Is it Safe to have High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy?

In pregnancy, it is really hard to identify what you are feeling. The symptoms are uncertain and make you feel like you are just drowning and not ready to do anything. With all the discomforts you are facing, some of the conditions can affect your pregnancy. High blood pressure or hypertension in pregnancy isn’t unnecessarily too life threatening, however, it is necessary for the doctors to monitor the blood pressure every month and especially before the time of delivery.

Women are recommended to seek medical health, whenever they feel a drop or rise in their blood pressure. In pregnancy, high blood pressure is normal in some women, although it disappears after the birth of the baby sometimes. However, if it worsens, it could cause a severe problem known as pre-eclampsia.

Pregnant women should give prompt attention if they are the symptoms like blurred vision, pain in the upper abdomen, severe headache, and swelling in feet, hands, and face.

Types of Hypertension or High Blood Pressure in Women

Chronic Hypertension

This type of hypertension usually appears before pregnancy or before the 20th week of pregnancy. In some women, chronic hypertension is already present for a long, but it remains undiagnosed till they get their blood pressure check on their routine visits during pregnancy. This untreated chronic hypertension sometimes leads to pre-eclampsia when they are pregnant.

Gestational Hypertension

Gestational hypertension appears after 20 weeks of pregnancy. In this type of blood pressure, there are no symptoms of organ damage or extra protein in the urine. But more probably, it has been studied that, later on, gestational hypertension develops preeclampsia in women.

Pre-eclampsia

After 20 weeks of pregnancy, when hypertension occurs, preeclampsia takes place. Preeclampsia can cause organ damage to the kidneys, brain, blood, or liver. If pre-eclampsia during pregnancy remains untreated, it can lead to life-threatening problems or even death for both baby and mother. It is the major cause of seizures in some women.

Moreover, it was considered to be the major problem in women who have high blood pressure and increased levels of protein in the urine. However, as per the recent studies, it can also found in women with no increase in protein levels.

Problems Caused by High Blood Pressure during Pregnancy

Premature delivery: If pregnant women have high blood pressure, early delivery is recommended in that case to prohibit the life-threatening complications of both mother and baby.

Blood flow decrease to Placenta: If the placenta did not get enough amount of placenta, there might be some problems with your baby, as he will get a few nutrition and have less oxygen. This causes slow fetus development and sometimes premature delivery.

Injury to Body Organs: Untreated and uncontrolled hypertension can lead to injury to the brain, kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, and other body organs.

Cardiovascular Disease Later in Life: Women with untreated preeclampsia are at a high risk of having heart-related problems in the future. The risk is high if you had preeclampsia during pregnancy or give premature birth.