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health advisory Hospital Doctor Yu 2007-11-8 19:08:14

it is called gestational hypertension.it appears at mid pregnancy and disappears after pregnancy why is that?

Answers:

Pregnancy-induced hypertension is a form of high blood pressure in pregnancy. It occurs in about 5 percent to 8 percent of all pregnancies. It occurs most often in young women with a first pregnancy. It is more common in twin pregnancies, in women with chronic hypertension, preexisting diabetes, and in women who had PIH in a previous pregnancy.

The cause is unknown. Some conditions may increase the risk of developing Pregnancy-induced hypertension, including the following:

* pre-existing hypertension (high blood pressure)

* kidney disease

* diabetes

* PIH with a previous pregnancy

* mother younger than 20 or older than 40

* multiple fetuses (twins, triplets)

This type of hypertension can lead to a more severe condition called pre-eclampsia, and then HELLP syndrome.

Although no one is sure why it happens, some reasonable suggestions are: it may be partly because of the increase in blood volume that pregnant women have (the more blood volume= the higher the pressure on the arterial walls= the higher the blood pressure basically), and it may also have to do with all of the hormonal changes that occur during pregnany.

Here is one website to check out (but there are many):

http://www.preeclampsia.org/about.asp.

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you would have blood pressure problems also if you had to carry a baby around inside you for 9 months

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That's exactly what I was thinking.

There's a lot of physical and mental stress on a woman when she's pregnant.

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There is a disease called eclampsia that occurs in pregnancy caused by high levels of hormones in pregnancy of a pressor nature.

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I think that it is just something that happens. I think that no one really knows why it happens but I know someone who does - God.

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