Raised blood pressure is a common problem in pregnancy. Raised blood pressure and pre-eclampsia affect about one in ten women and are a major cause of death and premature birth in the United Kingdom and worldwide.
Many women have expressed an interest in monitoring their own blood pressure in between antenatal visits but there has been very little research to guide this. The investigators would like to know if the diagnosis and subsequent care of women with raised blood pressure can be improved if women were able to monitor their own blood pressure safely at home. This work will test whether optimising the diagnosis, monitoring and management of raised BP during pregnancy through self-monitoring of BP is effective, acceptable and cost-effective compared to usual care.
The research team have being working with pregnant women, doctors and midwives to develop a simple and accurate method of self-monitoring of blood pressure in pregnancy.
This randomised controlled trial will:
1. Compare self-monitoring with usual care in women at higher risk of hypertension in pregnancy and assess if self-monitoring can identify raised blood pressure earlier.
2. Compare self-monitoring with usual care for women with high blood pressure in pregnancy to see if it leads to lower blood pressure.
3. Assess if self-monitoring is cost-effective.
Pregnant women who chose to take part in these studies will be randomised to either usual care or asked to monitor their own blood pressure during their pregnancy in addition to their usual antenatal care.
