Kymtte
The pregnancy webpage
High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy
Blood pressure in pregnant women, which often called gestational hypertension, may be very dangerous for both the mother and the fetus, even in some cases pregnant women with high blood pressure may have healthy babies that have normal vital organs.
Studies showed that women that have pre-existing, or chronic, high blood pressure are more vulnerable to problems during their pregnancy than women with normal blood pressure. However, high blood pressure may be developed during pregnancy; its effects may range from moderate to severe; these effects range from early delivery, low birth weight, and harming the mother's kidneys and other organs, to the development of preeclampsia (which known as "toxemia of pregnancy") in the most serious cases. Toxemia of pregnancy threatens the lives of both the mother and the fetus.
Preeclampsia
Preeclampsia typically starts after the 20th week of pregnancy; it is a condition where the blood pressure and protein in the mother's urine are increased because of problems in kidneys. Although preeclampsia affects the placenta, it can also affect the mother's liver, kidney, and brain. A condition called eclampsia also caused by preeclampsia. Although eclampsia was classified as the second leading cause of maternal death in the U.S, it is a leading cause of dangerous complications such as low birth weight, premature birth, and stillbirth. There is no proven way to completely cure preeclampsia other than delivering the baby, but, in most cases, women that have signs of preeclampsia are closely monitored to relieve or avoid related problems.
Although high blood pressure problems occur in 6-8% of all pregnancies in the U.S., there are women who are more likely to develop preeclampsia, those women are:
• Women who suffer from chronic hypertension (high blood pressure before becoming pregnant).
• Women who had problems with blood pressure or developed preeclampsia during a previous pregnancy, the probability increase if they occurred early in the pregnancy.
• Women who were fat before pregnancy.
• Women who became pregnant under the age of 20 or over the age of 40.
• Women who are pregnant with more than one baby.
• Women suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, lupus, kidney disease, or scleroderma.
Unfortunately, preeclampsia cannot be diagnosed or predicted with a single test, signs and symptoms are used to predict it. The key signs are:
• Increase in the blood pressure and protein in the urine.
• Persistent headaches.
• Blurred vision or sensitivity to light.
• Abdominal pain.
Note that there are some disorders that cause the same symptoms and sensitivities; also, it may be healthy pregnancy even with some of these sensitivities.
