How High Blood Pressure Can Effect Your Pregnancy

My blood pressure has always been a little high. High blood pressure runs in my family, so I knew from an early age that I would need to keep track of my blood pressure. I have always watched my diet, and I try to exercise regularly. I have always been able to keep my blood pressure under control. I was always able to keep it at an acceptable number without medication. This all changed when I became pregnant. My blood pressure got high and there was nothing I could do about it.

Having high blood pressure isn't good for you, it effects many parts of your life. When you are pregnant having high blood pressure becomes an even bigger problem. When I was pregnant I had to go into the doctor for weekly visits so they could monitor my blood pressure. Every time I went it the nurse would take my blood pressure and would get a panicked look on her face, then they would usually rush me over to a monitor for the baby to make sure she wasn't stressed. Fortunately for me and my daughter, my high blood pressure had no effect on her.

About half way through my pregnancy my blood pressure was continuing to stay high and a cardiologist recommend that I take blood pressure medication for it. My OB/GYN said that she didn't know what effect it would have on my baby. It was really scary for me to try and decide if I should take the medication or not. I knew I had to stay healthy, but I didn't want to do anything that could risk my daughters health. I got a second opinion from another OB/GYN and he suggested I talk to the cardiologist about a different medication to take that would not have an effect on the baby. My OB/GYN recommended a certain medication that had been shown to be safe, and my cardiologist agreed and said that medication should work for me.

When I started taking the medication it made my blood pressure go down. But my blood pressure would still fluctuate a lot. The doctors were worried that I could have preeclampsia. For those of you who don't know a sign of preeclampsia is high blood pressure. So at this point they weren't sure if it was simply high blood pressure or something else. Fortunately for me I had no other symptoms of preeclampsia.

My doctors mentioned a lot of symptoms that I should feel from having high blood pressure, the interesting part is I didn't feel any of them. The doctors said I could have headaches or that I might feel my heart racing, I never felt either of those. I would have never known that my blood pressure was high without actually taking my blood pressure.

If you have high blood pressure it is important to get it under control whether you are pregnant or not. Exercise if a great way to help with your blood pressure, and this is great because it doesn't have side effects. Exercise is good for you no matter what. Eating a healthy diet is also important. Many doctors suggest limiting, but not completely cutting out you salt intake. You should try to limit the amount of processed foods that you eat. Processed foods aren't good for anybody, but if you have high blood pressure they are even worse. Processed foods often have very high sodium levels and don't have enough of the nutrients that we need.

Everybody should check their blood pressure every once in a while. If you don't want to go into your doctor, you can even check it in most supermarkets. Taking care of your health is very important. You need to take care of yourself so you can live a long healthy life.