You probably know that pregnancy can be rough on the body. Most of us expect the strain to lift once the baby arrives. For some women, parts of that strain quietly stay behind.
A new study in BMJ Medicine, published October 6, 2026, tracked more than 1.4 million women in England.
Several pregnancy complications were linked to higher rates of heart, kidney, and metabolic disease in the years after birth.
Researchers at King's College London followed the women for an average of four years.
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They looked at four later health problems. These were cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease.
The study is observational, so it cannot prove that a pregnancy complication causes any later disease. But the pattern was consistent across several complications.
Which complications carried the biggest risk
Gestational diabetes, high blood sugar that first appears during pregnancy, stood out.
Women who had it faced roughly a sevenfold higher rate of type 2 diabetes in the years that followed. Rates of high blood pressure were also higher.
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Preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, both forms of pregnancy-related high blood pressure, more than tripled later rates of high blood pressure.
They also roughly doubled the rate of chronic kidney disease.
Postnatal depression was tied to a 35 to 56 percent higher rate across all four of those health problems.
Miscarriage, stillbirth, placental abruption, and preterm birth each showed smaller but still elevated risks for one or more conditions.
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Why doctors are now paying closer attention
The findings line up with earlier guidance from the American Heart Association.
Its scientific statement names adverse pregnancy outcomes as major risk markers for heart disease in women.
The group urges doctors to ask about pregnancy history, including events in earlier pregnancies, and to begin heart and metabolic prevention in the postpartum period and beyond.
The authors of the new study say the postpartum window is an opportune time for risk assessment and preventive heart-protective strategies in women with a history of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
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For many women that means more than a six-week postpartum visit.
A pregnancy that involved high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, or postnatal depression is worth raising at every annual physical.
That way blood pressure, blood sugar, and kidney function can be tracked over time.
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This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.