1 year ago today I was admitted to the hospital 4 days after giving birth and was diagnosed with severe postpartum preeclampsia. I wanted to share my experience to make others aware of how postpartum preeclampsia can be so dangerous, especially due to the fact that it can happen up to 6 weeks postpartum, and after giving birth and leaving the hospital most women do not see their doctor until that 6 week mark. If I wasn’t aware of what to look out for in my experience, I could have easily mistaken my symptoms as flu like or just exhaustion from birth and caring for a newborn, and that could have cost me my life.

For that reason, I’m joining the 2026 Promise Walk to raise funds for Preeclampsia awareness and research. I’m walking for women who have felt minimized or dismissed in their pregnancy and postpartum concerns. I’m walking for more education during pregnancy BEFORE women find out they have some form of preeclampsia. I’m walking for awareness on the dangers of postpartum preeclampsia. I’m walking to honor my experience and to begin healing from it. 

PART 1:

I had a scary and painful pregnancy. Around 18 weeks I started feeling tightening near my liver that I and my doctors thought was Braxton Hicks contractions. The pain became progressively worse and became a feeling of constant heaviness, like a rock was sitting under my rib cage. At its worst, it would feel like someone was squeezing my liver from the inside. By 30 weeks I was on my hands and knees because it felt like my liver was about to burst. I told my husband i needed to go to the hospital. I was tested for preeclampsia while there and my levels came back normal so they were going to send me home. I lost it and sobbed so hard i couldn’t talk. My husband had to tell them it was the pain that was scaring me. They ended up admitting me and thank God they did because I went into preterm labor the next day at just over 30 weeks. I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. I was put on magnesium and steroids for my daughter’s heart and lung development and given meds to help stop the labor and morphine to help with the pain. The fear in those moments when they tell you you’re in labor that early is indescribable. I remember the NICU doctor telling me what to expect if they couldn’t stop the labor while they were getting me hooked up to magnesium. I don’t remember much after that except the feeling of burning from the inside out from the mag, and then the nausea and dizziness. I had to be on that for 12 hours. Fortunately they were able to stop it by the next day. 

After being released from the hospital, the pain continued to worsen all the way to birth at 40 weeks. I remember having thoughts of “I hope if my liver ruptures they get my daughter out in time” “If I die from this, I hope I don’t suffer too long”. I even had these thoughts during labor and delivery.  

Throughout all this, I also experienced fluctuations in my liver enzyme levels. Sometimes they would be higher than they should be and other times they would be normal. One of my OB’s told me that I was a mystery at this point, and all they could do at the moment was monitor me closely and see what my body decided to do. 

I saw a high risk pregnancy doctor (MFM), a GI specialist, and a liver specialist. The one to make me feel the most heard was the GI doctor. I saw him during my hospital  stay and he had me do my second liver ultrasound while I was there. He compared it with the one my OB ordered several weeks prior. He listened and took his time explaining things to me and answering my questions. He said based on the comparison of my two ultrasounds there was some enlargement in my liver in the second one, and that my pain was likely due to whatever was happening with my liver. He advised me to see the liver specialist. When I saw the liver specialist, it was about a month after my hospitalization. She said her radiologists reviewed my two liver ultrasounds, but said they didn’t notice anything major, and that the enlargement the GI doctor saw was subjective. She said my pain was likely due to the fact that I’m petite and my baby may just be positioned in just the right way to cause that pain. She never had me do a liver ultrasound to see if there were any changes. I asked for one and she told me it wasn’t necessary based on my current labs. The MFM just scared the shit out of me. I only saw her once and she was not concerned at the beginning of the appointment (and somewhat rude when I pushed back on the severity of my pain).  Then when I was getting ready to leave, she called me back to her office and reviewed my symptoms with me again, and said I needed to watch not only for preeclampsia, but also HELLP and acute fatty liver of pregnancy. All of which she said can happen quickly and be very deadly. She said if my symptoms get any worse I needed to go to the hospital asap. I just left that office and sobbed uncontrollably in my car. How much worse could it get? How much more pain could I handle?

I also saw my OBs and midwives twice a week from 30 weeks until the end of my pregnancy. Overall, some of them took me more seriously than others. I’m grateful for the ones who listened. I laugh looking back on one moment. During one of my weekly NST’s I was in a lot of pain having to sit there. My midwife walked in to check on me, and based on how I looked she asked me if I was having contractions. I said, “Nope, just the pain near my liver, just my everyday experience.” ? 

