I survived HELLP syndrome
This rare form of pre-eclampsia almost killed Samantha Steele. This is her story…
“I DIDN’T KNOW it yet, but I was dying. At 33 weeks pregnant, my body was slowly shutting down, and when I woke up in the pre-dawn light on a regular Wednesday morning throbbing with pain, I had no idea I’d be having my baby 16 hours later.”
NOT YOUR USUAL PREGNANCY ACHES
“At 4am, I woke up with a deep ache under my ribs. It felt like my baby was clawing her way out through my rib cage, and the discomfort left me breathless. My swollen feet had puffed out like potatoes, and every cell throbbed and ached. I left the bedroom and tried some yoga to relieve the pressure. It was the most fatigued I’d ever been in my life. The third trimester, I thought – just as difficult as everyone said it would be. Richard, my husband, hugged me, and I started to cry. ‘How am I going to give birth, if I can’t even handle being pregnant?’ I asked him. I was seeing my gynae at 8am and hoped she could give me some pain pills that were safe for both me and the little angel I carried. Meanwhile, under the surface, my blood pressure was skyrocketing, my liver was going into crisis mode, my platelet level was plummeting to borderline deadly numbers, and my baby had lost weight in utero. I wouldn’t know any of this until I visited the gynae later that morning.
FROM 0 TO BABY IN 48 HOURS
“Because of some blood pressure scares in the preceding weeks, my gynae, Dr Heather Allan-Gould, booked me in for a due diligence appointment that morning – an additional appointment to the normal roster in the third trimester. “After doing an ultrasound, blood pressure and urine test, the gynae told me I had pre-eclampsia and was going to be checked into the hospital immediately. My blood pressure was dangerously high, my baby had lost 200g in a week, and my urine had very high protein levels – all very worrying.
“I was going to have my baby in 48 hours. My heart dropped, and I started to cry as my mind raced with all the things we hadn’t done yet. She didn’t even have a name yet. How could I be a mother in two days?
“My beautiful visions of having a natural birth with a doula were completely crushed, and my birth plan was spiralling out of control. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to
go into labour and feel connected with my body. I was supposed to be in touch with my baby as she left my womb and entered the world. We were supposed to have a ‘golden hour’ together where she latched and we started our breastfeeding relationship magically and naturally. “All of my visions were tumbling to the floor around my feet, and I was dazed and tearful.
“Luckily, through some kind of crazy premonition, I’d packed my hospital bag that weekend and had done a pretty thorough hand-over at work the day before. Still not fully comprehending what was happening, I told Richard to get the car seat ready, so we could take our 33-week premature baby home after birth.”
NOT PRE-ECLAMPSIA
“After some more tests, the gynae walked into the labour ward and a chill entered the room when we saw the expression on her face. ‘You’re having your baby today,’ she said. ‘You don’t have pre-eclampsia, you have a much rarer condition called HELLP. Your platelet level is dangerously low, and the next steps, if we don’t treat you, are seizures and organ failure.’
“This was the second time I’d seen Richard cry. I found out he and the family were worried I’d die, but all I could think about was my baby coming into the world so early. Because of my dangerously low platelet levels, I couldn’t even be awake during my c-section. If they nicked a blood vessel, I could be paralysed, so I’d have to be under general anaesthetic and only see my little girl the next day. Richard would have skin-on-skin time with our daughter when she was born.”
AFTER BIRTH
“The c-section took forever to come and then went by in a flash. I woke up dizzy, nauseous and disoriented from surgery, and Richard showed me photos on his phone of our daughter. She met my family a full day before she met me, and the distance between me and my child felt glacial.
“That night, I tried to stop the room spinning from the anaesthetic while my family celebrated this new life. My thoughts kept going to my little baby all alone in an incubator.
“After a long lonely morning in the ICU ward – one of the hardest mornings of my life – I met my tiny, 1.65kg baby, who we later named Maya. I was in pain, in a wheelchair and immediately put her tiny, red body on my chest. She was so small and delicate and full of tubes. A wave of guilt came over me that
I couldn’t keep her in my body until she was bigger and stronger. But in the end, she was safer out my womb than in it!”
IN THE END
“After birth, all my dangerous symptoms cleared up. The pain in my ribs went away, my swelling dropped, my platelet level started to rise and I felt less fatigued. In fact, I recovered so quickly, I was treated like a normal c-section and checked out of ICU in a mere 12 hours.
“My next journey was one of a neonatal ICU mom. Today, Maya is six months old and is a strong and feisty 5kg baby with a loud voice, strong opinions and a completely sweet little chuckle. Holding my little girl in my arms, I’m just grateful that we’re both flourishing and forever grateful to my gynae for catching the warning signs so early. I’m completely healed but keep thinking – if I hadn’t seen the doctor that day, what would have happened?”