497 | Erika, Pre-Eclampsia, HELLP Syndrome, CMV, missed miscarriage, emergency caesarean

Australian Birth Stories

In today’s heartfelt episode, Erika shares her challenging and inspiring journey into motherhood with her two little boys. Erika opens up about conceiving after a short period of trying, only to face the heartbreaking loss of her first pregnancy due to a missed miscarriage at 10 weeks. She candidly shares her emotional and physical experiences of conceiving again after this loss.

During her second pregnancy at 35 weeks and 2 days, shortly after her baby shower, Erika started to feel unwell. She had been experiencing uncomfortable swelling of her feet and felt generally off and uncomfortable. With just eight days left of work, she decided to go in, but as the sharp pain under her ribs continued, she left work to get checked at the hospital. Erika had developed pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome and had an emergency caesarean to deliver Lauchlan that day.

During her third pregnancy, Erika encountered another significant health scare when she contracted the Cytomegalovirus (CMV) during the first trimester. Erika’s doctor prescribed a course of antiretrovirals to help prevent the spread of the virus to her unborn baby. Thankfully, the treatment was successful, and the virus did not spread.

Today’s episode of the show is brought to you by my online childbirth education course, The Birth Class.

What makes The Birth Class so unique? Well, instead of learning from one person with one perspective, we’ve gathered nine perinatal health specialists to take you through everything you need to know about labour and birth.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.