Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As many of you know, we lost our first child, Eliza Daisy India Hutchings on the 11th June 2013.  During my pregnancy the doctors noticed some growth restriction with Eliza and high blood pressure with me, and as my pregnancy progressed I began to get more and more unwell.  It wasn't until a chance appointment at the hospital when a doctor took my blood pressure that severe early onset pre-eclampsia was diagnosed at 26 weeks.

I was taken immediately by ambulance to a hospital in London that specialises in very premature births.  It was a very scary time and I spent a week needing answers and feeling completely overwhelmed and scared.  I spent time in the high dependency unit and was moved from bed to bed because it seemed the staff didn't really know what to do with me.  Eliza gave a good fight, but on the 11th June 2013 a scan showed that there was no movement and she had passed away.

I had to go through the trauma of childbirth knowing that my daughter would be stillborn.  The nurse dressed her in a baby grow and hat and we held her and said goodbye.  Ed registered her birth and death at the same time.  We buried her at a local church next to her great grandmother in a beautiful spot where there are plenty of birds and beautiful flowers.

The scariest part of it all was the mixed messages I was getting daily from doctors and nurses at the hospital.  One would be full of hope and then the next would be telling me the outcome didn't look good.  It was an extreme roller coaster and this was the last thing I needed with the high blood pressure that goes alongside pre-eclampsia.  

This is the problem with pre-eclampsia.  No one knows really what causes it.  Doctors and nurses can only guess at any outcomes.  The only real cure for it is to give birth, but when your baby is so premature it is a hard judgement to make.  In the end the doctors told me that they had to save my life first and that if Eliza made it, then that would be a bonus.

More people need to be aware of pre-eclampsia; worldwide, 76,000 women and 500,000 babies (1,000 in the UK) die every year from the condition.  In Latin America, it is the number one cause of maternal death.

We went on to have two perfect children, Jude and Grace.  But we always wonder what Eliza would be like now; she would be at school now, would she look like one of her siblings?  Would she be as senstive and imaginative as Jude or as hilarious and chatty as Grace? She will always be our first child and I will always be a mother of 3.

So, this year I decided to run the marathon to raise funds for the vital work that Action for Pre-eclampsia undertakes.  I would be so grateful if you would help me.

I would like to thank my family for supporting me on this journey and also to the Peake Fitness gym at the Stoke By Nayland Club for their help with my training and for letting me use their running machines at all hours.


https://action-on-pre-eclampsia.org.uk/public-area/