My name is Pamela Durden. I am from the Atlanta, GA suburbs, but currently reside in the DC Metro area. I am a military wife and mother of 1 toddler girl.

In 2021, my husband and I became pregnant with our first child. My pregnancy was smooth and normal. However, around 7.5 months, I started to experience severe itching. I did not think anything of it when I was itching as I just assumed that’s a normal pregnancy symptom and it could just be my skin just stretching due to pregnancy or dryness. At my 36 week appointment (I was 36 weeks 6 days to be exact), I saw my midwife and told her that I felt fine and was excited to deliver in a few weeks. I quickly said, “Eh I am a bit itchy but it’s no big deal”. She stopped and stared at me with this puzzled look and said she wants me to get some blood work done. I assumed this was just a normal routine thing.

After taking my blood work and relaxing at home, around 6pm I received my blood test results. Something told me to look at them then and not wait for the doctor to call (which would have been in the morning), and I noticed my ALT, AST, and bile acids all marked with an “H” followed up with extremely high range of values. My husband and I were a bit concerned and called the hospital. They said they normally don’t look at blood work in the evenings but since I was 36 weeks pregnant, they went ahead and looked. After a few minutes on hold, we were told we need to come to the hospital right now and prepare to give birth.

Once we got to the hospital, the doctor on call told me about the risk of Cholestasis and that I would need to start the induction process at midnight, which would put me right at 37 weeks. I was told that Texas cannot do medical inductions until 37 weeks, so the timing was right on par. 45 hours later, I had my healthy baby girl, Ella.

I had no clue what Cholestasis was until I gave birth. Once I was home and recovering, I found the ICP Care group on the Internet and social media (Facebook and Instagram). After experiencing Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy and not knowing anything about it beforehand, I always remind my pregnant moms to not ignore signs as little as itching. Also, as an African American woman, I never saw anything around cholestasis when preparing for pregnancy. I wanted to volunteer with this organization to not only get the word out about cholestasis to women (and even men, they should learn about this too!), but also to help ensure African American women are SEEN and HEARD as black maternal health is historically known to be more difficult and ignored than other ethnicities. I want to ensure African American women are made aware of cholestasis and to continue to speak up and be seen and heard when something is off with their bodies.