Arterial blood pressure standards during normal pregnancy and their relation with mother-fetus variables.

The purpose of our work was to study blood pressure variations during pregnancy in a normal Latin American population from Argentina and Uruguay; to investigate blood pressure variations according to maternal age, parity, or pregnancy weight gain; and to correlate diastolic blood pressure levels in the last trimester of pregnancy with newborn birth weight. This prospective study included follow-up throughout gestation of 249 normal pregnant women (129 nulliparous and 120 multiparous) with a weekly blood pressure control under the same experimental conditions. Our results demonstrate that there is only a low correlation between maternal age and diastolic blood pressure, but no correlation was found with systolic blood pressure; maternal weight gain correlates with blood pressure changes; no correlation was found between gestational age and blood pressure, although an increasing tendency in systolic and diastolic blood pressure was found toward the end of gestation; and a significant correlation was observed between birth weight and average diastolic blood pressure during the third trimester. These findings demonstrate the potential significance of the use of standard blood pressure data from normal pregnant women for the future clinical evaluation of our population.