My sister is 40 years old and is pregnant (5 weeks) but she suffers from high blood pressure. Has anyone have any experience with a high blood pressure pregnancy? can it be successful? she is slightly overweight and she is very worried. Is there any safe medication for it? please help and thanks so much guys!!!!
She needs to see an ob that handles high risk pregnancies to discus her specific needs. It is probably manageable with good medical supervision.
Absolutely! Kidneys control the blood pressure 95% of the time, so drinking plenty of water, keeping the electrolytes balanced and not drinking caffeine - basically taking care of the kidneys can help a ton!
She might even find with the hormones changing that her blood pressure goes down.
i had pregnancy induced high blood pressure.. I was in the ER at 28 weeks feeling horrible with bp of 150/100. I was put on a medicine.. and my blood pressure remained stable until 39 weeks when it went up again.. they had me lay down for a week.. My baby was born at exactly 40 weeks.. (on her due date) she weighed 7 pounds .. perfectly normal.
the placenta is supposed to secrete some hormone to lower blood pressure during pregnancy.
yup....she will just have to be monitored more closely. i had hbp and took meds for it. i had to monitor it daily. her dr will tell her what she can take
I had high blood pressure while I was pregnant. I am also overweight (not just slightly). LOL! The doctor watched me like a hawk while I was pregnant, mostly having me do 24 hour urine tests. (You collect your urine for 24 hours straight and they measure the amount of protien in your pee to make sure your protien levels aren't too high). Toward the end they also had me doing nonstress tests to make sure my baby girl was still moving around and in good shape. As for medication, I was given Aldomet (Methyldopa). It worked quite well for me and my DD has zero side effects from it, nor do I. I carried my daughter to 34.5 weeks and gave birth to a 9 pound perfectly healthy baby. I would highly recommend she get into the OB/GYN right away. She's got a few things against her..... Blood pressure, overweight and 40. Many congrats to your family! :)
A.,
Tons of women have high bp and do well in pregnancy. If they catch it early, they can treat her early and help avoid complications or preeclampsia. Yes, there are meds available as well as lifestyle changes. Congrats to your sister and to you for becoming an Aunt!
Of course! Her doctor will monitor her more closer as well as her blood pressure medication. Their is a risk of preeclampsia, and she may require some bed rest in the last trimester. I had high blood pressure, and was monitored frequently, as well as having tests done, etc.Good luck to her.
Depends on how high her blood pressure is... stroking out generally is a bad idea, so in some cases a csect is planned early (rare)... but MOST moms with chronic hypertension do well with pregnancy. Yes. There are meds that are safe to take while pregnant, but that's a question for her OB/Cardiologist as to the types best for her.
Just as a heads up... stats wise (I just looked this up) 5% of all pregnancies in the US are with hypertensive moms.
4,130,665 births = 206,533 successful pregnancies w/ high blood pressure
