Christina DePino, 28, realized she may have cholestasis of pregnancy after her sister-in-law commented on her Facebook post.
Some people warn against sharing too much information publicly on Facebook, but this pregnant mom’s intimate post may have saved her baby’s life.
Christina DePino, 28, of Monroe, Mich., posted to Facebook when she was about 35 weeks pregnant, complaining that she was constantly itchy.
Read: Mom Gives Birth to Twin Girls Joined at the Head, Despite Expecting Only One Baby
"I started with having a lot of itching on my arms and legs and it got gradually worse over a period of several weeks," DePino told InsideEdition.com. "It would get worse at night when I was trying to sleep. A lot of times I would be woken up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was itching so bad."
That’s when her sister-in-law, a nurse, suggested she should check if her symptoms matched cholestasis of pregnancy.
"I have never heard of it before until I posted it on Facebook," she said.
DePino explained the condition has to do with bile build up in the liver, which usually manifests itself as extreme itching in the hands and feet. While it does not cause birth defects, the condition can cause the baby to be born premature or even die in the womb.
When she told her doctor she suspected the symptoms matched what she had been going through, they asked her to come to the hospital for further testing right away.
The tests showed that she did, in fact have cholestasis.
Doctors were able to then confirm that her baby was healthy, but decided to schedule DePino to be induced into early labor just days later, even though their expected due date was not for weeks.
Read: Tot With Spina Bifida Defies All Odds by Crawling, Despite Doctors' Belief She Never Would
"It was a whirlwind," she said. "I think my husband was kind of in denial for a little while."
Luckily, their baby girl Lexa Rae was born on March 28 mostly in good health.
"She had a little bit of jaundice, and we had to keep her under the light for a day but that was the only problem that she’s had,” DePino said. "She is healthy and strong, and we are happy she is here with us."
Watch: Meet the 5-Year-Old Boy Whose Rare Condition Causes Skin to Grow 10 Times Faster Than Normal
