swelling and blood pressure

[halaroo]

Hi ladies! I'm officially due tomorrow and am suddenly experiencing something that has never happened before. Yesterday my feet and ankles swelled right up. I've been carrying on as normal, but decided to relax and take it easy when the swelling started. Today my feet are kind of tingly. I headed over to the pharmacy this morning to check my blood pressure and it's really low. Like really low - first test was 90/64, second machine in a different pharmacy was 103/71. I've been consistently 120/60 from day one of this pregnancy. Should this and the swelling be an indication of anything serious? I did some research online that suggested drinking lots of fluids.

[Halfasianmomma]

halaroo...I'm also supposedly due tomorrow, and this morning, my swelling was pretty bad as well. I just went to see the nurse and she told me that if my bp was within acceptable norms, which yours seems to be, not to worry. The women in my family have a history of water retention during pregnancy and it seems to clear right up after the baby is born. She also recommended soaking my feet or going swimming (something about the water pressure creating compression and forcing the fluid back into your system).

hope this helps!

[thechuzzle]

Cut down on the salt, increase fluid intake as much as possible to help rid the body of the excess and give your system a good wash out. Also try to put your feet up and relax, this is what happens at the end. You can also try some dandellion pills from the health food store, they helped a ton with my swelling with ds.

[halaroo]

Thanks for the replies! I'm not too worried, but when I went 10 days over with my last one I didn't experience any of this. I'll take it as a sign to put up my feet and make my husband cater to my every need!

[BlueMoonBean]

Originally Posted by thechuzzle

Cut down on the salt, increase fluid intake as much as possible to help rid the body of the excess and give your system a good wash out. Also try to put your feet up and relax, this is what happens at the end. You can also try some dandellion pills from the health food store, they helped a ton with my swelling with ds.

Everything that I've looked into about swelling during pregnancy has actually said that drastically reducing normal salt consumption can actually be counterproductive... all the advice I've found indicates that you should salt to taste. That said, loading up on super-salty stuff probably isn't a good idea either....................

[Kylahroo]

Originally Posted by halaroo

Thanks for the replies! I'm not too worried, but when I went 10 days over with my last one I didn't experience any of this. I'll take it as a sign to put up my feet and make my husband cater to my every need!

For me, I swelled the worst on the days I sat and didn't do much so watch it to see if it gets worse if you do this. For me, I had to stay active - I had to keep circulation to my feet moving in order to keep the swelling down. That and drink a lot, a lot, a lot!

[halaroo]

I definitely need to keep off my feet. I spend a lot of my day chasing around a two-year old so it's been hard. After putting my feet up and watching a movie with dh last night and then heading to bed early, my feet are in much better shape this morning. Still swollen, but not as bad.

[kltroy]

I don't really know what to do about the swelling either, because I never had it at ALL while pregnant. I swelled up terribly after my c/s with James and attributed it to the surgery, plus the fact that it was suddenly very hot outside.

But this time, sure enough, my ankles started swelling 4 days postpartum again. Not nearly as bad as they did last time around, but I guess that's just what my body does after it has a baby. Annoying. Hopefully it will go away soon - I guess it's just a fluid redistribution problem....