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Hello I am a deaf woman who has had her first child, born 4 weeks |
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Hello! I am a deaf woman who has had her first child, born 4 weeks early. I will share my experience of having had Preclampsia in my first pregnancy. Since I have developed a sudden case of White Coat Hypertension a couple of months prior to my first pregnancy, but since I did not have a family history of high blood pressure, I thought it would spontaneously resolve by itself. I was in graduate school and doing a full time internship at the same time. I even discussed it with my OB GYN that I was always so nervous when I had my blood pressure checked and in stressful situations (anxiety attacks or panic atacks only) so that she would be aware of why my blood pressure was always a bit high. She agreed with me ithat my white coast hypertension would not really lead to preeclampsia but that she would keep an eye on my blood pressure and for me to continue checking it at home. My blood pressure was normal (the lower nbr was always low even though my upper nbr (systolic) will only increase during prenatal visits). I found it very interesting that my dialostic nbr never increased but my systolic did. I continued to have my anxiety attacks no matter how hard I tried to calm or control them before seeing my OB Gyn. I was feeling frustrated with myself because I wanted to stop worrying so much about my blood pressure and to enjoy going to my prenatal visits. Eventually, my doctor had to put me on mild blood pressure meds at around 5 months to see if it would help control my anxiety a bit and to keep my systolic blood pressure within th enormal range during appts and in stressful situations. At home, I continued to have pretty normal bp but at around 32-33 weeks, I started having difficulty urinating even at night which was not normal and I recall havinig an anxiety atack so bad at the prior visit with my OB GYN that it shot up to 170 something and my dialostic was a bit higher than it should have been due to being so anxious about my gestational diabetes test result which turned out to be negative. So at my 33 week prenatal visit, I informed the dr that I was having difficulty urinating and that my B.P. did increase especically the dialostic. So she did an ultrasound of my fetus to check my aminotic fluid levels and ordered a urine test that day. We found out that I had low aminotic fluid and that my baby girl was breech and my dr told me that I could not have a vaginal birth which kind of was disappointing news to me since I was looking forward to one. My dr decided to have me do NST's twice a week for a few more weeks to see how I and my baby was doing. Well, at around 35 weeks, my B.P. was like around 150-160/90 at most times but with the intial anxiety it would rise to around 180-90/90-100 for a few minutes while sitting upright on the hospital bed then dramatically go down to 150-140/90-80 while laying on my side. My dr decided that I had moderate to severe preclampsia and my urine test results indicated that I had 3++ proteinuria and that I had to have my girl early which was kind of another blow to me. I was scheduled to have a C section at 36 weeks and my beautiful daughter was born at 36 weeks weighing at 4 lb 14 oz and measuring 161/2 inches long. I am even afraid to get pregnant again because of my past white coast hypertension and having to take blood pressure meds after the delivery for 6-8 weeks due to developing Hashimotos thryoiditis. I am currently not taking any meds and my daughter is a beautiful, healthy,bright and exteremly active soon to be a toddler! |
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