The month of May is National Preeclampsia Month. I'm an Event Planner at National Association of Community Health Centers, a job I love, but my favorite role is being a mother to my children Elijah & Eleanor.

While I was pregnant with Elijah - I called my pregnancy "easy". Because it felt like that! I had no complications, very little pain, normal weight gain, and more. When I entered my 36-week appointment, my blood pressure was slightly elevated (129/84) for the first time when my provider said "We'll see you next week, I want you to take it easy until then. We may be facing preeclampsia if your blood pressure continues to trend up and you have any other symptoms". I left crying because I didn't understand how this was happening. I felt perfectly fine! Fast forward the following week, I was sent to the hospital after my appointment for monitoring and was given 3 options. 1. Have the baby right now, 2. Have the baby next week via induction but you'll have several tests and visits you'll need to have within the week. If anything is abnormal, we're sending you back to the hospital for an earlier induction, 3. Wait it out to see if the baby comes naturally, but if you have any pre-e symptoms - call us and head to the hospital immediately. I ultimately chose option 2. My tests were normal, I never developed any symptoms of pre-e other than the elevated BP. Fast forward to induction day, 37w6d, which turned into delivery, and Elijah was born. But newborn bliss was cut short within an hour. My blood pressure skyrocketed to 160/100. I was immediately put on magnesium drip and monitored around the clock for the next 3 days at the hospital. I don't really remember holding my son very long in those 3 days, as I felt so tired, so weak, loopy. All I really remember was the sounds of the machines beeping, the BP machine blowing up every 15 minutes, my compressions on my legs blowing up into big balloons around calves, my feet so very swollen. Never once crossed my mind how severe this condition was and how I could have lost my life. I spent the next 8+ weeks getting my blood pressure back to a normal range while caring for a newborn for the first time.

We knew we wanted to have a 2nd child. I'm pregnant, it's a girl! Yay! But a cloud loomed over me - "what if I get preeclampsia again?". Instead of being joyful during my pregnancy, I was scared entering visits thinking "this will be the one where I get bad news". Unfortunately, at my 24 week appointment I did. My blood pressure was elevated to 130's/80's. I cried as we discussed what the next few weeks would look like. What could we do to keep the baby healthy and the mom healthy? My life consisted of work, ultrasounds at maternal fetal medicine, blood pressure checks, OBGYN appointments, and lab work repeat. My blood pressure never went back down. As it actually kept creeping up. At 35 weeks I received steroid shot as a precautionary after a visit to the hospital for extended monitoring. At 36 weeks, the same thing again. I saw my OBGYN at 36w6d - my BP was now 145/95. I knew in my gut she was sending me to the hospital to deliver that night. She walked in at 3:45 PM and said, I think we know what we have to do to keep you and baby girl safe. We headed home to grab our things before heading to the hospital for an 8pm check in. The funny thing is - my feisty girl didn't like that, so she decided to break the waters naturally just 3 hours later! Ultimately - I just had gestational hypertension for this pregnancy.