I’d urge all mums to be checked for kidney problems

[okarol]

‘I was lucky with my pregnancy, but I’d urge all mums to be checked for kidney problems’

By Sarah Neville
Thursday March 13 2008

A YOUNG Dublin mum has warned women to get checked for kidney problems after she suffered a difficult pregnancy as a result of the condition.

Aoife Owens (31), from Rathfarnham, discovered she had kidney problems six years ago.

However, her condition worsened after she became pregnant and ended up on dialysis. “In May 2006 I got married and in September I found out I was pregnant,” Ms Owens said.

She was delighted with the news but when she went to the doctor, “suddenly it was panic stations”.

Being pregnant when you have kidney problems can be dangerous and doctors had to monitor her very closely.

“The whole pregnancy was a day by day thing,” she said. “They were seeing how far they could push my body before one of us got sick.”

At just 29 weeks, her son Rhys was born, weighing only 2.5lbs, and he had to stay in the ICU for six weeks. Two weeks after she took baby Rhys home from the hospital, Aoife was put on dialysis and nearly a year later she is still getting nightly treatment. “I was very lucky my bloods levelled off,” she said. “It was very dangerous.”

DANGEROUS

The young mum admitted she just didn't know the risks of getting pregnant with kidney problems, as people around the globe marked World Kidney Day today.

“I wouldn't have jumped into it without thinking,” she said. Last Saturday Rhys turned one, but the party planned for his birthday had to be cancelled after he fell sick and they spent the day in hospital.

“For me it was a real milestone, him getting to one year after all the trouble we've had. I was disappointed,” she said. But Ms Owens still thanks her lucky stars that both she and Rhys survived the pregnancy.

“I get bad days when I'm very down about it, but mostly I'm upbeat,” she said.

“As far as energy levels are concerned, I'm back working full-time and I have a very busy social life,” she said, adding that even a kidney transplant would only last 11 or 14 years. A transplant is a treatment not a cure.

“I would like to impress upon people to get a simple urine or blood test done,” said Ms Owens, who always felt healthy and never had a kidney infection despite the fact that a hidden kidney problem was lurking.

“It’s not like other organs, you can feel completely perfect,” she said. “Up until the day I went on dialysis I felt completely fine.”

- Sarah Neville

http://www.independent.ie/health/lastest-news/lsquoi-was-lucky-with-my-pregnancy-but-irsquod-urge-all-mums-to-be-checked-for-kidney-problemsrsquo-1315542.html

[stauffenberg]

What an utter idiot!  The point is not so much for women to have a blood test to determine whether they have occult renal disease before getting pregnant, but for people like this woman -- who already knew well in advance of her pregnancy that she had kidney disease -- to inform themselves of the fact that pregnancy puts stress on the kidneys which can cause them to fail, or at least to listen when their doctor warns them about this.

This is especially tragic with diabetic women who insist on getting pregnant and then suddenly find themselves burdened with the responsibilities of caring for a newborn at the very same moment their kidneys fail from the vascular stress of the pregnancy.