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Hi Dave's Daughter,

Get all the medical advice you can, as soon as possible, and rely on their experience.

My son is now 28 years old, and things have changed a lot since then. I was already in an advanced stage of PKD and my pregnancy was monitored very closely throughout. I was taken into hospital 9 weeks before he was due, for complete bed rest, and with the intention of waiting as long as safely possible. Five weeks later, I started feeling sick and was induced that same day. Apparently the next stage would have probably been to go into a coma.

The birth was a strange experience. There were FOUR doctors! One held my hand throughout. It was only later that I was told he was there to revive me if necessary. One was waiting for the baby. He took one look at baby and decided he wasn't needed. Although he was a month premature, and very skinny, he was, and still, is unbelievably fit and healthy.

The room was also full of trainees, who had been drafted in because they knew, in advance, that they would be using a kind of delivery normally used only in an emergency - to put as little strain on me as possible.

The worst part of all that they then put me in a darkened room and checked my blood pressure every 15 minutes. They had taken the baby to another part of the hospital. After 12 hours they decided my blood pressure was not going to drop, as it should, and took me to a private room and brought the baby in a little while later.

We were in hospital another two weeks, because of me, not the baby, and finally let us go home on the coldest February evening you can imagine.

Even though he was a small baby, born early, the size of my kidneys made it very uncomfortable.

I don't want to frighten you. This is probably a worst case scenario.

Knowing what I know now, would I do it again? Yes, I would - but it would be extremely difficult, and perhaps foolhardy, to take the risks a second time.

Best wishes,

Pat