Welcome to the Obstetric Cholestasis Support website
The OC Support group was set up in 1991 by Jenny Chambers to provide help and support for women and families affected by obstetric cholestasis (also known as intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy). This website provides detailed information about the condition, news about fundraising efforts, future projects, pictures of the latest babies born to mums with OC, and a summary of the research being carried out.
As
well as running the website Jenny also works in London with one of the
world’s top OC research groups. She is a trained counsellor
with
a special interest in obstetrics that ranges from conception through to
the postnatal period. She is currently in practice at a
cancer
centre near to where she lives in the Midlands and will shortly be
seeing clients at a local fertility centre.
Jenny welcomes feedback about the site and questions about the condition so if you have anything you want to run by her please do email: Jenny Chambers.
If you want to know more about how it all started read Jenny's story.
We need your help with a couple of important projects.
Jenny wants to reinstate the helpline but to do so she will need funding and a small band of volunteers to train as helpline befrienders. She has already received a donation of £200 to get things under way but can you help her to implement the helpline in time for the spring of 2010? Click here to find out more about how you could support her endeavours.
(3D scan by kind permission of Emily Guiver and baby Ben)
In addition to our regular forum, where you can chat to others about your experience of OC, we have now added a special forum, called Precious Memories, for those of you who have been affected by the death of an OC baby. Thankfully stillbirth because of OC is quite rare these days, but we felt that it was important to have somewhere to provide support for bereaved parents, other family members and friends. You can join this group by clicking here.
Two more – one very new and one rather less so. Say hello to Owen Stewart and Abigail Squirrell.
PITCH (Pregnancy Intervention Trial in Cholestasis) is a pilot trial to evaluate the efficacy of UDCA, a drug often used to treat OC, and the current practice of early vs. spontaneous delivery.
Most of the funds we raise goes directly to research into OC at Imperial College, London. However, as many of you know, I have operated both the Helpline and the website on a voluntary basis and I have been lucky to have the odd donation over the years to help towards running costs. If you would like to support this work and projects like the re-introduction of the Helpline, you can do so by a variety of ways that are mentioned below. If you have any questions about this please do contact me - otherwise please support us! I will up date the site with how well we are doing on a regular basis.
Obstetric cholestasis (OC) is a condition of pregnancy, often referred to as ICP (intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy). The most common symptom is pruritus (itching in pregnancy) – click here to find out more.
Karen's been at it again!
There are various ways for you to support research into OC. Click here for more information.
OC Support UK is also on Facebook. Why not join the group there?
Read about the experiences of women with OC.
Profiles of some of the people working on OC:
If you use the Firefox web browser, why not try the OC Support Persona? You'll need Firefox version 3.6 or higher. OC Support UK will be on your screen for everyone to see!
This site is intended to provide general information about obstetric cholestasis. It is not intended to, nor does it, constitute medical or other advice. For more details, click here.
