Preeclampsia: A Common Complication of Late Pregnancy

What You Should Know About This Common Complication of Late Pregnancy

By Andrea Renskoff

"I was having a flawless pregnancy until my 30th week," recalls Sheila Johnson. "Then I started to experience heartburn, like a pain on the top of my tummy up by the diaphragm. My doctor told me to take an antacid."

When the discomfort didn't pass, Johnson's doctor thought perhaps she had developed gallstones and suggested a trip to the ER. At the hospital, Johnson was moved to labor and delivery and, with a sky-high blood pressure reading, diagnosed as having preeclampsia.

Who is at Risk?

Also known as toxemia, preeclampsia is a condition characterized by the development of high blood pressure and protein in the urine after the 20th week of pregnancy. It affects 5 percent to 8 percent of pregnant women. Those most at risk include mothers over age 40 and under 20, those in their first pregnancy, mothers carrying multiple babies, those whose relatives have had the condition, mothers who are obese, and those who already have high blood pressure. Dr. Judith Mikacich, an OB-GYN at UCLA Medical Center, had the condition herself and delivered twin girls at 34 weeks gestation.

"We see cases from all walks of life, it's nondenominational," she says. "Here I was an older, OB-GYN mom carrying twins, but it doesn't seem to relate to stress."

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Andrea Egan had experiences similar to Johnson's with her first and fourth children.

"With my youngest, I woke up one day at 33-1/2 weeks with a bad headache that wouldn't go away," she says. "When I went to the doctor, they diagnosed me and called an ambulance to take me right to the hospital to deliver." Only two weeks earlier at her routine prenatal visit, no problems were apparent, Egan adds.

Preeclampsia, if undetected and untreated, can lead to eclampsia (seizures) or "HELLP syndrome" (hemolysis, elevated liver enzyme levels and low platelet count), which, in rare cases, can lead to postpartum health issues such as chronic high blood pressure and liver or kidney problems. But for the majority of mothers, treatment just means delivery.

"In most cases, it's mild enough and it's caught early enough, and mom and baby walk out of the hospital with, at most, a one day delay to follow the functions until they return to normal," says Mikacich.