Mother's Day Weekend Event Raises Awareness of Preeclampsia

What better weekend to call attention to a condition that endangers the lives of roughly one in 12 pregnant women and the babies they carry than Mother's Day weekend?

That must be exactly what Preeclampsia Foundation officials were thinking when they decided to schedule more than three dozen charity walks in the US and Canada for Saturday, May 12, including one right here in South Jersey.

Gloucester Township Patch contributor Trish Adkins, who suffered from preeclampsia while carrying both of her young daughters, is an invited speaker for the pre-walk festivities planned for the Philadelphia/South Jersey Promise Walk, which will be held at Challenge Grove Park, in nearby Cherry Hill.

To register or learn more about ways to support the Cherry Hill Promise Walk, visit the local walk's registration and donation website and its Facebook page.

Preeclampsia is a medical condition most notably marked by dangerously high blood pressure in pregnant women, putting the lives of both mothers and their unborn children at risk. The only way to treat preeclampsia is to deliver the child.

Adkins had her first child, Lily, at 29 weeks, as a result of the condition. Her second daughter, Chloe, had to be delivered at 31 weeks.

While preeclampsia typically develops no earlier than 20 weeks into a pregnancy, Adkins cautioned, "It can happen at any point. I've heard of it happening before the baby is viable."

It can even happen after the baby has been delivered. That's exactly what happened to Sarah Hughes, coordinator of the Cherry Hill Promise Walk.

Two days after her second child was born, Hughes woke up with a headache, blurred vision and shortness of breath.

"I am an educated woman that researches everything, yet I knew nothing about preeclampsia when I had it, and it was my second pregnancy," Hughes said. "This is why volunteers like Trish and myself will spend our lives trying to educate women and health-care providers about the importance of knowing the signs and symptoms of preeclampsia." 

Preeclampsia impacts more than 300,000 American women and babies each year, and is a leading cause of premature birth. Globally, preeclampsia kills 76,000 women and 500,000 infants each year.

Gov. Chris Christie has declared May as Preeclampsia Awareness Month. (See proclamation by clicking on the attached PDF file.)

As of Friday afternoon, the Cherry Hill Promise Walk had raised $12,073, just $1,520 short of its goal. Nationally, the Preeclampsia Foundation is attempting to raise $400,000, but is not quite halfway there yet.

Hughes notes that 92 percent of all fund raised through the Promise Walk goes directly to programmatic funding, which includes providing patient support and education, raising public awareness, catalyzing research, and improving health-care practice.