Please help! pre eclampsia risk, What can I do to have a healthy baby?
Posted by admin on Sep 9, 2009
ok- i had a 24 week prenatal visit today- I gained 13 pounds in 4 weeks! and i watch what I eat- no fast food very little junk food. then they take my blood pressure with the automatic machine 168 / 86, I have never had my blood pressure that high! usually 115 / 65 give or take ( we have a blood pressure cuff at home and I will check it occasionally). when my dr. came in he checked my BP again with the manual stethescope and said it was lower about 140/80 but that was still too high too. The Dr. did not tell me if there was too much protein in my urine but they ordered a 24 hour urinalysis where I have to carry a jug around with me for 24 hours to collect my urine so they can test it. He told me to take it easy and stay away from salt and that he wanted to see me in 2 weeks. Did anyone else have these symptoms that turned into preclampsia? Hypertension? I will know more i guess after they test my urine but I am currous and a little worried, It is too early for my blood pressure to shoot up that high. any personal accounts of what you went through might just be helpful for me as I am laying on the couch- hopefully the more i rest now the less I will HAVE to later – I can not stand the thought of bed rest but I can handle a few hours off my feet! 
thanks for your answers.
Hey hun, I had pre-eclampsia that developed late in my pregnancy. I also had to do the 24 hour urine collection. When I did the 24 hour and got the results back everything was fine. I did this around 33 weeks or so. I didn’t have protein in my urine till I was about 37 weeks. Yes try not to stress over it, it will only make things worse, decrease your salt intake. put your feet up when you can. They might put you on Blood Pressure medication to help since you are so early in your pregnancy. They will most likely also have you come in once a week to check your blood pressure.
I was induced because my BP was 159/112 at the highest. I was 38 weeks when I was induced. If you have anymore questions feel free to email me.
? I had to do that urine test 3 times (remember that it needs to be refrigerated – jug with urine in it).. I had high BP while pregnant, and the urine test is to make sure, your kidneys are working right. All 3 times I took it (during last pregnancy), the results came back fine. I’m sure your will too, just a precaution. With my 1st son I had pre-eclampsia, they ended up taking him early at 36 weeks along… with my 2nd I did not get it, and made it to 39 weeks..good luck
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Hey hun, I had pre-eclampsia that developed late in my pregnancy. I also had to do the 24 hour urine collection. When I did the 24 hour and got the results back everything was fine. I did this around 33 weeks or so. I didn’t have protein in my urine till I was about 37 weeks. Yes try not to stress over it, it will only make things worse, decrease your salt intake. put your feet up when you can. They might put you on Blood Pressure medication to help since you are so early in your pregnancy. They will most likely also have you come in once a week to check your blood pressure.
I was induced because my BP was 159/112 at the highest. I was 38 weeks when I was induced. If you have anymore questions feel free to email me.
References :
Baby Alex is 5 months and 3 weeks old!
Wow, I had pre-eclampsia after I had Alex. It was tough, it is so bad you can actually feel the overwhelm. What’s funny is of course since Alex was born I totally rule out any complications. But they told me you can get it up to 6 weeks post-partum. The visiting nurse found 98/95.
She said "call your doctor in the morning and tell them about your pressure". I didn’t, I said "what the heck the baby is already here"
I should mention I had a tough pregnancy with lots of spotting, ultra-sounds, HCG were too high, anyway the tests all pointed at me having a potentially down syndrome baby. Of course when he was born normal I was thrilled so I really wanted doctors/nurses off my back.
So now that that’s out of the way, a couple of days later she came back and she found 100/98 then she said "it is very important that you call your doctor as I am worried about you!" What was so bad about 100? Well, that wasn’t the number she was looking at!
I was ticked off! Which of course made the situation worse without me knowing. The next morning she called and she basically told me "you HAVE to go to the doctor and get your pressure checked!"
Shoot, what’s all the mystery!? I got to the doctor, my pressure was 105/120 that afternoon and they sent me to the darn ER! She said I could get a stroke and that I had pre-eclamsia. I have the book "What to expect when you’re expecting" but I didn’t quite recalled what it said about it, it couldn’t be that bad the baby was already here! LOL
Me in a hospital bed, what the heck? There was no way I was going to lay off the Doritos and the 3 musketeers! :’( They kept me, for a couple of days. I don’t remember what the measures were but they had to give me drugs to control it. Which I think was easier on them because there was no baby in my system to affect with the medicine.
Turns out they told me my resting (diastolic) pressure was the one that was way off and that I could have gotten a stroke. And all that time I was thinking it was the 105 number o_0
My hubby, brought Alex to breastfeed in the hospital. Thankfully they let him stay with me. They told me I could breastfeed.
Anyhow, I would suggest to you, you blood pressure can shoot up even when you don’t eat salty stuff. Food always bring some hidden ingredient that you do not know about that can raise your pressure.
By the way and this is what the visiting nurse told me, lay on your left side, it is supposed to lower your pressure. I hope this helps you in any way, if I was you I would ask the doctor to see me in ONE week, not two. To be safe, after all this is YOUR baby, not the doctor’s baby. You are the one to make that decision.
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