High blood pressure in pregnancy can harm child's mental health
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 0:01
By SARAH OOKO
A pregnant woman.
Indeed, a new study published in the Hypertension Journal has found that high blood pressure disorders during pregnancy (especially pre-eclampsia) may lead to adverse mental health conditions in children.
The researchers also noted that the combination of maternal high blood pressure disorders, having diabetes problems and being overweight or obese in pregnancy increases the cumulative incidence of childhood mental disorders from 6.6 percent among offspring of mothers with none of those conditions to 22.2 percent in children exposed to all of the three adverse conditions.
Sometimes, doctors may recommend low-dose aspirin to reduce pre-eclampsia risk among women with a history of chronic high blood pressure, multiple pregnancy (carrying more than one child), kidney disease, autoimmune disease or diabetes.
Other risk factors of the disease include: being a pregnant teenager or woman over 40, getting pregnant for the first time, having babies less than two years or more than 10 years apart, pregnancy with a new partner instead of the father of your previous children, high blood pressure before getting pregnant, having a mother or sister who had preeclampsia and having a history of obesity.
