What Every New Parent Should Know About Postpartum Preeclampsia

Welcome to Episode 233 of the Pulling Curls Podcast where we discuss an important postpartum condition – postpartum preeclampsia. Host Hilary Erickson, a nurse and mom of three, dives into the key symptoms and preventative measures for this condition that can occur up to a year after childbirth. This episode is a must-listen for expecting mothers, as well as their families and friends, to stay informed about the potential signs and necessary actions associated with postpartum preeclampsia. Join Hilary as she untangles the complexities of this postpartum issue, sponsored by Postpartum Care Made Easy.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Postpartum warning signs for pregnant and post-baby.
06:31 Notice changes in swelling, bleeding, and mood.
07:23 Upcoming topics: to-do lists, interventions, growth.

Keypoints:

1. Topic Introduction: Hilary Erickson introduces the topic of postpartum preeclampsia, emphasizing its occurrence up to a year after childbirth and the importance of recognizing the warning signs.
2. Sponsor Mention: The episode is sponsored by “Postpartum Care Made Easy,” a resource aimed at educating about postpartum care including recognizing the symptoms of preeclampsia.
3. Importance of Awareness: Hilary highlights the need for both the new mothers and their support systems to be aware of postpartum preeclampsia symptoms, as postpartum individuals may be too overwhelmed to notice the signs themselves.
4. Key Symptoms: The major symptoms to watch for include severe headaches, blurry vision, and upper-right quadrant pain which could indicate liver enlargement.
5. Home Monitoring Advice: Hilary stresses the importance of having a home blood pressure monitor to help track any significant changes in blood pressure which is a common sign of preeclampsia.
6. Differentiating Symptoms: Hilary discusses how to differentiate normal postpartum symptoms from those of preeclampsia, such as distinguishing between usual and sudden onset facial swelling.
7. Medical Response: Urgent medical care is encouraged if severe symptoms like the “worst headache of your life” occur, as delaying treatment could lead to severe complications like seizures (eclampsia).
8. Medication and Management: Discussion on the necessity of using blood pressure medication, like labetalol, to manage high blood pressure postpartum to prevent cardiac issues.
9. Communication with Healthcare Providers: The importance of informing healthcare providers that you are in the postpartum period so they can consider preeclampsia as a potential diagnosis.
10. Reminder of Progression: The notion that postpartum recovery should typically show gradual improvement and any sudden worsening of symptoms should prompt immediate medical attention.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.970] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls podcast. Today on episode 233, we are talking about postpartum preeclampsia. It is more common than you think. So what should you be watching for? Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:13.590] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the pregnancy nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with Pregnancy and Parenting Untangled, The Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:00:42.190] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by Postpartum care made easy. If you’re looking for the warning signs for you, both while you’re pregnant and after baby, come join me in there. I’m going to tell you exactly what should make you call 911 or get right to the hospital, or what should trigger a call to your doctor after you have the baby. So come join me.

[00:01:00.450] – Hilary Erickson

So many people don’t know that postpartum preeclampsia can happen up to a year after you have your baby. That’s right. It’s taking a while for your system to get back to normal. Honestly, for a long time, we always heard that the main thing to get rid of it was to get the placenta out, which is true in general. But there are more and more people who are suffering with postpartum preeclampsia and really need to know the danger signs ahead of time so that they can be watching for them after they have their baby.

[00:01:26.220] – Hilary Erickson

I think this episode is really important for both the pregnant individual, but It’s also friends, family of the pregnant individual as well, so that they can know what to watch for because sometimes that pregnant person is so tired, breastfeeding, so much has changed.

[00:01:39.570] – Hilary Erickson

They aren’t going to see these problem signs, and it’s really important that they do. Okay, so what are these signs of postpartum preeclampsia? Well, one of them is going to be high blood pressure. That is something that I think everybody should have in their home is a blood pressure monitor. They’re not that expensive. I actually think the at-home ones are better than the ones at the grocery store.

[00:01:58.540] – Hilary Erickson

But having a blood pressure monitor at your home can be really handy for anybody. So that might be something that you consider, you ask for on your next Christmas gift, something like that.

[00:02:07.840] – Hilary Erickson

But here are the signs that you need to watch for. The first one is headache. Now this is tough because after you have a baby, sleep is going to be at a premium. You just aren’t going to be getting the great amount of sleep that you’ve gotten previous in your life. And so that can lead to headaches. But if you have a headache that is not resolved with a Tylenol, food, water, and a nap, that’s something you need to call your provider about. But I will say that if you have the worst headache of your life, it is just pounding, that is something that I would probably head right into either a local urgent care or the ER so they can help you right away.

[00:02:42.120] – Hilary Erickson

Honestly, probably the ER, but I know everybody’s situation varies a lot. So that’s just something you should keep in the back of your mind. You can always call your provider as well. If they’re quick to answer or answer questions or see you, that is a great option as well. Everything I’ve read has said that if you have what you feel like is the worst headache of your life, after you’ve had a baby, you should just head right into the hospital so they can make sure that it’s not preeclampsia, because if it is, it can have some serious consequences.

