Hypertension...

[bri2101]

During the last 3-4 weeks of my pregnancy I was diagnosed preeclamptic/eclamptic. I delivered a week ago and 2 days after I had these horrible headaches with a burning sensation on my neck/back area. My blood pressure was 162/132 I went to the ER and they gave me meds to lower it. I'm now on blood pressure medication...5 pills a day...2 different meds. Has anyone experienced post partum hypertension? I want to know if there's any way I'll be able to get off the medications or is this something I'll have to live with for the rest of my life? Thank you for all your help/experiences.

[slightlycosmo]

I was just like this.  My bp went up and I had protein and other assorted issues and delivered just before 37 weeks.  My bp came down briefly after delivery (I assume because of the magnesium?) but then started creeping back up.  About 6 weeks after delivery, I knew I wasn't okay when I got a reading of 180+/110. I was scared.  They started me on bp meds and they told me I would probably have high BP forever.

It has been just over a year and I think my bp is back to mostly normal.  I weaned off my meds (sort of by accident - I forgot to take them and then we traveled and I was totally off the routine) and my bp has been normal (115-130/65-82).  I'm going back to my doctor soon and am going to tell her I don't want to continue taking the meds unless she can give me a convincing reason why I should.

I found a study that said prolonged high blood pressure was fairly common after preeclampsia.  It gave me hope that things might resolve, which they appear to have done.  Here it is:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19935034

FWIW, none of my doctors ever confirmed this; everyone believed that delivery was an automatic cure.  But the research doesn't seem to bear this out.  I think it is for many women, but definitely not all.

I'm pretty sure we still have a greater lifelong risk of stroke/heart attack/kidney disease, but it has motivated me to try to take better care of myself to minimize those risks and stay healthy without requiring medication.  If I need to take it, I will because I know untreated high blood pressure is super hard on the body, but I'd like to be healthy enough to be able to go without.

[nana070710]

I was retaining a lot of water too i got to the point of weighting 210 5 weeks later im 165 hope you feel much better

[tweetyforlife88]

Oh and that was about 16 months ago and I'm on my second pregnancy 22weeks 5days and no sign of preeclampsia so far (praying to God).

[tweetyforlife88]

I was 32weeks when I gave birth to my 1st and that was because I was eclamptic and seized. Stayed in the hospital for 5 days on 9 blood pressure pills a day 1065mg for about 2 weeks. Lost all baby weight and more because of fluid I retained and haven't needed blood pressure medication since then. You should be fine within a few days as long as you didn't have blood pressure issues prior to pregnancy. Good luck and enjoy your new bundle of joy!

[RaisingTwoSoon]

I did with my son. They never told me why it happened. I was in the hospital a full 5 days but by time I left I was off the BP meds. Mine was about 185/100. Interesting thing is they never told me why that happened. It was after my csection and I was in recovery for 3 hours.

[bri2101]

Well...the only reason I started taking the meds is bc they told me I was on the verge of having a stroke or heart attack from how high it was. I'm glad to hear a positive story though...it gives me hope that I can be weaned off of meds. I've been praying every day hoping that God will heal me instead of the meds. I think a lot of it was the water I was retaining, I've lost 20 lbs in 2 days so I'm guessing that's my body getting rid of the extra water. I want to enjoy my baby already b instead I'm just in bed asleep because of the meds

[nana070710]

I was just like you but in my 2nd to 3rd week my blood pressure went back to normal... i got prescribed several meds too but i never took them instead i drank lots of water had my feet up and it went down on its on