Blood Pressure....beginning to worry now.

[cockle84]

I stupidly fell (not very hard) onto my stomach on the bed the other night. My husband has been worrying ever since and now I've started worrying a bit because I feel like I haven't felt the baby move as much as I had been. (I'm 20 weeks on Thurs). I went to the doctor tonight to try and put mine and my husbands minds at rest but the doctor has made me worse. She said she wouldn't be able to hear the heartbeat, so she wouldn't try (even though the midwife could hear it two weeks ago). She also took my blood pressure which she said was a bit high 140/65.
I haven't had any abdominal pain or bleeding but I'm worrying now.....I'm seeing midwife tmw. Anyone got any suggestions to put my mind at ease?

Try not to worry, although your tummy is very delicate your baby has plenty of padding around them to protect him/her.I have a 3 year old and i have had him lean on my tummy with his arm and had the occasional kick in the tummy from him too. The high bp could be down to you worrying,infact it probabily is.Try to take tonight and relax, nice bath etc and hopefully the midwife will be able to put your mind at rest tomorrow for you.

On the movement front, it's still so early I'm sure you are fine, babies are pretty well cushioned in there, and you're probably feeling less movement because it's turned round or something. I got headbutted to the ground by a horse at 20 weeks with DS, hard blow to the bump, and no harm done.

That BP reading doesn't sound massively high to me - I'm not really qualified to comment, but they did make a bit of a fuss over my BP in my last pregnancy, and as I understand it, it is the bottom number you really need to worry about (65 is normal, on the lower side of average I'd guess). The top number can fluctuate a lot due to rushing about / stress (e.g. because you are worried about getting your blood pressure taken!).

The baby is in the safest place in your body. Its probably fine but talk to your midwife she can check the heartbeat for you. As for the BP, they don't normally worry until the second figure is above 90 so you have a long way to go. The top figure 140 is fine too as long as it gets no higher. Grumpyfish is right about it probably being due to stress/worry. I bet by the time it is next taken it will be right back down to your usual reading.

I had fluctuating BP in the later stages of pregnancy, the highest it went to was 165/85 but as there were no other accompanying symptoms such as high abdo pain, dizziness or protein in my urine, not even the obstetrician was very concerned.

To sum up: 140/90 or below and you're fine.

Firstly, the doc didn't even attempt to find the heartbeat - this suggests the right kit was not available - you can't hear a baby's heartbeat with an ordinary stethoscope. So though it's a shame she didn't have a Pinard stethoscope (or was not confident in its use), this is NOTHING to do with the likely health of your baby.

Secondly, I wouldn't worry about the BP either. The first figure hops around a lot - and so could be up because of the stress. The second figure is the important one, and you remain well below the norm of /80.

You can go through all this with the m/w tomorrow; please do try not to fret.

Thanks, I think you're all right. I'll try to stop worrying. Hopefully the midwife will listen to the heartbeat tmw and everything will be fine.
Thank you