High Blood Pressure

[Icequeen26]

Hi Everyone 👋

Has anyone had any experiences with the bp meds- nifedipine or labetalol?

I've been on them both now for 7 weeks after developing high blood pressure after having my baby. And ever since I have been experiencing dizziness, spaced out feeling/brain fog and bad fatigue- heavy arms and legs, breathlessness with exertion and randomly feeling congested too. I thought it was just I needed time to recover from birth etc but it's still there. Docs are trying to imply I have post natal depression and anxiety but I'm seriously wondering if its my medication causing this!

Anybody experienced anything similar please?

No but my DSIL had pre-eclampsia abs I seem to remember her suffering like this for a while afterwards.

I'm on labetalol. To a certain extent yes, but it could also all be exhaustion with a new baby couldn't it? They'll move you on from labetalol if your hypertension continues long term and you're not breastfeeding

I was on both after my first due to pre-eclampsia for 6 weeks and labetalol for 2 weeks after my second due to high blood pressure at end of pregnancy. Didn’t have any of those symptoms though, sorry

Dizzyness and drowsiness are common side effects of both. Are you expecting to be on them long term? How often is your BP being measured?

@Purplewithred I check it daily and it sits around 120-130/ 75-85 so I'm not sure if they'll start reducing it yet or not

I am 4 weeks pp and currently on 20mg of nifedipine (reduced last week from 40mg as I was getting readings 120-130/ 70-80 ) I can’t say I have experienced any of these symptoms but i am not taking any labetalol x

Hi @Icequeen26

I gave birth March 2021 and had high BP all through my pregnancy. It was never high enough to warrant meds but was high enough to be checked up on quite often. After the birth however it SHOT up! I was put on the sepsis pathway also so was quite unwell thinking about it (I thought I was fine). It was so high, around 150/90 so was put on labetalol for 3 weeks. After a few days my BP lowered to around 130/80 which they were happy with. Towards the end of the packet I was informed to contact the GP to get more meds as usually its a 4-6 week course. I spoke to the dr who sent a prescription straight away when I said the course had finished 4 days prior to the call (it was a bank hol weekend) she wasn't happy I let the packet run out and told me to buy a BP machine and that another dr would call back the nxt day to make sure all is well.

Prior to calling the GP when the packet was coming to an end, I also started getting dizzy spells and just not feeling right at all. My heart beats felt funny and felt a little breathless like you said. I sat down and put my partners fit bit on - my heart rate was 47bpm and I had just sat down so was not resting. Very low for me as it sat in the 90/100s whilst pregnant and is currently 70bpm at resting.

Fast forward to buying the BP monitor she told me to take 3 readings that night and 3 more the next morning so the dr could examine the numbers. Every. Single. Reading was completely normal. 110-20/70-80 every time. She called back and said I didn't need the prescription after all. Glad I listened to my gut and stopped taking them when I did. They are beta blockers and not good if you don't need them. Don't just stop taking them thouugh speak to your GP tomorrow and if you have a blood pressure machine take some readings. It may be too low if your BP has altered to its pre-pregnancy state

Oh and just to add... I kept telling the midwives that I felt very 'odd'. When baby was latching on I was soooo dizzy and tired I could barely keep my eyes open. It was literally only when he latched and started feeding, as soon as he was done I felt fine again. I also kept getting a very strange sensation on my head which felt like water trickling down my scalp. So bizarre. I told them and they said nothing and put my dizziness down to being anaemic 🙄. I googled it when we were both discharged and its a side effect of labetalol