Hypertension is referred to as a condition where blood pressure of pregnant women is 130/80 mm Hg or more. This can create serious complications in some pregnancies and needs medical intervention.
In some cases, hypertension issue gets resolved after the baby’s birth. It may not create adverse impact in some pregnant women and can be managed well with appropriate treatment.
Some women are more likely to be affected with high blood pressure than the others during pregnancy. Here are some of the risk factors that are responsible for hypertension.
Pregnancy Hypertension Causes
- If this is your first time being pregnant, then you are at risk.
- If you are overweight at the time of conception, you stand a chance of developing hypertension. The bigger your body is, the more oxygen is needed for the cells which the blood vessels need to supply. This increases the pressure in the arteries and causes hypertension.
- If either your mother or sister has had pregnancy hypertension, you may have it too. It is considered hereditary.
- Women aged above 35 years when pregnant are likely to have hypertension.
- Women who already have high blood pressure before pregnancy are more likely to be affected.
- If you are not physically active or your body is not getting enough exercise, your blood pressure may be high.
- Women who are carrying multiples, i.e twins, triplets or more babies are at risk.
- Women having pre-existing conditions such as an autoimmune disease or diabetes are more likely to have hypertension.
- If you opt for IVF treatment, you are prone to develop high BP.
- Lifestyle choices including smoking and alcohol consumption increases the chances of hypertension in pregnant women.
- Consumption of sodium in excessive quantities makes your body to retain more water and this leads to the occurrence of high blood pressure. You need to limit your salt intake and best to stay away from packaged foods as they tend to be high in sodium.
- Low potassium intake is another reason to cause high blood pressure.
Your health care providers check your blood pressure at every visit and monitor the changes. You should be on the lookout for some signs such as feeling of dizziness, nausea, severe headaches or swelling of hands and feet.
You should prioritise your health first, when you decide to have a baby. Good lifestyle choices right from the start not only help in avoiding conditions such as hypertension, but also help in correcting it.
