Natural Birth and High Blood Pressure?

Anna&Josh520

Hi Ladies-

 I have been lurking here for awhile.. and am interested in a natural birth.  My first three pregnancies have all been induced with pitocin due to elevated blood pressure.  I have never been diagnosed with pre-e or e, just elevated blood pressure.  Each time I have had an epidural, but the last time the experience was so horrible, I didn't have much pain relief anyway, even after they did the epidural over again... plus I was stuck in bed with an IV, fetal monitors and blood pressure ck every 5 minutes.  It was very frustrating.. and after last time I kept thinking there has to be a better way.

Are there any success stories of moms who had elevated BP and were induced that successfully had a med-free birth?  If I need an induction, do I still need to have continuous fetal monitoring?  I know I need to talk to my OB at my next appointment, but was interested in others experiences.

AmyRI

Was it really just high BP, or was it pregnancy induced hypertension? I wouldn't be induced unless the BP got really high or I had PIH (or pre-e, but you said it definitely wasn't that).

My hospital's policy is that if you are on pitocin, constant monitoring is required to make sure baby is handling it ok.

Did you try natural induction methods, foley bulb, cervadil, or AROM? Or was it a straight pitocin induction? Also, was the pitocin just increased all the time or were you started on a low dose and kept there so long as your contraction pattern was steady? There are ways to have a less invasive induction that you could discuss should it become necessary again.

Anna&Josh520

It was PIH... but no protein in the urine or anything.  I honestly wasn't offered other options the second two times, first time I had cervadil since I wasn't dialated at all.  Last two times it was just straight pit, and it was increased at intervals.. not sure on the frequency, but it was regularly.  I know they told me the epidural helped to lower my blood pressure since I wasn't in as much pain.

kaleb87

Lurker, here. I was on pitocin and was able to go natural. My water broke and then my labor completely stopped. I did everything to get it to start, but after 3 hours of walking the halls it was a lost cause. They started me on pitocin, and gradually my labor started. When they started the pitocin I was in bed for monitoring. Once my contractions started getting stronger my body told me I had to get up. My husband literally rearranged the hospital room for me. He brought the rocking chair over by the monitor and by my IV stand. I literally rocked my whole labor until it was time to push. I got a heating pad for my back and rocked. Everyone was fine with this since I was still able to be monitored, and have my IV right there. There were a few times I brought the birth ball over tried it but I preferred the chair.

Also my DH positioned the chair so my back was to the monitor so I didn't have to look at the contractions on the monitor. I was able to focus completely on my body, and take it one contraction at a time. That's my best advice, just take it one contraction at a time and listen to your body. If I had stayed in bed, I don't know that I would have had the birth I wanted.

AmyRI

Anna&Josh520:

It was PIH... but no protein in the urine or anything.  I honestly wasn't offered other options the second two times, first time I had cervadil since I wasn't dialated at all.  Last two times it was just straight pit, and it was increased at intervals.. not sure on the frequency, but it was regularly.  I know they told me the epidural helped to lower my blood pressure since I wasn't in as much pain.

I learned after a high BP issue that PIH is diagnosed with bloodwork as well as BP readings. I unfortunately can't remember the name of the ratio the midwives were looking at specifically, but it did make me feel more comfortable with a potential PIH diagnosis if that had happened.

I'm not surprised that an epi would help lower your BP if they had you jacked up on pitocin... but no way for me to know if they had it up too high so I can't really comment. But I would discuss it with your doc so you can have a slower induction and hopefully keep BP as low as possible while still having a med-free delivery.

ilovehouses

I had pre-e.  My blood pressure was out the roof.  They really couldn't get a good reading while I was in labor because I was having contractions every 20 seconds or so.  I wasn't induced and was able to go through labor without any meds.  There were a couple times there that I felt faint and my eyes got a bit blurry.  I chose not to tell the nurses because I didn't want a c-section.  After I delivered my blood pressure was still really high so they put me on anti seizure medicaiton.  At that point, the baby was out so I didn't care.  I chose an OB that was friendly to natural child birth.