Your GP or midwife will carry out tests on your blood pressure and protein in your urine at every antenatal appointment.
You won’t be able to tell if you have high blood pressure or protein in your wee, but you can look out for other signs and symptoms of pre-eclampsia:

If you notice any of these symptoms, contact your GP, midwife or maternity unit straight away.

Pre-eclampsia can range from mild to severe. Mild pre-eclampsia I common, and affects up to one first-time mums-to-be in ten. If it is mild, you might not know that you have it until your midwife picks up the signs. Early monitoring and treatment will help to keep you and your baby healthy. Severe pre-eclampsia is much less common.

You’re much more likely to develop pre-eclampsia if you:

If any of these apply to you, your midwife will recommend that you take a low dose of aspirin every day from 12 weeks of pregnancy. You might also have extra antenatal appointments to check your baby’s growth.

You have a moderately increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia if:

If two or more of these apply to you, your GP will recommend that you take a low dose of aspirin every day from 12 weeks of pregnancy. If your midwife is worried about the well-being of your baby, you will be offered CTG monitoring after 26 weeks of pregnancy. If this is your first baby, you’ll have more antenatal appointments than if you were already a mum.
Research suggests that donor-egg pregnancies are also at high risk of developing pre-eclampsia. If this is the case with your pregnancy, speak with your GP or midwife about options for extra appointments.

There’s no way to prevent pre-eclampsia for certain. The best tactic is to attend all of your antenatal appointments and take any medication that has been prescribed for you, even if you feel well in yourself.

If you’re diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, you should be admitted to hospital so you can be monitored, depending on how severe your pre-eclampsia is.
Mild pre-eclampsia
You’ll have your blood pressure checked at least four times a day and blood tests to check for complications. Depending on the test results, you may be able to go home and rest and attend further check-ups as an outpatient or you may need to stay in hospital for longer to be monitored.
Moderate pre-eclampsia
You’ll have your blood pressure checked at least four times a day and have medication to lower your blood pressure. You’ll have ultrasound scans, which will probably include doppler scans, to measure the flow of blood from the placenta to your baby.
If your baby is well, and your condition improves over the following days, you might be able to go home before your baby is born. If you haven’t had your baby by the time you are between 39 and 40 weeks pregnant, you may be offered an induction.
Severe pre-eclampsia
You’ll most likely need to stay in hospital if you have severe pre-eclampsia. You can then be monitored even more closely, with frequent blood pressure, urine and blood tests, as well as medication to control your blood pressure. Your baby will also be checked carefully, with their growth and well-being being monitored by scans and their heartrate being measured.
Hospital staff will do all they can to prevent any complications developing. Your fluid levels will be controlled and you may be put on a drip that contains magnesium sulphate. Magnesium sulphate will lower your risk of developing eclampsia. Sometimes, severe pre-eclampsia can cause a fit and magnesium sulphate can prevent a fit from recurring.
If your blood pressure cannot be controlled and your doctor is concerned about your baby’s well-being, your baby may need to be born earlier than expected. Your doctor should look carefully at your circumstances and explain all your options. You may be advised to have an induction or have your baby by caesarean.
If your baby is born early, they’re likely to be fine. Every case of pre-eclampsia is different. So a lot will depend on how early they were born and their birth weight.

If pre-eclampsia goes from mild to severe, it starts to affect other systems of your body as it worsens. This means you may get more serious symptoms as the condition sets in, and you may need to go to intensive care or a maternity high dependency unit. If you have pre-eclampsia but remain undiagnosed, you won’t receive the right treatment which can result in serious complications:
Eclampsia
This is a rare but serious condition that happens when the membranes of your brain become irritated. It can lead to seizures or convulsions and can put you and your baby at huge risk.
Eclampsia can develop during pregnancy and birth. It can also happen in the weeks after your baby is born, especially in the first few days and if your pre-eclampsia was severe. Though eclampsia is a severe illness, complications caused by pre-eclampsia only very rarely become serious enough to be life threatening.
HELLP Syndrome
This is a rare liver and blood-clotting disorder that can develop before pre-eclampsia has been diagnosed. It stands for:
H: haemolysis, which is the breaking down of red blood cells
EL: elevated liver enzymes, which is a sign that your liver is not working properly.
LP: low platelet count, which means you may not have enough platelets to help your blood to clot.
HELLP is most likely to develop after birth but it can sometimes develop from mid-pregnancy onwards, or in rare cases, even earlier.
Other complications
These can include:
Liver and kidney failure
Stroke
Fluid in the lungs
Blind patches
Be reassured that because your midwife and GP are looking out so carefully for pre-eclampsia, it is very unlikely to cause you any problems.
Pre-eclampsia can be treated so it’s important that you attend all your antenatal appointments. This way it can be picked up and managed as early as possible.