Any natural remedies to help lower high BP in pregnancy?

[mauri456]

I'm almost 28 weeks pregnant with twins. At my last appt my initial BP reading was high but then it came down to 124/82. The plan for now is to just watch it. I go back next week and if it is high again they will draw labs. My appt this time was with the OB but I also see a MW. I plan on talking to her at my next appt, but was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions.

I've 'heard' maybe Calcium and Magnesium?

Just looking for suggestions! Thanks

[chellebee]

Acupuncture can be helpful. Other things are fish oil, and milk thistle.
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[mauri456]

Do you know much much milk thistle? Also I take DHA 3-6-9. Is that the same as fish oil?

(I will talk to my MW too before initiating any of this... it just makes me feel better to find things I can do while I wait for my appointment! )

[Vaquitita]

susan weed recommends skullcap and passionflower.

[chellebee]

I'd talk to mw or ND about dosage. Passionflower is amazing if there is an anxiety element to the bp.

[matthia]

Eastern holistic medicine recommends raw celery for maintaining good blood pressure, especially during pregnancy.

[crittersmom]

fish oil and vit C are my go tos if its high BP that I can do something about.Peeing before they do the test and making sure both feet are on the floor and its the right sized cuff are also important.

[tanyalynn]

DH's (clearly not pregnant!) BP goes down with magnesium. If you try that, I'd not add in additional calcium at the same time--the balance is important there and most of us are lower in mag than cal for a variety of reasons.

[Smokering]

I've heard cucumber is good.

[Vaquitita]

i had a dr appt today and my bp was 132/78. this is about what it was in my previous pregnancies. my mw did keep an eye on it (had me monitor it at home), but since it didn't keep going up it didn't prevent me from having a great home birth. i really don't want extra flack/monitoring because the dr is worried about my bp, so i'm want to try some things to lower it. today was my last visit at the free clinic, next week i start having appointments with the dr i'm going to deliver with. so i really want to try and get it down before i go see her.

in my last preg i took passionflower caps and drank skullcap in my mixed herb pregnancy infusions, under my mw's direction. i can't remember how much passionflower i took last time, 1-2 caps i think. i looked this up in susan weed's book and she recommends 2-4 caps of passionflower. also 1-2 cups of skullcap infusion daily. i made some tonight, oh it tastes horrible! with a spoonful of honey i was able to gag it down. i never took much of the skullcap last time, because it tasted so bad. but i'm going to just make myself drink it every day this week.

some of the milder treatments for high bp susan weed mentions are: cucumber; also lemon juice and cream of tartar in a cup of water for three days.

[HeatherB]

My MW recommends passionflower tincture, which I've taken in two previous pregnancies. (This time, my BP is quite low!) Magnesium is excellent for cardiac health. I recommend the Natural Calm brand of magnesium citrate powder. Decent flavor, can be taken hot or cold, and is highly absorbable.

Other things you can do include soaking in a pool at least chest-deep for 20 minutes a day. Light exercise can be good, too, like swimming or walking, but simply being in the water will lower your BP.

[billikengirl]

We had luck w/ skullcap tea (not tincture) and Michael's Blood Pressure Factors

[Vaquitita]

Originally Posted by billikengirl

We had luck w/ skullcap tea (not tincture) and Michael's Blood Pressure Factors

how did you drink it? it tastes so bad. even though susan weed recommends brewing it for 2 hours, i'm thinking of going with 1 hour or even 30 minutes next time so that it's more drinkable.

[Vaquitita]

Originally Posted by Vaquitita

i had a dr appt today and my bp was 132/78. this is about what it was in my previous pregnancies. my mw did keep an eye on it (had me monitor it at home), but since it didn't keep going up it didn't prevent me from having a great home birth. i really don't want extra flack/monitoring because the dr is worried about my bp, so i'm want to try some things to lower it. today was my last visit at the free clinic, next week i start having appointments with the dr i'm going to deliver with. so i really want to try and get it down before i go see her.

so today i saw my new dr, and my bp was 118/76!!! so something worked, or all 3 did. since i was trying to get it to come down within a week, i did several things. for 3 days i drank 2tsp cream of tartar and the juice of half a lemon in 4oz of water (hated this, it gave me heartburn). every day for the week i took 4 passionflower capsules and drank 2 cups of skullcap infusion (1cup herb to 1 quart water, steeped 2hours). it was quite bitter, i drank it with honey and found it much better at room temp than cold. each time i drank it, after the first few sips, i did kind of get used to the taste.

since my bp was normal at this visit, i'm going to let up on the herbs but i'm not sure how much. go down to 2 caps of passionflower? drink only 1 cup of skullcap?

eta: i took rescue remedy a couple times on my way to the appointment. but i was still feeling nervous/anxious.