Yesterday’s routine pregnancy check brought me bad news again!
Twice in a row, my blood pressure was found out to be 140/90. At the same time, there were swelling of hands and feet, sudden excessive weight gain and trace of protein in the urine. All of these signs indicated that I might have a mild Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), or preeclampsia, also called toxemia.
PIH (preeclampsia, also called toxemia) is a high blood pressure-related condition that begins during pregnancy, normally after 20 weeks gestation.
It has two stages: mild preeclampsia and severe preeclampsia. The symptoms of mild preeclampsia include high blood pressure (140/90 or more), swelling of hands and feet, sudden excessive weight gain and protein in the urine.
Severe preeclampsia is characterized by a futher increase in blood pressure (usually to 160/110 or higher), increased quantities of protein in the urine, blurred vision, headaches, fever, rapid heartbeat, confusion, scanty urine output, severe pain in the upper abdomen, exaggerated reflex reactions, restlessness and twitching, and/or abnormal kidney functions. (from
What to Expect When You're Expecting: 4th Edition
)
Severe preeclampsia can be quite dangerous for both mommy and baby. As the result of high blood pressure, there is a drop in the blood supply to organs in the expectant mother including the liver, kidneys, brain, uterus, and placenta.
PIH can also lead to fetal problems including intrauterine growth restriction (poor fetal growth) and stillbirth. If untreated, severe PIH may cause dangerous seizures and even death in the mother and fetus. Because of these risks, it may be necessary for the baby to be delivered early, before 37 weeks gestation. (from http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu)
PIH most occurs in A first-time mom (like me), women whose sisters and mothers had preeclampsia, women carrying multiple babies, teenage mothers, women older than age 40, or women who had high blood pressure or kidney disease prior to pregnancy. (from http://www.americanpregnancy.org)
No one knows for sure what causes PIH. Researchers hypothesize that genetic makeup of the fetus, family history of that your mother or your spouse’s mother had preeclampsia during their pregnancy, poor nutrition including deficiencies in vitamins C and E and magnesium, a defect in mother’s blood vessels, or an immune response to a foreign instruder—the baby. (from
What to Expect When You're Expecting: 4th Edition
)
One hypothesis to causing PIH caught my attention specially: gum disease. I did have dental problem around the time when I was found the symtoms of preeclampsia. Maybe that is the source to link my case. (see Ouch! Toothache!)
Right now, besides being very careful with my teeth, I followed these treatments, hoping to prevent mild preeclampsia process to severe preeclampsia.
- Rest, lying on my left side to take the weight of the baby off my major blood vessels
- Consume less salt, and also watch suger consumption
- Drink 8 glasses of water a day
- Self-check my blood pressure once a day
- Relax, relax and relax
If you have more ideas about how to treat or prevent PIH, please leave your comments here!
During the 6th and 7th month of pregnancy, I always kept fetal/prenatal education in my mind.
During these two months, important work continues to taking place in the baby’s brain. Beginning the 6th month, her brain continues to grow, eventually it will contain some 100 billion never cells. These nerve cells connect to one another, guided by special substances in the brain, and they will eventually make more connections than there stars in the sky.
In the 7th month, her brain’s sections begin to take on their lifelong roles, such as memory and speech. (from American Baby’s As Your Baby Grows, Volume 16, Number 2, 2007)
Her hearing also continues to develop. By the end of second trimester or the beginning of the third, the ability to hear is quite well developed in the fetus, which means she is able to hear most external sounds or noises.
During this perid, I paid great attention to fetal movements, doing my best to understand the message sent by my baby via her movements. To me, this is so far the only way my baby communicates with me, telling me her needs, likes and dislikes.
Fetal movements also tell me the pattern of her daily activity and rest. According to her pattern, I adjust my timing to interact/communicate with her, since I don’t want my stimulations to hamper her developments.
Like I always believe (see Fetal education in 4th month), the essence of prenatal/fetal education is not to “educate”, but rather to “interact”, or “make contact”. There is plenty of time for teaching facts or imparting information later.
Right now the most important thing is providing the best prenatal environment to help her to grow, nurture her brain development, and build parent-baby bonding, all of which are extremely important to her future personality, psychological development, intellectual and behavioral development.
Message 4: I don’t like noise
Nobody likes noise, either does my baby.
One night, I washed dishes near the sink. The clashes of dishes, glasses, silverware, and pots struck up an unharmonious tune. I didn’t notice it until I felt baby moving restlessly in my tummy. I didn’t notice her movements when I washed dishes during the daytime. Probably the noise was more noticeable at night. Since then, I began to pay attention not to let noise bother my baby.
I try to lower the volume of vaccume, shredder, dish washer, or other household electronics. If I have to use those machines to do the housework, I try to add some intervals, rather than using them unstoppingly for a long time.
I only listen to soothing, soft and beautiful music. Each time I tune in a comfortable volume and only listen for no more than 20 minutes. When I watch TV with M, I always lower the volume and we only watch soft and funny programs. We deliberately avoid horror movies, rock music, or those noisy silly reality shows.
One time, I remembered it was the peak time of competition between Democratic candidates Hilary Clinton and Obama: both of them were fighting for the support of big states like Texas and Ohio. Everybody on TV was rattling on who was going to win, its consequence to Democatic party and the whole election as well, and the voting results were reported every 10 minutes. I was interested. So I turned on the volume a little bit in order to hear what they were saying.
Soon, I noticed my baby begin her actions in my tummy. She turned, rotated, pushed and kicked, all indicating she was not happy.
Did it mean my baby didn’t like politics? Obviouly, according to her categorization, politics means noise too…
Finally, I gave up and turned off the TV and went back to listen to the peaceful, melodious and non-political music.
Related posts:
Understanding fetal movements, part 1
Understanding fetal movements, part 2
Understanding fetal movements, part 3
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