Advice- Big swelling at 37 weeks

[Kirley64]

Glad to hear you are ok ....not sure about RLT...
My friend just had a baby two weeks ago and she had really noticable swelling (odema) everywhere... no blood pressure problems at all....as soon as bubs was born she started losing all the fluid. I rekon she wouldve put on 10kg in the last 6weeks just from fluid. so lets just hope thats all it stays at

[HotI]

I had an appointment at the hospital with a physician today. She looked at the results from Saturday and said i have anaemia, and low protein in my blood (but normal in urine), and my blood pressure was up slightly. She thinks the low protein is causing the swelling.

She wants me to increase my protein intake. i haven;t had red meat for close to 20 years, and have only started eating chicken during the pregnancy after 15+ years of not eating white meat either. i can't really think of any red meat that i would be able to swallow, so am going to have a look at other ways of increasing my protein.

does anaemia or low blood protein lead to any difficulties with bleeding during labour? any other issues?

[*Beema*]

I am glad you have seen the Dr and got a better picture of things

For more protein, try oats for breakfats, 6.2grams per 50grams
Also Egg Whites are high in protein

I am sure there are heaps of other things high in protein!

[alioops]

You could try disguising red meats, like wrapping them in other things, putting mince in with other dishes, or charcoaling them.

[MummaSue]

Quinoa is a good source of protein, if you don't know what it is - it's kind of like cous cous. I love it!
Also, beans (soya, mung, butter, kidney etc) are a great source as are nuts!
There are loads of ways to get protein without red meat babe!

Could you also find a pregnancy friendly protein shake? I'm sure there are a few on the market at the moment, health food shops might be able to help you out.

Sue x

[HotI]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I considered trialling the red meat but don't think i can do it, I am definately gonna try the non-red meat options first.

Alan, thanks for the info on anaemia too.

[Alan]

If you don’t want to eat red meat of chicken other foods that include protein are fish, eggs, cheese, milk, most nuts and beans.
Low protein will have no effect on bleeding. The problem with anaemia is that if you do bleed you will have very little reserves of iron to carry oxygen around your body. Anaemia itself does not cause bleeding.