Preeclampsia - Blood pressure during pregnancy

Preeclampsia

Blood pressure during pregnancy

Blood pressure is the pressure with which blood moves through your

arteries
Arteries are the blood vessels that take blood that is rich in oxygen and food away from your heart. The arteries carry this blood to all the tissues in your body.

arteries. These are the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to all parts of your body.

Source:
American Academy of Family Physicians.
High blood pressure during pregnancy.
September 2005. Available at http://familydoctor.org/695.xml (accessed on 7 October 2009).

Doctors and nurses measure your blood pressure by putting an inflatable cuff around your upper arm. The measurement is usually taken automatically by a machine.

The result is given as two numbers.

The first (top) number is your systolic blood pressure. That's the pressure when your heart squeezes blood out during beats.
The second (bottom) number is your diastolic blood pressure. That's the pressure when your heart relaxes between beats.

Blood pressure varies between people. But a typical normal reading for a young pregnant woman is a top number (systolic pressure) of 110 to 120 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg for short) and a bottom number (diastolic pressure) of 70 to 80 mm Hg.

This would be written down as, for example, 120/80 mm Hg. Your doctor or nurse will say your blood pressure is "120 over 80."

Source:
Williams B, Poulter NR, Brown MJ, et al.
The BHS guidelines working party guidelines for management of hypertension: report of the fourth working party of the British Hypertension Society.
Journal of Human Hypertension. 2004; 18: 139-185.

If your blood pressure is lower than normal, it's not usually a problem. But if it is higher than normal, it can damage your arteries. This puts you at risk for

heart disease
You get heart disease when your heart isn't able to pump blood as well as it should. This can happen for a variety of reasons.

heart disease,

stroke
You have a stroke when the blood supply to a part of your brain is cut off. This damages your brain and can cause symptoms like weakness or numbness on one side of your body. You may also find it hard to speak if you've had a stroke.

stroke and

kidney disease
Kidney disease refers to conditions in which the kidneys (the organs in the body that make urine) have been damaged. Kidney disease can result from a number of different causes, including hypertension, which puts too much pressure on the kidneys.

kidney disease.

Your blood pressure is high if the top reading (your systolic pressure) is higher than 140 and the bottom reading (diastolic pressure) is higher than 90.

Source:
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
High blood pressure in pregnancy.
Available at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/hbp_preg.htm (accessed on 7 October 2009).

³ In other words, your blood pressure is higher than 140 over 90.

During the first half of your pregnancy, your blood pressure will probably be lower than normal. This is because your

hormones
Hormones are chemicals that are made in certain parts of the body. They travel through the bloodstream and have an effect on other parts of the body. For example, the female sex hormone estrogen is made in a woman's ovaries. Estrogen has many different effects on a woman's body. It makes the breasts grow at puberty and helps control periods. It is also needed to get pregnant.

hormones make your arteries open wider. During the second half of your pregnancy, your blood pressure will slowly rise back to normal.

If your blood pressure is higher than normal in the first half of pregnancy, it probably means you have had a blood pressure problem since before you got pregnant. Maybe you just didn't know about it.

If you get high blood pressure in the second half of pregnancy, it means one of three things.

You had high blood pressure before you got pregnant (and maybe you didn't know it).
Your blood pressure became high for the very first time in pregnancy. This means you may get high blood pressure later in your life.
You have preeclampsia. In this case, you will also have

proteins
A lot of your body's tissues are made out of proteins. Proteins can be made in your cells. Proteins are also part of the food you eat, particularly meat and dairy products. Your body breaks down the protein you eat into amino acids. Your cells then use these amino acids to build new proteins, which make up muscles, joints, hair and other parts of your body.

protein in your urine. You may have other signs and symptoms, too.

If your doctor thinks you have just high blood pressure (but not preeclampsia), he or she will watch you carefully until after your baby is born. This is because you could still get preeclampsia at any time.

Sources for the information on this page:

American Academy of Family Physicians.High blood pressure during pregnancy.September 2005. Available at http://familydoctor.org/695.xml (accessed on 7 October 2009).

Williams B, Poulter NR, Brown MJ, et al.The BHS guidelines working party guidelines for management of hypertension: report of the fourth working party of the British Hypertension Society.Journal of Human Hypertension. 2004; 18: 139-185.

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.High blood pressure in pregnancy.Available at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/hbp_preg.htm (accessed on 7 October 2009).

This information was last updated on Nov 10, 2009

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