6 minutes | Friday, 31 August 2018
A leading doctor has claimed many women across the UK may be being needlessly induced because their blood pressure readings during pregnancy are artificially inflated due to the stress of being in a medical setting, otherwise known as 'white coat syndrome'.
Professor Asma Khalil, a consultant obstetrician and professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine at St George's Hospital, says at least 15,000 women are being needlessly induced each year.
She has developed a new smart phone app that allows pregnant women to safely monitor their blood pressure at home. The app — called Hampton, which stands for ‘home monitoring of hypertension in pregnancy’, allows patients to record their blood pressure and urine results themselves and enter them into the app.
The professor joined us on the line to tell us more.