- All it takes is just a drop of saliva
Yes, not only can you monitor your blood pressure at home, but also you should monitor your blood pressure at home.
Blood pressure disorders are the most common cause for postpartum hospital readmission. These readmissions come with significant health and personal costs as well as interfering with a new mother’s bonding.
You should monitor your blood pressure on your upper arm during and after pregnancy. You can get a reasonably priced and reasonably accurate blood pressure monitoring device at Walmart, Target, Costco, Walgreens, or drug stores.
While you are using your blood pressure cuff, you should be sitting on a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your arm about the level of your heart. Resting your arm on a table is the usual way to get your blood pressure cuff level with your heart.
There are usually three different qualities to look for in a blood pressure cuff. Cuffs come in a wide range of prices. My advice from my experience over the last four decades has always been to buy the mid-priced blood pressure cuff. The middle of the road cuff will have the accuracy of the most expensive cuffs without additional features you don’t really need to get an accurate blood pressure reasing.
By checking your blood pressure every day, you will know what your blood pressure usually runs. This enables you to detect any increase in your blood pressure so you can call your doctor if you detect an increase. Even an increase of 10 in either of the two numbers can indicate problems and this should be reported to your doctor.
If your first blood pressure during your early pregnancy is 110/70, then you may expect your pressure to go down in the second trimester to 100 or 105/65 or even 100/60. If it goes back up to normal that’s OK. But if you wind up with a blood pressure of 125/80, you should call your doctor. It doesn’t mean that you’re in trouble, but it means that you and your doctor need to be very tuned in to your next blood pressures and to develop a plan for managing your blood pressure during your pregnancy.
My preference has always been to have a relationship with your physician. After 40 years of working with patients through high, normal, and low blood pressures, I see no reason to establish an intermediary nurse. Besides, I believe this is the physician’s responsibility. Pawning this valuable monitoring off on a nurse simply adds another layer of administration which can lead to potential misunderstanding of the information reported.
I know of what I speak. I have delivered approximately 6000 babies with no maternal mortality and no permanent morbidity. No young women with liver failure, kidney failure, or strokes causing them to live in a nursing home. Managing a patient’s blood pressure during pregnancy is an excellent way to avoid the complications of hypertension, preterm birth, complications of preeclampsia, and strokes or heart attacks.
The first elevated blood pressure is extremely important. It is the canary in the coal mine and should never be ignored. The standard procedure for checking blood pressure involves taking blood pressure readings several times and recording the lowest one. This works well when patients are not pregnant, but with pregnancy, this is a big mistake. With pregnancy, one high blood pressure is all you need to know to understand that there is a potential for serious problems with a pregnancy. Recognizing and acting on that one high blood pressure is your best opportunity to avoid unnecessary complications in pregnancy.
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