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To study the relation between maternal body-mass index (BMI) and risk for developing a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, researchers conducted a case-control study of 1033 women with two consecutive deliveries at the same hospital and normal blood pressure in the first pregnancy. In the second pregnancy, 72% of participants remained normotensive and 18% developed hypertension. Of the women with hypertension in the second pregnancy, 12% received diagnoses of chronic hypertension before 20 weeks' gestation and 88% had diagnoses of a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy.
Changes in maternal BMI due to weight loss or gain between the first and second pregnancy were significantly associated with risk for any hypertensive disorder. Loss of mor…