I am a lucky mum of 2 ICP babies and inherited it from my mother. My first pregnancy was a dream, I was never sick and continued to live my normal life UNTIL I was 35 weeks when I complained to my mum that I was so itchy and ripping my skin apart. She told me to mention it in my next midwife appointment as she had the SAME THING when she was pregnant and they told her the baby was jaundice unfortunately my mum has had nearly every risk and symptom of ICP with all her kids/pregnancies. So upon mentioning it to my midwife she went into full drive sending me for urgent testing and explained it could be cholestasis (ICP) 2 days later I got a call at work and was told to get straight to the hospital and was hooked up to all different machines!!!

In my mind I thought everyone was over reacting and needed to calm down I mean it was JUST AN ITCH but after some research we found how serious this actually was and it was hereditary. After being put on Urso and lots of monitoring I gave birth to my beautiful boy at 38.5 weeks after a touch and go birth with haemorrhaging.

My Second pregnancy however was not as much of a breeze! This time I was diagnosed at 24 weeks so it was a long process to her arrival at 37 weeks the itching seemed more intense and I was more lethargic, birth yet again led to hemorrhaging.  My husband and I have decided no more children due to this which is sad but I’m ok with it.  My goal is to keep ICP awareness going for my children, Grandchildren and great grandchildren’s sake. I want them to be prepared, not scared and informed.