Worldwide, around 10 per cent of pregnancies are hypertensive, where the mother is affected by a dangerous increase in blood pressure. While further research is needed to see if these changes are maintained long term, the researchers hope that self-monitoring blood pressure will reduce future risk of strokes and heart attacks for women who develop high blood pressure during pregnancy. Those in the self-monitoring group took their blood pressure every day and entered their readings into a smartphone app. Most of the self-monitoring group had stopped taking their blood pressure lowering medication by this stage. The researchers say that reducing blood pressure by as little as 5mmHg, as seen in this study, can delay the development of high blood pressure by many years.
