Is High Blood Pressure Linked to Birth Defects? Pregnant Women
With High Blood Pressure May Be More Likely to Have Babies With
Birth Defects Oct. 18, 2011 -- A new study may put hypertension
during pregnancy under more scrutiny. Women who take blood
pressure drugs called ACE inhibitors during the first trimester
of their pregnancy may be no more likely to have babies with
birth defects than women with hypertension who take other types
of high blood pressure medication or no blood pressure drugs at
all, according to a new study. These findings run counter to a
2006 study that showed women who took ACE inhibitors -- but not
other blood-pressure-lowering drugs -- during the first
trimester were at greater risk for having babies with heart
malformations and other types of birth defects. The new study
suggests that it may be the underlying high blood pressure that
increases the risk of birth defects, regardless of treatment.
Women who had high blood pressure during pregnancy were at
greater risk for all types of b