Neonatal outcome of pregnancies complicated by hypertensive disorders

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the neonatal morbidity in late preterm infants born from mothers with a hypertensive disorder. STUDY DESIGN: Data were obtained from the national Perinatal Registry in The Netherlands on women who delivered between 34(+0) and 36(+6) weeks with gestational hypertension (n = 4316), preeclampsia (n = 1864), and normotensive controls (n = 20,749). RESULTS: Children from mothers with preeclampsia had an increased risk for admission to the neonatal intensive care unit compared with children from normotensive mothers (odds ratio [OR], 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-2.2). A cesarean delivery and decreasing gestational age were independent risk factors for neonatal respiratory morbidity. Gestational hypertension or preeclampsia reduced the risk of respiratory distress syndrome compared with the control group (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.64-1.0 and OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.49-0.96, respectively). CONCLUSION: Neonatal morbidity in the late preterm period is considerable. Hypertensive disorders appear to protect for neonatal respiratory morbidity, but higher rates of cesarean section diminish this protective effect.