High blood presure and pregnancy

Posted by wounwounbee (141 days ago)

hi....anyone out there who has high blood pressure before pregnancy? what's the precaution one should take before pregnancy? what should one be careful of? how dangerous is it?

(I am based in Singapore)

Find what you are after in our Tokyo A-Z Directory

Posted by cara (141 days ago)

i have chronic hypertension and continued to suffer with it during two pregnancies.

it can be VERY dangerous to you AND to baby. CHT babies are often smaller than normal. you must be very careful and monitor your BP regularly. if you are on medications, you must make sure that the meds are ok for pregnancy. i vomitted my meds at the begining of my second pregnancy and was admitted to hospital because upon examination at the A & E my BP was 177/114! that is DANGEROUS! they prescribed some other meds to ease the morning sickness and vomitting so that i could stomach my BP meds. that helped a bit and my BP returned to "normal". but the drs had to keep increasing my meds right up until i delivered by c-section at 36 weeks. they have basically said that i will never experience labour because it would increase my BP too much.

i delivered my first by emergency c-section at 37 weeks due to pre-eclampsia & chronich hyper tension. the day i delivered, my bp was 195/115 and it returned to that right after the epi wore off. they kept me in the delivery suite to monitor me throughout the night and administered meds intravenously.

i also suffered migraines throughout pregnancy. this can be a sypmtom of high BP and so they monitored me very closely.

all told, through my various complications, i was hospitalised 13 times over two pregnancies, for a total of well over 2 months.

if you have any other questions, please feel free to pm me.

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by wounwounbee (141 days ago)

Hi cara. that does sounds serious. i developed hypertension during my 1st pregnancy. my gynae gave me medicine during my 2nd trimestes. somehow, my pressure improves and in my 3rd trimester, i actually no longer needed the medicine. however, my blood pressure continue to be high (though not serious enough to take medicine) after delivery. i m rather surprised at this cos i thought my pressue will subside after delivery. this didn't happen, and one year from that now, i believe i do have high blood pressure now. do u have hypertension only during pregnancy? i don't understand why my blood pressure continues to be high and didn't subsided to before pre-pregnancy. any explanation?

ok..i know i should visit doctor. but i think i m too chicken to do that. they will ask me to take medicine, which will be long term, which i don't wish. and they will ask me to do exercise, but i m truly not an exercise person. i recently started a little bit, but only once a week, and i know it is not enough. so..i guess i know i m not doing what i m told, so i dont dare to see doctor. ha. isn't that weird. but i want to have a second child soon....so..i know i need to face reality.

(I am based in Singapore)

Posted by cara (141 days ago)

no, i have chronic hypertension... i found out back in 2002 when i suffered from a migraine for over a week. i finally went to A&E because it was so bad and had lasted so long... they found my bp to be 238/134... it was in the "SIT DOWN OR YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A STROKE!" region...

they admitted me right away and i've been on meds ever since.

high bp is NOT to be messed around with! think of it this way... so you take medicine long term and you live a long and healthy life watching your children grow up... or you don't see a doctor, don't take medicine and die at a young age due to heart disease/stroke.

which would you prefer?

(I am based in Hong Kong)

Posted by axptguy38 (140 days ago)

Rising blood pressure late in pregnancy is also dangerous, and can be a sign of impending eclampsia, a potentially fatal condition. With close monitoring and the right treatment there isn't really any danger nowadays though.

(I am based in Hong Kong)