Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a high blood pressure problem that shows up in a pregnant woman, almost always once the pregnancy is past 20 weeks. It all starts in the placenta, the organ that carries blood and nourishment to the baby. When that placenta gets less blood than it needs, something called reduced perfusion, it does not stay quiet: it releases signals into the mother's blood that change how her blood vessels behave, the tubes that carry blood all through the body. It is as if a faucet left half open in one corner of the house forced the entire plumbing to run at higher pressure.

That is why preeclampsia does not end with a high number on the blood pressure machine. Those altered vessels explain the damage that can turn up in the kidneys, the liver, the brain and the placenta itself, and also the effects on how the baby is growing. That is the reason people talk about two patients at the same time, the mother and the pregnancy. And when seizures appear on top of preeclampsia, those involuntary movements that shake the body, the picture changes names and is called eclampsia.