34 Week Pregnancy Update

I had my 34 week midwife appointment and Preeclampsia was mentioned, not something I wanted to hear at all. I was induced with my first daughter due to Preeclampsia 6 years ago and I have birth trauma from her birth and is a big reason why I went a midwife this time (plus I am now on the holistic side and see things so much differently and know the medial system sees birth so much differently than holistic).

When I heard those words I had flashbacks. I literally wanted to cry when I was in the office and had to hold back the tears. 😭 But I did get good news from my midwife, she told me that alot of times when women are diagnosed with Preeclampsia it is a misdiagnoses and is often due to diet issues (often due to not enough protein in your diet which is why there is high protein in urine) and a few other things. She told me that OBs do not test like they do for preeclampsia. When you are pregnant and have high protein in your urine your body is starting to take from your muscle since it's not getting it from your diet. I also didn't want that because I've worked so hard for the muscle I have. 😭 She would not have been concerned if my protein in my urine and my BP was not up about 15 points more than what it normally was my whole pregnancy. She said that the only way to know for sure if it is really preeclampsia is to test the placenta and we have no way to do that.

She took my bloodwork and said that if it came back and things didn't look good I'd have to do a 24 hr urine sample. She also had me start eating 100 grams of protein a day to make sure my protein stays up. 😭 My bloodwork came back good but she wants me to continue to eat 100 grams a day till birth and wants me to keep track of my BP as well. 😭 She also wants me to reduce stress as much as I can. She said if it gets high then I will have to have a 24 hr urine sample and bloodwork done again. She also mentioned that with true preeclampsia that with bloodwork for your liver it is usually not good but she said mine was looking good.

Please just pray that everything stays where it should be with me keeping up with my protein intake and such so that I can stay home for the birth and don't have to go to the hospital, I do NOT want another hospital birth. I want to be able to give birth in my own home and I can have a truly unmedicated birth (I know it's possible at the hospital too but there's just so many things that mess with your body while at the hospital that can throw you off). I want my daughter to be able to see me give birth so that she can see it's not so scary after all and there a ways to work with your body and have natural pain relief to help. Fear makes the pain worse and the pain increases the fear, this is called fear tension pain cycle. 😭 Education is key when it comes to the fear tension pain cycle though, you have to better understand what your body is doing in those moments.

Sorry for the long post but wanted to inform you all on what I found out about preeclampsia as well from a holistic prospective because I never knew this before. I more than likely didn't even have it the first time and it was because I had an awful diet where I ate the standard American diet, now I eat real food. My body was at a better state prepregnacy this time too. I feel better knowing that my bloodwork was good though. My BP is staying in normal range but with the protein and the added 15 points to my BP she wanted to just rule things out and have me focus on my protein. I blame myself because I should have done better to begin with, if I would have I prob wouldn't have even heard preeclampsia being mentioned. 😭

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34 Week Pregnancy Update