Has anyone experienced gestational hypertension beginning at 36 weeks and gone on to have a natural birth at 40 weeks or beyond without complications?

I have always considered myself to be a bit anxiety ridden, and it runs in my family. My mother gave birth to me naturally after 42 weeks + and everything turned out fine, even though she developed toxemia towards the end.

These days, pre-eclampsia is monitored extensively and taken very seriously. I had a lot of major unwanted changes in my life beginning in late July (moving to in-laws, no say in any aspect of my life, etc.) and that is when my Dr.‘s began to notice a rise in my blood pressure readings. The thing is, the first reading would be high, and they would take it again and the second reading usually dropped dramatically.

Now, I am 38 weeks pregnant, and I have been seeing the Dr. twice weekly since 36 weeks. Regardless of all of the testing I have undergone, they cannot find anything wrong with me or the baby, other than my having a high BP reading at the Dr.‘s office. I am talking in the high 130’s/80’s, and occasionally in the 140/90 range, but never much higher than that. At home my bp after resting is usually SIGNIFICANTLY lower, like 110’s/70’s…unless I take it right after sitting down, which it then reads much higher.

My problem here is that the Dr.‘s have been telling me since the first high BP reading that they have decided that I need to be induced. At first they told me 37 weeks. Here I am at 38 weeks and now they are telling me no later than 39 weeks.

I do not believe that it is necessary for an artificial induction because I do not have ANY OTHER SYMPTOMS of pre-eclampsia. No protein in urine, blood platelets are normal, baby heart rate is always SO PERFECT that the nurses comment on wanting to keep her tracings to show as an example to nursing students as a perfect heart rate. I have had one migraine in the past few months and I think it was due to eating way too much sugar and not drinking enough water that day. And I do have flashes in my vision and spots at times but that was a PRE-EXISTING condition due to my having been in a car accident years ago and tearing a hole in my retina.

I do not, under any circumstance, wish to be induced or to have a C-Section, but I want to trust in my body’s ability to have a completely natural (I will not accept epidural or other drugs either) birth. I believe women were made to give birth and we shouldn’t need all of these interventions unless it is medically necessary. These Dr.‘s I feel have been strong-arming me into being induced way too early, and are now saying frightening things to me like that my baby could die due to placental abruption – yet this is all based on statistics and not on me personally.

I’d like to add that I am on medicaid and that I was only given one choice of practices to go to, and so I see about 6 different Dr.‘s for only a few minutes spread out throughout weeks. There is a baby boom in my area and I almost feel as though I am being treated differently than if I were not on medicaid – more as a statistic than as an individual. I feel as though they want to schedule my birth to make it easier on them.

I understand that pre-eclampsia is a serious condition and if I had any other symptoms then I would feel differently about their advice, but that just is not the case. I am diagnosed with ‘gestational hypertension’ and even at the hospital after being monitored for 9 hours straight they could not find cause to diagnose me with pre-e.

Does anyone else have any experience with refusing an induction for these reasons and having a favorable outcome? I am tired of Googling and reading horror stories.

Thank you so much for your input!!