AUSTIN — An Austin mother nearly lost her life after complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
Thirty-seven-year-old Leah Bahrenru shared her story with the crowd that showed up for the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia at Dick Nichols Park in South Austin on Sunday.
The mother of twins said looking back, she wished she would have spoken up about her symptoms.
"My organs were failing when I went in to go get checked," recalled Bahrencu.
At the time, Bahrencu didn't know she had HELLP syndrome, a life threatening pregnancy complication.
Symptoms of HELLP syndrome include nausea, headache, belly pain and swelling.
HELLP stands Hemolysis elevated liver enzymes and low platelets.
At just 34 weeks, she was forced to give birth to her twins in January of 2017.
"I felt awful which I thought was normal for being pregnant with twins -- first pregnancy -- and basically my doctor said, 'We're going to have these babies today.' And I had an emergency C-section and was hospitalized for three months," said Bahrencu.
HELLP syndrome is a form of pre-eclampsia, which this Promise Walk is raising awareness for.
Diagnosis of pre-eclampsia is made after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
It's associated with very high blood pressure, organ failure damage, stroke and seizures.
"Some of the warning signs include headache, visual disturbances, swelling in the hands and feet and lab abnormalities," said Dr. Rachel Bowman, an OBGYN with Seton.
Bahrencu was in a coma for more than two weeks.
Her husband had to prepare for the worst.
"I was having all these awful scenarios in my head for days, I just couldn't picture it. 'How am I going to do this if things don't work out?'" said Vlad Bahrencu.
While Bahrencu doesn't have any regrets, she hopes others learn from her mistakes. One of those mistakes was not telling her doctor how she was really feeling when she was pregnant.
"I just thought if I told my doctor anything, I'm not going to have the delivery that I wanted, so I actually laid a little low on my signs and symptoms when she asked me," said Bahrencu.
The mother of two doesn't want other families to go through what hers had to.