According to a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, higher blood pressure levels in pregnant women are linked to an increased risk of several pregnancy complications.
According to Fernanda Morales-Berstein, a research associate at the University of Bristol and the study’s lead author, women with higher blood pressure during pregnancy are more likely to experience complications, including “preterm delivery, giving birth to smaller babies, needing to have labor induced, gestational diabetes, and the baby needing to be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit.”
Unlike many previous studies, the researchers did not define high blood pressure using specific clinical thresholds, such as a hypertension diagnosis.
Instead, the study examined blood pressure as a continuous measure, using genetic data to assess how increases in blood pressure across its full range may influence pregnancy outcomes.
This approach to the study allowed researchers to better determine whether higher blood pressure itself plays a causal role in these complications.
The findings suggest that keeping blood pressure within a healthy range throughout pregnancy may be an important step in lowering the likelihood of experiencing these adverse outcomes.
However, high blood pressure during pregnancy may be more common than many people realize.
“As obesity and age at delivery continue to rise, the number of women of reproductive age with high blood pressure is increasing,” explained Maria Magnus, a senior researcher at the Centre for Fertility and Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and a co-author of the study. “High blood pressure is a common medical problem encountered in pregnancy, with approximately one in ten pregnant women affected.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, there are four main types of high blood pressure that can occur during pregnancy.
These conditions differ in both timing and severity, but all require medical monitoring.
The first is chronic hypertension, which occurs when high blood pressure develops either before pregnancy or during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The second is chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia, which develops when someone with chronic hypertension experiences worsening blood pressure later in pregnancy, often accompanied by protein in the urine or other complications.
The third type is gestational hypertension, which develops after 20 weeks of pregnancy and is not associated with excess protein in the urine or signs of organ damage.
In some cases, however, gestational hypertension can progress into the final and most severe condition: preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia occurs when high blood pressure develops after 20 weeks of pregnancy and is accompanied by signs of damage to other organ systems, including the kidneys, liver, blood, or brain.
If left untreated, preeclampsia can be extremely dangerous and, in severe cases, fatal to both the mother and baby, which only underscores the importance of regular blood pressure monitoring and management during pregnancy.
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