Clinical Significance of Home Blood Pressure Monitoring During Pregnancy

Blood pressure monitoring by the pregnant woman with chronic hypertension has recently been shown to be reliable. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether additional information from these recordings is truly helpful in improving antepartum care. During a recent two year study, 33 consecutively chosen women with chronic hypertension were instructed on monitoring their blood pressure twice daily. Drug therapy recommendations and antepartum hospitalization for hypertension related concerns were undertaken only if elevated blood pressures in the clinic were also elevated at home. Compared with our prior experience without home blood pressure monitoring, knowledge of daily blood pressure changes outside the clinic led to fewer antepartum hospitalizations and more precise prescribing of fewer antihypertensive medications. These trends were seen without compromising maternal and fetal well-being and offer the advantage of reducing the expense of antepartum care. A controlled clinical trial with a larger number of patients at several institutions is now necessary