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How does chronic hypertension affect pregnancy? Investigators addressed this question — which is particularly relevant because of the trend toward delayed childbearing — in a cohort analysis; 81,000 Danish women with singleton pregnancies that were not complicated by preeclampsia were followed to determine whether chronic hypertension raised risk for preterm and term small-for-gestational-age (SGA) births.
In all, 2.2% (1752) of births were SGA, and 13% of these were preterm. After adjustment for potentially confounding variables, risk for preterm SGA birth was 5.5 times greater, and risk for term SGA birth was 1.5 times greater, in women with chronic hypertension than in those without. Maternal smoking, low body-mass index (<18.5 kg/m2), ma…