[00:03:08.480] – Hilary Erickson

Side note, we’re talking about preeclampsia, and a lot of people are like, Pre what? Well, eclampsia is what happens when you have a seizure. If any of you have watched Downton Abbey, you’ll notice that Lady Sibyl has the headache, she has the swelling, she has the weird things going on, and they ignored it. There was this bickering. Then after she has the baby, a couple of hours after, she starts seizing. That’s when you head into eclampsia. Sometimes we can’t get you out of this seizure. It’s a big deal. It’s really important that we take it seriously because we do not want to get it that far. That’s why we want to catch it while it’s just preeclampsia.

[00:03:43.370] – Hilary Erickson

The next one is blurry vision. Now, honestly, I haven’t seen a whole lot of people who had blurry vision that did not have a headache. I’m not talking about you wake up and your eyes are a little fuzzy. You’re waking up, your eyes have woken up, and it’s still blurry. That’s something you want to call your provider about. It can be a sign of preeclampsia. Just because your blood pressure is rising, it impacts your vision nerves and things like that. So blurry vision can be something to watch for after your baby as well.

[00:04:07.720] – Hilary Erickson

Then the final one that you’re going to watch for at home is some right upper quadrant pain. It’s usually pain right under your ribs. That is from an enlarging of your liver, and that can be a sign of preeclampsia as well. But the main one that we watch for is really the headache. Now, if you have a blood pressure monitor at home and you have that headache, you can take your blood pressure and see how it is. Preeclampsia doesn’t always come with increased blood pressure, but most often it does.

[00:04:32.760] – Hilary Erickson

Now, a couple of things that people always thought was preeclampsia was swelling, but it turns out it’s really hard to differentiate regular pregnancy swelling from preeclampsia swelling. Something that we do notice is facial swelling that comes on suddenly. That’s something that’s a little bit more of a trigger that it’s a problem rather than just my feet and my legs are swollen. After you have a baby, your feet and legs are going to feel a little swollen. Usually, we’ve given you a lot of IV fluids in the hospital, especially if you’ve got an epidural, so it takes a little bit of time for those to come down.

[00:04:59.690] – Hilary Erickson

Now, I also want to be really clear that increased blood pressure after delivery, both during pregnancy and after delivery, is getting to be a bigger problem as well. Sometimes doctors are hesitant or just don’t prescribe labetal or other blood pressure medications so that they can keep it under control. But I want to be really clear that if your blood pressure stays high for an extended period of time, that can injure your heart. You got to think it’s a closed system. If, let’s say, you pump your bike tire up too much, which is what that is, at some point, the heart is going to have issues with it.

[00:05:31.090] – Hilary Erickson

It’s really important that you keep an eye on that blood pressure. If you’re on blood pressure medications, keep an eye on all of that because that can end up leading to other things. Now, I do want to be clear that high blood pressure and preeclampsia are two different things. Preeclampsia includes high blood pressure, but high blood pressure does not always include preeclampsia. But either way, you want to keep an eye on all of that. A lot of times you need blood pressure meds if you’ve had preeclampsia to just help that blood pressure come under control. Again, all of that can happen anytime during that first year.

[00:06:03.660] – Hilary Erickson

A couple of things to remind you, if you go in to a provider, remind them that you have had a baby XYZ number of months ago, especially if it was really recent. But they need to know that right off because it’s really important that we’re thinking this could be a problem with pregnancy right away rather than, I’m just coming in with a headache. That looks different than Hilary, who hasn’t had a baby in 14 years coming in with a headache. If that makes sense to you.

[00:06:27.010] – Hilary Erickson

The other thing when you’re postpartum is that everything should be getting a little bit better every day. I think that’s a good thing to notice all along. If suddenly the swelling increases, that’s a problem sign that you’re going to want to keep an eye on. If your bleeding increases, if your mood decreases and it’s been getting better, all those different things. If you’re noticing that something is drastically worse the one day to the next, that’s something to keep an eye on.

[00:06:49.800] – Hilary Erickson

I talk about all of these things over in Postpartum Care Made Easy. There is actually a free walkthrough, like a presentation that you can go through the slides and read the information, or you can include the video walkthrough for just a few dollars more where I go through the slides with you, tell you some of my personal experience, and help you to understand what you need to be watching for.

[00:07:08.810] – Hilary Erickson

Those are my tips for postpartum preeclampsia. Most of all, I want to remind you that it can happen anytime in the first year, plus while you were pregnant. So I think it’s really important that you’re learning these signs during pregnancy and also knowing that you should watch for them after a baby is born. Thanks so much for listening.

[00:07:24.940] – Hilary Erickson

Next week, we are talking about making a weekly list of to-dos for organizing around your home, so stay tuned for that. Then the week after that, we are talking about the cascade of interventions, which you’ll see talked about on social media a little bit. We’re going to talk about how that works and how you can monitor it in your own situation.

[00:07:42.030] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls podcast today. If you like today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.

Keywords:

postpartum preeclampsia, high blood pressure, headache, blurry vision, right upper quadrant pain, eclampsia, seizure, pregnancy complications, blood pressure monitor, urgent care, emergency room, facial swelling, labetalol, blood pressure medication, heart health, pregnancy health, swelling during pregnancy, postpartum care, pregnancy education, warning signs during pregnancy, maternal health, postpartum monitoring, podcast on pregnancy, pregnancy advice, nurse advice, health education, home health monitoring, pregnancy risks, postpartum symptoms, IV fluids during labor.