Resolving Hypertension in Pregnancy
A poor diet leading to poor attachment combined with high blood pressure is a set-up for abruption because the higher pressure of maternal blood perfusing the placenta literally pushes the poorly attached placenta off the uterine wall. If the mother is well-nourished, high blood pressure by itself doesn’t increase the incidence of abruption (Boyd & Scott, 1985).”
-Anne Frye, Holistic Midwifery
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
Can exist independently of other clinical signs of preeclampsia and is defined as a reading over 140/90.
Lowering blood pressure prenatally
Daily Exercise - exercise is critical. Working up a daily sweat is recommended to improve circulation, stretch and dilate blood vessels to reduce the pressure inside them. Try brisk walking, hiking or swimming daily.
Deep Relaxation - deep relaxation plays an important role in lowering blood pressure. Take deep breaths throughout the day, sleep on your left side to improve oxygen flow to the baby, get a massage, see an acupuncturist, take a couple hours for yourself, take a bath
No Stimulants - no caffeine, no coffee, no black tea, no pop, no chocolate, no black pepper, mustard, nutmeg or ginger.
Good Diet
-A good diet with high protein (must be balanced with calcium)
-Healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, leafy greens, fruits, vegetables and probiotic/fermented foods.
-Watermelon, cucumber, parsley, onion and garlic specifically lower blood pressure
-Maintain good hydration, salting to taste
Supplements/Herbs
-Calcium, magnesium, and potassium
-Probiotic (helps body to absorb calcium)
-80mg ASA daily (7 raw almonds or baby aspirin)
-Cayenne pepper
-Hops, skullcap, passionflower, hawthorne berries, and chamomile can be used to induce relaxation.
-Enzyme CoQ10 - takes 4-12 weeks to lower blood pressure but can lower it by 7 points
-Watermelon (rind, seeds and everything blended up if you can), cucumber, buckwheat, juice of fresh lemon or lime daily, raw garlic, parsley
Lowering blood pressure during labor (or to prevent getting risked-out of a homebirth)
Stay hydrated, dehydration may exacerbate high blood pressure in labor
Drink electrolytes and salt to taste (contrary to popular belief, salt to taste is healthy for a pregnant woman)
Take Hops tincture, one of the most effective sedative drugs known. Administered under the tongue, it absorbs directly into the bloodstream.
Lie on your left side, with a peanut ball between your leg
Begin the Brewers Protocol:
1) Print out the weekly record on this page and post it on your refrigerator and make sure that there is a check mark in every box by the end of the day. That is the minimum intake needed. The next suggestions are for adding on top of that baseline.
See here for a weekly record chart that you can print and post on your refrigerator
2) Eat something with protein in it every hour of the day that you are awake, setting an egg timer or your watch or cell phone to go off every hour during the day, so that you do not skip one of these snacks. Some suggestions for these snacks include a handful of nuts, or cheese cubes, or an egg, or a cup of yogurt, or some trail mix, or a glass of milk. Keep a protein snack by your bedside for eating/drinking when you wake up during the night (suggestions: nut butter sandwich, cup of milk, cup of kifer). Try to increase the daily intake to 150-200 grams of protein (singleton pregnancy).
Also, for three days, eat 17 eggs a day and 2 quarts of milk a day.
3) Increase the number of nutritious calories eaten each day to 3,000-4,000 calories (singleton pregnancy). Avoid using junk food or refined carbohydrates to help with this increase.
One way to help your needed increase of calories is to start drinking a form of milk with a higher fat content--like switching from skim to 2%, or from 2% to whole, or whatever increase you can tolerate (like a mixture of 1/2 2% milk and 1/2 whole milk).
4) Make sure that you add salt to every serving of food that you eat. The Brewer Diet is actually a triad of salt PLUS calories PLUS protein, so an effort to bring down the BP needs to include an increase of all three factors.See here for more information about the benefits of salt in pregnancy
5) Add 500 mg. of choline to the daily supplements.
