Pregnancy With Unstable Blood Pressure

[andreak]

My daughter is 5 weeks pregnant following a miscarriage last year

She has dyautonomia, CRPS and POTS. Her BP and heart rate run high, around 120bmp and 180/110 on average but the average hides the fact they can be highly unstable

Her BP can spike in the 230/160s then plummet 3 or 4 times a day to 50/40

She has tried lots of medications, CBT and therapies without success

Last year the nurse who discharged following the miscarriage said that until her BP was stabilised there was a very real risk of interrupting the blood supply to the baby and basically starving it of oxygen and believes this may be the caused of the missed miscarriage

The pregnancy was unplanned and came as a surprise and she was rushed into hospital with pains 2 days ago, a suspected kidney infection and mild bleeding but it is too early to detect a heart beat hence having to go back next week for a repeat scan

She was too frightened to ask about the implications for the progression of a healthy pregnancy and I was wondering if anyone had any advice or knew of similar problems

There is much about high blood pressure in later pregnancy but seems to be very little of the dangers of unstable blood pressure, especially one which can change rapidly within minutes with no change in activity levels

If anyone can offer any advice I would be grateful

[SarahA33]

Hi Andreak,

I'm sorry to read your daughter is going through this right now. how scary. I don't have anything to personally offer other than one of our Medical Advisor's, Dr. Blitshteyn, has written a few articles on POTS and Pregnancy, and I think has done a research a study in this area also. She offers Skype Consults, so I'm not sure if that may be helpful to you all.

Wish I could be of more help. best of luck to you guys!

Sarah

http://www.drblitshteyn.com/
http://www.dinet.org/index.php/about-us/advise

[Bigskyfam]

Nothing personal to offer. Glad she has family support and agreed... Phone consult might be a good plan. I've thought about that for my daughter as she's showing signs of pots

All my best!

[MomtoGiuliana]

I know I have read that it is recommended that POTS patients be "stable" before entering pregnancy. What really this means I don't know. Many POTS patients have had successful and safe pregnancies. It would be best, IMO, to seek a specialists' opinion, and for her to be under the care of a high risk OB/Gyn, as well. High risk Ob/Gyns would just know more about use of medications during pregnancy, etc., and hopefully would know something about dysautonomia management in pregnancy. Best wishes to her.

[sideofsalt]

Hi andreak, I would recommend your daughter seek out a high risk OB if she has not been referred to one already. I am currently seeing my regular OB but have been having consults with a perinatologist who specializes in high blood pressure patients as a precaution. Even though high blood pressure is not my problem, he has been the most knowledgeable doctor second to my cardiologist on how my heart, heart rate, and blood pressure should behave during my pregnancy in light of POTS. I feel 100% better knowing that he is looking after me and that I have someone who is capable should the pregnancy turn into a high risk situation.