What are the effects of preeclampsia during delivery?

The effect of preeclampsia is delivery. So far, the only way to "cure" preeclampsia is to deliver your baby no matter how early or preterm. If left untreated, the greatest loss of all can occur, the death of the mommy, the baby, or both.

My wife, Liz, ended up delivering our baby boy, Owen, nearly 5 weeks early. Her extremely high blood pressure was preventing nutrients from passing through the umbilical cord to baby Owen. Her blood pressure was a consistent 172/84 and after listening to the baby's heart beat, the doctors decided it was time to go to the hospital. After a couple of days in the hospital room, they ultimately tried inducing labor using the different drugs like pitocin. The problem was, little Owen's umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck which was preventing him from dropping down to where he needed to be to come out the natural way.

They decided to perform an emergency c-section to deliver Owen and to save the life of Elizabeth who's health was also deteriorating rapidly. One very big danger of preeclampsia is the protein in urine which is caused by the kidneys failing.

Even after the delivery, my wife's health was still failing. The color of her face and skin was a pale yellow and the whites of her eyes were also yellow. She was moved to the high risk floor of the hospital that had 24 hour monitoring and a security guard at the door. Her platelets were far too low, around 30,000 and her white blood cells were far too high. After many platelet transfusions, medicine, bed rest, and prayer, she started responding and improving. 4 days later we were given clearance to take our spectacular baby home. Liz was still on bed rest for the next 2 weeks and almost had to be admitted back to the hospital because her lab work still didn't look good. In the end we managed to slowly nurse her back to health and now she has made a full recovery.

Make sure to ask your primary delivery doctor any concerns you have that may be specific to your situation. Try your best not to worry, as stress and fear have a terrible effect on the body. Let your doctors look after the disease while you remain focused on a positive future; delivering a perfectly healthy baby.