Pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure in pregnancy

Sarah: 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'd had protein in my urine pretty much for about 10 or 11 weeks before that. And I remember going in one day for a check-up, seeing the obstetrician and him saying, “oh, we're going to have to take you in.” And I said, “Why?” and they said, “Well, your blood pressure’s shot up, you’ve got protein in your urine and we think you’re getting this condition called pre-eclampsia.”

Josie: Within a few hours, I was suddenly in hospital. You know I was worried I didn’t -, we didn't even have a baby grow, you know, let alone having any kind of preparation. I had no stuff with me, I had only gone for an assessment. So, I had nothing, I had no, no clothes, I had no night stuff, I didn't have a toothbrush. So those were all brought to me, and, yeah it just it just felt like, it just felt like my life completely changed.

Betty: It was a little sad that I couldn't have skin to skin, but obviously, the most important thing is to make sure he's okay. And they explained that they were going to take him immediately to the intensive care unit. So I understood that, again in an ideal world I would have asked about cord clamping and requesting for that to take place but just wasn't the time or place for it. So was it the ideal delivery? Of course not. There were other things I would have preferred, but I'm just very grateful that everything happened the way it did.

Dominie: It was just very weird because you’ve got this child that’s in a plastic box and you know them but you don’t know them - it's a very strange feeling – and I didn’t get to hold him until the Monday morning, and I didn’t even ask really; they just went, "Do you want to hold him today?" and I was a bit shocked and so it was, yeah Monday like 11 o'clock, and I remember being really hungry because I hadn’t had breakfast, and I'd missed lunch because I just… I just wanted to hold him for hours, and I cried… I just cried because that for me then was when I met him, and you know that was the realisation then that I'd had a baby.

Paige: It was not something you expect; you don’t expect to have the baby at seven months anyway but for it to be through an illness that, at the time you blame yourself for, even though there's nothing you can do about it; it's going to happen no matter who you are. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

Michael: I look at him and I think that he just seems to be-, obviously I’ve got very biased views, but I think he’s so perfect and there are a couple of things that being born that early, he’s maybe a little bit different from a full term baby, but they’re generally things that he’s either already outgrown or something that I feel he’ll outgrow soon anyway.