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Waiting With Love: One Mom’s Journey Through a High-Risk Pregnancy

May 8, 2026 | Reading Time: 3 minutes
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Madeline Ellis with her husband

Madeline Ellis never expected her first pregnancy to include weeks in the hospital or to spend her first Mother’s Day under constant medical care.

At 31 weeks pregnant, Madeline was referred by her obstetrician to the obstetrics emergency department (OB ED) after concerns about elevated blood pressure. The OB ED, which opened in 2016 at Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children, was Alabama’s first of its kind. It offers 24/7 access to obstetric providers for urgent pregnancy concerns, helping ensure faster evaluation and treatment when every moment matters.

What started as routine monitoring quickly became something more serious: preeclampsia. After additional blood work and evaluation, the doctors decided to admit her to the antepartum unit.

“I was nervous,” she said. “But I kept reminding myself to do what is safest for him and for me.”

Madeline and her husband are expecting their first child, a baby boy whose name they are choosing to keep a surprise until birth.

Their goal is simple: make it safely to 34 weeks, with delivery likely around Memorial Day.

“The hardest part is just adjusting and keeping an open mind,” she said. “These are the options, and I’m just trying to take it day by day because things can change quickly.”

Through it all, she says understanding the seriousness of preeclampsia and having care providers take time to explain each step has helped ease her fear. She describes the care team at Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children as “phenomenal,” noting that staff consistently check in not only on her medical needs but also her mental and emotional well-being.

“They think of things I wouldn’t even think to ask for,” she said. “It makes being here more manageable.”

To help pass the time, Madeline has created a small routine in her room focused on comfort and tracking her baby’s movements, small reminders of the life she is working so hard to protect. Her husband, family and coworkers have also been a steady source of support, with her mother flying in from Michigan to be by her side just in time for Mother’s Day.

Madison Ellis ready to deliver her son

Having her mother there has been especially meaningful, she expressed, and has shaped how she already thinks about becoming a parent herself. Madeline hopes to be the kind of mother her son can come to about anything, just as she has always been able to do with her own mom. “I want him to feel like he can talk to me about anything,” she said.

This Mother’s Day will be her first, and though she will be in a hospital room preparing for the arrival of her son, she says she is trying to make the best of it, holding onto the moments she can feel him move and the anticipation of finally meeting him.

“Being able to see him and hold him is what I’m looking forward to most,” she said.

For Madeline, this season of waiting has become its own form of motherhood, defined by patience, trust and sacrifice long before delivery day. The Hampton Cove resident hopes to be the kind of mom her son can come to about anything, just as she has always been able to do with her own mother.