High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy
New research is suggesting that high blood pressure during pregnancy can raise the risk of major birth defects, more so than medicines used to control the condition, as previously thought.
For years, pregnant women have been warned to avoid certain drugs, such as ACE inhibitors, during the later stages of their pregnancy, to avoid the possibility of causing birth defects. Doctors have been unclear as to whether or not taking the drug would be harmful in the first trimester of pregnancy.
A 2006 study had concluded that they were safe in the first trimester, and two later studies done found a slightly increased risk when combined with other blood pressure medications.
Researchers are now saying that the drugs aren’t to blame – it’s the high blood pressure itself that is the cause for increased risk of birth defects. Compared to women who did not have high blood pressure, those with the condition were more likely to have babies born with congenital heart, brain or spinal cord defects, no matter whether they were taking ACE inhibitors or other medications or not.
Dr. De-Kun Li and other team members from the Kaiser Permanente Institute in California examined data covering over 460,000 pregnant women and their infants from the years 1995 to 2008. The study was funded by several groups including the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. James Walker, a spokesman for Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, was not linked to the study, but said, “What this study does is reassure us women can stay on the drug until they are pregnant and then stop. You never know how long someone is going to take to get pregnant and if they come off a blood pressure drug for too long, it could be bad for them.”
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