ST. LOUIS — Preeclampsia can get worse before it gets better, Marie-Laure Firebaugh remembered her doctor telling her when she left the hospital after having a stillbirth.

Firebaugh couldn’t imagine how it could get any worse. She had just lost her baby, Juliette, at 25 weeks gestation.

Severe preeclampsia — persistent high blood pressure — had come on suddenly and was breaking down Firebaugh’s red blood cells and damaging her liver. Her placenta had failed to provide the nutrients and oxygen Juliette needed to grow.

During her pregnancy, Firebaugh began to experience swollen legs, shortness of breath, nausea and rapid weight gain — symptoms medical office staff dismissed as the summer heat or a need to exercise more.

Firebaugh now knows they were warning signs of preeclampsia, a condi

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