Have You Heard Of "E"clampsia?

Last week when we picked Logan up from my mom's, she gave me her pregnancy book that was written in 1979! I remember looking at it when I was a child. . .I guess I was fascinated by pregnancy even back then :) But, when my parents moved the summer after I graduated high school, it got packed away in a box until now.

I began flipping through it last Friday and it was funny to see what things have changed in 30 years.

For example, breastfeeding. The book says: Some doctors and nurses openly or tacitly discourage women from breast-feeding. . .The American Academy Of Pediatrics says "Normal growth and development are possible with out it."

These days, all doctors and nurses encourage breastfeeding, and The American Academy Of Pediatrics' statement today advocating breastfeeding is so long I'll just give the link HERE rather than post it all.

For food to eat, the book actually recommended shell fish for protein! (Today that is off limits.) Also, an example meal plan has tuna fish for lunch (also not recommended nowadays for pregnant women). The only "don'ts" back then were junkfood.

For "once the baby is here," no surprise, they recommend putting the baby on their stomach to sleep with a couple of blankets.

Overall, the book is extremely good (it's 264 pages) and could still be used today (for example, it says wait until a child is year old for egg white and citrus which is still the case).

On a more serious subject (and the reason for this post's title), instead of a meme today I wanted to post about a rare illness I learned of when I scrapbooked at my friend Jenn's on Nov. 3rd. One of the women there told us about her sister-in-law, and the rest of us sat there with our mouths touching the ground. We were all horrified to learn that when her brother's wife was two weeks post partum she was driving a car with her mom and started to feel dizzy. So she pulled over and her mom started driving - and at that point she began having a seizure! She was having one after another by the time the paramedics got there and they didn't know if she would make it. She went into a coma, was on life support, and doctors thought with the small possibly of waking up, she would have brain damage.

Her husband was beside himself (the paramedics had come to his door as he was holding his two week old baby to tell him the news - just minutes after he'd told his wife goodbye and she was feeling fine). His wife had zero problems during pregnancy or labor, it had been a very easy nine months. . .but once she was in the hospital they discovered she had a condition called eclampsia.

Most of us have heard of preeclampsia which is dangerous during pregnancy (when a woman's blood pressure is too high - I covered it in a paragraph when I was pregnant in my post Second & Third Trimester Pregnancy Signs) but apparently there is something called eclampsia - when a woman's blood pressure spikes AFTER she has her baby. There is currently no way to prevent preeclampsia or eclampsia. She didn't have preeclampsia so it never would have crossed her mind that she could develop ecalmpsia. She also had no symptoms that would have led her to be concerned that something was wrong.

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. After a couple of weeks, she beat the odds and not only was taken off life support and awoke from her coma - but she has normal brain function. She was monitored for awhile in the hospital and then released. She is not out of the woods yet, though. She has daily doctor's visits and is on medication so it does not return.

According to Health On, "Usually the seizures start before the baby is born. However, about 20% to 25% of the time, seizures begin within the first 24 hours after the baby is born. A few women develop seizures later, up to 3 weeks after the birth."

Factors that increase a woman's risk of preeclampsia are:

•a first pregnancy
•African American ethnicity
•diabetes
•high blood pressure before pregnancy
•low socioeconomic status
•maternal age below 20 or over 35
•molar pregnancy, an abnormal condition that mimics a normal pregnancy but is actually a tumor
•multiple gestation such as twins or triplets
•preeclampsia or eclampsia in previous pregnancies
•she or the baby's father was born of a pregnancy with preeclampsia or eclampsia
•underlying kidney disease

Theories about why seizures might occur:

•small clots that block blood vessels in the brain and restrict oxygen
•narrowing of tiny arteries in the brain
•areas of bleeding in the brain
•high blood pressure
•dietary risks
•genetic risks
•a problem with the brain or nervous system

Usually there are no clues or warning signs before a seizure. A woman with eclampsia may have one or many seizures. The seizures cause muscle spasms, loss of consciousness, and short-term memory problems. A fever at this point is a sign of serious trouble.

•Approximately 5-7% of all pregnancies are complicated by preeclampsia and less than one in 100 women with preeclampsia will develop eclampsia or (convulsions or seizures) or coma.

•Up to 20% of all pregnancies are complicated by high blood pressure. Complications resulting from high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and eclampsia may account for up to 20% of all deaths that occur in pregnant women.

I'm sorry to write such a scary post, but all of us at Jenn's that day were so stunned we'd never heard of this before. Just another reason why it's so important to have good prenatal care. If you have any family history of preeclampsia then it is important to make sure your doctor keeps a close monitor on your blood pressure throughout your pregnancy and for any signs that you may develop eclampsia afterward. The biggest cause is genetics (and was in this woman's case as well). Thank God she is all right!