Pregnant mothers can transfer hypertension, diabetes to babies - report

Health experts have warned that mothers who develop hypertension or diabetes in the course of pregnancy have a higher chance of producing children with similar conditions.

Dr Ivan Kisuule, a physician at Mulago National Referral Hospital, told the Monitor that if the mother has any of these complications, the risk of transferring them to the child is higher.

“A mother with diabetes and hypertension, that risk can be carried to the child but the effect also comes older because diabetes and hypertension have a familial tendency or genetic risk factors,” he said in an interview.

He was commenting on a new report of a study conducted by an American health expert, Dr Kartik Venkatesh, an obstetrician and perinatal epidemiologist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Centre in Columbus. An abstract of the report was published in January in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The report is titled ‘Association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and gestational diabetes (GDM) and child cardiovascular health (CVH) in early adolescence.’

“Pregnant individuals in the hyperglycemia (raised glucose level) and adverse pregnancy outcome follow-up study cohort with HDP, GDM, or both were more likely to have children with worse CVH 10 to 14 years after their delivery,” the report reads.

It shows that between the ages of 10 and 14, the children are more likely to be overweight or to be diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high blood sugar, compared with children whose mothers had complication-free pregnancies.

However, there are also treatments for mothers who develop complications such as high blood pressure during pregnancy, according to information from health experts in Uganda.

The Health Ministry advises all pregnant women to go for antenatal care when they experience abnormalities so these complications can be detected and managed.

Dr Kisuule also explained that a pregnant mother who has diabetes is more likely to produce a big baby that may have other abnormalities that can affect the heart or other body organs.

He advised that mothers should first have their diabetes or hypertension treated/controlled if they must get pregnant again.

“Organs develop in the first three months, so during the organ development, anything can go wrong,” he said, adding that this may happen “irrespective of whether a mother has diabetes or not.”

“That is how we get babies with congenital abnormalities –babies born with abnormalities in some of their organs. Still, diabetes can be a risk factor,” Dr Kisuule explained.

He said the congenital abnormalities may include heart defects, brain defects, and spine defects, among others.

Dr Sam Ononge, another gynaecologist at Kawempe National Referral Hospital, said hypertensive mothers are likely to deliver small babies yet the latter tend to develop high blood pressure and get heart problems at a later age in life.

Dr Ononge also noted that pregnancy is a risk factor for one to develop hypertension and that pregnant mothers need to go for antenatal care so that if detected early they are given medication.

He also explained that in case one had high blood pressure during their previous pregnancy, they are more likely to have it during the next pregnancy towards delivery.

“These, we usually give them some medication to try to prevent them from getting high blood pressure early to allow the baby to grow,” Dr Ononge said.

He said if a mother develops hypertension during pregnancy, the baby is removed to save the life of a mother and reduce the pressure.

“The ultimate aim of treating that high blood pressure is the baby has to get out plus the placenta because it is known that when the placenta is still inside, it is the one responsible for all the damage contributing to the high blood pressure,” he said.

Background
Ms Lilian Kyohairwe, a mother of one from Ntungamo District, said at 36 weeks of her pregnancy, she experienced body swelling and the doctors at Itojo Hospital discovered she had developed hypertension.

“My pressure was so high,  I was told the baby was to be removed before I could get treatment. The doctors told me the medicine would affect my baby if he was not removed first,” Ms Kyohairwe said.

She added: “I then had my baby removed and kept under close monitoring of doctors for about two weeks as I was on treatment.”