Preventing eclampsia : an interview with Tom Brewer, MD

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

20. Knobloch, H., et al. "Neuropsychiatric sequelae of prematurity: A longitudinal study." JAMA 161:581, 1956. A well-controlled and meticulously designed longitudinal scientific study linking low birth weight to neurological dysfunction and impaired cognitive potential.

21. Robinson, Margaret. "Salt in pregnancy." Lancet 1:178, 1958. Classic study at St. Thomas Hospital, London. Among 2000 pregnant women, those put on a "low-sodium diet" experimentally had over twice the incidence of toxemia and significantly higher perinatal mortality than those told to "eat more salt." This study should not have been done because it was unphysiological and needlessly harmed many mothers and babies.

22. Brewer, T. H. "Limitations of diuretics therapy in the management of severe toxemia: The significance of hypoalbuminemia." Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 83:1352, 1962. First published account of the threat diuretics pose to the health of mothers and their unborn by attacking maternal and fetal plasma volumes. This warning went unheeded, as the use of sodium diuretics became a routine practice in prenatal care among most obstetricians in the US.

23. Green, G. H. "Maternal mortality in the toxemias of pregnancy." Aus, N.Z.J. Obstet. Gynaecol. 2:145, 1962. Ten toxemic women died in hypovolemic shock, without excess blood loss or infection.

24. Brewer, T. H. "Administration of human serum albumin in severe acute toxemia of pregnancy." J. Obstet. Gynecol. Br. Cwlth. 70:1001, 1963. Rejected by editors of U.S. medical journals, this paper demonstrated the nutritional pathogenesis of metabolic toxemia of late pregnancy, stressing the problem of maternal hypovolemia.

25. Jarvinen, P.A. and Tarjonne, H. "Observations on the value of pregnancy care on maternal mortality and eclampsia of pregnancy." Ann. Chir. Gynaec. 53:91, 1964.

26. Knobloch, H., and Pasamanick, B. "Prospective studies on the epidemiology of reproductive casualty: Methods, findings, and some implications." Merrill-Palmer Qtr. Behav. Dev. 12:27, 1966. Maternal health is linked directly to child development.

27. Merrill-Palmer Qtr. Behav. Dev. 12:7, 1966. A continuum of neuropsychiatric disorders in this review of 49 scientific studies is associated with low birth weight and the presence of complications during pregnancy.

28. Brewer T. H. "Human pregnancy nutrition: A clinical view." Obstet. Gynecol. 30:605, 1967. Advocates application of scientific nutrition and physiology in human prenatal care.

29. Schenider, Jan. "Low birth weight infants." Obstet. Gynecol. 31:283, 1968. Documents the alarming rise in low birth weight in the US after 1950.

30. Iyengar, Leela. "Urinary estrogen excretion in undernourished pregnant Indian women: Effect of dietary supplements on urinary estrogen and birth weights of infants." Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 102:834, 1968. Demonstrated beneficial effects on fetal growth by improving maternal diets as late as the 36th week of gestation.

31. Singer, J. E., et al. "Relationship of weight gain during pregnancy to birth weight and infant growth and development in the first year of life." Obstet. Gynecol. 31:417, 1968. Weight gain during pregnancy is statistically related to birth weight and infant mental, neurological, and motor function. Unfortunately, the paper ignores the question of the quality of diet causing the weight gain.