Pregnancy, Blood Pressure and Complications
The death rate of pregnant women due to blood pressure and its complications is the highest worldwide
The death rate of pregnant women due to blood pressure and its complications is the highest worldwide. Complications caused by blood pressure include stroke, kidney failure, blindness, heart attack, fetal death, and seizures. When any of these complications occur with blood pressure, this situation is called preeclampsia or eclampsia.
We think that what can be done so that every woman, whether she lives in a village or a city, not only knows about blood pressure and these complications, but can also protect her life. Understand that whenever there is pregnancy, it is necessary to get a check-up every month, but this check-up should be for the mother, not for the child.
The pregnant woman’s blood pressure should be checked every month and a record should be kept.
If there is a problem with blood pressure, there should be a blood pressure checking device at home. Generally, two types of devices are available in the market. Automatic and manual. Automatic is easy, but manual is also difficult to learn. Just remember that there are two readings of blood pressure. Systolic and diastolic.
In common parlance, systolic is called the upper blood pressure and diastolic is the lower.
Remember a simple formula that the lower blood pressure should not go above 90 and the upper should remain below 150. Another thing that is very important is a urine check-up. Two things are tested in the urine of the pregnant woman. First, sugar and second, protein. This is done using a test strip and the excretion of protein or sugar in the urine is also diagnosed in one minute.
If they are discharged, it means that the alarm bell has rung. That is, the pregnant woman has started the journey towards high blood pressure and its complications.
Here, pregnant check-ups are considered incomplete. It is a common belief in our society that the baby should not be seen on ultrasound, but this idea is completely wrong. If no abnormality is visible from the pregnant woman’s abdomen, then ultrasound should not be done more than three or four times in 9 months, but blood pressure and urine check-ups cannot be ignored at all.
If your blood pressure is rising, don’t put it down to your busy schedule. We often hear things like, “It must have happened because I didn’t sleep last night,” “It must have happened because I washed my clothes last night,” “It must have happened because I walked back from the market.” Hearing all these explanations, we respond by saying that this is not how doctors should have normal blood pressure, as they stay up at night, work, and go to the markets.
Remember, whenever your blood pressure is high, you should definitely take medicine as advised by your doctor.
It is important to take medicine to stay safe from blood pressure complications, but you should also keep getting blood tests done. The goal is the same: to terminate the pregnancy whenever any complication starts. Terminating the pregnancy does not mean that the baby should be lost, but rather that the baby should be born so that the mother can be saved.
After the pregnancy ends, blood pressure in most women starts to normalize, and in those who are not normal, the use of medications is continued. If there is an opportunity to deliver a baby to save the mother’s life, then one has to think about how? Sometimes the situation is such that removing the baby from the womb immediately is the best solution.
In such a situation, if we think of vaginal delivery, it takes a lot of time to start with painkillers and that much time can put the mother’s life in danger. At such moments, a decision is made to perform a cesarean section. In such a situation, the patient’s family members do not understand why the doctor is doing this? In our experience, if the family members are explained the situation, their objections are reduced to a great extent.
It is important to note that taking medication is essential to avoid complications of blood pressure. If the baby is not full-term, he is kept in the nursery. Sometimes a premature baby does not survive, but this sacrifice has to be made in front of the mother’s life. If a pregnant woman suddenly starts feeling dizzy, has a headache, starts feeling nauseous, or her feet swell, then she should get her blood pressure checked immediately. Believe me, the body always sounds the alarm, so that it can be corrected in time.
Our message is that pregnant women should get their blood pressure checked every month. Write it down in a notebook and every time they check their urine, ask the doctor whether sugar or protein is being excreted in it.
