Ask any healthcare professional what causes pre-eclampsia and they’ll tell you that we honestly don’t know. We suspect that there’s a nutritional component, but clinical studies have been unsuccessful at isolating a root cause or identifying beneficial nutritional practices.
I know this. I try to stay up on the research, on the recommendations. I counsel pregnant women on nutrition for a living.
But when I start gaining fluid rapidly and my blood pressure starts creeping up and I’m afraid I’m going to risk out of home birth?
I’m willing to do anything, research be darned.
Up my protein from 80 grams per day to 100? Sure.
Cut out sugar? Sure.
Eat apples and beets for liver function? Why not.
So what if we don’t have any proof that any of those things will do any good – if there’s any chance that they will, I’ll do it.
It gives me a new compassion for the moms of kids with autism who desperately try eliminating artificial colors, and then gluten, and then dairy. So a professional (like me) tells them that there is no evidence that any of those are associated with autism or decrease in autistic behaviors.
They’re desperate and feel powerless – they’ll do anything, however bizarre to try to maintain some level of control.
As do I – putting my feet up on every occasion, lying down on my left side as soon as I get home from work, avoiding processed foods and sugar, loading up on protein.
Meanwhile, the clinician and evidence-based practitioner in me frets over the fact that I really have no idea if any of this will do any good. None of it is based on good science. It’s all just guesses.
So I do the one thing that will definitely not help my blood pressure stay low. I fret. I worry. I am anxious.
I resist the one thing I have been commanded to do by the One who made my body and who knows exactly what is best for it.
He says to be anxious for nothing, to lift everything to Him in prayers and supplications with thanksgiving. He promises peace that will guard my heart and mind.
Yet I fret, I resist, I try to do something myself, not willing to trust God with my body and my baby’s.
Lord, forgive me. I come to You desperate – able to do nothing. Take my fears, I choose to entrust them to You.
Praying specifically for this now.
Sometimes when I am taking measures that I am not sure about, I think of Jacob’s rods when his cattle were reproducing. I’ve heard various opinions on what that was all about, and mine has always been that it was the Lord’s blessing that influenced cattle to be born that Jacob could claim according to his pact with Laban. So sometimes when I am doing things like this, I’ll tell the Lord I’m not sure if those efforts are really doing anything, but I am trusting Him to work. One former pastor used to say that God can work, “with medicine, without medicine, and in spite of medicine,” so sometimes I’ll pray, “Lord, I’m trusting you for this outcome. I am taking these measures only as tools, but I am trusting you to work with them, without them, or in spite of them.” Praying He will give you peace of heart, guide you to whatever measures might be helpful, and stave off the pre-eclampsia. I had that with one pregnancy – two weeks of bedrest (with a preschooler in tow — fun!), and thankfully all was well. Hoping your situation will be, too.