I have a question for all you 3rd tri girls! My niece is 8 months pregnant and her feet are HUGE! She is getting swelling really bad on her left side and the swelling has been getting worse in the past few days. She is calling her doc tomorrow but I was wondering if any of you girls have experienced this and if so, what has been done or needs to be done to fix this. Her blood pressure is great and she doesn't eat hardly any salt so we are so confused! Please help us! She is worried!
Thank you all in advance!

Anne

if its really bad she should see the doctor, but i get this too if its very hot, all u can do it put your feet up. its normal for 3rd tri girls to have swollen feet and ankles. but like i said if its really crazy id have it checked out to make sure the blood is flowing properly and there isnt another reason behind it.

I agree with cupcake. The best thing is probably just to lay down and keep moving her legs & ankles to get the fluid moving but swelling can be linked to pre eclampsia so even if she does normally have good blood pressure she should see a doctor asap since it's got so bad so fast!

I agree with the other ladies - it is a sign of pre-eclampsia, but my friend suffered from swelling really bad and she was fine. She just put her feet up for a while an it got better.

Good luck at the docs

If the BP is fine thats good and a high chance she doesnt have preeclampsia. She needs to take it easy, put her feet up as much as possible and rest. The doctors should be alerted though and they will possibly send her in for tests

a lot of women get swelling in their lower extremities late into pregnancy. It's just the nature of blood flow, vs the veins being weakened by progesterone, and total blood volume. If she has swelling just there, I wouldnt' be TOO concerned with pre eclampsia- which normally exhibits when swelling of hands and face is fairly extreme.

She can wear compression socks (or good support hose) that you can get at any pharmacy. A pharmacist can show you where they are if you don't know what you're looking for. That's what I have to do as I have terrible varicose veins in my right leg, and wear support socks so my leg doesn't look like an elephant's by the end of the day.

I had huge problems with this my first pg. First of all, it takes 3 key indicators to have pre-eclampsia, and swelling is only one (high bp and protein in the urine are the other two). While I agree she should rest with her feet up, I was also told to try and swim every day- swimming takes some of the babies weight off your body and gets the blood flowing a little, which both allow the kidneys to process some of the extra water. It worked like a charm for me then and has this pg too. Sometimes I will have drank nothing all morning, I will go pee right before I hop in the water, and within 30 mintues I am having to go BAD- not pg go, but sit on the pot for 5 min peeing kind of go...so I know it helps my body get rid of some of that water!

I went to my doc for a check up last week cos i had started swelling just on my right side. The doc measured my right leg and found it was bigger than the left one. Blood pressure and water were fine so she sent me straight to the hospital for a scan to check for a blood clot.

All was ok, no blood clot was found. They said that bubs must be laying more to one side and putting more pressure on that side so nothing to worry about.

I have suffered with pre-eclampsia in the past but they would only be worried about that if i had the swelling with high bp and protein in my urine.

Hope this helps.

i had this problem last time round. The best thing i found was to keep your feet up at any possible chance and i put on flip flops to keep my feet cool which also helped. If she gets her partner to rub them with a nice cream this can make them feel better too.

I get pretty bad swollen feet/ankles/hands some days...