Blood pressure and homebirth question

[Gillybean2010]

Hello

I had a midwife appointment on Tuesday (34 weeks), and didn't see my usual midwife. The midwife that I did see took three attempts to obtain a blood pressure from me, and recorded it at 120/85. She then said that that was quite high, that she was a bit concerned and asked me to go back the following week to have it checked again. This really scared me, as until now my blood pressure's been pretty consistent throughout my pregnancy, and has been as high as 130/80 (my usual midwife just says that my bp is fine) I've no swelling anywhere, and I'm not getting any blinding headaches or flashing lights or any other symptoms of pre-eclampsia, all of which I told the midwife, but to be honest she wasn't too interested in this.

Anyway, I'm booked for a home birth, but this has only been achieved through a lot of hard work and justification at every level (had to involve the supervisor of midwives at one point). Now I'm in limbo though, and I'm worried that they might not recommend home birth any longer. Does anyone know if a blood pressure like this can be used to advise against hb? Or does anyone know if this is such a horribly high blood pressure as suggested by midwife on Tues?

Sorry for the long post! I think I just need a bit of reassurance in my final weeks

Thanks Starlight! Think I've just kinda had enough of the scare tactics of home birthing that I keep being given by my mw that's got me all cynical!

My BP went up to 140/90 at the end of pregnancy; I bought my own BP monitor and measured it regularly at home and on my own it was lower. It was only the stress of the check ups that made it go up to 140/90.

I had home births with my second and third babies.

It's the lower number that they worry most about. It tells them how hard the heart is working. They get quite twitchy at 90 or 20 above your booking rate.

Are they taking your BP with the correct size cuff? And sometimes a manual monitor is better than an electric one. Last week I was reading 160/110 and got sent off to the FAU where luckily the midwife had the clinical sense to try a different cuff and a manual machine. Hey presto - 130/80. Back on the electric monitor with the bigger cuff and it was 10% higher again. Maybe I'm just a bit of physiological freak but I can't tell you how relieved I was to think that the Homebirth is back on. But annoyingly I've got to go back this week to check it wasn't a one off.... I'm also a bit of panicker when it comes to the checks and can easily whack it up to 140/90 without batting an eyelid - so I have to get to appointments early to try to relax it all down to sensible levels.

If you're one of those people for whom a slightly higher BP is "normal" but otherwise you're in perfect health (i.e. no protein in urine) try talking to the Supervisor of midwives to get clearance for a homebirth under clearly agreed conditions. But high BP is a real concern w.r.t. to PPH and fitting.

I'm trying to remain philosophical. If I have to go in, then so be it. Ultimately the end result will be the same and it is only one day out of a lifetime.

Sorry - obviously still far too conditioned...

Although I note this from the HomeBirth.org.uk website :
"It used to be the case that every woman in the UK had a legal right to a home birth service, which meant that the local Health Authority was obliged to provide a midwife or doctor to attend her home birth. However, in the last couple of years it has become apparent that the legal situation has changed.

"Women in the UK still have a right to a home birth, insofar as there are no laws forcing a woman to go to hospital - so she has the right to insist on staying at home to give birth. What is disputed is the Health Authority's obligation to provide a home birth service (ie an attending midwife or doctor) to every woman who requests one. It may take some negotiation to arrange a home birth if the Health Authority is unsupportive, but with perseverance, it can usually be done. It is government policy that, where it is 'clinically appropriate', the NHS should support a woman who intends to give birth at home."

which is basically what you were saying too

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8667571.stm

Sounds like white coat effect

I wasn't allowed a homebirth as my blood pressure went up to something over 90...no other risk factors and had had 2 successful births all with my high blood pressure at the end..
I hope you will get the kind of birth you want

Thanks all for your replies. Funny what you're saying shipsladyg about the cuff size - the mw first tried with a cuff that was a little tight, and with an electronic bp monitor, then tried it with a similar cuff but a manual bp monitor (after the first attempt I said - in a nice way - that my usual midwife takes it with a manual one but I was told that she doesn't like doing it with a manual one as she's sustained injury to her thumbs over the years from having to pump them up!!) Finally, she said that she'd try with a bigger cuff, and that when she got it to 120/85. I've since been told by a doctor friend that she shouldn't have been taking it in the same arm each time, and should have given me 5-10 minutes before going again.

I do get myself a little bit worked up before appointments (usually because their filled with scare tactics and nastiness about hb) and I think that it was made worse by the fact that this mw was quite abrupt and kept going over all the 'negative' aspects of hb. Wow, I seem to get 'em!

I've just kinda reached a stage where I'm ready for all the stuff that they're throwing at me, and nothing seems to surprise me any more with regards to more hb negativity. It's a real shame that some of us have to go through this though

What your doctor friend said was correct. When you see your normal MW I would tell her about this as this reading should be ignored as being totally useless.

My MW used to do the BP as the very last thing at the end of the appointment, to give me time to adjust to my surroundings and talk etc.