[mamma2be]

I'm 27 weeks pregnant and I'm so scared that I'm going to get preclampsia. I am a bigger person, not huge but big. When I had my first ultrasound the doctor scared the living crap out of me, saying I need to prepare for preclampsia. I have never had high blood pressure or anything. If I do end up getting preclampsia, is there anything to worry about with my son?

[J_9]

If you get pre eclampsia most likely you will be put on blood pressure medication. It's not a rare thing really and most doctors handle it just fine. I see many patients with it, I even had it with my youngest son.

Why does it worry you so?

[mamma2be]

The only reason why it worried me so much is because, the doctor that did my ultrasound told me to do research on it and when you do a lot of useless research you find things that could scare someone and that's what happened.. I had no idea that is not a rare thing... I didn't do a good job at research I guess.

[ang8318]

Don't worry. I had pregnancy induced hypertension, which if untreated could have lead to pre eclampsia. My doc just put me on BP meds (one pill a day), and watched closely. I had more frequent MD appointments, and a lot of non-stress tests (one a week from 26 weeks on), but I am fine now, no BP meds, and my son is a healthy 10 month old!

[J_9]

There can be dangers associated with PIH (pre-eclampsia), but if kept in check it is relatively safe.

[ang8318]

J9, just a quick question:My doc never diagnosed me with preeclampsia, just said that PIH was a risk factor, is this accurate? Or is PIH considered preeclampsia? I am just curious.

[J_9]

PIH is Pregnancy Induced Hypertension, it goes into pre-eclampsia when it is uncontrolled hypertension. This is when it becomes dangerous. Pre-eclampsia can turn into eclampsia which is a medical emergency. With all 3 of these, that can fall hand-in-hand, delivery is the only true cure.

[J_9]

I'll see if I can make it a little easier to understand:

PIH - Pregnancy Induced Hypertension is dealt with by taking high blood pressure meds. If this is not resolved, it goes into pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia - is not so much a medical emergency, but can be very dangerous. It is usually monitored in the hospital with an IV of Magnesium Sulfate. If this does not fix the problem, then we run into a VERY serious problem...

Eclampsia - Eclampsia is when the blood pressure is so high that it causes the mother to have seizures. The cure for this is immediate Ceserean Section.

So, you see, there are 3 levels here. I have only dealt with pre-eclampsia and mag sulfate twice, PIH quite frequently, and Eclampsia never.