually feeling anything. I mean I felt brilliant; I’d never felt better. It was I was anxious but in terms of, you know pain, I had no pain. I’d seen no bright lights you know, so all of the things they kind of told me to look out for I just didn’st have; I never had. Although when I remember talking to a doctor in hospital and saying, “Actually I did used to wake up with headaches and I’d kind of dismissed it. I thought, ‘Oh it must be just the hormones. But in a way that’s a kind of symptom that I wish, you know, I wish I’d known about, you know if you wake up with a headache then you need to get that checked out.

Well, I’sd always had, because they check your protein and your blood pressure and everything throughout the pregnancy, I mean, I’m quite lucky that I’sve got a normally low blood pressure. Well, I’m told I’m quite lucky that I’sve got that, anyway. But around about 30 weeks I started swelling. My legs and my feet swelled and I just started feeling even more generally unwell than I had done the whole of the pregnancy. And they, they, I’sd had protein in my urine pretty much for about ten or eleven weeks before that. And I remember going in one day for a check-up, seeing the obstetrician, and him saying, Oh, we’sre going to have to take you in. And I said, Why? and they said, Well, your blood pressure’s shot up, you’sve got protein in your urine and we think you’sre getting this condition called pre-eclampsia, which I’sd heard of but not really taken much notice of, because I thought, there’s no way, again, that it can happen to me. So they brought me in, and it’s really funny because I, I felt fine. I felt OK. But the minute that they again, this could be psychological, I don’st know – the minute they got me into the ward, the blood pressure really did start shooting up, and I noticed the difference. But they told me things like you get black spots in front of your eyes, and I had had that, but not taken any notice of it. Blinding flashes and really severe headaches, but I just thought it was all part of it. I mean, I’m very good at, if I know that I’sve got something or there’s a chance that I’sve got something, I will go out, all out and read, read up about it. And although I’sd heard of pre-eclampsia I’sd never, never thought that it would happen.

I got to, well, about 34 weeks and I had what I thought was indigestion. I woke up at night with pains between my ribs. And I thought, well this must be indigestion. There’s nothing mention it to the midwife, because I assumed it was indigestion. I actually told her it [laughs] it was indigestion. I had one episode of slightly high blood pressure, but the rest of it had been fine, and then I was told by the midwife that I was so low risk that she wouldn’st need to see me for another three weeks. So I thought oh wonderful. And then ten days later it all went horribly wrong.

I’sd been out for a meal the day before. I’sd been swimming that evening. I’sd been tutoring as well. And on the way home, I was thinking about dinner, as pregnant women always think about their next meal, and I thought, I don’st feel hungry. And I thought, oh this is a bit odd. Didn’st think much of it, got home and didn’st feel right. Something I couldn’st put my finger on. You know your own body don’st you? You know when something’s not quite right. And, I went on the NHS Direct website and I’sd felt a bit swollen, my ankles were larger than normal, slightly uncomfortable. My fingers were slightly tingly as well. And I went down the check list of pre-eclampsia and I thought well, general feeling of being unwell, swelling, and I thought well that’s a couple of things ticked off.

So I texted the midwife, and I said, I don’st feel very well. Feeling slightly swollen. Possible pre-eclampsia? And she didn’st reply for four days [laughs]. Which is a bit late by then. So I text the other midwife that I had a number for and she texted me back the next day. I didn’st want to call them because it was about 8 o’sclock at night and I thought well, I’sll just sleep it off you know. So I called my partner. At the time we weren’st living together and I said, I don’st feel very well. And he asked me if I wanted him to come round, and I thought oh no, I don’st want to bother you. But something said, yes. Just you know, get him round. And then I have a blood pressure monitor, just as well and I took it and it was extremely high. It was 191/113. Which is high, and I thought oh gosh this is bad.

And I took [partner], I took my partner’s blood pressure and that was fine. So I took mine again and it was still the same high reading and on the NHS Direct site it had also said high blood pressure. So I called NHS Direct and I said, I’sve got this, this, and this. And they said, You should call the hospital. So I was due to go to have the baby at a maternity ward. I was going to have drug free [laughs] water birth, you know, how it goes. And they put me in contact with the, with another hospital, and I told the midwife exactly how I was feeling and I told her the reading on my blood pressure monitor and she said, Well it must be faulty. So I said, I’m really sorry. I feel really stupid. Sorry to have bothered you. And I thought right I’sll just go and sleep it off. And then within about an hour I started getting pains here. And my partner said, Right we’sre going into hospital. And I said, No, no, no. I’sll be all right and you know, don’st want to make a fuss. I’sve four weeks to go. So we went in and by then I was almost doubled over in pain. It was, oh it was incredible. Almost unbearable. I later found out it was epigastric pain.

So it probably wasn’st until the vomiting started that I really thought, ‘This isn’t quite right,’ because it was bile, it wasn’st just being sick because I’d originally thought, ‘OK, third trimester, morning sickness, it’s a bit bizarre,’ but Googled it and it was kind of like OK. Mentioned it to my midwives at antenatal appointments; it never really got picked up on and I thought, ‘OK, it must just be what happens. From the vomiting I became unable to eat; nothing tasted right; I wasn’st able to keep fluids down and things like that, and again nobody seemed greatly bothered by it, so I just thought, ‘OK, I’m just, just pregnant. The tiredness and things again I always thought I’d be further on for that to happen.

I started losing a little bit of weight which concerned me, but again when it was mentioned when they took measurements of the baby and the bump, everything measured OK so again it kind of dismissed, or just brushed to the side; it didn’st seem to be important so I didn’st push it. It was a case of OK it must just be another side-effect of being pregnant who had baby’s OK. Put your big girl pants on and get on with it really.

