A while ago I was approached by a journalist who writes for the Daily Mirror, about sharing Jack’s story.

I was nervous. We all have an impression of tabloids and the how the stories appear, very sensationalised and you question the accuracy sometimes. But to me, this was an opportunity to talk about the condition I developed that caused Jack’s early birth and help bring it to more people’s attention.

Statistically, only 2-8% of pregnant women will experience pre-eclampsia and only 0.5% will experience it severely. A lot of the preemies in the NICU will be there because the mother went into labour randomly or because the baby was measuring small, rather than because of what I had.

So I said yes. Lets tell our story to a national newspaper. And lets be glad its not one that allows unmoderated comments like the Daily Fail.

I gave her the link to my blog and a written overview of our story with pictures, then then an hour long telephone interview. The phone interview was hard because I went into more detail than I had in a while out loud and I got weepy a couple of times. But being able to speak out loud about it again was very healing. And Danya was very patient with me.

I’m really pleased with how the story turned out. It is accurate and fact-checked in regards to Pre-eclampsia and HELLP and I was especially glad that she put in about me getting rib pain in the 2 weeks leading up to Jack’s birth. I passed it off as an ordinary pregnancy symptom because the baby book said it was, but I now know that was a symptom of pre-e, the only one I ever got that I could feel. Proteinuria and high BP will only get picked up and midwife appointments.

I also talked about my mental health problems following Jack’s discharge from the NICU, my anxiety and body image. We should be breaking the taboo of mental illness.

Here is the link Daily Mirror story

I’m so glad I told our story so that more people can be aware of the condition and of post-natal mental health. I hope our story helps people and thank you all for the kind comments I have had about it.

Much love xxx