by Tabitha Blue posted in Pregnancy

I was 36 weeks pregnant when my doctor said something I'll never forget. "We have good news and bad news. The good news: You'll be leaving the hospital with your baby. The bad news: it will be a few days before that can happen."
I had arrived at my 36-week checkup believing it would be like the rest: a quick five minutes, including the time it took to pee on a stick. Though I was feeling more swollen than usual, I attributed it to the summer heat and my growing pregnant body.
I was only partially right.
Once the doctor walked into the room, he only took one look at me before the words came: "We're going to run a couple of tests." Up until this point I'd had a healthy pregnancy, nothing abnormal. This was something I never expected. When my blood work finally came back, the doctors decided to keep me overnight to test my urine. All through the night, my blood pressure was steady but high, as was my anxiety. Finally, the following afternoon I had a diagnosis: preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia is a complication of pregnancy that causes high blood pressure, kidney damage, and other issues for mothers and babies. It affects about 5?7 percent of all pregnancies, and most commonly develops during your last trimester, but can occur at any time during the last half of pregnancy, or even during labor and up to six weeks after delivery. Preeclampsia can develop even if you feel fine -- and it can progress slowly or become severe quickl...