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Preeclampsia

How common is preeclampsia?

We can't say exactly how many pregnant women get high blood pressure or get preeclampsia. That's because these conditions are defined differently from country to country, and even from doctor to doctor.

But here are some things we do know.

About 1 in 10 pregnant women get

high blood pressure
Your blood pressure is considered to be high when it is above the accepted normal range. The usual limit for normal blood pressure is 140/90. If either the first (systolic) number is above 140 or the lower (diastolic) number is above 90, a person is considered to have high blood pressure. Doctors sometimes call high blood pressure "hypertension."

high blood pressure.
Between 2 and 8 in 100 pregnant women get preeclampsia.

Source:
World Health Organization international collaborative study of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Geographic variation in the incidence of hypertension in pregnancy.
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1988; 158: 80-83.

¹
High blood pressure and preeclampsia are most common in women who are pregnant for the first time.
Black women are more likely to get high blood pressure and preeclampsia than white women.

Source:
Eskenazi B, Fenster L, Sidney S.
A multivariate analysis of risk factors for preeclampsia.
Journal of the American Medical Association. 1991; 266: 237-241.

²
Preeclampsia can put your life in danger, even if you live in a developed country like the United States. It is one of the main reasons why some pregnant women have to be treated in a part of the hospital called an intensive care unit (ICU for short).

Source:
Tang LC, Kwok AC, Wong AY, et al.
Critical care in obstetrical patients: an eight-year review.
Chinese Medicine Journal. 1997; 110: 936-941.

³
It is rare for pregnant women to die from preeclampsia in the United States. But it is one of the main reasons why they do. In the United States, 790 women died from preeclampsia or eclampsia between 1979 and 1992.

Source:
Mackay AP, Berg CJ, Atrash HK.
Pregnancy-related mortality from preeclampsia and eclampsia.
Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2001; 97: 533-538.

⁴ It was the third most common cause of death in pregnant women during that time.
In developing countries, where care during pregnancy may not be as good, deaths from preeclampsia are more common. In fact, high blood pressure and preeclampsia cause most of the 55,000 deaths among pregnant women that happen worldwide every year.

Source:
Duley L.
Maternal mortality associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1992; 99: 547-553.

⁵
Preeclampsia used to be the main cause of babies being born dead, when they didn't have anything else wrong with them.

Source:
Milne F, Redman C, Walker J, et al.
The pre-eclampsia community guideline (PRECOG): how to screen for and detect onset of pre-eclampsia in the community.
BMJ. 2005; 330: 576-580.

⁶ (If a baby is born dead, it is called a stillbirth.) But a recent study that looked at more than 800,000 births found that the risk of having a stillbirth is only slightly higher if you have preeclampsia than if you have a normal pregnancy.

Source:
Bass O, Rasmussen S, Weinurg CR, et al.
Trends in fetal and infant survival following preeclampsia.
Journal of the American Medical Association. 2006; 296: 1357-1362.

⁷ Doctors think this is because treatment for women with preeclampsia has improved.
But the chance of a baby dying in the first 28 days after it is born has not changed in the last 40 years. A baby born to a woman with preeclampsia is nearly twice as likely to die in the first month as a baby born to a mother who does not have preeclampsia.

Source:
Bass O, Rasmussen S, Weinurg CR, et al.
Trends in fetal and infant survival following preeclampsia.
Journal of the American Medical Association. 2006; 296: 1357-1362.

⁷ This is probably because women with preeclampsia are now more likely to have babies born early than they were in the past.
For every 100 babies who are delivered early, the cause is preeclampsia in 15 of them.

Source:
Roberts JM, Gammill HS.
Pre-eclampsia: recent insights.
Hypertension. 2005; 46: 1243-1249.

⁸

Sources for the information on this page:

World Health Organization international collaborative study of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.Geographic variation in the incidence of hypertension in pregnancy.American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1988; 158: 80-83.

Eskenazi B, Fenster L, Sidney S.A multivariate analysis of risk factors for preeclampsia.Journal of the American Medical Association. 1991; 266: 237-241.

Tang LC, Kwok AC, Wong AY, et al.Critical care in obstetrical patients: an eight-year review.Chinese Medicine Journal. 1997; 110: 936-941.

Mackay AP, Berg CJ, Atrash HK.Pregnancy-related mortality from preeclampsia and eclampsia.Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2001; 97: 533-538.

Duley L.Maternal mortality associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1992; 99: 547-553.

Milne F, Redman C, Walker J, et al.The pre-eclampsia community guideline (PRECOG): how to screen for and detect onset of pre-eclampsia in the community.BMJ. 2005; 330: 576-580.

Bass O, Rasmussen S, Weinurg CR, et al.Trends in fetal and infant survival following preeclampsia.Journal of the American Medical Association. 2006; 296: 1357-1362.

Roberts JM, Gammill HS.Pre-eclampsia: recent insights.Hypertension. 2005; 46: 1243-1249.

This information was last updated on Apr 14, 2009

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment.
© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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