"I was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 34 weeks. My whole body was swollen, my vision was blurry, and I had a headache that wouldn't budge. I spent a week in hospital, with my blood pressure continuing to rise despite increasing doses of medication.

At 35 weeks the preeclampsia became severe with my blood pressure measuring 230 over 30, and I had convulsions. Within half an hour, my son was born by emergency C-section, and I was rushed to the ICU for magnesium sulfate. My son and I spent another week in hospital, although we were separated the whole time with him in Special Care.

I didn't get to meet him until 24 hours after his birth. It was a special, confusing, hard and emotional moment that started a very challenging recovery and healing journey. I'm still living with the aftermath of preeclampsia, with worrying kidney function, eyesight problems and ongoing hypertension. Thankfully my son hasn't had any ongoing complications from early delivery, although I definitely noticed that he wasn't a regular newborn when we came home! People underestimate late preterm babies because they seem like smaller versions of full term. But they're still undercooked! And that can be a tricky journey to go on after birth trauma. I'm very thankful for the online birth trauma and prematurity community!

I am so grateful for this online community, it's truly helped me heal for real."