That’s when my legs started. I guess they’d been kind of twitching but I just assumed it was just generally you get restless legs. It wasn’st till everything else, and with hindsight you go through everything that’s there that I displayed probably more symptoms by then.

And you said about this hyperreflexia. What did that feel like to you?

Really bizarre actually. I don’st recall ever having had my reflex tested before, or even as many times as that, and it was they would touch my knee and my leg would jerk quite, quite high. They did it with my ankle and was pushing my foot, and again yet everything was super I would have assumed it was great; I didn’st realise that was a bad sign [laughs]. But yes, so that they were sort of very, I think brisk was the word that they kept using.

Over the next three weeks, when I went back to hospital the next day they kept me in. And I said then, you know, “Why are you keeping me in now?” and they were like, “Well it’s pre-eclampsia.” I said, “But yesterday you said it wasn’st pre-eclampsia and you let me go home.”

And they’re like, “Well it’s definitely pre-eclampsia and we think you should stay in hospital,” which I wasn’st keen on, and the doctor said to my partner, “If that, if that was my wife I wouldn’st let her go home.” So he made me stay.

And at this point it was really surreal because I felt fine.

I just felt like I had a cold; I didn’st feel ill. So, they put me upstairs on a ward with four other girls and again I was feeling really hot and the midwives came round and they were like, “No, you’re really ill.” “Mm, well I don’st feel it.” They’re like, “Look you’re the illest woman we’ve got in here.” “Mm, don’st think so,” because I did genuinely feel OK.

The pain, yeah the pain started about 34 weeks after my blood pressure had kind of gone up over a hundred and fifty, that’s when I started getting the pain it was round here, and it was sharp, sort of persistent. It was like having cramp all the time; it was like something was caught in a vice and it was all it would radiate across the top of my bump as well, and it would just be, oh it was worse in an evening.

I’d sit down on the sofa and I’d just be in agony, you know I’d be in such agony. And I’d be phoning the on-call midwife going, “I’ve got this pain,” and they were like, “Yeah it just sounds like growing pains you know, just sit down, look after yourself, you know don’st strain yourself. It sounds like you’sve strained the muscles.” And I was like, “But my blood pressure and the sparkles and the pain,” and they were like, “Yeah they’re all normal pregnancy symptoms, don’st worry about it,” you know. And I’m there going, “Oh come on, I could do your job,” and you know I’m so frustrated by this point, but I just thought, ‘Right OK, I’ll just sit down and I’ll you know’ and my husband was taking my blood pressure as well at home because he’s got all this kit and everything.

And you know we were seeing it creep up in line with what was being recorded and I just thought, ‘You know what, I’m just going to look after myself; nobody’s going acknowledge it. I’ve got this pain if it gets really bad I’m going off to, you know labour, labour ward to see what they can do with me there.

It can be confusing for women to understand what’s going wrong when different doctors and midwives are using different words. Examples of these words might be hypertension in pregnancy, pre-eclampsia or HELLP syndrome and one of the reasons that sometimes midwives and doctors seem to cross over with these words is because the conditions themselves cross over to a greater or lesser degree. For example, HELLP syndrome, which is a condition where you might have damage to red blood cells, changes in how the liver works and changes in certain cells in the blood or platelets, very often, if not almost always, is associated with high blood pressure. So many doctors and midwives feel that HELLP syndrome is actually a subset of pre-eclampsia. Hypertension in pregnancy, on the other hand, is usually a phrase used to describe just high blood pressure in pregnancy, which can be contrasted against pre-eclampsia, which most people understand as a mixture of high blood pressure, protein in the urine and swelling. In truth, for an individual patient, she might be given a variety of these different phrases or terms at different times but it’s important for that patient to question the doctor, if she doesn’st understand exactly what’s going on.

Did you feel any different when you started to have the pre-eclampsia?

Not at all, no. I mean I was swollen anyway and my feet were swollen and my face was swollen but I thought that was quite normal. And also, I was working full-time to the Saturday and I had him on the Tuesday and I don’st think that helped at all. I thought that’s why I was swollen because I was, I’m a hairdresser and work, you know, on my feet. So that was, that was kind of it, really. I didn’st have any symptoms at all but because, obviously it’s high blood pressure, that’s the main, the main symptom and you don’st notice that at all, so.

So he was delivered at 38 weeks, he was big enough, no no problems there. I came home a couple of days later, everything seemed to be fine and then I think it was on day five, he had actually developed a little rash and I think, you know, first time mum, really quite worried about it, thought we will pop down to, our midwives do a drop in clinic. So I popped down there and I had a splitting headache, which I’sd had for two days but, as I mentioned, you know, as a migraine sufferer, that’s quite normal for me and I thought it was the stress of having a new baby, trying to breastfeed, everything like that and that’s what I put the headache down to. And, while I was sitting in the waiting room, I had to rush off and be sick and that’s when I thought, you know, oh dear, this is this is quite normal with a migraine as well, to be sick.

And then I went and saw the midwife and she said, Are you okay? And I said, No, I haven’st been feeling well. And when she took my blood pressure, it was the highest that she’sd ever taken and I think it was up in the 210s, 150, or 130 or something like that. And so she was, you know, instantly, You need to lie down. You need to get on your left side. We need to call an ambulance. And I was rushed back into the [hospital] again. So yeah, and then, you know, they just monitored me. They put me on labetalol and more blood pressure medication, that kind of thing.