Hypertension Screening in Pregnancy: Remembering the Basics, Charting the Future

Denoble and Pettker discuss hypertension screening in pregnancy. Successful screening is only as good as the response to the results. Clinicians must continue efforts to improve recognition and urgent management of abnormal screening results, in particular blood pressures considered in the "severe" range. Clinicians must listen to their patients and respond to early warning signs. Clinicians risk normalizing blood pressure elevations through faulty explanations, such as the physiology of labor or white-coat hypertension. Normalization of the abnormal can be deadly, while timely treatment of severe hypertension can significantly reduce the risk of complications. For now, while the tools for screening for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy remain limited, they can still be applied with skill and might.