A study has revealed that babies with premature births expose their mothers to high blood pressure.
According to a report obtained from Daily Mail, preterm babies’ mothers are twice likely to have a high blood pressure than other mothers.
High blood pressure occurs within a year of giving birth.
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Doctor Csaey Crump of Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York City led this study.
Experts revealed that. 2.2 million Swedish women were tracked for almost 45 years.
This enabled the researchers the opportunity to explore all the possibilities of developing postpartum hypertension.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that this data was tracked from 1970 and 2015. The study was published in JAMA Cardiology, a monthly medical journal covering cardiology.
The result of the study revealed that women who gave birth prematurely were 67 per cent more likely to have high blood pressure after a decade.
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The report says that women who gave birth as early as 22 weeks are more vulnerable.
Also, women who gave birth after just over 37 or 38 weeks are 26 per cent at risk.
Meanwhile, women who carried their pregnancies full-term, between 39 and 41 weeks had lower chances.
But women who gave birth late, after 42 weeks, had a 14 per cent more lesser risk of developing hypertension.
The study also revealed that high blood pressure continued for more than 40 years.
Researchers also revealed that pregnancies after the 22nd week expose the mothers to 3 per cent of hypertension.
This study is unable to reveal the reason mothers of premature babies are more exposed to hypertension.
However, recent studies have shown that a thin membrane that links the heart and blood vessels called the endothelium is responsible.
The researchers suspect the endothelium is a factor that leads to hypertension. It could also lead to cardiovascular diseases.
Experts suggest that medics should consider pre-term delivery as a factor for hypertension. Also, a life-long risk factor for subsequent cardiovascular diseases.
Dr Crump said this research should change the way medics assess the risk of heart diseases in women.
“Cardiovascular risk assessment in women should routinely include reproductive history that covers preterm delivery and other adverse pregnancy outcomes,” he said.
“A history of preterm delivery may help identify women at high risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease potentially long before the onset of these conditions,” he added.
