Elaine

Age at interview: 33

Age at diagnosis: 33

Brief Outline: Elaine was pregnant with her first child.

Background: Elaine is a nurse. She was pregnant with her first child.

More about me...

Elaine was invited to join the study as this was her first pregnancy. The monitoring did not reveal any raised blood pressure. Her daughter was born by caesarean section. 

Elaine said it was helpful that her appointments with the BuMP research nurse were usually timed for after her ‘normal’ routine appointments, adding on about 20 minutes.

The contact that I’d had with [research midwife] and, you know, she, she came to my GP surgery so we didn’t have to, I didn’t have to go anywhere else. So kind of the I had my appointment with, she’d text me and say, oh, we’ll meeting, I’d text her and say when my appointment was and the time, and she said, “Okay, well, I’ll be there at that time.” And then she’d normally text me and say, “Oh, I’m in I’m in this room.” Or, “I’m not sure what room I’m in, go and ask reception.” So I’d go into my community midwife and then I’d just go sort of a couple of doors down and go and go and see [research midwife]. So that actually, suited me suited me well.

Elaine made some adjustments to her daily routines so that she could take her blood pressure readings for the BuMP study.

When you did the blood pressure, you had to sort of be still for five minutes before to allow things to settle. Check your blood pressure and then wait for another five minutes and then check it again. Now, at work-, I normally get up for work, so a normal day, say at six o’clock in the morning and then I’m at work, rarely am I sat still. So in order for me to be able to do that, I set my alarm for 15 minutes before early, so I then would wake up at quarter to six, so then I’d be able to have my five minutes rest, do my blood pressure, another five minutes, do my blood pressure again before then my alarm went off to actually properly get up. So just with that little adjustment. And then the one in the evening, I would do almost whilst-, or just after tea or watching TV just before going to bed. So, very early in the morning and very late in the evening to try and get those readings in. Since going on maternity leave or having the baby, was again just having time to try and fit it in and adjusting the routine. I didn’t necessarily feel it was burdensome. I think Monday mornings, when I normally get up at half past five, setting my alarm was quarter past five was a little bit annoying but it was only once a week.