Pre-eclampsia, also known as Toxemia or Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension (PIH), is suspected when a pregnant women's base line systolic (upper #) blood pressure rises 30 mmHg or the diastolic pressure (lower #) rises 15 mmHg over the base line reading and it stays up, not coming down with rest or lying on the left side. A women will usually start spilling protein in her urine at the same time.

 The symptoms of pre-eclampsia are:

1. Rising blood pressure
2. Sudden weight gain (more than 3 pounds in 1 week)
3. Severe Edema - particularly of the hands and face
4. Protein in the urine
5. Blurred vision
6. Headaches - especially if it doesn't go away with medication
7. Irritability
8. Gastric Pain
9. All over itching
10. Scanty urine output
11. Confusion
12. Abnormal liver and kidney function

If you experience any or all of these symptoms, see your doctor immediately!

Treatments vary based on how high the women's blood pressure has gotten, how far along the pregnancy is at, and how well the baby is doing.

1. If caught early in the pregnancy the doctors will give medication to help lower blood pressure and monitor the patient and baby carefully.
2. The mother may be given medicines and put on home bed rest for the remaining part of the pregnancy.
3. The mother could be hospitalized and on bed rest until delivery.
4. If mother is close to her due date, the doctors may decide to start labor or give her a c-section.
5. If either mother or baby are not doing well, immediate delivery, no matter at what gestation, may be the best solution.

 The best prevention any pregnant women can do is to go and have her regular prenatal checkups. The doctor will monitor her blood pressure and check for protein at each appointment.  Other things the mother can do are:

• Check her own blood pressure at home and keep a list to give to the doctor. Immediately, report high readings that won't go down.
• Watch for swelling of face and hands.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat good balanced meals and snacks.
• Watch caffeine intake - caffeine will/can raise blood pressure.
• If you experience any of the symptoms of pre-eclampsia, notify your practitioner right away.
• Don't take any decongestants if you have had high blood pressure or if it is rising.

I had pre-eclampsia 15 years ago. About three days before I found out I had pre-eclampsia, I started having very bad headaches. I would have my husband rub the back of my neck and I took Tylenol for the pain. Nothing was helping! I decided that I must have been getting a sinus infections, so I started taking a decongestant that the doctor had told me to take for my sinuses. (Now I know that decongestants can make blood pressure rise!) I suffered three days with this headache before going to the doctor.

When I did go in, three days later, for my normal prenatal check up, my blood pressure was so high that the nurse wouldn't tell me what the numbers were. She just told me to stay on my left side and she would be right back. She never did come back, but the midwife did and told me that she was going to have to hospitalize me for observations. I felt so horrible that I didn't care. I thought a bed sounded good! I got to the hospital and immediately the nurses started putting in an IV. For some reason, that I didn't understand at the time, they were having a hard time getting the IV in. Now I know, that I was swelling up so bad that the couldn't find a vein and that my kidneys were starting to shut down.

The midwife came in and told me that they were going to send me to another hospital that was an hour away. All I could think was, "They only send the "bad" cases there!" Because my blood pressure was so bad, the doctors were only telling what I needed to know so that they didn't make my blood pressure go up anymore.

When I arrived at the other hospital, the staff set out to get my blood pressure stabilized. They were able to get me stable and I ended up spending the night. Since I was only 26 weeks gestation, the doctors told me they were going to do everything they could to get me to 28 weeks because the baby would have a much better chance of surviving. I was given steroid shots to help the baby's lungs just in case they had to deliver.

I was only allowed to get out of bed to go to the bathroom and while in bed I had to lye on my left side. After only 1 day of this, I was already getting tired of it!

That day the doctor came in and checked the baby monitor...the baby was being monitored 24 hours a day. The doctor didn't like what he saw. He brought in an ultra sound machine and told me he had to deliver right away because the baby was dieing. The pre-eclampsia had damaged the placenta enough that it wasn't giving the baby enough nutrition to live. The baby was basically starving to death.

Within 30 minutes of the ultra sound, I was in the operating room for a c-section. While the doctor was performing the surgery, my husband and I discussed names. Since there was a great chance that the baby wasn't gong to make it, I wanted it to have a name. As soon as the doctor announced it was a girl, my we agreed to name her Emilly Ann.

Emilly was born weighing 1lb 11oz. For the rest of her story and a story of an emotional roller coaster, you will have to wait for my next hub!

I wrote this because I felt that I was not as informed as I should have been. None of the doctors, nurses, or midwives that I had seen told me what symptoms to watch out for. I even had an elevated blood pressure at the appointment before the one that I was diagnosed and taken to the hospital. At that appointment they did a 24 hour urine test and it came back normal. I still think they should have at least told me the symptoms so that I could have been watching for them at home. Because I did not know the symptoms, I went 3 days with a headache! This could have cost me my life if it had turned into eclampsia. Through this hub, I hope that those of you who are pregnant or are going to become pregnant, will know the signs "before" it happens and you will not have to go through the things I went through.