Dear Esther,

I am writing about your question of malnourishment in a preemie with a mom with severe hypertension. In this case, your ped is right. Severe hypertension is very hard on the placenta and can cause the flow of blood through the umbilical cord to be very impaired- to the point of losing the infant. (Basically there is so much pressure on the maternal side of the placenta that the infant's blood vessels get sort of "squeezed out".)  Since this blood flow is this child's "nutrition", babies born to mom's with severe preeclampsia or hypertension can be small for gestational age and "malnourished" if you want to phrase it that way. 

I hope that they can get her BP down.

Take care,
Kate McIntosh MD FAAP
Benzonia, MI
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