Pregnancy Induced Hypertension

Better limit the salt all together. That includes canned food, lunch meat, ham & the salt shaker. Use herbs.

I had pre-eclampsia with my daughter and was not on any medication. I was forced on bed rest for a week and then I had my daughter via c-section at 37 weeks. I didn't have any problems other then having to be in bed rest and on a strict diet of no sugar or caffeine.

T.

D. - Unfortunately, I can share a positive situation. Please, please be careful with the hypertension as it can lead to post partum cardiomiopathy. Your baby will be fine, but we want you to be fine as well. You're in my prayers.

Try to stay calm. Your bottom number is good. I know my dr and i have heard from others that stress will bring that top number up. The bottom is the one they really worry about . I say a prayer for you. If it helps in 1978 mom sister had way high blood pressure. It was a small town they let her lay there and she had a13 pound boy. All cam out well. You have dr. now that she it all. I think try not to think about or worry about it. God Bless , sweety. If your bottom gets to high ask for a heart dr just to check. i think you are in very good hands though, J.!

Hi D.! I had the same situation (except for the medz.) when I was pregnant. My Dr. was "concerned", but never did much more than say that. I had sometimes VERY high blood pressure, at one point it was 180/120 two weeks before he induced me. I got my own blood pressure cuff from Walgreens to monitor it myself. I also had headaches, and the last four days of my pregnancy (two weeks before my due date) I was on bed rest. All in all, I came out just fine! and so did my little one. Within 24 hours after birth my BP was normal and has remained so. I feel like the slight discomfort and risk was worth it to get my "little dingo"!
I hope this helps somehow!
Good Luck!
J.

Hi D.,

I had pre-eclampsia during my pregnancy of twins. I went a couple months of having to lay on my left side during doctors appointments to get my blood pressure to an acceptable level. My doctor had me limit activity, keeping my feet up as often as possible and laying on my left side often. He told me to let him know when my headache got a point that Tylenol was not helping or if I was seeing floatees. This came at about 35 weeks and I let the office know - next morning, they had me come in - found protein in the urine and said "today is the day" having an emergency c-section. Everything went fine. The kids were in the hospital for a couple weeks - mainly to gain weight and lean to feed properly and now they are 6 months old - with no problems.

My advice is to try not to worry about it - as this can make it worse, but do let your doctor's office know when you have any changes.

B.

Well D.-
I am an OB RN and I can tell you that it can go either way. Unfortunately it's not possible to predict what will happen. I can tell you that the closer you get to delivering the better!! And that the DOC's keep a close eye and if your labs start to turn bad , they will deliver you. The only way to get rid of it ....is to deliver. So until then, all you can do is hang in there and do everything the docs tell you to do. In my own experiences, it's not that common that people get full blown eclampsia. Nowadays the outcome is usually a healthy mom and baby!! Good Luck!!

D.,
I had trouble with my BP at 20 weeks and had a severe stabbing headache and swelling in my legs. I restricted my salt intake after that because my doc was going to put me on bed rest. I work in OB and have seen several PIH patients. Just keep a close eye on it and if you start having any more symptoms, definitely call your doctor..

Hi D.,
It has been 6 years since I went through the same things you are going through. I was put on bed rest for the last month of my pregnancy and my ankles were so swollen I couldn't even get my shoes on. I had really bad headaches when my pressure was too high. My only advice is to get off your feet and take it easy!! Looking back on my experience we feel that they should have induced me earlier(I went full term). My blood pressure effected my baby and she wasn't as healthy as she should have been when I delivered.

The positive side is that I have a completely normal child who is doing wonderful. Hang in there, you will feel like a million after you deliver. I left the hospital weighing 27 lbs. less because of all the water I retained.

Kelly

D. first of all call your doctor and tell them all your symptoms as they start don't wait. Ok after that try self relaxtion or biofeedback. Take a deep breath and gently blow it out. I've had to live with constant pain for 24 yrs. now. I use natural scenes as part of the self relaxtion process. Try it. Calming yourself is so important. You know even when i was expecting our babies there was never a stage during pregnancy that I could say ok, now everything will be fine. So I taught myself the self relaxtion during that. I give the credit to God, he gave me so many beautiful things in nature to use to help myself and he has so many soothing scriptures that I can just focus on along with the self relaxtion. If I need something more I do natural. But always research it online or at a good health food store ask advice to make sure it is safe during pregnancy. This could just be in your gene pool, but the relaxtion will help. God bless you and keep you and your baby safe during this process.

