blood pressure from the first trimester to the third trimester
[23], which supports the differences that we found in the
expected trajectories of blood pressure across pregnancy
by blood pressure levels at 12 weeks.
The diagnostic criteria for hypertensive disorders of
pregnancy (HDP) use the same blood pressure thresholds
of 140/90 mmHg across the whole gestational period
between 20 weeks and delivery and for all women,
although nulliparous women, obese women and those
with high prepregnancy blood pressure are considered
to be at a high risk for HDP [28]. Our findings suggest
that using different blood pressure thresholds for different
maternal subgroups to identify women whose blood