Most women with hypertension in pregnancy have pre-existing primary hypertension, but high blood pressure in pregnancy may be the first sign of pre-eclampsia, a serious condition of the second half of pregnancy and puerperium.
V nasprotju s tem ni nobenih dokazov, da je v nujnih primerih hipertenzije treba krvni tlak hitro zmanjšati, če ni znakov za poškodbe ciljnih organov in če agresivno zniževanje krvnega tlaka ni brez tveganja.