What is Gestational Hypertension
By Nurse Nancy

Pregnancy is one of the most beautiful and at the same time most complicated phases in a woman's life. Some lucky few breeze through it as of nothing happened while others would struggle through a load of complications. One such complication that develops during the pregnancy is gestational hypertension.

What is Hypertension?

Before you learn about gestational hypertension, let us first understand what is hypertension or high blood pressure. You are known to have high blood pressure when your reading is 140/90 (systolic/ diastolic) or higher. Normal blood pressure would be about 120/80.

There are possibilities that you would suffer from hypertension during your pregnancy. This health problem is classified into three categories. If the high blood pressure is observed after you completed twenty weeks of pregnancy and there is no trace of protein in your urine, you would be suffering from gestational hypertension or pregnancy hypertension.

In case you do have protein in your urine you are suffering from pre-eclampsia. Lastly, if you were suffering from high blood pressure before pregnancy

or you develop it before you complete twenty weeks, you are suffering from chronic hypertension.

Can Gestational Hypertension Be Dangerous?

You would not be considered in any serious danger unless you develop this problem before you completed 30 weeks of pregnancy. In this case the hypertension would be mild and manageable. Your doctor would still keep a close watch since there would be a tiny possibility that you might require a C-section; overall however, both you and your baby would be safe.

When you develop hypertension before you reach the 30th week of your pregnancy you would be open to series of complications such as pre-eclampsia during labor or immediately after delivery, intra-uterine growth restriction, premature labor and in rare cases still birth.

The gestational hypertension usually affects the blood flow to the placenta and therefore endangers the normal development of the baby. This is why you would be required to have an ultrasound check up at regular intervals which would confirm that the baby was okay as well as keep a close watch on the amount of amniotic fluid. If the doctor feels it necessary you might have a Doppler ultrasound which would check whether the baby received sufficient blood flow.

A simple way to keep track on the development of the baby is to count the fetal kicks every day. This would help you know whether the baby was in any kind of distress in between the pre-natal appointments. If you find that the baby is less active than normal, you should immediately notify your doctor.