Preventing eclampsia : an interview with Tom Brewer, MD

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2004 by CJ Puotinen

9. Balfour, M. I. "Nutrition of expectant and nursing mothers. Interim report of the People's League for Health." Lancet 2:10, 1942. Food supplementation and nutrition education contributed to significant reductions in toxemia, perinatal death and maternal mortality.

10. Burke, Bertha S., et al. "Nutrition studies during pregnancy." Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 46:83, 1943. Confirmed nutritional thesis of the etiology of eclampsia and demonstrated the protective effect of adequate nutrition on the mother, fetus/neonate and infant.

11. Cameron, C. S., and Graham, S. "Antenatal diet and its influence on stillbirths and prematurity." Glasgow Med. J. 24:1, 1944. In both prospective and retrospective studies, maternal malnutrition was found to cause low birth weights, stillbirth and infant mortality.

12. Antonov, A. N. "Children born during the siege of Leningrad in 1942." J. Pediatrics 30:250, 1947. Warcaused famine led to widespread incidence of infertility, amenorrhea, a low birth weight incidence of 49% and infant mortality of 500 per 1,000 live births.

13. Ross, Robert A., "Late toxemias of pregnancy: The number one obstetrical problem of the South." Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 54:723, 1947. This grim report showed that the toxemia incidence and infant mortality were high among the malnourished poor.

14. Mitchell, J., et al. "Dietary habits of a group of severe preeclamptics in Alabama." J. Natl. Med. Assn, 41:122, 1949. Toxemia was found to be closely associated with inadequate nutrition. When placed on a sound diet providing, on the average, 124 grams of protein per day, all of the toxemic women improved.

15. Toverud, Guttorm. "The influence of nutrition on the course of pregnancy." Milkbank Mem. Fund Qtr. 28:7, 1950. Proper nutrition reduced the incidence of low birth weight to 2.2% and halved that of stillbirths.

16. Ferguson, James H. "Maternal death in the rural South: A study of forty-seven consecutive cases." JAMA 146:1388, 1951. The author described the severe poverty and malnutrition of toxemic women in rural Mississippi.

17. Hamlin, Reginald. "The prevention of eclampsia and preeclampsia." Lancet 1:64, 1952. Eradicated eclampsia by an aggressive nutrition education program in a prenatal clinic, Women's Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

18. Tompkins, W. and Wiehl, D. "Nutrition and nutritional deficiencies as related to the premature." Pediatric Clin. No. Am. 1:687, 1954. Weight at birth was highly associated with prenatal nutrition, weight gain during pregnancy, and pre-pregnancy weight. The low-birth-weight incidence among women who received protein and vitamin supplementation, gained substantial weight during pregnancy, and were not underweight at conception was less than 2 percent. In contrast, 24% of the babies born to women most likely to be malnourished were underweight at birth.

19. Jeans, P. C., et al. "Incidence of prematurity in relation to maternal nutrition." J. Am. Diet. Assn. 31:576, 1955. Low birth weight was found to be highly correlated to prenatal nutrition.