I Had Postpartum Preeclampsia Like Meghan Markle. Here’s What It Was Like

It was a hard diagnosis to wrap my head around as a first-time mom.

April 9, 2025

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In the debut episode of her new podcast, Meghan Markle opened up for the first time about experiencing a scary health issue after having one of her children. On Confessions of a Female Founder, the mom of two revealed that she experienced a condition called postpartum preeclampsia, which causes high blood pressure.

“It’s so rare and so scary,” she said. “And you’re still trying to juggle all of these things, and the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly. And in the quiet, you’re still trying to show up for people—mostly for your children—but those things are huge medical scares.”

Her comments deeply resonated with me. Like Markle, I had postpartum preeclampsia. I developed it right after giving birth to my first child and didn’t realize how serious it was at first. (To be fair, I didn’t know much of anything about the postpartum period then.)

My blood pressure was so high that I was moved to a special, quieter room away from other patients to try to keep me calm in hopes it would go down. I also had to stay in the hospital for five days after giving birth, which is rare for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery like mine—most women are out after 24 hours.

After day three, I was more than ready to go home and threatened to check myself out until my doctor had a very serious talk with me. “If you leave here with the way things are right now, you could have a stroke,” she explained. My doctor also told me that if I left early, I would be required to sign a medical waiver that said that if I died, it wasn’t the hospital’s fault. In that moment, I realized just how big of a deal this was—and decided to stay.

It took two more days to get my blood pressure under control. During my hospital stay, my blood pressure was taken every hour, throughout the day and night, and I also had to give regular urine samples. When I was finally released, I was told that I needed to use a home blood pressure cuff to keep tabs on things, and I had to report those numbers to my doctor for weeks after giving birth. Thankfully, my blood pressure stayed down and I didn’t have a stroke.

I had never heard of postpartum preeclampsia before my own experience with the condition, and apparently I’m not alone. "A lot of people don't realize that there is a risk of their blood pressure going up after delivery," Kathyrn Lindley, MD, a cardiologist at Vanderbilt Health, tells SELF. Here’s what doctors want women to know.

Postpartum preeclampsia can cause high blood pressure up to six weeks after delivery.

Most expectant moms are warned about preeclampsia, which is high blood pressure and liver or kidney damage that can happen after the 20th week of pregnancy. While it’s not as common, you can also experience preeclampsia after giving birth. It’s called postpartum preeclampsia, and it usually comes on within 48 hours after you deliver, but can happen anytime up to six weeks postpartum. Unfortunately, doctors don’t know why some women develop the condition and others don’t.

Symptoms of postpartum preeclampsia can vary depending on the patient and how severe it is, G. Thomas Ruiz, MD, lead ob-gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, tells SELF. At baseline, women with postpartum preeclampsia will have high blood pressure (140/90 mm Hg or higher) and excess protein in their urine, known as proteinuria, which can signify kidney damage.

Some new moms may also experience severe headaches, vision changes, pain under the ribs, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, and peeing less than usual, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“But it’s also possible to have no noticeable symptoms beyond the high blood pressure and proteinuria,” Christine Greves, MD, an ob-gyn at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, tells SELF. In fact, many people don’t have symptoms until they’re already dealing with complications from postpartum preeclampsia, Dr. Lindley says. I personally didn’t have any noticeable symptoms, making my extended hospital stay even more frustrating from my perspective.

The condition can lead to some serious complications.

My doctor wasn’t being dramatic: You can actually have a range of serious complications from postpartum preeclampsia. “This can be very dangerous,” Sarah Tout, MD, an ob-gyn and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University, tells SELF.

There’s a laundry list of things that can go wrong when you have postpartum preeclampsia, including seizures, permanent organ damage, pulmonary edema (a life-threatening condition where excess fluid enters the lungs), stroke, blood clots, and HELLP syndrome, which is a life-threatening condition marked by elevated liver enzymes and low blood platelet count.

“This has got to be taken seriously,” Dr. Ruiz stresses.

Thaddeus Waters, MD, division director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine, agrees. "Hypertension is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality postpartum, and the vast majority of these [deaths] are preventable,” he tells SELF.

Treatment depends on the individual situation.

My doctor originally tried to watch and wait to see if my blood pressure would go down. But when it was clear that it wasn’t budging, I was put on blood pressure medication, along with the anti-seizure medication magnesium sulfate to lower the risk of complications.

That’s pretty standard, Dr. Greves says. (In some situations, doctors may put a patient on blood thinning medication to reduce the risk of blood clots too, according to the Cleveland Clinic.)

The good news—if there is any with postpartum preeclampsia—is that this tends to get better within six weeks after you give birth, Dr. Waters says. Your doctor will likely monitor you closely during this time (or have you self-monitor, like mine did) to make sure your numbers don’t spike again.

It’s crucial to listen to your body—and your healthcare team—after you give birth.

My own health was the last thing on my mind after having my first child. I was trying to learn how to take care of another human and juggling an unexpected health complication was not part of the plan. “In the postpartum period, your whole body and brain is primed to care for your baby,” Tamar Gur, MD, PhD, a women’s health expert and reproductive psychiatrist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. “That makes a lot of sense, but it can be at the cost of your own health.”

Dr. Gur says it’s crucial to remember to focus on your own health during this time. “You need to put on your oxygen mask first,” she says. That means, if your doctor recommends that you do something, it’s important to listen. “We will only ask you to stay in the hospital if it’s medically necessary,” Dr. Greves says.

Postpartum preeclampsia can also develop for the first time after you head home, making it crucial to continue to listen to your body in the weeks following delivery. “If you develop a severe headache that’s not alleviated by the usual treatments like Tylenol, call your doctor,” Dr. Greves says. Ditto for unexplained and severe swelling, trouble breathing, or anything else that seems off, Dr. Ruiz says. “There are a lot of dynamic changes in the body during this time, but anything that strikes you as not normal is something to ask your doctor about,” Dr. Tout says.

If you’re tempted to brush off a weird symptom or even your doctor’s advice (me, hi), Dr. Gur recommends keeping this in mind: “What’s good for you is also good for your baby.” No one benefits if you neglect your health—and diagnosing postpartum preeclampsia as soon as possible is crucial for getting it under control.