Two weeks after the delivery of my daughter I began to notice swelling in my hands, feet and face. I didn't think much of it until I woke up with a bad headache and looked so swollen in my eyes that they were nearly closed.

I called my doctor and they thought it might be preeclampsia but weren't sure because I was two weeks postpartum. They told me to go the the ER and instead I went to the fire department who confirmed my normally very low BP was 195/98. I then went to the ER. I was treated very quickly and diagnosed with Postpartum Preeclampsia.

I spent three days in the hospital, was given drugs to prevent a seizure and put on magnesium sulfate for 24 hours. I had a horrible migraine that took in excess of thirty hours to break. My liver and cardiac enzymes were elevated and after treatment returned to normal. The preeclampsia caused a minor heart murmur and minor liver damage but nothing major. I am now taking Labetalol to control the high blood pressure but wonder how long it normally takes for preeclampsia to go away when it comes on during the postpartum period.

I am so thankful I found this site. I was five days post-partum and now I'm nine days. On the fifth day I went to the ER for the worst headache of my life. I also had chest pains. It was very strange and puzzled the doctors, because as soon as I lay down or sat down, the headache worsened but when I stood it would improve.

I ended up standing for almost 24 hours before they found that morphine worked on my headache. My blood pressure was 195/95 which is extremely high for me. I ran a low blood pressure, even during pregnancy. My pulse rate was low (still is) anywhere between 37-44. I was treated for everything, including spinal headache until a doctor saw that my liver enzymes were elevated and said I had postpartum pre-eclampsia. I also started to realize that when I would lie down I felt like I couldn't breathe and I had very swollen feet.

As of now, my blood pressure has been up and down the doctor is hesitant to give me bp medicine because he doesn’t know how long this will last and doesn’t want to drop it too low. This is a very scary time for me since there’s not an exact cure or answer. I'm very curious to hear what ended up happening with all of you and how and when it resolved.

I am three weeks postpartum. A week after delivery, I was seen in the ER with a blood pressure of 173/111. I was sent home because they thought it was due to a urinary tract infection.

I saw my OB the following Monday and my BP was still high (149/98). He gave me an option to be put on meds and I said no. It's been three weeks now, my BP is still high, I have headaches almost daily, and my vision has been awful. After reading these posts, I sure hope it is not postpartum preeclampsia left untreated.

My doctor missed the diagnosis, but in 15 years of practice, she had never seen a case. My preeclampsia occurred after my fifth child.

I had never had PE before, never had any complications, never had HBP. I had swelling and HBP seven days postpartum. I was sent home from triage and told it was a result of stress.

After lots of bed rest, two days later I seized and went into a coma. I was in ICU for two days and a monitored floor (at my request so I could see my babies) for two days. I am so grateful that I lived.

The ambulance driver is a family friend, and she thought that they were losing me for sure. God is good.

I gave birth to twin boys at 33 weeks. A day after they were born, I had a tightness in my chest, then I saw flashes of light in my peripheral vision (almost like little silver fish swimming in my eyes).

I couldn't see properly, everything seemed to be "on top of each other". As I was about to be discharged from hospital, one nurse insisted on checking my BP and it was raised. Within the next 24 hours, it hit 200/110. For the next two weeks, the doctors gave me huge amounts of meds to try to stabilise my BP including anti-seizure meds, steroids, bp meds etc. They caused it to swing from one extreme (80/40) to the other.

At one point, I lost my sight, was unable to speak and became paralysed on one side of my body. Fortunately an MRI indicated that I hadn't had a stroke and the doctors thought that perhaps it was some kind of a cluster migraine. It was one of the most frightening times of my life. I thought I was going to die. My sense of smell and hearing was heightened and this lasted for a few days. Light also hurt my eyes.

It's now 16 months on and I will never ever forget that time. I am exceptionally grateful for my beautiful little boys and the fact that I'm still around for them.

I would encourage any woman who notices swollen ankles, tightness in the chest or vision being a bit funny, to get their BP checked while sitting as well as lying down in case it's postural.

