How We Avoided An Induction After Being Diagnosed With Preeclampsia
Oh dear lord.
Writing this post brings back a lot of feels.
First and foremost, if you didn’t know this already…
Inductions are routinely being performed + scheduled every single day.
And idk about you, but it seems a bit much.
And it really makes me feel sad for the women that don’t feel comfortable advocating for themselves.
Which brings me to my story and how I stuck to my gut instincts despite what medical providers were telling me.
My story
This journey began on August 10th, but prior to that, I went in for my routine OB appointment at 35 weeks and I saw one of my favorite nurse practitioners. During that particular appointment I explained to her that I felt “off” and that I felt like my blood pressure was high.
She had said, “well it wasn’t high today” and we moved on.
I didn’t think (nor want it) to be a big deal. I mean there are so many things in pregnancy that are different and new, so I just kinda wanted to mentally ignore it.
Even though it was pretty darn hard because I just didn’t like how I felt, physically.
That“off” feeling I explained to her felt like my heart was r a c i n g. Even doing basic things like cutting vegetables on our tiny kitchen island at the end of the day. I felt that feeling regularly while I was at work and I remember crying in the bathroom to my husband (we work together) about how awful I felt.
Not only would my heart race, but my skin just felt off too… like I could feel this tightness throughout my whole body. It was a weird feeling, but my provider said things were fine so I just accepted it since I was so close to the end of my pregnancy.
Then came my 37 week appointment. I happened to see a provider I did NOT care for. She was also a nurse practitioner and she always seemed super preoccupied by her computer and distracted by her next task. She would question my fundal height and struggled to find my pubic bone and would say “is this it? or have you always been measuring small?”. Even though every single provider I’d been with other than her, had no problems and always said I was measuring perfectly!
At one appointment with her, she even asked me what my baby’s heart rate was immediately after she just got done checking it. . . I just never left appointments with her feeling confident.
And when I went in for this 37 week appointment, she was my provider. Yay.
At this 37 week appointment, the technician checked my BP and it was higher than normal for me. I usually am around 118/78 and that day it was 142/88 or something. Brian and I truly felt it was my nerves because I knew the provider I was about to see and she made me feel uneasy and nervous. And the tech was super fast and fidgety and it just drove me nuts.
BP reading at home!
So they checked my BP two more times and it was even higher. At this point, I was super anxious. And then about 5 minutes later, that same nurse practitioner walks in and says, “We’re sending you to the hospital”.
My jaw dropped and I was like “for what???”.
She said she was concerned about my BP and she just got off the phone with the OB and apparently he had recommended that I have a few tests done: an NST (non stress test on baby) and blood work drawn.
But this was around 4-5pm so the only place that was available for these tests was the hospital.
That nurse practitioner really needs to work on her bedside manner. . .
Here I thought I was being sent to the hospital to have my baby.
So after that appointment, we went home first. We needed to mentally absorb things and collect our thoughts (and my emotions). I was distraught and worried about what to expect. I didn’t think my blood pressure was truly that high, but I also knew that I had just got done questioning it. I felt torn.
Around 5:30pm, we arrived at the hospital. The NST determined baby looked great, my BP was high initially but dropped into the 130/80’s and blood work/urine sample had shown a slight elevation of protein in my urine. But other than that, things looked fine. I had no preeclampsia symptoms at all.
My bump and I waiting for the midwife to come in to share results/discuss induction for the first time.
Then the midwife on staff came into my room and said things look fine…
but…
they did recommend scheduling an induction at 39 weeks.
Things looked fine tho?
I really didn’t want an induction.
I wanted this baby to come when both he and I were ready.
I cried.
She left the room and then the nurse typed away on her computer and was scheduling me for another NST and the induction.
She picked August 24th for the induction and I questioned her, “well can’t I do Sunday the 27th?”. She was like, “No, it has to be the exact day of your 39th week”. . .
Eyeroll, please🙄
Do we ever get what we want? I’m the one giving birth here…
So we scheduled the induction for the 24th. But I knew in my gut that that wasn’t happening. They also gave me a jug to pee in for 24 hours to get a true reading of the protein levels in my urine and the protein levels had actually dropped from .55 to .38. They’re usually more concerned about protein levels greater than .6. During all of my research, I did find that, a lot of pregnant women do have more protein in their urine that a) shows up negative b) never leads to preeclampsia nor HBP.
Four days later, we went for our second NST. Things still looked really good. The nurse didn’t bat an eye at my BP. But apparently, I was to be seen twice a week for these NST’s, so she scheduled me for another one four days from then.
At that appointment and ALL other future NST appointments, I had every provider stress this induction to the point of me being in tears. We would be at these appointments anywhere from 2-4 hours at a time because of my BP. However, the baby looked great. They’d always said how spectacular he looked. Yet they still were pressuring me about doing the induction.
Me after I just got done bawling my eyes out. We waited in this room that day for 4 hours! I hated this room so much and I was in it probably 3-5 times.
At my OB appointment after my first NST, we were told by my actual OB that if I didn’t want to schedule the induction, I didn’t have to…
He said everything else looks great. Just keep monitoring your BP at home and as long as it’s not hanging around 160/90, they’ll leave me alone. He said, “just don’t go past 41 weeks”. And I was completely fine with that.
All I wanted was more time.
More time to let my body get it together.
More time for my baby to grow.
