I would recommend taking blood pressure at another location than the
doctor's office. During my second pregnancy, I was seeing an OB for backup
in case of an emergency. My blood pressure was always high at the doctor's
office, but normal at my midwife's house. The doctor's office made me tense
and nervous and was causing the change. This may not be the reason for
borderline high blood pressure, but it might be worthwhile to consider it.
My doctor would have probably suggested inducing me, if I hadn't been
planning a homebirth.
-Lauren Poindexter
====
Your hypertensive client may benefit greatly from massage. I am a certified
doula and work mostly in the hospital. I found that massage lowers the BP
and promotes general well being. I use it prenatally, but especially during
labor. Possibly, you could go with her to a massage therapist and learn a
few strokes and tips from the therapist. Loving hands, good breathing
technique (both you and client!) and some soothing music or a quiet room
can work true wonders!
-Alex Wagner
S.Carolina
====
A very effective way to quickly reduce high blood pressure is with
vegetable juices. I have seen a friend with high blood pressure due to
preeclampsia respond the same day to 16 oz of carrot (8 oz.), cucumber (4-5
oz.), beet (2-3 oz.), lemon (1 oz.) and garlic juice (3-4 cloves). Drink
the juice in 3-4 serving through the day. This can be repeated daily as
long as desired.
Susun Weed, in her herbal for the child bearing years also has a chapter on
herbs and food to correct high blood pressure.
-Charlotte
====
Certain forms of yoga are clinically proven to reduce blood pressure. I
believe yoga in general is effective in lowering BP.
-Joanna
====
...Salt is one of the essential components of a cell, and to reproduce
cells one must have some salt in the diet. Salt to taste....Salt is also
needed to regulate fluid levels throughout the body and amniotic fluid,
which recycles itself every 8 hours or so, also contains salt, as does the
expanded volume of blood.
We all know what sitting on one's behind does for pregnancy, labor, and
postpartum. My first inclination would be to record diet for 3 or 5 days
and check her protein and calorie levels. If she is in the early stages of
toxemia, then a protein intake of 100g per day may help, calories need to
be 2500 per day, calcium is important also.
How are your friend's stress levels? Is she in a stressful situation at
home? Is she a coffee or other caffinated beverage drinker?
As for herbs, I like to start with food and progress to herbs from there.
Beet juice, cucumbers, and lemon juice all help (see Susun Weed's 'Herbal
for the Childbearing Year), then hops, passionflower, skullcap, and
dandelion in addition to the usual raspberry leaves and nettles.
-Amber
Canada
====
Your friend could try taking hawthorn berry tincture, 20-30 drops three
times per day. Hawthorn is a gentle normalizer and toner of the entire
circulatory system and can lower high blood pressure. Interestingly it can
also normalize low blood pressure. If the blood pressure reading shows an
elevated diastole (the bottom number), she may also add passionflower, a
sedative to the arteries. You could try 20 drops hawthorn and 10 drops
passionflower together, in a little water, three times per day. I don't
know how long these herbs take to show an effect. They are both gentle
enough to be used during pregnancy.
-Adrienne Leeds
====
I had borderline p/e (called PIH) during my pregnancy, and my midwives
suggested going to a pool every day to use the water pressure to drain
fluids from my tissues. It not only worked, it did wonders for my heavy,
tired pregnant body--I was weightless for a little while. Your friend will
pee quite a bit more after she gets out of the pool (she needs to be in for
at least 15 minutes submerged up to her neck constantly--1/2 hour would be
optimal).
Also, she should ask her doc, but taking more calcium/magnesium tablets
(with a 2 to 1 calcium/magnesium ratio) will greatly help bring her b/p
down. It is exactly what they give moms with hbp (magnesium sulfate). It's
terrible to receive during labor because it makes one woozy and one tends
to forget most of what's going on. I had this and wished I would have
educated myself then.
As with anything free, seek professional medical advice before following
any of this info!
-Kristine Owens
====
There's a big difference between sea salt and the commercial chemical stuff
that most people buy for salt. In Ghana [where I live] they push iodated
salt which I also feel is bad. I think the chemical stuff could indeed
raise blood pressure among other things and people should not be encouraged
to use as much of it as they please. We also have to be careful because
salt to taste could be a lot of salt depending on the diet a woman was
raised with. Processed foods have so much hidden salt that our taste buds
get used to the flavor. I have always suspected that we do in fact need
salt, especially in Ghana where we sweat so much, but there we use only sea
salt, and of course veggies have salt naturally. A lot of people there use
msg and don't even know it since there's no ingredient list on most
commercial food.
-Harriet Kaufman
Reprinted from Midwifery Today E-News (Vol 2 Issue 16 April 21, 2000)
To subscribe to the E-News write: enews@midwiferytoday.com
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