Women who develop high blood pressure after birth at greater risk of chronic hypertension

Results found that at their first postpartum visit, nearly half of the women (49.5 percent or 182) had developed high blood pressure. These women had a slower decline in blood pressure in the first six weeks following delivery and higher blood pressure at their postpartum visit compared to the remaining women (50.5 percent or 186) who did not develop high blood pressure.

"By leveraging data from our widely scaled postpartum hypertension remote monitoring program, we were able to discover that a woman's blood pressure in the first six weeks after childbirth appears to be an important indicator of whether she is likely to develop chronic hypertension six to 18 months later," said one of the study's lead authors, Eesha Dave, MD, a resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh.

"This information helps us to better identify women who may be at risk of developing cardiovascular problems later in life and take preventative steps," said another one of the study's lead authors, Alisse Hauspurg, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist and assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh.