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Preeclampsia Causes

• No one knows exactly what causes preeclampsia.

• Since what causes preeclampsia is not known, no effective tests predict when preeclampsia will occur, and no treatments prevent preeclampsia from occurring (or re-occurring).

• As mentioned above, preeclampsia usually occurs with first pregnancies. However, preeclampsia may be seen in women:
  
   
  • with twins (or multiple pregnancies),
    
     
  • older than 35 years of age,
    
    
  • with high blood pressure before pregnancy,
    
    
  • with diabetes, and
  
  
  
  • women with other medical problems (such as connective tissue disease and kidney disease).
  
  
  
• For unknown reasons, African American women are more likely to develop preeclampsia than white women.

• Preeclampsia may run in families, although the reason for this is unknown.

• Preeclampsia is also associated with problems with the placenta, such as too much placenta, too little placenta, or how the placenta attaches to the wall of the uterus. It also may be associated with a hydatidiform mole, in which there is no normal placenta and no normal baby.

• There is nothing that any woman can do to prevent preeclampsia from occurring. Therefore, it is both unhealthy and not helpful to assign blame and to review and rehash events that occurred either just prior to pregnancy, or during early pregnancy that may have contributed to the development of preeclampsia.