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“Alright, well, your high blood pressure could lead to a stroke that could result in brain damage due to interrupted blood flow to your brain.” I went straight in. It wasn’t my usual style of delivery, but I could tell that she just wanted the facts as quickly as possible and with as little fuss too. “There’s also a slight chance that you could develop HELLP syndrome rather than Eclampsia.” I stopped to make sure she was following. “Have you heard of it before?”
“I don’t think so.”
“It’s a rare liver and blood clotting disorder, the only way to treat it is to deliver the baby. You could also develop fluid in the lungs, kidney failure and liver failure. You could suffer from D.I.C.—Disseminated. Intravascular. Coagulation.”
“That sounds scary.” Jenna looked up at me as her fingers traced up and down her bump.
“It is, Jenna. I can’t tell you what it will do to you for sure because it could go either way. It could stop you from clotting or it could form clots throughout your body. The latter could result in irreparable organ damage. Do you understand what that means?”
“Either way I’m screwed?”
“You could bleed out.”
“Like Haemophilia?”
“That’s something completely different.”
“But the result is the same, yes?”
“Yes.”
She took a deep breath and held it for a moment. A hand clawed at her chest as the other splayed protectively over her belly. Jamie reached over and handed her the oxygen mask again. “Are you alright to carry on?”
She dropped the mask next to her on the bed as she asked, “Am I going to make it through this at all?”
“She has to tell you everything even though some of these things are rarer than rocking horse poo.” He laid his hand over hers on her bump in reassurance.
“Go on.” She looked at me to keep going as she shook her hand slightly so that Jamie took his back.
“The biggest risk for you, I believe, is Eclampsia. Pregnancy related seizures or fits that could lead to permanent disability or brain damage.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose as she let out a long dejected sigh, “Jesus, I either die or become a vegetable?”
Jamie looked at me, as if telling me to put her mind at ease. But I couldn’t. She had to understand the risks and decide for herself what was more important to her—ensuring her life or her baby’s.
When I didn’t say anything, he jumped in. Shuffling to the edge of his seat as he told her, “These are risks that might never happen. You’re a healthy woman in her prime.”
She let out a harsh laugh. Somewhere between incredulous and sardonic. “Jamie, don’t bullshit me, I’m not far off being categorised as an OAP pregnancy. So, don’t tell me I’m in my prime because being healthy didn’t exactly stop me from ending up here.”
“What he’s trying to say is that just because you have Pre-Eclampsia doesn’t mean you’re going to develop any of those complications, and you’re not considered a geriatric pregnancy at all. More and more of my patients are in their late thirties to mid-forties, so you’re not even close to geriatric taking those statistics into consideration.” Sam assured her from behind me.
“And what about the baby? My baby? What could happen?”
“There’s a likelihood he or she could have Neonatal Respiratory Disease. It means that the baby could have difficulty breathing because its lungs aren’t fully developed. There are certain things we can give you to help it whilst you’re still carrying, but there’s always a good chance that it won’t be enough to avoid it. The later into the pregnancy that baby is born the better chance he or she stands of not having it at all.”
“That’s it?” She looked up at me in question.
“There are other complications that can come from that. But most Preemies that get to one year go on to be healthy children.” I straightened my back as I cleared my throat. Shutting her notes on my lap. This was the biggest blow, even if it was the one least likely to occur. “There’s also a small chance of stillbirth. That isn’t a complication, Jenna. I can’t tell you why or how, just that it could happen.”
“A chance is a chance, though, right?”
“In the grand scheme of things it’s miniscule, but yes, it could occur.”
She was silent for a moment. I wanted to hold her hand and promise her that at the end of all this she’d have a healthy, living baby. But I couldn’t. I knew better than that, and I had first-hand experience.
I watched her as she sat up and swivelled her legs off the bed so that she was sat next to me. She removed the Oximeter from her finger and the blood pressure cuff from her arm. She popped the baby monitor belly band letting it fall around her on the bed and turned towards me and Sam. She looked between us like she was weighing up all the cons in her head. Wait and hope or take action and fight.
“Jamie, I need to speak to Doctor Sterling.” She turned towards him, her features still pinched in thought. “In private. I want to talk to her and Quincy, alone.”
