I am a HELLP Syndrome survivor.  I am also a mother, wife, sister, daughter, writer and friend.  But above all of those things I am a survivor and so is my daughter Molly.  It's getting close to her 12th birthday and that means two things.  It's the anniversary of my miracle baby being born healthy and strong, for which I am grateful every day.  But, it also means that I have been sick for twelve years now.  The after effects of HELLP Syndrome made it too dangerous for me to have more children and weakened my immune system, forcing me to give up my teaching career. 

 The one thing this terrible disease didn’t take away from me is my writing.  In fact, it made me stronger during the novel submission process.  Getting rejected from a publishing house is nothing compared to almost dying.  All right, it feels just as bad in the moment, but I’m a survivor right?

  HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening pregnancy complication usually considered to be a variant of preeclampsia.   It causes H (hemolysis, which is the breaking down of red blood cells),
EL (elevated liver enzymes) and 
LP (low platelet count).  Think of Lady Sybil’s death on Downton Abbey.  It took my poor mother a week to recover from that episode!

The following guest blog is written by my new Australian friend Tabitha Thompson, author of Little Miracle, who also suffered from this terrible disease.  Tabitha tells her HELLP story below.  A true survivor, she wrote a book to raise awareness of this disease, while donating the proceeds to HELLP related charities.  Her book purchase information is at the end of the blog.

                                                                                             My Little Miracle
                                                                                          by Tabitha Thompson

There was a moment in time where everything stopped for me. I was catapulted into a world I knew nothing about. A world where tiny specks of triumph, miracles, trauma and tragedy all lived somehow cohesively; a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). 

At just 30 weeks pregnant, my life changed in a matter of hours. I was told that I had a potentially fatal pregnancy complication called HELLP syndrome and that in order to save my own life I had to have my baby delivered 10 weeks before her due date. I had been experiencing severe upper right quadrant pain it had been progressively getting worse over a number of weeks. I had a sore shoulder and had been feeling a little weak too. I simply put all these symptoms down to normal aches and pains that most of us experience when pregnant. I could never have guessed that it was actually my kidneys and liver shutting down. Thankfully, my daughter, Ruby was delivered healthy but was very small. She weighed 1044 grams and had a few issues, for example, Ruby was not able to breathe independently. She suffered from bradycardias, tachycardia’s, and frequent apnoea’s. Ruby had a nasal gastric tube for many months and required 10 long weeks of hospitalisation (in NICU and later special care nursery). Gratefully I can now report that Ruby is now 14 months old and doing just fine. I also recovered well.

What bothered me after my experience was the lack of awareness about HELLP syndrome. Why hadn’t anyone of my friends and family heard of it? How could this be? As I delved into my own research, I learned some tragic facts. There were fathers raising their babies alone. There were grandparents raising their grandbabies. There were women who had sadly lost their little ones, often at full-term. There were stories where women had been misdiagnosed. Not only that, there were tales of triumph; women who had beat HELLP syndrome and babies who had survived severe prematurity.

Grouped with a few other HELLP syndrome survivors, I decided to change the landscape of HELLP syndrome. Like some women before us, we wanted to broaden awareness so that other women, like myself, would know when to seek help and would be aware of what symptoms to look out for. We began a non-profit project where I wrote a children’s book, ‘Little Miracle’. It is a lovely keepsake for any mother and child who have faced adversity during and after birth. The book is being sold worldwide and has already been purchased by people in Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA and Canada. To create awareness was our main objective. To raise funds for charities that share our vision was our other goal.

To purchase ‘Little Miracle’ or to learn more about what we are doing, please visit www.facebook.com/littlemiraclebook.