Help with blood pressure monitor!

king_3

My wife is having problem with her blood pressure during her pregnancy, which could be serious threat to both of the mum and baby. We need to buy blood pressure monitor and do not know what and where to look for? Any help would be highly appreciated.

System

I sympathise, i had high blood pressure with 4 of my 6 pregnancies. You can get one in Argos although i bought mine from Makro as it was on special.

Worzel_2

You can get them at Boots, the one I purchased was an Omron Intellisense, had no problem with it and have had it for 3 years now. Its a wrist one.

Good Luck

normal

Check Lloyds pharmacy, they've normally got some good one's on special offer all year round. Go for pump, also the arm ones are slightly more accurate than the wrist ones. Key thing is to take the measurements sitting down, when calm and relaxed. Doing it at other times can give unwanted alarming results!

maplegirl2011

makro have them on offer starting today £9.99 each or two for £15 or boots had them half price last week don't know if they still are

Lara

Yes Lloyds the Chemist have them for £9.99 and they will check blood pressure foc. Might be an idea to buy one form there and ask them how to use it by testing your wife's blood pressure while she is there.

I would still recommend your wife has her BP checked via nurse at surgery though because if you mis-read it you could worry unneccesary which wouldn't be very good for her or the baby. Just a thought.

rick_x

Hey King, just a word of warning, my dad has high blood pressure and bought a cheap-ish automatic monitor and it constantly overexaggerates his BP. I'm not saying go out an buy an expensive one though, just be aware that some are really quite inaccurate and the last thing you guys want is to be stressed any more than you already are.

For your own peace of mind it might be a good idea to speak to your GP or practice nurse and see if they've had any experience with any good models or have any recommendations.

All the best for the future!

tranmererovers

Lara wrote:

I would still recommend your wife has her BP checked via nurse at surgery though because if you mis-read it you could worry unneccesary which wouldn't be very good for her or the baby. Just a thought.

I thoroughly agree with Lara. If your wifes blood pressure is cause for concern then the midwife should be monitoring it. When I was expecting my first, my blood pressure was extremely high and during the last week of pregnancy I had home visits from the midwives twice a day to check it They were then able to act on any high readings by checking urine and asking questions re any other symptoms.

I think you should discuss your concerns with the midwife and if they think you need more regular monitoring they should do it

Alternatively there are usually 'community' monitors available (my husband had one for 2 weeks about 6 months ago to check his BP) These would at least be of a high standard and therefore (one hopes) more accurate.

Good luck with the pregnancy

rev229

I would not recomend any pregnant woman relies on these types of machines Blood pressure in pregnancy should always be taken by a midwife. High blood pressure can be very serious and other symptom may be overlooked if machine gives an ok reading. If the midwives are concerned about you wifes blood pressure they will monitor it themselves, leave this to the professionals. HOwerver if you wife does feel unwell then phone the hospital where she is booked and they will give you the advise you need.

Jay-Jay_4

rev229 wrote:

I would not recomend any pregnant woman relies on these types of machines Blood pressure in pregnancy should always be taken by a midwife. High blood pressure can be very serious and other symptom may be overlooked if machine gives an ok reading. If the midwives are concerned about you wifes blood pressure they will monitor it themselves, leave this to the professionals. HOwerver if you wife does feel unwell then phone the hospital where she is booked and they will give you the advise you need.

I agree wholeheartedly.

High blood pressure is a symptom of a bigger problem and if your wife is at risk then there her midwife needs to be checking her bp, urine and generally taking responsibilty for her care.

While the risk of pre-eclampsia is serious, there are a huge number of women that have elevated blood pressure throughout their pregnancies and need nothing more than careful monitoring by their caregiver.

king_3

My wife had same problem in her last (our first baby) pregnancy but it happened only after 26wks. But now 6 weeks since her last period and 2 days after we knew we are having a baby, we were told by nurse, she is having a high blood pressure. She is with Doc as I am typing. Hope doc would recommend a way to keep the baby because last time around, baby stopped to grow due to all the protein was pumped out from the water because of the high bp.

Back to the topic, would appriciate if any brand and modle to recommend as everybody knew the problem too many choices and many of them dose not do the job properly. We will ask Doc but they are not always senstive with money though if you think about debt problem in NHS now.