Should high blood pressure and dizzy spells be ringing alarm bells? Our midwife looks into the issue.

Raisingkids member's problem
I am 34 years old, 12 weeks pregnant and expecting my sixth child. For a long time I have suffered bad headaches and dizzy spells. Since I have become pregnant these are much worse. I did go to my GP the other day and my reading was 154 over 94. He said it was high but all he could do was give me paracetamol. My parents both have seriously high blood pressure and have had since their 30s. My father had a heart attack aged 44. I feel someone should be helping me as I am quite worried please help.

Midwife Genevieve Kingston's Advice
Headaches and dizzyness are fairly common in pregnancy. Your blood pressure is definitely on the higher side of normal, but it wouldn't be the casue of any major problems at this stage in your pregnancy.

Everybody has what their body recognises as normal BP for themselves, for some people it's low, others mid-range, others high. The problems occur when it starts to creep in either direction.

In pregnancy, your internal fluid volumes double, which automatically makes your BP higher than it was. This is why your BP is checked. At the beginning of pregnancy it is checked to establish what is normal for you. You have a starting bottom figure of 94, (the bottom figure is used more than the top for high blood pressure). If, as your pregnancy continues, your BP becomes something over 114 or higher, you will be treated as though you have pregnancy-induced hypertension. BP is never taken by itself though as an indicator of problems though. When they check your urine they are looking for protein, which along with a rising bottom figure would be an indicator that more investigations were needed.

At the present I would suggest that you look at your diet and see if there is anything in it that would exacerbate high blood pressure, look at your lifestyle, see if there is anyway you can incorporate some de-stress time each day for yourself and do some very gentle exercise, maybe aquarobics (antenatal ones.) Other than that, paracetamol is safe.