Anyone else avoiding pre-eclampsia?

[Guyropes]

Just had the consultant review my booking and been put down as high risk for developing pre-eclampsia. I'm 13 weeks.

I've been given aspirin to take daily.
I'll need my blood pressure monitoring more closely and growth scans.

Anyone else? It would be great to exchange information about this, and to know I'm not alone!

Hi tori.. Nice to meet you! Congratulations on your pg. how many weeks are you now?

Sounds like your bp is quite stable... That's really good. I'm interested in how to keep it down throughout this pregnancy, if I reduce salt? Drink more? Avoid stress? Anything else?

The consultant reeled off about 4 different factors which made me high risk, inc a previous low birthweight baby, so that might be what indicated the growth scan.

I'm starting the aspirin now, as my bp is already high. My bmi is 29 so still need to be careful not to gain too much weight. Have you been given guidance on how much to gain?

Hi ladies can I join x I had pre eclampsia with dd1 and she was delivered at 35 weeks due to bp rocketing. Managed to escape it with dd2, but did have gestational diabetes which was well controlled with metformin (interestingly there is a link with pre eclampsia and gestational diabetes) x I am now nearly 8 weeks with dc3 , this pregnancy is with a new partner so have been told I am very high risk x I have a consultant appt in 2 weeks. I am already taking aspirin as I have had 3mc in the past and decided to take it incase I had a clotting problem, I had my booking in appt Thursday and the midwife told me to keep taking the aspirin x

Hi yes me! Although chances of me avoiding it are slim as I've had it three times so have loads of experience with pre eclampsia.. Feel free to message me if you want to chat

Mummy to goldie hello! I remember you from August antenatal thread.. So sorry about your losses, and congratulations on this pg. is it the first time you've taken aspirin from the start? I hope it helps. Are you getting early scans? I didn't know there was a link with GD, and not sure that the consultant realised I am with a new partner now too... Hmm.
All the best with this pg, and keeping your bp down.

Snowflake, Thanks for posting.... That's a lot of pre-eclampsia! When are you due? Hope things stay normal for you for as long as possible. Do you think they are understanding more and more about this condition? I had it with DD1, and they told me this did not increase the risk for getting it with dc2, but now having had it previously seems to raise the risk factor. Unless that's something to do with having a new partner? (Confused)!

Yes I have taken it from the beginning. I had a scan at 6 weeks and saw a heartbeat and have another one in 2 weeks , then the normal 12 week one. There is a link if the gestational diabetes is not controlled so I always wonder if I had diabetes on the 1st pregnancy but it wasent picked up. You are more likely to get pre eclampsia again if you change your partner

I'm due in June but hoping to hang on as long as possible, this is the first pregnancy I've been prescribed aspirin, I'm not sure how much research how been done into how effective it is but I'm hopeful it will help.. There is evidence that there is a higher risk with a new partner I was told this by my consultant

Yes, me too started taking aspirin after 12 week scan but no one mentioned about extra scans. Xx

tori sounds like you're managing your weight really well, and your bp is steady: Here's hoping the risk never materialises for you!

goldie sounds like they are keeping a close eye on you, which is good. Hope you're feeling good.. Early pregnancy can be difficult in so many different ways.

snowflake do you monitor your bp at home? Really hope the aspirin helps this time.

weelamb hi! Hope you are well. How is your bp? Have you had p. e. before?

Hi, I am currently in hospital awaiting second steroid injection after being admitted last night with preeclampsia. I have been high risk from the start of this pregnancy because I have lots of risk factors. These include

• underlying chronic Kidney disease
• essential hypertension (high bp)
• previous low birth weight babies
• previous borderline pre eclampsia

Last night I was admitted with bp 168/106 and protien +1 in my urine. I also had flashy light eye disturbances and some swelling of my fingers and face. They pumped drugs into me (a cocktail of labetalol, methyldopa and something else I've forgotten the name of!) and after peaking at 168/108 blood pressure eventually came down to acceptable levels. However, when it didn't look like it was going to reduce they started the steroids at 11:30pm last night so I have to have the second one at 11:30 tonight to strengthen bubbas lungs. Then hopefully, if my bp keeps behaving, I can go home in the morning and resume seeing the midwife twice a week. I'm currently 28+5 weeks.

I am pretty sure I will be back and forward now until I deliver, but I am hopeful that I can keep her in for a few more weeks. I have had extra growth scans and consultant appointments. Trouble is the doctors don't appear to agree on which drugs work the best! I am also on aspirin.

