What to know about Eclampsia
Mrs Anifowoshe was diagnosed with high blood pressure in her sixth month of pregnancy; in her eighth month, she had to be hospitalised for weeks before she gave birth to a healthy child.
She said she was lucky to have been detected early as her friend who did not attend ante-natal regularly was diagnosed very late and lost her child.
Eclampsia is a condition in which one or more convulsions occur in a pregnant woman suffering from high blood pressure, often followed by coma and posing a threat to the health of mother and baby. It is considered as a serious medical condition that affects women during pregnancy.
Preeclampsia which leads to eclampsia complicates about 2-10 percent of pregnancies.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), its incidence is seven times higher in developing countries (2.8% of live births) than in developed countries. It is a rare condition, affecting one in every 2,000 to 3,000 pregnancies every year.
While symptoms often appear during pregnancy as a condition known as preeclampsia, the condition can go undetected until it develops into eclampsia.
A consultant gynecologist in Abuja, Dr Sam Ojah, described eclampsia as a very serious disease that is potentially fatal and occurs when a pregnant woman has issues of high blood pressure.
He said eclampsia is the end of a sequence of events in pregnancy, explaining that for a woman to have eclampsia, she must have had one of the hypertensive diseases in pregnancy that are classified into; pregnancy induced hypertension and chronic hypertension.
"The pregnancy induced hypertension occurs in a pregnant woman after 24 weeks of gestation while chronic hypertension occurs in a woman that is already hypertensive. Any woman in these classifications can develop eclampsia."
He explained further that any pregnant woman with symptoms or signs of severe headaches, blurred vision and dizziness calls for serious attention adding that such symptoms can lead to eclampsia.
Dr Ojah said the cause of eclampsia is the placenta tissue which gives the only option of treatment as removal the placenta.
He said the major cause of eclampsia is not known but that the risk factors include primigravida (people getting pregnant for the very first time), late pregnancy (over 40 years), people with traces of hypertension in their family, women who are obese, teenage pregnancy and people that have multiple gestation (twins, triplets and so on).
The consultant also said that avoiding preeclampsia is basically accessing good healthcare services. "If you attend a hospital with good professionals they would be able to identify the risk factors and monitor the patient properly.
"Any notable signs and symptoms can be closely managed by the professionals. It can also be managed by change in lifestyle of the patient. For example, stopping intake of alcohol, cigarette and reducing salt intake. Drugs are given to monitor the progression of the blood pressure."
He advised women have symptoms to gynecologists.
"This will help to provide optimum care to a large extent. And when all the necessary checkups are done, the weight of the baby and the gestational that meet age would determine when to intervene. The woman may be advised to go for a caesarian section because most times, the baby might not be strong enough to go through the stress of labour," he said.
However, if the pregnancy is due already, meaning a pregnancy up to 37 weeks, the woman will be allowed to have induction of labour if everything is okay, he explained further. He said if the baby is up 34-36 weeks and its continuation can bring undue risk to the mother and the baby itself, an option of caesarian or induced labour is suggested since the ultimate care is to deliver the baby.
He said every woman that has severe pre-eclampsia is given magnesium sulphate to reduce the development of eclampsia.
Pregnant women are advised to shun drug abuse, as high intake of salt, drinks that contain caffeine, social drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and cigarette is calling for eclampsia.