Life online has the sneaky way of presenting as perfect. We share our best angles and stories and keep the messy bits under wraps. When it comes to pregnancy and the postpartum period, I feel like there is a lot of information out there but at the same time there is so much I didn’t know heading in. Those stories seem to be split into two camps – the very good and the very bad. The middle of the road experiences are not often discussed. And there are so many bits no one talks about at all. If you pop over to my instagram and have a quick look my pregnancy appears idyllic. I gained weight only in my belly and fit into my regular wardrobe until 38 weeks when I then started to get frustrated that my shirts no longer covered the entirety of my belly. I had my baby, things are back to normal… Except a lot has happened that I’ve never touched on. As I have had time to reflect on everything that has happened over the last 11 months and process it all I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to share my experience – or at least part of it because this is one of those parts that nobody likes to talk about, and it is something I did not know about going in.

I would consider my pregnancy to have been easy. Overall I felt good and really enjoyed being pregnant. There were uncomfortable moments – like rib kicks so intense I had to do blood draws to check my liver levels and that week with a pinched sciatic nerve – but those things were short blips that came and went. I loved carrying our sweet girl, truly. It was such a special experience. But, it doesn’t sound as lovely on paper. The first trimester I dealt with constant morning sickness. The second trimester I struggled to gain weight. While I gained a grand total of 21 pounds during my pregnancy, it mostly came on in the third trimester. When I did finally start gaining due to additional carbs, which I lovingly referred to as “eating like a raccoon”, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and ended up losing again when I went on a carb conscious diet. I cried in that first appointment post GD diagnosis when I had lost the five pounds I gained, and then again at home the next few times I weighed myself. Once we figured out how to balance my diet the third trimester was pretty uneventful.

When I went into labor my blood pressure was slightly elevated so they admitted me earlier than they normally would have. My contractions were close together, but a little erratic. I still had a long way to go, so I would have been sent home had everything been normal. Because I was admitted with elevated blood pressure they kept a close eye on it throughout my stay in the hospital. After I gave birth, before we went home it was a little elevated again so they instructed me to buy a blood pressure machine and monitor it at home.

Preeclampsia has terrified me for years. I never really understood how it worked, it seemed confusing to me given my limited knowledge of it from pop culture – Downton Abbey and Kim Kardashian, two extreme and different examples. And as we all know by now, Googling these things is never a good idea. I knew that it was bad and that it scared me. It was my number one fear going into pregnancy, but I also thought that the risk of it ended once the baby is born. False. You can be diagnosed with preeclampsia postpartum. I am not an expert on the subject, and I admit that I still don’t really understand it, even after asking about 30 different medical professionals to explain it to me over and over again, so I would recommend talking to your doctor about it if you are pregnant or curious. From my understanding, you are most likely to be diagnosed with it up to 7 days postpartum. After that your risk drops but you can still be diagnosed up to 6 weeks postpartum. On day 6 my blood pressure was high. I called my doctor who instructed me to go to the ER and was admitted to the hospital for a few days.

My only symptom was that my blood pressure was high. I did not have any of the other warning signs so had I not been instructed to check my blood pressure at home I never would have noticed or thought about it. This is why I want to share this, because I wouldn’t have known anything was amiss and that can be very dangerous should it have escalated to eclampsia. The statistics they use when talking about the rates of postpartum preeclampsia include the entire population – this for some ridiculous reason includes men and women who are not pregnant. And in speaking with my doctors, it is a lot more common than you would think looking at that low percentage. I am not trying to scare anyone, I just think that people should be aware that this is a thing. I can’t imagine how many women go home with their new babies, are at risk, and never know.

I was very lucky that my postpartum preeclampsia was caught early. I kept asking if that is what it even was because I had no other symptoms. It really bothered me that I had no other symptoms, especially given that this was my number one fear. But it didn’t matter, because my blood pressure was high it is classified as postpartum preeclampsia. As with anything, symptoms can range from person to person. So we all went back to the hospital for a few days… Because I am breastfeeding Baby and Dad were able to join me during my stay, which was such a huge comfort. I was put on a magnesium drip for 24 hours to prevent seizures and was closely monitored by a wonderful team of doctors as they adjusted my medications to get my blood pressure under control. Preeclampsia can go away as quickly as it comes on or linger for weeks. I fell into that first group and was able to come off of my medication within a few days and for that and all of the care I received I am so thankful. It was a really scary experience and not at all how I had imagined spending the first few weeks with our sweet girl.

Again, my intention in sharing this is not to create fear. I wanted to share this part of my story because I was not aware that this was something that could happen as it falls into the category of things about pregnancy and the postpartum period that no one ever talks about and think that it is important to know.