What was your experience of postnatal care, following your experience of pre-eclampsia?

[ActionPre-eclampsia]

We are interested to find out:

WHO cared for you after you were discharged from hospital?

WHEN did you have a follow-up appointment?

WHAT was your experience of postnatal care? Did you feel you had the chance to discuss what happened to you?

[ffionsmummy]

I was discharged a week after having my daughter but she was still in neonatal. I had been on mag sulphate but then back on oral labetalol and was told to continue this but I'd need a daily BP reading. They asked me to be at home so a midwife could call and do this but as we lived 16 miles from the hospital I wanted to be where my daughter was not at home, and so the staff agreed I could go back up to the ward each day and have it measured there. In reality as soon as I was discharged it became very difficult to get my BP read as the midwives on the ward were so busy. I managed to get a couple of BP readings done over 5 days and then thankfully my daughter was out of neonatal and home, and my care transferred to my GP. I was on labetalol for 11 weeks under the care of my GP, with weekly BP readings taken. I found I was quite anxious after what had happened and with my daughter being poorly too, and would have liked to have had someone to talk to and reassure me. Whilst in hospital, 3 days after delivery my BP peaked again to 170/110, it hadn't been much higher than this when I'd had the fit, so obviously that made me worry a bit too. I wish I'd had some better guidance postnatally.

[ffionsmummy]

To the hospital's credit though, a consultant who'd been there when everything happened came and explained what had happened 2 days postnatal. I'd had failed intubation durin gmy general anaesthetic c section and had had a siezure on coming round, then obviously was out of it for 24 hours. My husband was traumatised and so he didn't want to tell me what had happened. So when I came round I didn't realise what had happened I just thought the surgery had made me sleepy for a long time. I started remembering small things, and little comments from the midwives had me so confused that I broke down when they put me to the ward, I was so overwhelmed. Having the consultant come and explain was excellent and really cut down alot of the anxiety and confusion. He was very honest too, saying that although he wasn't in a position to tell me not to have another child, that I should think very seriously about the risks entailed in having another, with my family histopry or PE and what had happened, saying that my BP status had changed very quickly, dramatically and without much warning. I really appreciate his honesty. 4 months after being home with our little girl we went back to see the covering registrar and she answered some more questions we had. I am now in the process of requesting my full notes, so that I can fully understand what happened while i was sleeping. I also want my notes for my daughter, and my mum is requesting hers (from the 70's).

[Kathrynwwjd]

After leaving hospital I was cared for by the community midwives for 2 weeks. I went to see the GP and had my blood pressure medication changed and reduced.After 1 month I went back to the GP and he asked me to remain on blood pressure tablets. (despite my blood pressure no longer being high). 2 weeks later I went back to the hospital to see the consultant for post mortem results of our baby and to plan for future pregnancies. The consultant asked me to stop the blood pressure medication as my blood pressure was low and we put a plan in place for future pregnancies.

[JNWEDOB]

Mine post natal care was confused and somewhat lacking I think.

On leaving hospital I was told someone would come and get my BP checked each day over the next week. Unfortunately the community nurse who was to come was only available for limited hours which clashed with when I needed to be in the neonatal unit to feed my daughter.

I had suggested to the nurse that perhaps, being in a maternity hospital all day each day with my daughter it might be sensible and possible to have this checked there instead. Although I was told arrangements had been made there was evidently confusion somewhere or other as after a couple of days of being checked the hospital told me I wasn't supposed to have been going there after all. I ended up seeing the doctor again after a week and the final follow up was my standard six week check.

I was lucky that a week after discharge (around three weeks after delivery) my BP was back within the normal range and has stayed that way since. I never got checked again for proteinuria after discharge from hospital - I'm not entirely sure whether I was supposed to have been or not, although I get the impression that most people probably aren't.

Post-natally I was never told by the hospital or GP that it might be possible for me to have any kind of follow up with a consultant and was not offered advice about why I got it, the likelihood it might happen again or what I might want to do to reduce my risk.

It seemed ironic to me that it was my named community midwife who signed off my maternity records when I was discharge from midwifery monitoring/ care since I hadn't laid eyes on her since early in my pregnancy or spoken to her for many weeks as whenever I tried to book my ante natal appointments she was busy and unavailable.

I have received a lot of information since but this is what I have sought and found out myself - I would otherwise have still been somewhat un-informed and probably very worried. It does seem somewhat disappointing.

I think that the offer of some kind of follow up with a doctor should be standard and that some flexibility would be helpful in respect of those who are discharged from hospital but are still there for much or all of every day caring for a child in NICU/ SCBU as sadly this is probably not an uncommon situation to be in.