New moms want to make sure they’re doing everything they can to ensure their baby is growing healthy in the womb, but there is a sneaky medical condition that can impact pregnant women as early as 20 weeks into their pregnancy. Doctors say hypertension and preeclampsia highlight the importance of prenatal visits.
“He is four months in one week. So yeah, it started off really smooth sailing. I felt really pretty good. A little nauseous, you know, about a week before he came, I was just having some upper abdominal pain and just kind of felt off,” said Sadie Mudder.
That discomfort and feeling of uncertainty forced her to go into the clinic to get it checked out. That’s when the nurse took Sadie’s blood pressure. The first reading was a little too high for her liking, so she decided to take it again.
“She retested and she's like, well, I'm not the doctor, but, you know, I don't think you're going to be going home prior to having your baby,” said Mudder.
Sadie didn’t have any real noticeable signs through her pregnancy, so to be diagnosed with hypertension and preeclampsia took both her and her husband by surprise.
“Hypertensive disease in pregnancy can be a really hard diagnosis because patients go through pregnancy thinking, I am going to get to 40 weeks, I'm going to have a very beautiful delivery and I'm going to take home a baby and snuggle a baby and that throws off the plans,” said Dominique Boadwine, MD, Avera Obstetrics/Gynecology.
“Oh, I was definitely freaking out. A few tears were shed. I knew I was in good hands, but I just wasn't quite prepared for this,” said Mudder.
The Mudders were checked in to Avera McKennan on a Wednesday and their baby arrived on Friday evening right at 34 weeks. Because of Sadie’s diagnosis, Dr. Boadwine’s team made sure to monitor Sadie’s blood pressure closely after delivery.
“We monitor blood pressures. We want to make sure it doesn't worsen. The natural course after delivery is that your blood in your body shifts and there's different fluid shifts that actually cause your blood pressures to increase,” said Boadwine.
Both during pregnancy and after pregnancy, Avera Health has a very supportive structure for all moms, especially those who are diagnosed with hypertension and preeclampsia. Moms have their blood pressure taken at every routine prenatal visit.
“If a mom is given a diagnosis of hypertension, you meet with our maternal fetal medicine team. You have a patient care coordinator who can coordinate blood pressure cuffs at home health. Or we have our nurses who call and schedule lab checks and blood pressure checks and then after pregnancy that stay’s the same,” said Boadwine.
Moms typically have a one week blood pressure check after delivery and at that point, if there's a concern, a plan is put in place.
“There's blood pressure medications we can prescribe, medication modifications, we have our APIs, our nurses and our providers who follow very closely with patients. I think that the take home point is certainly if you have a hypertensive disease of pregnancy, whether that is gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia or eclampsia; that it is important and vital for a patient to go to their family medical provider or their PCP to have routine checkups,” said Boadwine.
“Trust your instincts. We really didn't think whatever was going on was normal. So I was super glad when we went in and we are very thankful that we are now in the right place and I was going to get the care we needed. Now things have been going really well. I've fully recovered and feeling just like new!” said Mudder.
