"Pregnant, obese...and in danger"

[Bettie]

55. I've been pregnant 7 times

Full term intra partum birth was my first, due to a variety of things, none of which had to do with my weight. Mostly, it was due to a doctor who didn't answer a page and caused my emergency c-section to be delayed by nearly half an hour.

In any case, with 3 miscarriages were in there, I have three healthy boys, all delivered after pretty much textbook pregnancies even with my weight and "Advanced Maternal Age" with the last two.

However, fat phobia did almost cause me to die after the birth of my youngest.

I gave birth to him via c-section and was recovering well, until my second day in the hospital. I began to swell up. My blood pressure went up to the 120/80 range, which was really high for me.

I couldn't breathe when I lay down, I could barely breathe when I stood up.

They released me with the explanation that I'd be fine if i just worked on losing some weight after my release.

The next day, I started having visual disturbances (clouds of glowing fireflies that would come and go). Still couldn't breathe.

Husband took me to the ER where I spent over 10 hours with my 5 day old baby while they explained to me that I was having heart failure because of my weight. They checked for all sorts of things (including drugs) but never once called my OB even though I requested it multiple times. With every stage of testing, someone told me my weight was killing me.

They sent me home with a diuretic and some antibiotics (I had gained a nasty upper respiratory infection during my hospital stay...baby had it too) and told my husband to prepare for me to die of heart failure because of my weight (literally, that is what they told him).

Next morning, I began to see lights in my peripheral vision and had a terrible headache. I was more swollen than before, even with the water pills they had given me.

I had a seizure in my living room. Turns out I had post partum eclampsia. It is very uncommon, but happens.

If they had called my OB office, it would have been obvious to them, had I been thin, it would have been obvious, but because I was fat, there were assumptions made all along the line that nearly killed me.

Those assumptions kill.