Maternal High Blood Pressure and Cerebral Palsy: What Research Shows
High blood pressure during pregnancy is a serious health concern that affects both mothers and their developing babies. Recent research has begun to reveal connections between maternal cardiovascular health and long-term outcomes in children, including the risk of cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Understanding the Connection
When a mother has high blood pressure before or during pregnancy, it can affect how the placenta works. The placenta is the organ that delivers oxygen and nutrients to the developing baby. High blood pressure may reduce blood flow through the placenta, a condition called placental insufficiency. This reduced blood flow can deprive the baby’s brain of oxygen, which is a known risk factor for cerebral palsy.
Research from a large Korean study examined data from over 2 million pregnancies between 2005 and 2019. The study found that mothers with pre-existing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease had babies with elevated risks of neurodevelopmental disorders. The risk of neurodevelopmental disorders was increased by about 8 percent in children born to these mothers. While this study focused on broader cardiovascular disease rather than high blood pressure alone, it demonstrates that maternal heart and blood vessel health significantly impacts child development.
How High Blood Pressure Affects the Baby’s Brain
High blood pressure during pregnancy can damage the blood vessels in multiple ways. When blood pressure becomes dangerously elevated, it can cause inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, which means the inner lining of blood vessels becomes damaged. This damage affects how the brain regulates its own blood flow. Normally, the brain has protective mechanisms that keep blood flow steady even when blood pressure changes. High blood pressure can overwhelm these protective systems, causing too much blood to rush into the brain. This can lead to brain swelling and fluid leakage into brain tissue.
The inflammatory response triggered by high blood pressure also plays a role. Inflammatory chemicals called cytokines are released into the bloodstream and can cross into the brain, potentially damaging developing brain cells. These inflammatory processes may contribute to both immediate complications and long-term developmental problems.
Severe Forms of Pregnancy High Blood Pressure
The most severe form of high blood pressure in pregnancy is called eclampsia, which involves seizures. Women with gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, or eclampsia have significantly higher risks of developing new neurologic disorders after childbirth. While the long-term risk of seizures in eclamptic patients is relatively low, preeclampsia and eclampsia are associated with increased risk of cognitive decline later in life. This suggests that the brain damage from severe high blood pressure can have lasting effects.
What We Know About Cerebral Palsy Risk
Cerebral palsy develops when the brain is damaged before, during, or shortly after birth. The condition affects movement and muscle control. Research has identified several perinatal factors that increase cerebral palsy risk, including lack of oxygen during birth, infections during pregnancy, and complications during delivery. While the search results do not show a direct statistical link between maternal high blood pressure and cerebral palsy specifically, they do show that maternal cardiovascular conditions increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders more broadly.
A Swedish nationwide cohort study found that offspring of mothers with cardiovascular disease had a 17 percent higher risk of ADHD. A similar study from British Columbia found a 14 percent increased risk of ADHD in children born to mothers with cardiovascular disease. These findings suggest that maternal heart and blood vessel health affects brain development in ways that persist into childhood and beyond.
The Role of Pregnancy Complications
High blood pressure during pregnancy often leads to other complications that can directly cause cerebral palsy. For example, severe high blood pressure can cause the placenta to separate from the uterus prematurely, cutting off oxygen to the baby. It can also lead to premature birth, and premature infants face higher risks of brain bleeding and other complications that cause cerebral palsy. Home delivery without medical monitoring, absence of crying at birth, and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, which is brain damage from lack of oxygen, are all strongly associated with cerebral palsy severity.
What This Means for Pregnant Women
The evidence suggests that controlling high blood pressure during pregnancy is important for protecting the baby’s brain development. Early treatment of elevated blood pressure with medication and magnesium sulfate is associated with reduced frequency of eclampsia and severe maternal complications. Managing maternal cardiovascular health before and during pregnancy may help prevent not only immediate pregnancy complications but also long-term neurodevelopmental problems in children.
While more research is needed to establish a direct causal link between maternal high blood pressure and cerebral palsy specifically, the evidence clearly shows that maternal cardiovascular health influences fetal brain development through multiple pathways involving blood flow, inflammation, and placental function. Pregnant women with high blood pressure should work closely with their healthcare providers to monitor and manage their condition throughout pregnancy.
Sources
https://academic.oup.com/hropen/article/2025/4/hoaf074/8342467
https://www.medlink.com/articles/seizures-associated-with-eclampsia
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12748543/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12729071/
https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcv2.70080
