Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
30
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“I Am Concerned That Your Numbers Were So High And Now They Are Better.”
“I am concerned that your numbers were so high and now they are better.” A CNM to a mom who had previously had elevated blood pressure and proteinuria, but after altering her diet and water intake, now had normal values and wanted to avoid and induction.
There are 17 comments to this post.
KDB pretty much hit it on the head. This mom had been having some elevation in b/p but NO other symptoms. After talking to me, she started drinking enough water, eating enough protein and her b/p dropped to wnl. The CNM pressured her to induce from ~36 weeks on. She went into spon. labor at 40ish weeks and delivered a 6lb4oz baby girl…can you imagine what size that baby would have been 4 weeks earlier?
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That makes no sense.
The successful improvement of a problem with sensible diet and lifestyle changes seems to be like a good time to congratulate the mom. Since when is an improvement in a troubling condition a problem?
That would be like my husband going to his doc, and his blood pressure and cholesterol are both at normal levels, so the doc says “I’m concerned about this…”
Wha?? o.0
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Jane Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 9:07 am (Quote)
My FIL was diagnosed with diabetes and had to be on insulin, but he began dieting and working out and lost over a hundred pounds! At that point, his blood sugars no longer needed to be controlled with insulin (although he kept testing and was able to keep tight control that way.) But according to this CNM, my FIL’s weight loss and exercise would have been a source of great concern because his blood sugar numbers were now within normal limits. :-b
This makes total sense. In Bizarro World.
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Michelle Potter had this to say,
Mar 30, 2010 @ 8:48 am (Quote)
Is the problem that the midwife didn’t understand *why* the mom’s blood pressure was normal? I think I would be concerned if a serious problem seemed to unexpectedly clear up by itself, especially if I had never seen that before. Seems like a simple explanation of mom’s diet change ought to clarify things, though.
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Kat Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 9:15 am (Quote)
And if she had accepted the explanation, and behaved rationally from that point on, it’s doubtful the incident would have made it here.
The additional facts about exerting pressure on the mother to submit to a medically unnecessary induction at 36 weeks, and continuing that pressure until the baby’s birth, makes this “Said WHAT?!?” worthy.
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Michelle Potter Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 9:20 am (Quote)
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t. Just trying to understand what on earth this woman was thinking.
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Anne Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 4:15 pm (Quote)
Your response was understandable since that would be rational, but the problem was never at the “serious” level and the CNM in question had already been told by the mom of the changes she had made.
Your mistake was in trying to apply normal rationale to an unrational person…silly…lol
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Something similar happened to my friend…her BP was always high at appts, but one day she left her toddler with a friend and arrived early, took the elevator and relaxed before her appt. Then her OB was concerned that her BP was too low. Can’t win.
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Cynthia Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 9:42 am (Quote)
I had an occasional spike at my appts, but I didn’t worry about it because it always happened either when I was running late or had my toddler with me (and was probably running late)
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Lauren Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 4:10 pm (Quote)
Because of my traumatic first birth and unnecessary C-section, I have white coat syndrome. It’s understandable lol. At every appt with my second baby at a birthing center, the drs and midwives would remark on my high bp and keep raving about pre-e and stuff, no matter what I told them. Luckily I have my own BP cuff at home, and I always told them my nice NORMAL values. They didn’t believe me though. *eyeroll*
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Right at the end of pregnancy I had elevated blood pressure and protein in my urine. Since the doctor knew I didn’t want to induce, she had me come back in at the end of the week to recheck. My urine was clear and my blood pressure was up, but within normal limits. She said once it comes back down, it rarely goes back up.
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During my last pregnancy, my BP was often high at appointments.
My previous pregnancy had ended in tragedy.
My husband had lost his job right before that, and we were still struggling a bit financially.
The office of my care provider was an hour away IF there was no traffic at all. I don’t find highway driving through a big city particularly relaxing.
Being in a medical office is stressful to me under the best of circumstances.
When I took my blood pressure at other places, it was normal. Thankfully my midwife was very understanding, and would re-check after lying down, etc.
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See, what concerned her was that first of all, mom’s BP came down without medical intervention, and that means something is wrong. And also, now that it came down, Medwife can’t do an induction! That, ladies, is a very serious cause for concern.
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Add Your Comment.
Why is improvement a cause for concern? It’s a cause for celebration!
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