I have worked as an OB delivery nurse. I can say that I have seen people w/ PIH deliver at full term with healthy babies. You need to continue meds, have a low sodium diet, take frequent rest breaks, and elevate your legs. If your symptoms worsen you need to call the OB doc or your local OB hospital unit. We like to monitor those w/PIH carefully. If you are concerned, you can have the docs run labwork on you. Once you deliver, your blood pressure should return to normal. If you need to be induced early, it's okay. The docs and nurses will take care of you and the baby.

D., when i was pg with my first son my blood pressure went to i believe 160/98. I was put on bedrest and told to do nothing but go to the bathroom. Everything went fine. I just followed docs orders and let everyone else help do everything. Son came out great and labor was awesome, except for little things, good luck and best wishes.

kim

There is a fine line between pre eclampsia and high blood pressure. I've never had high blood pressure - in fact, it has always been on the low side. When I got pregnant, I had this problem. I would purchase a blood pressure machine and monitor your own blood pressure. If it goes up too much, then you need to take action.

I had a lot of swelling but no proteins in the urine. I fired my doctor during labor - I liked his partner better - LOL! I demanded (and got) a C Section and although difficult and bedridden for 6 of the 9 months, I was able to suffer through it until week 39.

Some people glide through pregnancy like it was nothing and others have a very difficult time. I can feel your pain since I had a difficult one and would never get pregnant again - although when God decided to give me my miracle I was already 39. Best of luck to you. I'm sure it will be OK.

Hi D.,
I had PIH with my first child. The doctor wasn't very worried either until I had one episode of 150/92. He had me stop working and just take it easy. I wasn't on a strict bedrest and I still went to the store, worked around the house some, etc. Just rested more. That will be harder for you since you already have a child to care for. And I was that way for 5 weeks before going into labor only 1 week early. I had to go into the hospital to be on the monitor twice a week but they never saw a high BP again after just taking it easy. I even had an irregular heart beat where it would skip a beat now and then- again he said fairly normal with pregnancy. I only had trace amounts of protein too. Hope this aleviate's a little of your stress. I know it can be scary when things aren't "normal". Oh, yeah, the lower number is the one to be the most concerned about, according to my doctor. So 82 and 88 aren't that high given 120/80 as the standard norm, you said your normal was 117/70 so it is a little higher. I'd trust your doctor unless you really start feeling worse, lots of swelling, etc.

I have chronic hypertension and take BP medication daily. When i got pregnant last April, my specialist was very concerned about my blood pressure. The good news is that it caused no problems at all in my pregnancy, and I delivered a healthy baby girl on 1/6. It's good to be aware and concerned, but you can have high BP and still have a healthy, "normal" pregnancy.
Good luck!

I did not go through what you are but I have seen pre-eclampcia, alot. If you are not happy with your current OB's action find a second opinion. This is your body, your baby, and your pregnancy it is not a time to concern yourself with anything but those three fctors and the little one you have at home. Your previous OB sounds as if he was being cautious and avoiding the major wrongs that follow pre-eclampcia. good luck and the delivery.

I had pre-eclampsia with my first son, and then I had high BP with my second son. My OB decided to deliver him a week early to avoid pre-eclampsia again. I had to be on bedrest for a week before they decided to induce labor. All went well. I am pretty sure if your doctor feels they need to do something about it, they will take care off you. It was very hard to listen and "take it easy". Have a good delivery, and congrats on your second pregnancy!

I'm a mother of 3. My first pregnancy was completely normal. The second one, I had trace proteins and they watched me very closely. Luckily, no further problems. The third, I had pre-eclampsia. I had to deliver 4 weeks early. My son had a rough start, but is doing great now. Most of his problems were due to how they treated him after delivery. They didn't tell me anything was wrong with the third one until I went in for my regular check up and they tlod me they were going to keep me and deliver me. I didn't find out until later that my blood pressure was way into the stroke level. You need to remain as calm as possible. Stay off your feet as much as possible, try to keep your stress level down, and lay on your right side. Don't ask me why. That's just what the doctors told me. Good luck , and don't worry. Everything will be fine. Just relax and enjoy the baby growing inside you. Leave the rest to God.