Blood pressure « Back to Group Discussions

[katiedidder]

I have really horrible white coat hypertension so I take my blood pressure occasionally at home to assure my midwife (and my backup NP/MD) that I'm not going to go into a hypertensive crisis anytime soon.  For most of my pregnancy it's been in the low 100s/60s (around 100/60 on a typical day), but the last two mornings it's been around 117/70.  While those aren't horrible numbers in and of themselves, and I had an unusually stressful weekend, I'm super worried that my BP is creeping into icky, rule out homebirth, category.  :(

No questions or anything, but I just needed to mope a bit.  I have an appointment tomorrow with my NP to get labs ordered and I have a feeling she's going to freak out about it.

[Nicole730]

Hmmm, I don't know that I would freak out about that at all yet.  Even if it is high for you, it's still a good number.

[kjourdan]

If they take my BP at an afternoon appointment, it is 100/58 or so.  But my Centering Pregnancy appointments start at 5:30 and after the rush of picking up my daughter and grabbing dinner and trying to find parking and get there on time, it was 120/72 last week.  So maybe try and figure out a good time when you are most relaxed?  I definitely think that it can vary with what you are going through at a given moment.

[BroodyWoodsgal]

Yeah you know, the last time my midwife took my blood pressure, we were in the "relaxing" area of her birth center and the kids were playing with the toys and stuff. We'd completely forgotten to take my blood pressure so she was like "oh, do you want to do that now" and I was like "yeah no problem"....as she's rifling around getting herself situated to take it, I turn to my kids and am like "okay, our visit is almost over, time to pick up toys"....and they start TOTALLY running around, acting like monkeys because they don't want to leave...so I say it again "come on guys, gotta pick up the toys" - I wasn't like, steaming mad or anything...just annoyed...so she fits the cuff on me takes my pressure and laughs at the reading. I don't remember what it was...but it was CRAZY high for me. Like CRAZY. I usually have extremely extremely low, like "are you okay?" low blood pressure and the reading we got was high for a person with NORMAL blood pressure. So, we laughed, cleaned up the toys...packed everything up, made a new appointment, etc...and took my blood pressure again. Normal normal, nice and low.

So, all of that is to say, it doesn't really take much, especially for a pg lady, to get a spike in blood pressure. Sometimes a difference of ten minutes can mean a really normal reading instead of a super alarming reading. Don't get too worked up over any one reading...stay healthy, stay as peaceful as possible and do what you have to do with what comes to you.

That number wouldn't even slightly freak me out. Don't worry dearest, it's going to be fine.