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What I learned about Mums and their Blood Pressure during Know Your Numbers Week (featuring a product review of the Kinetik Fully Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor
By: Courtney @wimbledon_mummy
Please note that the product discussed below was gifted, but all opinions expressed below are entirely my own.
Kinetik Wellbeing (in association with St. John Ambulance) recently approached me to ask if I would be interested in helping them promote Know Your Numbers week, a week aimed at raising awareness of the importance of measuring your blood pressure. My interest was immediately piqued as health and wellbeing are very important to me and hypertension wasn’t something I knew much about, although my dad had it. For some reason I thought that it mostly affected the elderly and men, but I wasn’t certain. So my naivete prompted me to do some research.
I was surprised at my findings. Although the elderly and men are at risk, younger people and women are too. In fact, the stats are almost equal for men and women. There also seems to be a genetic link – if you have a parent with hypertension, you are much more likely to suffer from it too. And that’s very relevant to me. In addition:
- New parents, in particular mums, are at risk of high blood pressure due to sleep deprivation. In the first year of having a child, parents get an average of four hours and forty-four minutes of sleep per night;
- Only 30% of parents achieve the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise due to lack of time;
- 98% of parents didn’t realise that women who develop hypertension during pregnancy are more likely to develop dementia later in life;
- 38% of parents believe that blood pressure can only be taken by a medical professional; and
- 4% of parents think it’s not important to monitor blood pressure until over the age of 50.*
The stats clinched it for me and I jumped at the chance to help raise awareness, especially among my peers.
Kinetik Wellbeing kindly gifted me a Fully Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor so that I could check my own blood pressure. It came in a fairly small box with a monitor handset, a cuff, 3 AA batteries and an instruction leaflet. The instructions were easy to follow and it took minutes to set up. After inserting the batteries, I set the date and time (so the memory function could be used) and I was good to go!
Per the instructions I sat down with my arm resting on a table and relaxed for a minute or two before taking my blood pressure. I also took readings from both arms.
After pressing the start button, the cuff inflates and you can see the numbers going up on the handset. In less than a minute, I had my blood pressure reading: 112/69 – perfect! I took my husband’s numbers next and he also passed with flying colours. The memory function means we can store our readings and compare. It’s comforting to know we are healthy and will be able to speak to the GP if our readings drastically change.
I couldn’t recommend this monitor more highly. It’s a great tool to have around the house and the minute that it takes to take your blood pressure could literally save your life.
Read more from @WimbledonMummy at www.wimbledonmummy.com
* Stats provided by Kinetik Wellbeing