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I’ve been pregnant twice and had two wonderful children. And I’m not doing it again. I love kids, but my body does not cope well with pregnancy. Both times I had hyperemesis gravidarum and only coped due to two daily tablets of zofran- the drug they give to cancer patients to deal with the nausea associated with chemotherapy.

My first pregnancy was a roller coaster of sickness and being unable to go to work. Then at 36 weeks, I went for a routine checkup. The next day my daughter was born by semi emergency c-section as I had developed pre-eclampsia and the liver function tests were so bad my doctor said “for kidney failure we have dialysis, for liver failure we have nothing”. My daughter had some complications and was taken to westmead children’s hospital. I couldn’t travel to see her as I was unwell myself. She left on Saturday and didn’t come back to me until the Wednesday, with the all clear.

I was never told that any subsequent pregnancy would have to be a csection, but when I returned to the OB when pregnant for the second time, I was told it would be. Again I suffered from hyperemesis and horrendous reflux. At 34 weeks I was diagnosed with fatty liver of pregnancy. Google it. It says it is universally fatal. I went for monitoring every two days, my mondays, wednesdays and fridays became a blur of blood tests, ctg monitoring and blood pressure levels. Again my liver was doing whacky things. My OB had to go away and prepared me for the likelihood that I would be having my csection done by someone else. I refused to agree.

He arrived back spot on 37 weeks. I had the csection that afternoon. The outcome was a monstrous boy (3.845kgs) who is absolutely divine.

I’ve been told not to have anymore children. I’m so lucky to have survived the two pregnancies unscathed that I’m taking those words as gospel. I’ll have to have ongoing monitoring as my liver is still not completely normal, but I have two amazing children and I’m so grateful for that!

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Posted by la_kyla, 6th May 2013