Hi dances ... Oh no! That's very high bp,I'm so glad they could get it down for you eventually... I guess you'll be taking bp meds ongoing til delivery?.. Must be a bit worrying if you feel the drs don't agree which medication to put you on.

I wish you all the best with getting home soon, and keeping stable for as long as possible.

It's clearly a complex condition to treat, and in previous generations we might have had much poorer outcomes. I am very grateful that the monitoring and treatments are there to help us get through it.

All the best to you in hospital tonight. Hope you're feeling better soon.

I'm a bit concerned about the blood pressure measurements they are obtaining with the electronic obs machine. To me they seem very low, considering I have been taking daily meds throughout my pregnancy and bp has been continually high, yesterday they didn't give me any anti hypertensive because my readings were all ok 135/74 as an average, but when taken manually in the night it was 145/88 (still ok for me and I would be happy with that), but again back to electronic and it's reading 134/74. Seems like a big variation to me and my blood pressure hasn't been that low in four Years!

I'm not complaining, I want to go home but I'm convinced this is wrong. Has anyone else had such big variations?

Hi - I'm early stages of pe for second pregnancy. Expecting will be admitted and deliver this week. But 36 weeks so not too worried (Dd was 32 weeks). Yes you can get slight variations on machines and manual. But machines should be calibrated so i wouldn't worry to much about it. Last time I found if machine reading was high they would do manual to double check and may get slight difference. You will also get differences with manual depending on who takes it.

They really won't send you home if they are not happy you are stable. Just make sure you are very clear on all possible symptoms and go back if needed (other less known ones include shoulder and neck ache plus general feeling something isn't right).

Dances - hope rest of pregncy is ok and you get to a good gestation before delivery.

Kattnip.. Well done getting to 36 weeks. Hope the next couple of weeks goes well, and you have a good delivery. My experience of p.e. delivery was very quick labour! Let us know how you get on.

Dances: it's hard to trust each individual measurement when the equipment they use makes it vary so much! But I think they are just looking for a stable pattern.

I found the electronic kit always gave a much higher reading than the manual, and at one point a midwife got a kit out which was made from a cotton band, which got tucked into itself, instead of the nylon Velcro ones. The reading was lower again, but not by an awful lot. I still ended up getting admitted.

I have not been told I am at higher risk of it but I have to have my BP checked every 2 weeks as my family has a history of high BP but mine has been fine so far.
Currently at 30 weeks today GTT was fine also not been told anything about aspirin and my BMI is 37.

Hi skyra, nice to meet you! What is a GTT? I think different areas have different plans to follow depending on your risk factors. It could be that you have been identified as high risk for hypertension, not p.e. Also I think the aspirin prescription is a fairly new thing, so not all areas may have adopted it yet. Anyway, if you have made it to 30 weeks without any hypertension well done! Hope you make it to term and have a good delivery.

Hi, unfortunately I had the stage after pre-eclampsia (eclampsia) with my DS, I had seizures which resulted in him immediately being delivered by csection under a general anaesthetic. I spent a week in ITU, thankfully my DS is now ok (he's 12 this week!)

With my DD I was immediately put on aspirin, labetalol and metholdopa. I still developed preeclampsia and she was born safely at 38 weeks.
I am 15 weeks now and on aspirin and methyldopa, a sharp spike in BP to start with but now seems settled.

I am 5kg lighter than with DD so hoping that will be of benefit.

Me and pre eclampsia are enemies and I will win this battle!!

Well I'm still here, and blood pressure has started to rise again :( 145/92 so they won't be letting me out until I've had 24 hours of bp under 140/90. Feeling really low now.

Oh dances I'm so sorry to hear that.
I guess that's because they didn't give you the anti-hypertensive again?

Have you asked them to be consistent about the apparatus the use to take your blood pressure? I'm sure they would recognise this as a factor and be happy to do it of you ask.

Number3... Sounds like you know your enemy! (Sounds terrifying.) Good luck this time! Did they put you on the meds preventativly or was your bp already high?

Tori... Can you tell us about the folic acid? I saw something at the clinic about a trial for f.a. And p. e. it would be interesting to see the link you showed your gp.

Guyropes, unfortunately I've been left with permanent high blood pressure, I take bisoprolol which is a beta blocker when not pregnant. I am usually slim and fit and it still does not go down. I have had several 24 blood pressure monitors and it has been high 80% of the time even in my sleep. They say I have a thickening in an artery, it's solely down to the eclampsia. Very annoying! Bisoprolol is not safe in pregnancy so I have methyldopa although that doesn't work as well.