Intro

[nionealmare]

Name/LJ name: Melissa/nionealmare
Age: 28
Location: Chicago
Partner's name: Sean
Due date: 6/22/08
Reason for joining: I'm joining because I started my pregnancy under the care of a midwife, but after my first appointment at 8 weeks or so was classified as high risk because of slightly elevated blood pressure and a fast pulse.  The midwife referred me

Comments

[hermionesmum]

I'm a bit scared for you that your doctors may get a bit intervention happy, too. While pre-e is not something to take lightly, a rise of 10mmHg on it's own doesn't sound significant.
While it's not a specifically "crunchy" site have you looked at:
http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/firstindex.html

Care providers do tend to expect more problems in larger ladies, not necessarily fairly, and it does sound as if yours are looking...

As far as I can make out pre-e is a blanket term for a number of pathologies, some mediated by the immune system, but also includes women who already have obesity and other problems struggling through pregnancy. It's a very poorly understood condition, with doctors leaping to be better safe than sorry.

While it's more common in first pregnancies, likely because of incompatibilities within the mother's immune system, I managed to not develop it with my second. (I'm not pretending this is scientific,) what I did differently was:

1) buy a BP monitor and take my own readings to compare with my midwife and GP, a lot of my hypertension, especially the second pregnancy, (135/85 baseline in both my pregnancies), was due to "White Coat" hypertension. My first birth was traumatic and I developed PTSD thanks to a particularly bullying midwife. she was dismissed after other mothers, some of her colleagues and I complained. Readings taken safely on my own turf away from the hospital were a lot more informative. (Double check the cuff size, too small a cuff gives falsely high readings.)

2) Drink lots of water.

3) Rest, you know, like pregnant ladies are supposed to and never do, especially sleeping on my left side. Get one of those 6ft long body cushions. They are bliss. Lying on your left improves drainage from the main blood vessels and can decrease bp.

Some people swear by The Brewer diet, although the evidence seems to be inconclusive and it's not as if it ever could live up to the claims made about it anyway. Might be worth a Google if you're interested.

My first birth was at 38 weeks, following induction. Not at all pretty, but ended in a vaginal birth.
My second birth was at 42 weeks, spontaneous and the most affirming experience of my life.
Oh, I was a dress size 20, (UK sizing) and 89Kg at the start of my first pregnancy and a Uk 22 and 94Kg at the start of my second pregnancy.

Best of luck and keep me up to date! May I add you?

[nionealmare]

Thanks so much for the reply! To date, I'm not too worried about my BP. I have an at home BP monitor that goes around my wrist (upper arms too big for most cuffs I could find at the drug store) and it seems to get similar readings to the doctor's office. Since I relaxed a bit, my white coat response has been less, and I'm getting normal readings at the office, too, not just at home.

I definitely try to down the water, but I'm usually in the 80oz range for the day, when I'm aiming for 96. Ah well, always trying to improve, I guess. I'm trying to sleep on my left side, but I always seems to wake up on my back. Ugh.

Feel free to add me, but I never use my personal journal. I just like to participate in comms. So I might not add much to your f-list ;)