Association between Elevated Postnatal Blood Pressure and Postpartum Acute Care Utilization in a Southeastern U.S. Health Care System, 2021 to 2023.

Abstract

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States and approximately 70% occur after birth. We estimated the crude and adjusted association between elevated postnatal blood pressure (BP) and acute care utilization (visits to the Emergency Department, obstetric triage, urgent care facility, or hospital readmission) in the first 12 weeks after discharge from the birth hospitalization.We constructed a retrospective cohort of birthing people aged ≥18 years who gave birth to ≥1 liveborn infant at >20 weeks of gestation from July 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022, at a quaternary maternity hospital in the Southeastern United States using electronic health records. Elevated BP was defined as ≥3 values of systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg between birth and discharge from the birth hospitalization. Crude and adjusted multivariable binomial regression models estimated risk differences comparing the 12-week risk of the postpartum acute care utilization (PACU) outcomes among birthing people with elevated postnatal BP to those without.In this cohort of 6,041 birthing people, 13.3% (n = 804) had any PACU within 12 weeks of discharge from the birth hospitalization. The unadjusted 12-week risk of PACU was 6.5 percentage points higher among those with elevated postnatal BP compared to those without (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.7 and 8.4). After adjusting for potential confounders, the 12-week risk of PACU was 6.0 percentage points higher among those with elevated postnatal BP compared to those without (95% CI: 4.2 and 7.8).Postnatal BP is a simple indicator of postpartum health status that may be used to flag individuals in need of more intensive postpartum counseling and follow-up. · Elevated postnatal BP is associated with postpartum acute care use.. · People used acute care for BP-related reasons and reasons not related to BP.. · Tracking postnatal BPs may be a simple way to find people who need extra support..