atenolol use during pregnancy

[evansmom]

Hi all... just found out I'm pregnant with baby #2. With my first child I developed PIH (170/100) @ 27 weeks. My Ob put me on the antihypertensive Aldomet and bedrest and I delivered a healthy boy @37 weeks. The only glitch? My HBP never went back to normal after delivery. For the past year and a half, I've taken the beta blocker atenolol with wonderful results (current BP 120/80). My OB says its fine for now, but I'm worried about 1) the effects of atenolol on the pregnancy (I've read conflicting info), 2) getting pre-e superimposed on chronic hypertension. Any advice?

[laura]

Isn't that interesting? We were just talking about atenolol in another post yesterday:
http://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1448

What I forgot to add was that in some of the studies on atenolol, it was really hard for researchers to separate the effects of the mother's hypertension from the effects of the meds- hypertension can cause small babies and poor placental perfusion, and so, reportedly, can atenolol (though with the pregnancy I used atenolol with, my baby's growth fell behind slightly before I started it, and resumed normalcy once I started using it.) I hope this helps a bit! I'm going to keep looking for some of the medical journal articles I found before I started taking atenolol, and hopefully they'll be bit more informative and reassuring!

Laura-28
DH Jack-30
Allie 5-13-98 (35 weeks-pre-e)
Baby Camille 4-17-03 (36 weeks- htn and oligo)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/c/camilleandallie/

[evansmom]

Thank you for the info. I've read about the possibility of growth restriction, as well slow heartbeat in fetus, but I feel better knowing someone has taken this drug successfully!


Lauren 27
DH Jeff 39
Evan 12-09-01 (37 wks pe)
EDD 7-2-04