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Who takes their own blood pressure readings? I got a ? for you.

TreasaTreasa
in High-Risk Pregnancy

I have white coat hypertension - sometimes like 160/90 in my midwife's office even though it is normal the rest of time.

So my midwife has me recording my bp, twice a day, every day.  We calibrated my monitor with hers & I began taking mine every day for the past months.

My numbers are good mostly but sometimes I notice wild fluctuations.  The past couple of weeks have been somewhat stressful as my FIL passed after a long illness.  I think its understandable that my bp in particular the systolic number be a little higher & it has like for example 128/65.  But then I will relax a little, breathe deeply & retake it & get 112/64 (this happened this evening).

Just wondering if anyone else experiences this with their readings? These are probably questions for my midwife but is this a normal occurance & which reading should I be going with? tia 

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Re: Who takes their own blood pressure readings? I got a ? for you.

  • KatieBlondie27KatieBlondie27

    I have the same same same thing.  I go to the doc's office and my BP is consistently in the 150s/100s.  I take my own at home about every day and it is perfect (I have had high BP since my teens and am on Labetalol 3x a day now).

    I also took my machine to the doctor's and was happy to see that it was getting the same readings as their regular cuff.

    I wouldn't worry too much about the fluctuations...when I was monitoring mine very closely (would take maybe 3 readings about 5 minutes apart), I would get very different readings.  Your bottom numbers are similar and those are the most important (the pressure of your blood on your arteries as they relax) and those are good and low and close together.

    I'm not a doctor obviously, but I do know a lot about high blood pressure! Good luck!

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  • TreasaTreasa
    Thanks Katie! 
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  • gatchisongatchison member
    I take mine 3x a day from home. My instructions are to call if it's over 140/90. However, my OB said if I get a high reading, lay down for at least 15 min, re-take, and if it's still over 140/90 then call. If it's a one-time high number that goes away after a brief rest then she doesn't need to be contacted. I'm on bed rest, and allowed to get up to go to the bathroom, make something in the kitchen for less than 5 min, and take a 5 min shower once a day. I've noticed that if I take my BP right after doing something, such as taking a shower, that's when I get the high readings. After I rest for a few minutes it always goes back down and she's fine with that. When I do something like go in to the OB office for my twice weekly visits, they get crazy readings, like 160/100, and I end up having to lay down in the office for quite awhile before it will go down. While she is concerned (that's why I'm on bedrest), she is comfortable as long as it always goes back down when I rest. Hope that helps!
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  • beekernbabybeekernbaby
    I take my BP three times a day.  It does fluctuate quite a bit depending on how much stress I am dealing with or how my water I am retaining.  If it gets high, my doctor has ordered me to lay down for half and hour and then recheck.  If I can't get my BP down, I am suppose to call their office.
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