Elevated Blood Pressure in Women of Childbearing Age in the United States

Abstract

Approximately 700 women in the United States die from pregnancy-related complications each year (Hoyert, 2021;Hoyert & Minino, 2020). A signifi cant number of maternal deaths occur after hospital discharge (Petersen et al., 2019) with the most common causes of deaths being hypertensive disorders (0-6 days postpartum), cerebrovascular accidents (1-42 days postpartum), and cardiomyopathy (43-365 days postpartum; Petersen et al.), leading to the need to carefully monitor hypertension and other signs of these disorders in women during postpartum. In addition to contributing to maternal mortality, hypertension is frequently the cause of severe postpartum complications. Women living in poverty and women of African American race are disproportionately affected by hypertension and other severe postpartum complications (infection, hemorrhage, and depression) resulting in signifi cant health disparities (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2020;Wang et al., 2020). Women with severe postpartum disorders are at an increased risk of rehospitalization at 6 weeks and 1 year postpartum (Harvey et al., 2018).In all populations, hypertension (≥140 mm Hg systolic and/or ≥90 mm Hg diastolic) increases risk for heart disease and stroke, two leading causes of death for Americans (Virani et al., 2021). Hypertension is a potential precursor of several Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) diagnoses of severe pregnancy and postpartum complications such as eclampsia, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, thromboembolism, stroke, aneurysm, disseminated intravascular coagulation, pulmonary edema, and other lung diagnoses (Chen et al., 2021). Hypertension affecting new mothers includes preexisting hypertension, hypertension that develops during pregnancy, and hypertension that develops during postpartum (Bigelow