During pregnancy, hypertension is a serious issue. Even women who don't normally have high blood pressure can develop pregnancy-related hypertension, known as preeclampsia or toxemia. This presents a danger to both mother and baby. Prenatal vitamins neither cause nor prevent pregnancy-related hypertension, and are therefore safe to take regardless of your blood pressure.
Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins have many common misconceptions surrounding them; you may have heard, for instance, that they improve your skin and hair quality, change your hormone levels and affect your appetite. None of these claims are true; rather, they're all effects of pregnancy itself. Similarly, prenatal vitamins have no ability to affect your blood pressure. They're merely multivitamin and mineral supplements that help to provide for your cellular needs--and those of your developing baby--during pregnancy.
Prenatal Vitamin Components
Prenatal vitamins contain the same ingredients you'd find in a regular multivitamin and mineral supplement, including the common vitamins A, C, D, E and the Bs. You'll also find the minerals iron and calcium, as well as a variety of other minerals required in very small quantities. The only real difference between prenatals and regular supplements, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby," is that they're higher in iron and folic acid, which you need more of when you're pregnant.
Preeclampsia
If you had high blood pressure--due to genetic factors or lifestyle--prior to pregnancy, your pregnancy may make the condition either better or worse. Prenatal vitamins won't have anything to do with it, however. More commonly, though, if you have high blood pressure during pregnancy, it's due to a condition called preeclampsia. Obstetricians don't know exactly why some women get preeclampsia, and it was actually once thought that prenatals helped prevent it, though there's no evidence for this. Certainly, however, there's no evidence that prenatal vitamins increase your risk.
If You Have Hypertension
At each of your prenatal checkups, your obstetrician will check your blood pressure for signs that you're developing preeclampsia. If your blood pressure seems high, you may be given medication to lower it or be put on bed rest in the hopes that your blood pressure will stabilize, explains MayoClinic.com. If your blood pressure gets very high and there's any chance your baby will survive an early delivery, you'll be induced to deliver. Even if you have high blood pressure, however, you shouldn't stop taking your prenatals without talking to your doctor--it won't help matters, and can put your developing fetus at additional risk.
References
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
- MayoClinic.com; Preeclampsia; April 2011
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