2.5 days after a c-section, my postpartum preeclampsia was caught by the night nurse during 3 a.m. rounds. I had a sudden spike in blood pressure to 186/106, which had come out of nowhere! (It was so surprising, she checked it more than once to be sure.)

The hospital started Magnesium in my I.V. very shortly thereafter, even though there was no protein in my urine, and my liver enzymes were only slightly elevated. Twelve hours later, my liver enzymes were even more elevated, so I shudder to think how high they would have soared without the 12-hours of magnesium! I had 12 additional hours of magnesium and then was sent home 36 hours later on blood pressure medication which I only needed for six weeks.

I am so thankful that my postpartum preeclampsia was caught, identified and treated so quickly that I never experienced any uncomfortable physical symptoms (such as headache, abdominal pain, nausea, blurry vision, etc)! I don't think I'll ever complain about a 3:00 am night nurse check again! --Elizabeth, Durham Regional Hospital, NC

I just delivered my son exactly one week ago. I noticed a day after I left the hospital my ankles and feet were swollen. They were four times their regular size.

I'm also a big believer on doing kegels after birth, because I have had a vaginal delivery for six children, but the fluid was so built up in my system I could not feel anything in my lower bottom, not even a Bm. This pretty much scared me. I thought I had nerve damage from delivering and pushing out the baby, but it was fluid build up.

The next thing I noticed I could not breathe. Yes, I have asthma but this was different. When I lay down, it felt like my breath was being cut short and it would wake me out of my sleep, then i got terrible back and chest pains. After these symptoms I went in to the emergency room, and nurses and doctors got to running around like crazy!

This scared the crap out of me. I thought I was going to die, leaving my babies behind. The doctors explained to me that I was being readmitted for postpartum preeclampsia, they put me back in the same room i had left and treated me for two days with magnesium sulfate to control the blood pressure, because it had sky rocketed, causing a slow heart rate. I never had high blood pressure, so this was very scary! Hopefully i will be fine. I was just released yesterday.

Gwen O. I just saw this post and article. I too had post-partum preeclampsia (that was never truly diagnosed as pre-e).

My symptoms were high BP, low heart rate (33-39 bpm at rest and when moving) and shortness of breath. I also never had a headache, even when my BP hit 210 /115! and no protein in my urine.

I ended up back in the hospital four days after delivery to get treated/observed for the low heart rate but did not get put on BP meds for a week and then my BP still soared and I was changed to a different med and was taking four times the normal dosage.

I then had a D&C as a specialist thought I could have a miniscule amount of retained products of conception. This was three weeks pp. After that my BP finally began to drop without meds. It was a scary and busy month post delivery.

My OB to this day insists it was not post partum preeclampsia. I also hope more doctors pay attention to these symptoms when the present without all of the symptoms. --Angela, Raleigh, NC

I did have the same problem. In my experience, nobody paid attention to me when I said that I had fluid retention up to my chest. I couldn't even bend my knees at discharge time after delivery, and I couldn't even wear my husband´s shoes, my feet were so swollen. but everyone at hospital said it was normal, but it wasn't. I normally have low blood pressure even during pregnancy.

so please, please listen to your patients. Because I had to stay five days at the hospital because of this, being so worried and nervous about the care of my little one who was not allowed to stay with me.

I had to bottle feed because of all tests that they had to run. And I did not know my baby had an allergy to milk protein, so in that moment she started to feel sick and I spent over a year trying to cure my little girl.

As you can see this problem turned my life upside down.

hope this helps.

I just got released from the hospital with postpartum preeclampsia. We caught it about a week after delivery. I would like to add to your list of symptoms a low heart rate, which in me caused some chest pain and shortness of breath. The research I have done suggests that preeclampsia will also present weird cardiac symptoms.

What was strange in my case also, is that I never had a headache or protein in my urine. My BP got to 160's/90's, I had lots of swelling in my feet, and a heart rate of 37-42 at rest which caused slight chest pain and shortness of breath.

Thanks for posting this information. I hope more women and doctors pay attention to this issue. --Gwen O., Grand Rapids, Michigan