How can gestational hypertension affect your health and baby's?

It depends on how far along you are in pregnancy when you develop gestational hypertension and how high your blood pressure gets. The more severe your hypertension and the earlier in pregnancy it appears, the greater your risk for problems.

The good news is that most women who get gestational hypertension have only a mild form of the condition and don't develop it until near term (37 weeks or later). If you're in this category, you still have a somewhat higher risk of being induced or having a c-section, but other than that, you and your baby are likely to do as well as you would if you had normal blood pressure.

However, about 1 in 4 women with gestational hypertension go on to develop preeclampsia during pregnancy or labor, or soon after giving birth. And you have a 50 percent chance of getting preeclampsia if you develop gestational hypertension before 30 weeks.

Having gestational hypertension also puts you at increased risk for a number of other pregnancy complications, including intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth, placental abruption, and stillbirth. Because of these risks, your caregiver will monitor you and your baby carefully.