The Dangers of Pre-eclampsia

They say that when a woman becomes pregnant she’s practically putting her one foot in the grave. This is absolutely true because there are many health complications that can arise during pregnancy and one of that is pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia is the condition wherein the mother suffers from hypertension and she has protein in her urine. When there’s no protein detected in the urine but the woman suddenly became hypertensive then she’s suffering from pregnancy induced hypertension. These two terms are being used synonymous to each other as both have almost the same kinds of dangers. The woman gets high blood pressure and this needs to be treated immediately or else this could lead to the death of the baby and also of the mother.

There is still no known cause for pre-eclampsia. It’s said that pre-eclampsia occurs when the fetus is actually poisoning the mother. It’s a slow death if not detected but the fetus can die almost instantly when the mother has very high blood pressure that’s not treated right away. Over 70,000 pregnancies in the UK each year and thousands upon thousands of pregnancies around the world leads to preeclampsia and it’s one of the leading cause of death in unborn children and also for the mother. The only way to treat this is for medications to control the hypertension when the child is not yet full term and for induced labor or c-section when the baby is already in full term. The longer the baby stays in the womb when the mother is suffering from pre-eclampsia the more complications can occur and it’s not recommended unless the child will have a high risk of mortality if taken out.

Pre-eclampsia is dangerous but knowledge and caution is key to a healthy giving birth. Make sure you ask your doctor about pre-eclampsia and the danger signs to watch out for. Don’t wait ’til it’s too late before you ask for help. Remember, your unborn child’s life depends on your actions so when you feel like something’s wrong with your pregnancy, go and ask your gynecologist about it.  For sure they will check whether your symptoms are of pre-eclampsia or not. It’s better to be a bit paranoid than to pretend like you haven’t noticed anything wrong. Also, don’t forget to keep your cool. Hypertension can be triggered by sudden excitement, anger and stress so make sure you live each day as stress-free as possible until it’s time to celebrate the big day.