I had my son at 36.5 weeks due to PE. My BP had been riding 130/80-85 throughout the whole twenty week period and started to creep up at 32 weeks. At 35 weeks it hit 160/110 when I was admitted to hospital and spent 5 days there before my DS was born. The day before I had him, my BP dropped to 70/50 and then back up again that night. He was born by elective (semi-emergency) CS the next day (went in with normal BP, came out with high BP).

My BP came back to normal about 6 weeks later, but has risen mildly since (had DS 4 years ago). My GP placed me on Labetalol knowing I wanted to get pregnant. I developed depression after I had my son from the Aldomet (as soon as I came off the meds it was like the clouds had been lifted).

I'm now 25 weeks pregnant and came in with slightly elevated BP - had a dip which continues for the most part even now (actually came off meds for about 3 weeks), but due to anxiety, nearly everytime I go in to see my ob it's a little elevated 130-140/80. I chose to go to a high risk ob and he is confident that it's still only chronic hypertension and not the pregnancy.

He also let me know that the reason my blood pressure began to drop towards the end of the pregnancy with DS was the my placenta was at that point "on its way out".

From my understanding, if you go into the pregnancy with controlled BP (even on meds) then you may get through with no problems as though you didn't have high BP. This of course doesn't allow for any predisposition you may have to PIH or preeclampsia. I'm still waiting to find out. Must admit I'm conscious of it every day, I expect the worst though I shouldn't as there is no reason.

Good-luck with everything.