Control Blood Pressure during Pregnancy to Avoid Diabetes Risk in Future

Failure to keep blood pressure under control during pregnancy escalates the risk of diabetes later in life, according to a new study.

Denice Feig and colleagues from Canada reached the conclusion after analyzing cases of over one million (1,010,068) pregnant women.

The study, published April 16 in PLOS Medicine, found that two common and temporary conditions during pregnancy - gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia - leave long-lasting effects on women's health.

The sudden onset of high blood pressure - above 140/90 - at 20 weeks of pregnancy is termed as gestational hypertension. According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, high blood pressure affects between 6 and 8 percent of pregnant women in the U.S. In some cases, gestational hypertension develops into pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia is a condition that triggers hypertension and will have a negative impact on both the pregnant woman and her baby. Women suffering from pre-eclampsia will have high blood pressure, fluid retention and protein in the urine, leading to an adverse impact on the growth of the unborn baby in the uterus. The exact cause of this condition is not yet fully known.

All participants included in the study had given birth at a hospital in Ontario over a period of 14 years (1994-2008). Researchers collected information about the health status of the participants during pregnancy, including gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes.

They divided the women into different groups, according to their history of these medical conditions. Some women had only one of these conditions -gestational hypertension (27,605), or pre-eclampsia (22,933) or gestational diabetes (30,852); or a combination of gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension (2100), or gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia (1,476).

Of the total participants, about 35,077 women were reported to have developed diabetes later.

"In this large, population-based study, we found that the presence of either preeclampsia or gestational hypertension during pregnancy were strong predictors for the development of diabetes years following the pregnancy, and the presence of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension in a woman with a history of gestational diabetes, increased the risk of diabetes over and above that observed with gestational diabetes alone," the authors stated in a news release.

Concerned with the findings, the authors urge health practitioners to spread more awareness about the hidden risks of these temporary conditions during pregnancy.

"A history of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension during pregnancy should alert clinicians to the need for preventative counseling and more vigilant screening for diabetes," they said.