Anyone had problems with high blood pressure AFTER birth?

IslandBreeze

Castaway
Two weeks before delivery my blood pressure shot up and pre-eclampsia was suspected as there were other symptoms too but it was eventually ruled out.

It's now 11 days since my C-section. Here the nurse visits new mums and babies for 10 days after delivery and my blood pressure has been going up over the last few days so they're continuing my visits for a few days longer and say if it's still high tomorrow/Monday, they will need me to see the doctor. Anyone else had a problem with this? I don't feel at all ill, in fact I feel great and I'm eating well and getting plenty of sleep. Obviously still a bit sore after the C-section but nothing major, I take ibuprofen once a day usually to help the pain but it's no worse than that. The nurses are clearly getting concerned but I feel fine.
 
Hi, I am a midwife in UK, we often see womens bp rise after birth, some women need medication for a short while and then everything settles down again but we do find that the women who do develop bp at end of pregnancy/postnatally will often have raised bp next time as well.

|Its very common to feel well with raised Bp
 
Thanks Twizzle. It's always slightly unnerving when the medics have "concerned" faces but you feel fine - somehow it's more sinister than when you feel ill! :)
 
Are you active yet? My pregnancy hypertension continued into the postnatal period a little while, but went back to normal after I started my usual activity levels.
 
I was kept in hospital for a week so I wasn't at all active then but my blood pressure was fine then, it only started going up a few days after I came home. I'm moderately active - pushing pram round shops etc but I haven't resumed swimming etc yet as my Caesar scar isn't fully healed yet. I only had high BP for a few days in the last few weeks of pregnancy, for most of the pregnancy my BP was perfect.
 
143/100 yesterday, 130/100 day before, 130/90 day before that. Steadily rising the last few days. Normally I'm a fairly perfect 120/80 and for most of pregnancy (apart from a few days when they thought I might have pre-eclampsia and was generally unwell)I was 120/70.
 
Well, as it happens in recent months I have had cause to read a LOT of stuff about BP on the internet, as in older age mine has started to creep up.

Firstly I can pretty much reassure you that 143/100 counts as long-term risk rather than "omg I am about to explode". So if it carried on at this level for a number of years, you'd get stiffened arteries sooner than someone with a lower BP.

The slight proviso in this is that *if* it is connected to your pre-eclampsia, the BP can rise quite rapidly, and that is why your medical professionals are watching so closely.

Though the rise per day could also be linked to your anxiety, which typically will be increasing each day the BP has risen rather than fallen - which is one of the unhelpful things anxiety does lol!

You could probably do some safe things to help reduce BP while awaiting decisions about treatment. Reduce salt intake. Remember pain can increase BP so don't do activities that pull your operation site. Accept all offers of help, so you feel as rested and relaxed as possible. Potter rather than race around... etc. At least until the BP has been explained fully.
 
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