A new study from Intermountain Health has revealed that women who experience high blood pressure during pregnancy face a much higher risk of serious heart problems—including heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, and even death—within just five years of giving birth.
The findings add to growing evidence showing that complications during pregnancy can have long-lasting effects on a woman’s heart health.
The study focused on a group of conditions known as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). These include gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia—conditions in which blood pressure rises dangerously high during pregnancy.
While doctors have long known that high blood pressure in pregnancy can threaten both the mother and baby, this new research shows that the risks do not end after delivery. Women who develop these conditions are more likely to experience heart disease and related …
“Any form of hypertension during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of heart disease and even death,” said Kismet Rasmusson, nurse practitioner and principal investigator of the study at Intermountain Health’s Advanced Heart Failure Program.
“This risk is present in women who already have chronic hypertension before pregnancy, but it becomes much worse in severe cases like eclampsia.”
The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025, held in New Orleans on November 9. To reach their conclusions, researchers reviewed medical records from 218,141 live births involving 157,606 women across 22 hospitals in the Intermountain Health system between 2017 and 2024.
They followed the patients for about five years after delivery to track the development of cardiovascular disease.
The results were striking. Nearly 20% of the women studied had been diagnosed with a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy. Most of these cases occurred during a woman’s first pregnancy.
Those with HDP also had higher rates of other health risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, and depression. Many were also from lower-income backgrounds, which can make it harder to access consistent medical care.
When researchers compared outcomes, they found that women who had HDP were three to thirteen times more likely to develop heart failure, two to seventeen times more likely to suffer a stroke, three to seven times more likely to have a heart attack, and up to four times more likely to die compared to those who did not experience HDP.
The more severe the pregnancy-related hypertension, the greater the risk. Women who had both chronic hypertension and eclampsia faced the highest chances of heart-related events in the years after giving birth.
Despite these alarming findings, many women remain unaware of the long-term heart risks tied to pregnancy complications.
“We need to do a better job identifying women who are at risk and making sure they receive proper care before, during, and after pregnancy,” said Rasmusson. “That’s especially important for those who experience severe forms of high blood pressure like eclampsia.”
Rasmusson also emphasized that better care requires teamwork among medical specialists. “Traditionally, OB-GYNs and midwives have managed pregnancy-related conditions, but our findings show this is an issue that affects multiple areas of medicine,” she said.
“At Intermountain, we’re now bringing together primary care doctors, cardiologists, and women’s health specialists to create a comprehensive care model for high-risk patients.”
The study highlights the urgent need for greater awareness, early intervention, and collaboration among healthcare professionals to reduce maternal deaths and heart complications linked to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
By identifying and supporting women with these risk factors early, doctors hope to prevent heart disease from taking root after childbirth and improve long-term health outcomes for mothers everywhere.
This research reinforces an important message: pregnancy is not just a short-term event—it can provide a window into a woman’s future health. Monitoring blood pressure and heart function after pregnancy could save lives by catching early signs of cardiovascular disease before it becomes severe.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
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