Hypertension and childbirth

[marigoldfreckle]

Hi all
I was wondering whether anyone can help or has experience of this.
I am 20 weeks along, and long before I was pregnant I was diagnosed with hypertension. Unfortunately nothing to do with weight/never smoked etc. It's hereditary it seems, and is described as 'labile hypertension' - my BP will sometimes spike randomly to numbers around 220/110. It's controlled with medication at the moment and isn't a cause for too much concern.

However my question is - I have seen two obs consultants, one has said I will be scheduled for a section, and another who said it shouldn't be necessary and they'll see if my BP remains controlled for the remainder of the pregnancy. My concern is, due to the nature of the spikes I have, childbirth is a likely time for these to occur - I would refer no emergency intervention or emcs. What is the correct advice? Has anyone been scheduled for a elcs with pre-existing hypertension (rather than pre-eclampsia etc)?

Thanks in advance!

[TotallyKerplunked]

I was diagnosed with hypertension in my late teens, however it stays at a constant level, no spikes or meds like yourself. When I was pregnant with DS I was put under consultant led care and the only info I was given was that women with a high bp tend to have a fast labour, however I did go on to develop preeclampsia and was put on meds and had extra monitoring. Hope that helps.

[marigoldfreckle]

Thanks that's really helpful! So you had a natural birth?

[TotallyKerplunked]

Hi Marigold, sorry for not making it clear but yes natural birth, no cuts/tears and unassisted, however only 26 minutes of labour so the midwives were correct that it would be fast.

There was no mention of c-sec during pregnancy, just lots of monitoring and I was induced at 39 weeks as my bp was increasing and I was on the max dose of medication. My blood pressure did spike which caused serious concern and I was being taken for a c-sec when DS arrived.

I did have lingering issues with bp for several months after the birth (lots of spikes) and had to have the 24 hour cuff thing a few times.

Feel free to pm me if you want to chat, i'm currently 22 weeks with DC2 so unsure how things are going to pan out this time (bp is steadily climbing atm). Interestingly I have been offered a c-sec for this pregnancy several times so maybe the advice has changed since I had DS 3 years ago.