See here for more information about the above four suggestions
6) Evaluate your lifestyle and see if you can cut down on some kinds of physical activity, or live or work in a cooler environment, or cut out some stress-producing factors. All of these factors can add to your losses of salt, fluids, and calories. See this page for more ideas about this process (scroll to halfway down the page for the beginning of the suggestions)....
7) Make sure that you avoid all herbs which have diuretic properties. Check the list of ingredients of all supplements and herbal teas that you use, to make sure that they do not contain any of the herbs listed on the page in the following link. My only exception to that would be Floradix, unless the use of all of the above suggestions has no effect, in which case I would suggest eliminating Floradix as well IF it includes one of the herbs listed here....
See here for more information on the hazards of herbal diuretics in pregnancy
8) You can also see this page for more suggestions for dealing with a rising BP (it includes some herbal suggestions)......
See the beginning of this page for some herbs to take alongside the added protein snacks
9) Take care to drink only fluids that have some kind of nutritious content. You can see more about that on this page....
10) If you have protein in your urine, make sure that the protein is not from a discharge from the vagina, or from a bladder or kidney infection. Sometimes at the end of pregnancy, as everything ripens, there is more discharge from the vagina, or if there's a yeast infection, some protein from the vagina can show up in the urine. To decrease the chances of protein from the vagina showing up in the urine, you can ask your midwife to help you do a "clean catch" of your urine sample. You can also ask your midwife to send your urine to a lab to be tested for other factors which may indicate a bladder or kidney infection.
11) Ask your midwife to test your hematocrit and hemoglobin. If it is stable or rising, then there's a good possibility that you are in an early PE process. For more information about that, and what to do for that, you can see the following link....
Monitoring your blood pressure at home
Your midwifer may want you or you may have the desire yourself to monitor your pulse and blood pressure to see if any of these changes you have done are working for you. Monitoring can also give you an idea that you may need to take action and try a hypertensive drug or give birth. If the readings are continuously high after many attempts to reduce it, you may want to find another way to prevent any seizures you may have. Checking your pulse could be beneficial as well to see if it indicates a sign of poor health. Bounding pulses when not followed by exercise or anxiety can be a sign of an imbalance. Your pulse will also rise 10-15 bpm above pre-pregnancy pulse.
How to take your blood pressure with an automatic cuff:
Lie down on your left side, make sure to calm down before doing the reading
Velcro the blood pressure cuff onto your arm, a few inches above your elbow
Place the stethoscope directly here, connected to cuff without hands:
Place the valve on the table and the pump in your hand so that you can easily read it while you inflate
Tighten the valve and begin to pump air into cuff until about 130
Deflate the cuff very slowly and listen carefully to when you first hear the beating sound
Note the first beat (the top number)
Note the last beat (the bottom number)
Monitoring your pulse:
Count the pulse for 30 seconds by the wrist or place of choice.
Multiply the count by 2.
It should be 60-90bpm.
If you are wanting to keep track of your blood pressure you can make a chart and check daily or weekly as-needed
Monday - ______
Tuesday - ______
Wednesday - ______
Thursday - ______
Friday - ______
Saturday - ______
Sunday - ______
Problems/warning signs to look for:
Blood pressure exceeds 140/90
Severe headaches
Changes in vision, including temporary loss of vision, blurred vision or light sensitivity
Upper abdominal pain, usually under your ribs on the right side
Nausea or vomiting
Peeing less
Self-reflective questions to help you find your root cause
What do you feel is causing your high blood pressure?
Have you always had high blood pressure (essential hypertension) or did it start with pregnancy (gestational hypertension)?
Are there ways you could optimize your blood pressure?
Do you work up a sweat daily?
Are you sleeping well?
In what ways can you minimize stress in your daily life?
https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2015/1001/p570.html#:~:text=High%2Ddose%20calcium%20supplementation%20(i.e.,those%20with%20low%2Dcalcium%20diets
