Preeclampsia

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My SIL is 28 weeks along. Everything has been going well up till this
week. She went in for a check up and her blood pressure was high (in
the 150s), and was spilling protein (not sure of the amount) and
retaining fluid. They were also concerned that the blood flow in the
umbilical cord was slow. Her midwife and OB (she's seeing a practice
with both)have ordered her to take a break from work this week...she
has had two shots (of something, I can't recall what my DB said) to
help the baby's lungs mature. She is to go back to the doc this Friday
to be checked again. The OB thinks that maybe she's just a bit under
the weather (SIL has had a bit of a cold), but it sounds like she's
taking it pretty seriously anyway.


Anything I might want to mention to them to check into? Anything I
could send up to my SIL to help keep her from going nuts (I'm thinking
some books/magazines, maybe a puzzle...hmmm...maybe not...5 cats ;).


TIA
annette

[[email protected]]

> Anything I might want to mention to them to check into? Anything I
> could send up to my SIL to help keep her from going nuts (I'm thinking
> some books/magazines, maybe a puzzle...hmmm...maybe not...5 cats ;).

You've probably found it already through Google, but she'd probably
benefit from checking out www.preeclampsia.org. Not to scare her or
you, but it might come in handy to know that the median time from
diagnosis to delivery is less than two weeks, so she might want to
start learning stuff about the NICU and 30 week preemies.

The shots for the baby's lungs are steroids. I had those at 33 weeks,
and my DS, who was delivered at 34 weeks, only spent a week in NICU and
had no real breathing issues.

Good luck to her and to your family! Preeclampsia is NO FUN.

--
C, mama to 2.5 year old nursling