Does Breastfeeding Lower Blood Pressure in Postpartum Hypertensive Patients

Overview

The primary aim is to establish whether breastfeeding is associated with lowering blood pressure in hypertensive women.

Patients included in this study will have chosen to breastfeed. 1. The investigators will identify patients that are planning to breastfeed from their intake questionnaire that all patients receive upon admission to labor and delivery. They will also identify breastfeeding patients while performing our postpartum rounding. 2. The investigators will perform a chart review to determine their co-morbidities and current medications. Specifically, the patient information recorded will be age, parity, gestational age, delivery route, vital signs, medications, race, whether they are breastfeeding. Of note, all of the individuals listed to participate in this study have routine access to the patient's charts since they will be working with the patients regardless of their participation in the study. 3. Only hypertensive women will be included. Hypertension is defined as persistent Systolic blood pressure \> 140 and or persistent diastolic blood pressure \> 90. 4. Once it has been determined that they have met the inclusion criteria for the study the investigators will ask the patient's attending physician if we can approach the patient and explain the study and obtain consent. 5. Once consent is obtained, the investigators will inform the nurse. The patient will have her blood pressure taken prior to breastfeeding, during breastfeeding, and 1-2 hours after breastfeeding. This will occur 3 times in the postpartum period.

Conditions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes