If you have both high blood pressure and protein in your urine, it can mean you are at risk of developing a condition called pre-eclampsia.
This can be a serious condition affecting your liver and kidneys, possibly leading to a seizure or stroke in severe cases.
Some pregnant women have a higher chance of developing pre-eclampsia.
It’s important for you and your baby’s health to monitor your blood pressure and urine in pregnancy.
It helps your maternity care team know if you need treatment and make sure you get it quickly.
Self-monitoring of blood pressure and urine at home is safe when it is part of continuous assessment with your maternity care team, even for women with a higher chance of developing pre-eclampsia.
Your maternity care team will help you decide whether monitoring at home feels right for you and your baby. They will:
Whether you choose to monitor at home or not, your maternity care team will be there to support you and answer any questions you may have.
Your maternity care team will discuss how often to monitor your blood pressure and urine with you.
In Scotland some NHS health boards use text messaging, such as the Florence service, to send you a reminder when it’s time to do your tests.
This will usually be just before your pregnancy care appointments, which may be:
If you have a higher chance of developing pre-eclampsia, you may be asked to monitor more often.
Your maternity care team will show you how to read and record results from your home monitors and give you an opportunity to practice doing this.
They will tell you which reporting systems are used in your area and help you get the equipment and information you need.
Find more about home blood pressure monitoring and using Florence
Find out more about BadgerNet Maternity
Record your blood pressure and urine test results in your self-monitoring paper diary or electronic system in the way you’ve agreed with your maternity care team.
Only report your results at the agreed times, as your maternity care team won’t know to check for them at other times.
If you ever feel worried about a result you’ve had at home, you can phone your maternity care team at any time.
At any time if you are feeling very unwell with severe headache, stomach pain and/or changes to vision including flashing light please contact the maternity care team immediately.
Your maternity care team will review the results you took at home and talk them over with you during your appointment.
They’ll advise if you need any medication or further tests to keep you and your baby safe.
If you already take medication, they’ll advise if changes are needed or if you should go to a clinic or hospital.
Your information, including your results from home monitoring, will be kept private in your own maternity records.
It will only be shared with the staff involved in your care.
Information is sometimes called ‘data’ and you may be asked to give permission for your data to be used for evaluation.
This means your data could be used to check how home monitoring is working for women and families.
Data which is identifiable to you will never be used without your consent.
You will be asked to provide a ‘midstream specimen’ of urine which should be passed straight into a clean container.
Follow these instructions to collect and test your urine sample:
It is important that you do not test your first urine of the day.
Your maternity care team will explain how to read the results. Usually, you will be asked to match colour squares on your testing strip with colour results squares on the side of the box.
To read the result:
You need one result for protein (PRO) and one result for glucose (GLU) in your urine.
Your maternity care team will also explain:
If you’re worried about your results, keep the testing strip and your sample so you can give them to your maternity care team if you are advised to go to a clinic or hospital.
If you need to go into hospital for maternity admissions or labour ward take your blood pressure monitor and the sample of urine with you with you.
Always measure your blood pressure using the same arm (normally the left arm).
You need to be able to fit the cuff onto your bare arm.
To make sure the cuff is on properly:
You’re now ready to take a reading:
British Heart Foundation has a useful video about how to take your blood pressure.
Each time you measure your blood pressure you need to record two readings:
Record both numbers in your blood pressure monitoring diary. Enter them, if you are using an electronic system.
Some monitors have a third number called ‘PUL’. This is for pulse. You don’t need to record the ‘PUL’ number.
Your maternity care team will help you understand the blood pressure levels which are ‘normal’ for you.
They will give you a note of the blood pressure ranges which are normal for you and the levels which would be high for you.
High results may mean you need to go to your clinic or hospital.
If you need to go into hospital for maternity admissions or labour ward take your blood pressure monitor and the sample of urine with you with you.
Last updated:
25 January 2023