What is Gestational Hypertension

Interesting things you should know about gestational hypertension

During the life of any woman, the moment of pregnancy is a very important one. 
It comes with several changes that may be harmful to the body sometimes. 

In this process, many women pass by it without having any real difficulties while others suffer from a wide array of conditions that threaten their lives. Among the many conditions that can arise during this time one of them is gestational hypertension.

It is essential that before trying to understand a concept like gestational hypertension you must learn the basics of high blood pressure or hypertension. Is very likely you have this condition when your reading is 140/90 (systolic/ diastolic) or higher. The reading for normal blood pressure would be about 120/80.

This health condition is divided into three different categories. If the high blood pressure is present after you passed the firsts twenty weeks of gestation and there is no remaining protein in your urine, it will be very likely you will suffer from gestational or pregnancy hypertension. 

In the event you have protein present in your urine you are experiencing pre-eclampsia. Finally, if you were afflicted with high blood pressure before pregnancy or you acquire it before you finish twenty weeks; you are suffering from the condition known as chronic hypertension.

There would not be any serious complications unless you have acquired this condition before you completed 30 weeks of pregnancy. In this case, the blood pressure would be moderate and controllable. In any case your physician will have to be careful and keep you under watch if necessity of requiring a C section arises: overall however, both you and your baby would be safe.

When this health condition appears before you reach the 30th week of your pregnancy, you would be more vulnerable to series of complications such as pre-eclampsia during labor or immediately after it, intra-uterine growth restriction, premature labor and in rare cases still birth.

The gestational hypertension normally influences the blood flow to the placenta and therefore threatens the normal development of the baby. That is the reason why it would be necessary to have an ultrasound check up at specific times which would confirm that the baby was okay as well as keep a close watch on the amount of amniotic fluid. 

If the physician feels it necessary you might have a Doppler ultrasound which would verify whether the baby received enough blood flow.

A very easy way to keep track on the progress of the baby is to count the fetal kicks every day. This would help you know whether the baby was in any kind of problem in between the pre-natal appointments. If you find that the baby seems to be less active than normal, you should immediately tell your physician.

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