More time for me to emotionally process things.
It didn’t feel right to me to jump to conclusions and do an induction. I didn’t feel there was any harm in coming in for these follow up appointments and to me, if things were staying stable, the induction didn’t feel necessary. No, I am not a doctor, but I do know my body more than anyone else!
But still, even after he said that, all these other providers were so persistent on me doing the induction.
They’d say “we’re worried about your placenta” and “the logistics of staff here at the hospital”.
Not once did they recommend me have an ultrasound to evaluate my placenta because the NST’s were showing things looked good. If my baby was not thriving, they would know! And logistics is not on my top priority list!
So, my mom was recommending me to hire a doula to help advocate for myself and what I wanted. I thought about hiring a doula when I first found out I was pregnant, but then I was like.. eh.. I’ll be fine. I can do this. Well I thought wrong.
At 38 weeks pregnant, I hired a doula. She came to my home and we talked about everything. She even told me that patients with true preeclampsia, a high BP reading is usually the last symptom to appear. And this was my “first” symptom…
After all this stress, my BP was now hanging out around 140/88+ at home. And then one time we checked it immediately after and it was in the 160/90. But my husband is a doctor with EMT experience and he said that it probably wasn’t too accurate since we took it so soon after that first reading. That’s when I started to become paranoid. What if it really is that high?
That night I reached out to the doulas and they recommended increasing my protein intake to about 100g a day and to really make sure it comes from eggs (about 6-7 eggs/day!!). When they told me that, Brian and I looked at each other. We both knew I was barely getting 30g of protein a day, let alone 100g!
After they told me that, I was hitting about 90-100g of protein every day and I noticed that I started to feel so much better… My heart stopped racing. I felt a lot less fatigued at work. I noticed a change in my body almost right away. Pregnancy nutrition is crazy.
And I actually ended up losing 7 lbs in 9 days while almost 39 weeks pregnant. I think it was from losing water weight I was holding onto b/c I wasn’t eating enough protein and I actually did fast and ate a ton of fruit and a lot less processed things.
The black dot all the way to the right was my final weight measured just a few days before I had him! The dot before that is my weight at it’s highest throughout my entire pregnancy.
So this might be TMI, but after, yet another, fear mongering NST appointment (my last one on Sunday August 27th) and yet another pee jugging experience, one of the midwives mentioned the word “sex” and then left the room.
So we got the hint… we went home… and had sex.
This was a Sunday evening, on August 27th!! (the stars were aligning).
That night, I started having very irregular mild contractions and woke up with a bloody show Monday August 28th!! My due date was August 31st! Yipp-the-fuck-eeee!
I couldn’t hold the excitement I felt to be able to start this labor process ALL ON MY OWN.
No induction needed.
That afternoon we actually went into the hospital around 3pm because my contractions were becoming stronger and we really wanted my cervix checked since we never had it checked before. One of the midwives took a look and said my cervix was only about a fingernail dilated, but hey at least it was dilated.
Me in early labor… after this visit, labor picked up REAL quick.
And what do you know… she STILL insisted we stay for an induction THAT DAY!!
I’m like omg… you’ve got to be kidding me. I am currently in labor, leave me alone. I ended up signing AMA (against medical advice) papers. It was literally one piece of paper that I signed on a damn box of gloves. And I did ask if we could stay just because I was in labor (yes very early, but still) and she said no. I could only stay for the induction. How backwards?
End of story.
If you’d like to read my birth story, here it is.
Mind boggling.
All of this began on August 10th. And was a recurring saga until I damn near delivered my baby on August 30th! With no complications. AND my BP actually dropped to 50/30 after they administered the epidural… something they did not expect from a “hypertensive” pregnant woman.
Healthcare is so backwards, especially with pregnant women. I understand why, but I also think there’s a lot of fucked up things about it.
I remember thinking if I refuse this induction, will I go to “induction jail”. Like? They make you feel like a piece of shit for not taking their “godly” advice.
OH and look at this… my BP reading the day we signed the AMA papers. BUT no one said anything about it… once you’re diagnosed with preeclampsia, there’s no turning back.
My final blood pressure reading right before we left. I snapped a picture because… just in case I needed proof. My husband rolled his eyes, but I’m a stubborn bull ;)
So, if you are battling the proposal of an induction for hypertension/preeclampsia, figure out your pros and cons list and really really listen to your gut. Yes there are health risks by not doing the induction process when they recommend it, but there’s also health risks by DOING the induction too! And often times… they fail and lead to c-section deliveries!
Do your research. Hire a doula (especially if it’s your first pregnancy experience!). Stand up for yourself. If you have any questions, you can always ask me, too!
Pregnancy is a precious journey and I truly feel like the end of my pregnancy was kind of robbed from me by all the induction stress. It also really wreaked havoc on our marriage. And I remember explaining that to my providers about how all this stress isn’t helping at all and could be the reason why my BP was going up at home. It literally consumed our lives until we went into labor.
But anyway, moving on. I have my little bundle of joy and everything’s in the past. I just can’t help but feel this urge to share this experience because it really, really opened my eyes especially for future pregnancies!
We are not robots!!!
Pregnancy, labor and delivery is a natural process. It’s not a medical condition. Yes, medicine is necessary at times, but it should also be an option for us pregnant ladies to choose what feels right for US. Our gut instincts are far more powerful than anyone thinks.