Komal

Age at interview: 23

Age at diagnosis: 23

Brief Outline:

Komal was pregnant with her first child. She was invited to join the BuMP study.

Background:

Komal was pregnant with her first daughter. She is married and was a physiotherapist in Pakistan before moving to the UK.

More about me...

Komal was anxious about her health and the well-being of her baby. She is a medical professional, and when she was invited to take part in the BUMP study she was very pleased.

Komal knew a bit about blood pressure in pregnancy from her training in physiotherapy. One of her relatives developed high blood pressure and had a caesarean section.

And where have you heard about BP, blood pressure being dangerous to the baby and the and the mother?

I was a physiotherapy student. I was a medical student and during my studies I heard it obviously and all that, that it’s not good, high BP is not good 

It’s not good for any human being to have a high BP and pregnant women are at more risk because two lives are connected to one another, at that time. So a high BP can affect the mother as well as the baby also. So that’s why I knew about the blood BP a lot before that because I am connected to a medical profession.

And did you know anything about a condition called pre-eclampsia before your pregnancy?

Yes, I know about it. I heard about it but not much. No, I don’t have much information about it but I know that it is a condition.

Komal said the blood pressure monitor was easy to use in the BuMP study. It was reassuring when the measurements taken at home matched those at medical appointments.

It was very easy and on the device, I just had to press a button and everything was fine because and it wasn’t very chance of such an error there. I have taken a 100 readings or something like that, during that time, but only one time I put the cuff wrong and the reading wasn’t there but 99% of those times, it was accurate. And whenever I had, it was time for me to take the reading and then I had to go to my GP for a regular appointment, the reading was almost accurate, fine, she took that, it was good. So the device was also good because it was very easy to use and very easy to understand.