Anyone suffering with low blood pressure?

[SpamAnderson]

Really struggling as my blood pressure drops during pregnancy but never had it this early or had any noticable effect from it before. The world is spinning, my eyes keep moving, keep being sick from the dizziness, losing my balance and have no appetite. I went to the Drs and my blood pressure has dropped from 120/80 (my normal non-pregnant bp) to 100/60 but they tell me they don't do anything about low blood pressure, they only worry if it goes high. I just can't go about my normal day to day stuff as I'm always losing my balance if I stay still for more than a few seconds. How do you cope? I was wondering if doing short bursts of exercise throughout the day may give some relief as it would maybe increase my heart rate and stop the effects?!

mine is generally either 100/58 or 100/60, but luckily I don't get dizzy spells. Apparently extra salt in the diet can help to increase it. I had my lowest reading after I had been to the gym but again felt fine. The nurse said as long as I am not dizzy then they were happy so may be worth speaking to your midwife about the dizzy spells

I suffer terribly with low BP during pregnancy. It's low at the best of times when I'm not pg (110/65) but during early pregnancy it's around 95/55 and I know how you feel - it's awful! I will say that staying really well hydrated and snacking regularly does help. You have to become very conscious of it and be really careful getting up/moving around.
As pregnancy goes on it does get better, for me it improves slower through the 2nd tri and pretty much goes once I'm a few weeks into the 3rd... only to come back again for a few weeks after the baby is born - but that's another story.

Mine is staying ultra low this preg - usually 80-90 over 50, and I went through a phase of fainting regularly egfl I stood up, around weeks 22-27. Eating too much contributes, as does eating too little. Anything heavy to digest knocks me out. Staying v well hydrated and eating six small meals plus a couple every half hour has kept me find, am now 37+5. Good luck, horrid feeling.

I have this too. My BP measures around 94/64, which my HCPs think is wonderful. It's not - it's giving me symptoms like yours, and I'm worried I'm going to faint and hurt myself or the baby. I had to sit on the floor in Tesco the other day to avoid fainting. It doesn't help that they take my BP immediately after I've done a 20 min walk to the hospital. I'm sure if they took it after I'd been standing still for 10 mins it would be much lower.

I find drinking loads helps, and making sure I eat enough salt. A drink with a bit of sugar in, like weak cordial, seems to hold in my body better than plain water, which I just seem to wee out immediately. My consultant suggested flight socks, so I will try them. I agree with Allthenames that eating small meals more frequently is better than bigger ones. Let's hope it passes soon.

Just to add, I use these to keep me hydrated:
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003AIMQ38?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
Works better than just water. You'd probably be able to find them at your local running/sport shop as well as on Amazon.

I went into prem labour last week and the drugs they gave me sent my BP to 69/35. I thought I was dead

But I always have low BP. Regular food, lots of water and lying on my left hand side are all that helps. Otherwise it's just a 'get on with it' situation I'm afraid. Pregnancy sucks.

My bp is 90/60 usually but 80/50 when pregnant.

I found keeping hydrated, light exercise regularly, avoiding going from hot to cold and vice versa and eating little and often helped. 2nd trimester was the worst bit.

I've had severely low bp before pregnancy and now that I'm pregnant it's horrendous so I'm confined to my bed most the time. It's horrible it used to scare me pre pregnancy Now it's worse I feel even more frightened and I'm only 10 weeks :(

Thank you everyone :D I've spoken to a couple of people who mentioned more salt is what they've been told so I've been using it as a great excuse to eat pork scratchings every other day and adding salt when cooking. Still getting nausea and dizzy spells but thankfully not to the extent when I thought there was something seriously wrong!

I think people under estimate how scary lowbp is before I was pregnant I was convinced I had a brain tumour due to how uneasy it made me feel! Now I'm so much worse salt increase hasn't ever worked for me.

No advice that's not already been given - keep really well hydrated if you can seems to be the main advice I always get (tricky as I struggle with pretty nasty pregnancy nausea and sickness and find drinking very difficult). When my usual MW was away and I saw a different one she took my blood preasure and said 'oooo, your bloody preasure is VERY low' I said it was normally pretty low and was there anything I could do about it. Her advice? 'Do try not to faint' I kid you not!

Have this too, I'm 19wks now but since 14wks been suffering g faint spells, to the point I have passed out a couple of times. Normally low blood pressure at 100/60 when. to pregnant, now dips even lower.

I've been told by both my midwife and consultant to drink regularly - a glass of water at least every 2 hours and a sugary drink in between, like fruit juice/decaf tea with honey, pop salt in and on food (but that won't particularly help to top up blood pressure when in strife, it's more of a gradual build up thing) and importantly, get up slowly and move every 20mins, even if it's just to grab a drink or nip to the loo. Small portions with regular snacks seems to help me out. They also said before standing, do a few leg raises to get blood pumping, helps to stop the 'head rush' thing. Do each leg singularly to avoid belly strain.

It's a horrible feeling so you have my sympathy! But hopefully some of the above may help