The birth was an intense and overwhelming, but beautiful experience as I look back on it. On 4/25/25 I started feeling mild cramping that wouldn’t stop. I called my doula and midwives and they said to wait for the pain to get more intense before coming to the hospital. I listened to them for a couple hours, but the contractions never felt worse, just constant. So I told my husband “screw this we need to go in”. I had learned by this point to trust my body and my instincts. Plus based on my previous appointments that week, I was already 5cm dilated and only felt like Braxton hicks contractions. I was 7cm when I got to the hospital and wasn’t feeling much. My midwife and nurses had no idea I would be that far along. When they broke my water, all hell broke loose!  I progressed to 10cm within 20 minutes so I wasn’t able to get an epidural. Then I ended up pushing for 4 hours ? But looking back, the birth was the easiest part of this whole experience. I’ll never forget when they placed her on my chest and the way she looked at me. I just remember feeling so relieved that she and I were both safe in that moment.

I was so happy to be done with that entire experience. Now that my daughter was safely here, i could move on, forget about the pain and the fear and just focus on my baby and those cuddles ? or so I thought…

PART 2:

I was aware of the warning signs and symptoms to look out for due to the liver complications during my pregnancy. I went home after the birth on 4/27/25, and felt okay. I woke up on 4/29/25 and saw that my face looked mildly jaundice. I instantly thought of the liver issues I experienced during my pregnancy, but thought I was just overly tired. I remember asking my husband "Do I look yellow to you?" When he said yes, I knew something was wrong. The night before I had some swelling in my feet, and I had taken my blood pressure just to be safe, and it was around 115/70...perfectly normal. When I took it after noticing the jaundice in my face, it was around 145/95. The threshold for preeclampsia concerns is 140/90. I called the midwife line at my doctors office and they told me to go to the ER for possible preeclampsia. Driving to the ER i remember my husband looking at me at one point and saying "Gosh babe you really are yellow." I remember getting really scared in that moment, but trying to hold it together. I got to the ER and was admitted pretty quickly since it wasn't busy. Having to say goodbye to my 4 day old daughter is a memory that still disturbs me at times. Hello mom guilt! I remember seeing her face so clearly and trying not to breakdown in that moment and telling her "Mama loves you baby girl and I'll see you when I get home." My husband had to leave to take our daughter home and came back a little while later. I don't remember much of that time except getting settled into the ER room and just watching my blood pressure go up and down and trying to sleep. I remember one of the ER doctors came in and looked at my blood pressure readings. He asked what brings me in. I told him about my concern about my face color, the swelling, and my blood pressure at home. He looked at my face and said I just looked pale and my blood pressure was fluctuating, but not off the charts, so I was probably just exhausted from having a newborn. Fortunately, one of the doctors from Labor and Delivery came to see me, and it was the one I saw during my preterm labor scare at 30 weeks pregnant. So she had them draw labs for preeclampsia and another ultrasound for my liver...my 3rd liver ultrasound in this whole experience. I was in the ER for about 10 hours, waiting to be seen by the doctors, waiting for the blood draws and results. I remember random moments, but most of it is a blur. I remember crying at random moments, being wheeled through the hospital and watching the lights on the ceiling as I was wheeled through the hallways and being so tired. But I'll never forget when the doctor came in and confirmed my liver levels were over double the upper limit and said that this is something that can happen with severe preeclampsia, and if I wasn't treated I could die.  My liver levels were normal just 4 days ago when i gave birth. And all i remember feeling in that moment was how tired I was. Tired of the pain. Tired of the fear. Tired of my symptoms and pain being dismissed or minimized by too many people.

I was put on magnesium for 24 hours for the second time since my preterm labor scare. I still remember the fear of the pain in that because I knew what was coming with the magnesium...the feeling of burning from the inside out, the nausea, the dizziness, the inability to get out of the bed for those 24 hours, and not being able to eat or drink anything except ice chips for the next 24 hours. 

One of my nurses stayed close to me during the most intense part of the magnesium bolus and showed me pictures of her dogs and kept me covered in ice packs to distract me from the worst of it. There were so many good people I met along the way. Most of my nurses were incredible. And i met an incredible woman named Price at my doctors office who did my blood draws each week during my pregnancy. She was such a comforting presence at those appointments.

I was released after 3 days on a Thursday afternoon. I didn’t see one doctor during my treatment. One of the midwives did come to check on me. But i wasn’t informed of what to look out for when I was sent home. My blood pressure ended spiking around 11pm that next night, a Friday. It was the night before our 1 year wedding anniversary. I woke up from a nap drenched in sweat, dizzy, and nauseous. I checked my blood pressure and it was 160/100. I panicked and told my husband i needed to go back to the ER. I was there until 6am or so and they finally let me go and said that while healing from preeclampsia you can experience blood pressure fluctuations. And as long as it comes down from those high numbers, i wouldn’t need to come back to the hospital. I still don’t understand why I wasn’t told this could happen. 

I'm so grateful for the doctors and nurses that did take my pain and symptoms more seriously than others. I'm grateful I educated myself throughout my pregnancy and trusted my instincts. If i hadn't been aware or just brushed off the symptoms as "normal postpartum", my experience with postpartum preeclampsia would have been much worse.  

That’s why I’m participating in the 2026 Detroit Promise Walk.  I’m walking for so many reasons