Pregnancy & Baby 

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Blood pressure

Blood pressure readings indicate the pressure at which the blood is pumped around the body by the heart. To measure this accurately, you need to have two readings, these are called systolic and diastolic.

Systolic refers to the pressure produced when the heart contracts to force the blood into the arteries. Diastolic refers to the pressure after the heart relaxes and allows the blood to flow back into it from the veins. Thus the systolic pressure is higher than the diastolic pressure. Blood pressure varies from person to person, but a reasonably average reading in a woman in her twenties would be between 110 - 130 systolic and 60 - 80 diastolic written as 120/80.

Interestingly enough, most pregnant women's blood pressure is slightly lower than usual during the first three months of pregnancy, (which may account for the tiredness they experience) but it then returns to normal. A pregnant woman will have her blood pressure taken at regular intervals to check that her blood pressure is not rising more than usual.

During pregnancy, a rising or high blood pressure is one of the signs of a condition called pre-eclampsia, which is dangerous to the mother and her baby. High blood pressure is known as hypertension, and a blood pressure above 140/90 would be regarded as high.

You are quite right - anxiety can indeed send your BP up, even anxiety at having your BP measured. This, however, is a well-known phenomenon known as 'white coat hypertension'. I think you can be confident that the staff checking your BP know all about this.

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