midwife still concerned about my blood pressure :(

[starbyfar7]

we had our second appt yesterday and again, my BP was 120/80. mind you 120/80 is perfectly normal for nonpreggo folks.. but for pregnant women my midwife says i should be around the 115/70 range..
if the bottom number starts to rise above 80, she said there is concern.. and i could possibly risk out of my beloved home birth so needless to say. im pretty worried.

she recommended, eating lots of garlic.. upping my protein.. exercising more.. and starting up my hypnobabies course.

any other suggestions?

[Cutie Patootie]

I've had two homebirths and my blood pressure definitely wasn't in that range. I have *really* high blood pressure now, it's chronic, so I am dealing with that, but I can't believe that about the 120/80 being high. I don't think that sounds right to be that concerned at 120/80.

[starbyfar7]

i didnt think so either! especially since 120/80 is considered normal.. but she says blood pressure usually starts to spike up at some point in the third trimester naturally.. and if im already on the "preggo high end" its something we need to head off. i wonder if they're just being overly cautious?
i'm a vegetarian, pre morning sickness i was a runner/yogi/gym rat, i dont have a family history of hypertension, im not overweight.. so im not sure why they're so concerned..

[Nicole730]

I would suggest the more protein and see if that helps. It helped when mine spiked at the end of my first pregnancy. I am vegetarian too.

[menomena]

ditto. more protein (you don't have to exceed RDA levels, but for a pregnant woman, I believe it is 60g/day) and more good fats (nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, grass-fed butter & eggs). if you're eating soy, consider cutting out all but the truly traditional/fermented forms (tempeh, miso, natto) and even then in true moderation. less carbs in general, and when you do eat them, make sure they are whole & unrefined.

good luck!

[lawmama1984]

I'm veg too. I have struggled with hbp since I was 16. At times, I had to be medicated (when I wasn't controlling my weight), but I worked really hard to bring my weight down before getting pregnant and get off meds. Anyway, all that to say, 120/80 is not, imo, bad at all. My MW told me she likes to see the bottom number stay below 90. I'm not sure about the top, since I don't usually go over mid 120s, but she's never mentioned it so I assume it's fine. She also said the opposite of what your MW said...that blood volume increases in third tri, and we should expect my bp to remain in a normal range. Aside from that, protein, yes! Definitely your friend...I shoot for 100g a day. It's hard, but protein shakes help out. Also, my MW recommends salting your food..not with crappy table salt, but with good salt. I use kosher salt. Also drinking tons of water, and potassium also helps lower bp naturally. Hth!

[tzs]

i might get a second opinion on that high blood pressure diagnosis (although i'm no expert either!)

120/80 was my blood pressure at my first appointment this time (apparently mimicking last time as well) and was considered normal.

i did get up to 140ish last time which isn't great but we just kept monitering it.

[scrappin-mama]

I've never heard of 120/80 being a cause for concern in pregnancy. I had PIH with my first, but they didn't start worrying about it until around 135/85 or so.

[Monarchgrrl]

Mine is usually 110/60 so when mine first got up to 120/80 my home birth midwives were concerned because of the sudden jump and just didn't want it to climb higher. They made sure i knew that they knew it was a completely normal number, it's just the jump that concerned them a bit. This was at about 35 weeks. I started acupuncture, eating at least one cucumber a day, more protein, extra watermelon, and they had me do one dose of belladonna. Hypnobabies was always very relaxing for me. And they recommended swimming or floating in a pool, but I didn't do that. It went down then climbed up to 140/90, which is the cutoff for PIH. They sent me to an OB to get my liver and kidney labs checked just to be sure they were functioning normally. They were great, so I upped the acupuncture and they took me off work early. That was two weeks ago. The last two weeks my BP has been about 130/86 and another time it was 120/80. They aren't as concerned now because it seems to be situational and not consistently high.

All that to say that if it wasn't a big jump for your usual numbers then I'm surprised they'd be concerned. That is a super low cutoff for home birth. Are you sure she didn't just mean that she doesn't want it to go above 80 because that could be concerning? That I can understand because 90 is a pretty across the board cutoff for being serious so maybe she just meant she doesn't want it to go higher?

[pregnant@40]

That's as normal as normal can be. My OB has expressed absolutely no concern about the same reading. Do you normally run very, very low? If so, then I believe there could be concern if you are now substantially above your own normal, and/or if you are trending upward. But bp's are not an exact science, and can be elevated due to anxiety (which you may be feeling, since your mw places so much importance on it). She really does sound overly cautious, especially since you have no unusual symptoms & a healthy lifestyle (and I'm assuming no known risk for pre-eclampsia?).

[tzs]

this last post jogged my memory a bit....
when mine went pretty high at the end, my ob would let me lie down for 10 minutes or wait until the end of the appointment and take it again to make sure it wasn't nerves and it did often go down.

[Nanette56]

I agree with the PP, 120/80 seems normal. My M/W goes by what's normal for ME though. She compared it to non-pregnant BP, and as long as it stays around there, she's happy. The last 3 times I've been in, it's been around 120/80. If that's a normal BP for you, then it shouldn't be a big concern. (BTW, my m/w told me that fire stations check BP for you, and advised me to start going about once a week beginning at 20weeks)...

[Lady Lilya]

That looks perfectly normal to me.

In my first pregnancy, my MW was concerned because my BP suddenly jumped from 110/70 to 140/90. 140/90 itself doesn't mean "OMG you could have a seizure at any time", since there are a lot of people walking around with much higher BPs and they are fine. But I was also getting something in my urine that wasn't there before, and the dipsticks she had couldn't clarify what exactly it was. She was worried that if things continued I would get pre-E. This was less than a week before my due date. She took some blood to check how my organs were coping, saying that that would confirm things one way or another, but I had the baby before the results came back. She checked my BP a few times during labor and it didn't jump higher.

Anyway, I would say that at this point your BP is probably changing, as your blood volume increases. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[forest~mama]

Originally Posted by Nicole730

I would suggest the more protein and see if that helps. It helped when mine spiked at the end of my first pregnancy. I am vegetarian too.

I agree- mine was pretty high last time and the protein really helped. It would go up, I'd eat a bunch of protein, then it would go down. Kinda strange!
Also, I agree that your number does not seem high- I have not had either of my midwives mention risking me out, and last time mine got pretty high near the end. My last midwife loaned me her cuff and stethoscope so that I could check it between appts. Maybe you could do that? I bought a cuff at an estate sale a few months ago so that I can check it this pregnancy if needed.