Posted by KING from IP 76.18.19.70 on November 30, 2006 at 20:18:18:
A 33-year-old African-American female comes to your clinic. She has no significant past medical history. She works as an executive secretary. She drinks alcohol occasionally (twice a month), and denies any smoking or use of illegal drugs. She is married, and has a 5-year-old daughter. She was pregnant only once, and denies a prior history of miscarriages. She had preeclampsia during her first pregnancy at the 34th week of gestation. She is using oral contraception. She wants to get pregnant again, but she is afraid of having preeclampsia again. What is the most proper statement to tell her?
A) If you had preeclampsia once, it does not mean that it will happen again.
B) You will have preeclampsia for sure again, so you have to be very careful.
C) Nobody can predict if it will happen again, so you must be careful.
D) You don’t have to worry about that, preeclampsia usually occurs during the first pregnancy, it is rare during the second.
E) You have a higher risk of developing preeclampsia than other women, but that does not mean it will happen again.