Having a baby should be one of those exciting times when a mother-to-be basks in the beauty of giving birth. But for one woman, her first pregnancy was a nightmare. She suffered a horrific allergic reaction to being pregnant.

Fiona Kerrigan was in the final three months of her pregnancy when she developed a red rash amongst her stretch marks. The 25-year-old was diagnosed with Polymorphic Eruption of Pregnancy (PEP), or an allergic reaction thought to be related to stretching of the skin on the abdomen.

Fiona’s PEP caused small, pink, raised spots, or papules, to appear in the stretch marks on her stomach. They also spread to her thighs and other parts of her body. This type of allergy is most common in first-time pregnancies when the abdomen is tightest.

IMAGE SOURCE: DAILYMAIL

The harmless reaction did not interfere with Fiona’s pregnancy and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Leon. She said, “I got a few stretch marks across my bump, they were quite red and itchy, and then they started to get bumpy and raised. From there it spread like wildfire, all over my body.”

IMAGE SOURCE: DAILYMAIL

Worried, Fiona consulted her midwife, who said she had never seen the reaction before, and told her to monitor it. When the irritation got worse, she went to the doctor and was prescribed an aqueous cream and calamine cream to soothe the itching. This had little effect, so the mom-to-be  returned to another doctor who diagnosed her with PEP. She said, “It was very stressful because there was nothing I could do to calm it down.”

IMAGE SOURCE: DAILYMAIL

“The way the doctor described it to me was that my skin had stretched so far, to the absolute limit, so far that some of the baby’s cells had started to mix with my own, causing a reaction. Essentially, I was allergic to my pregnancy.”  Fiona visit to a dermatologist offered some relief when she was given a steroid ointment and a moisturizing lotion.

IMAGE SOURCE: DAILYMAIL

We’re so happy that mom and baby are doing well!

SHARE the love, pass it on.