High BP at 38+1 - Reassurance needed

[LenniEd]

My BP is usually around 110/60 or 110/54, occasionally as high as 120/72. Today it was 145/96 on first measurement and then 130/85 when the midwife did it again. She looked quite panicky at first and then seemed to relax a bit when she got the second measurement. My urine sample was fine. She made me do another urine sample there and then just in case but both were fine. Assuming no protein means all ok does it??

MW told me to go straight in if I feel unwell at all but not really sure what I should be looking for apart from headaches. At 38+1 I'm not exactly feeling wonderful anyway so pretty hard to judge what to look for.

bumping for you

Thank you - am having a bit of a panic. MW was very off hand about it, saying "Oh good, I was just about to send you in to hospital" when she got the second reading. She did the first on an automatic monitor and the second the old fashioned way. And then as I walked out of the door she told me to go in if I felt at all unwell, but no clues as to what that meant. Am sure its nothing, but could have done with some reassurance from her really. Feel a bit less stressed now I've got DD in bed and can put my feet up.

Hi there, sounds like your midwife suspects pre-eclampsia. Good that your urine is clear but keep an eye out for other symptoms as it can strike very quickly. Other things to watch out for are:

Facial swelling, also feet/hands swelling unexpectedly although obviously your hands/feet can swell anyway.
Upper abdominal pain - usually right sided
Bad headache - with/without flashing lights
Vomiting

The borderline for high BP in pregnancy is 140/90 which is probably why the midwife was a bit concerned. Hope it all goes well. Cx

Sorry I should add that the mercury sphygmomanometer is more accurate in pregnancy than the automatic one. Also, I hope my post doesn't worry you - it is very good that you have no protein in your urine. BP can go up towards the end of pregnancy without it being pre-eclampsia. Cx

Hi, I already had high blood pressure prior to my pg so I was on tablets for it all the way through. It was pretty much fine throughout till 38+5 when it shot up to 160/100 or something like that. I was admitted to hospital for 24 hours for monitoring but all was fine.

The lower figure is the more important one i.e. if it goes over 100 they start to worry.

No protein in the urine is a very good sign. I can't remember all the other signs of pre-eclampsia but I think two of them are sudden headaches and white floating spots in your vision. If you do a search for pre-eclampsia on here you will find more info.

Don't worry too much though - 2 higher-than-normal bp measurements is a looooong way from having pre-eclampsia. I had three of the risk factors for pe - aged over 35, first pg and pre-existing high bp - and I still didn't get it.

Hope your feeling ok now, I know how worrying it is when you first find out your bp is high. Mine was always about 120/70 and suddenly went up to 150/105 in my first pregnancy at about 35 weeks and 170/109 in my second. Had to be induced second time round because they found protein in my urine at 38 weeks, and always swell up like a balloon. Your quite far along now so you should be fine, might just find it creeps up in these last few weeks. Just watch out for symptoms that Carrie said about, I also found that my heart rate increased and sometimes felt flu like symptoms. Try to relax (easier said then done) and hopefully you will be fine. Take care xx

Thank you all, have really put my mind at rest.

lenni - you are NOT to worry. you are to rest up at home and try to relax. if you have ANY of the symptoms mentioned you are to phone the hospital and ask for advice. DO NOT worry about calling them - that's what they are there for.

the worst that can happen is that you have to go in and they are too concrend about you and they section you. not ideal but your baby is now term and you and he/she will be JUST FINE

i had pre eclampsia from 33 week and there are more symptoms than just high blood pressure. I looked like the marshmallow man i was so swollen and absolutly shattered couldnt even get out of bed, proteins in urine varied from 2 to 4 so none is good. They tend to admit if b pressure goes above 90 on the bottom so dont worry to much x when i had my d by emergency section my blood pressure was 180 over 135 but had full blown eclampsia with lots of othr symptoms such as marshmallow body, headache and massive pain in upper abdomen-dont worry to much but do look for other symptoms

how are you feeling today lenniEd?

Hi Katie, am ok, thank you for asking, is kind of you. Have been feeling a bit dizzy and been sick a couple of times so looks like I might have a bug perhaps, which would prob explain my BP going up. DD is sneezing like mad so looks like she is coming down with something too. Hopefully just a cold. I've had that blocked nose thing through the whole of this pregnancy so wouldn't have a clue if I have a cold or not! Such fun.

sorry to hear that you are under the weather but at least your BP is ok and baby is hanging on in there . i know late pg is crap, isn't ? i always go overdue so i really REALLY remember what these last few weeks are like

Everyone said to me " I bet you can't wait to meet your baby!" when all I could think about was how tired I was and how much easier it is to look after a baby inside rather than out [bad mother emoticon]

I just wanted to add that even if your BP does go over 140/90 the hospital can give you meds to bring it down. I had very high BP from about 24 weeks and was admitted to hospital overnight at 36 weeks, but because I took the pills and tested my urine for protein at home I was able to go to nearly 42 weeks and went into labour naturally.

High BP on its own is treatable. Pre-eclampsia is what they worry about (and high BP is a symptom of that but does not cause it) but they can keep an eye, check your urine and take bloods and deal with pre-eclampsia too.

MrsHappy - that's interesting you went to 42 weeks. I was told I had to be induced on or around my due date as it was too dangerous to go overdue with high bp, even though I was on meds for it and I had no signs of pre-eclampsia. I was induced at 39+5 in the end. Maybe it was because I had high bp prior to the pg.

Maybe that's why. I guess it is just up to the individual hospital. I was at Queen Charlottes in London (maternity hospital that gets sent a lot of complicated cases) and while I hated the place, the medical care when things started to go wrong was great; they were completely unflappable. Also the drugs did stablilise things - if my BP had kept going up I have no doubt they would have got the baby out.
They did say I had to be induced at 41+3 which is their normal cut-off and that I should be indced as a matter of priority. In fact when it came to it they had no beds so I couldn't be induced. I guess medical priority has no standing in the face of a bed shortage!!