Recurrance of Marginal Insertion, HELLP, and Preeclampsia

I know this isn't a newborn question but here it goes anyway...

During my last pregnancy I had Preeclampia, Marginal insertion of the umbilical cord into the placenta, and HELLP Syndrome.  Because of these three things we ended up having a preemie girl who weighed 3 lbs 14 oz at birth.  Does anyone know if these things tend to re-occur or is it just something that happend?  I am by no means overweight...I am 5'3" 120 lbs so the fact that I even experienced preeclampsia was mind boggling to my dr.   I am 26 years old.  I am a little scared to get pregnant again because of everything that went wrong, we really were lucky that our daughter was fine.  But my husband and I really would like more children...not now...but some day!

Everything went wrong within 24 hours...I had a dr. appt the day before I had my daughter via emergency c-section and everything was fine!

I know I will be high risk the next time around because of all this.  What are the chances of developing these things again?  

[Van73]

I had HELLP Syndrome with DD#1.  I have been very fortunate and did not have it with DD#2 and have had no complications of it with DS. My dr's have all told me that I could get it again but it is more prevelant in first time mothers.  It has nothing to do with weight, etc.  This was almost 10 yrs ago when I had it, and it was very RARE then.  Dr's are still not 100% sure what causes it.  I know that your dr will keep a very close eye on you, looking for protiens in the urine, blood pressure, no salt diets, etc.  I had an emergency C-section with my DD#1 and had DD#2 VBACK.  You definitely should ask your dr about all these things , I just wanted to share my experiance with you!  Feel free to contact me if you would like.

[tiredbuthappy]

i had preeclampsia but thank goodness not HELLP Syndrome. i asked my dr how likely it was to happen again because i too am afraid. like Van said, he told me that it is more common in first-time moms, but they will watch closely for it just in case. he also said they don't know what causes it and there's nothing you can do differently to prevent it.

[peekawho]

The marginal insertion is a random occurance, but PIH and HELLP syndrome are more common with first time moms or moms pregnant by a new partner.

They will watch you carefully for it, b/c you are at higher risk than someone who has never had PIH or HELLP, but chances are good that it won't recur this time.  

I would ask for a consultation with a high risk perinatologist prior to becoming pregnant again, to outline exactly what the risks are, and if anything (like taking baby aspirin) during pregnancy might be recommended. There could also be some blood work that they might want to do prior to pregnancy to see if you have other, related problems.

Then you can decide if you want to undertake pregnancy again, once you have all your info.

[Phoenix223]

I had the HELLP Syndrome when I was pregnant with my 6 yr old & again this May with my youngest. My oldest was born at 29 weeks, weighing 2lbs 14 ozs & my youngest was born at 26 weeks, weighing 1lb 2.6 ozs. I was told by the high risk OB clinic that once you have HELLP early in the pregnancy (2nd trimester or so) you will most likely have it again, but if it strikes later on (beginning of 3rd trimester or so), you may be able to have a healthy pregnancy the next time around.