Preventing eclampsia : an interview with Tom Brewer, MD

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

59. Lechtig, A., et al. "Effect of moderate maternal malnutrition on the placenta." Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 123:191, 1975. Placental weight, associated with birth weight, increased with caloric supplementation, providing more evidence of the protein-sparing effect of calories.

60. Higgings, Agnes C. "Nutritional status and the outcome of pregnancy." J. Can. Diet. Assn. 37:17, 1976. Documents the value of nutrition education and food supplementation in the increasing birth weight, lowering infant mortality, and eradicating eclampsia.

61. Brewer, T. H. "Etiology of eclampsia." Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 127:448, 1977. Refutes the age-old myth that eclampsia is a disease limited to the first pregnancy and another myth that it is caused by an occult "uteroplacental ischemia." The well nourished primigravida, protected from hypovolemia (the real cause of "uteroplacental ischemia") all through gestation, never develops eclampsia.

62. Brewer T. H., and Hodin, Jay. "Why Women Must Meet the Nutritional Stress of Pregnancy," in 21st Century Obstetrics Now! Stewart and Stewart, ed. Marble Hill, Mo.: NAPSAC Press, 1977. Cites 143 references linking maternal malnutrition to a continuum of perinatal complications.

63. Williams, Sue Rodwell. "Nutrition during Pregnancy and Lactation," in Nutrition and Diet Therapy, 3d ed. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Co., 1977. An excellent text book providing a wealth of information about basic nutrition science and its application on the clinical level. The first nutrition textbook to break with the traditional "nothing is known" position regarding the role of prenatal malnutrition in causing human reproductive metabolic toxemia of late pregnancy.

64. Matthews, D. D., et al. "Modern trends in the management of non-albuminuric hypertension in late pregnancy." Br. Med. J. 2:623, 1978. Challenges the traditional therapies of hypertension in pregnancy: bedrest, sedation, low-sodium diets and sodium diuretics and pre-term induction. These are shown to be of no value of harmful. The authors still exhibit no conception of the role of malnutrition in causing hypovolemia.

65. Brewer, T. H. "The 'No-Risk' Pregnancy Diet," in The Pregnancy after 30 Workbook. Gail Sforza Brewer, ed. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, 1978. Provides the expectant mother with the guidance she needs to maintain good health and give birth to a healthy, fully developed child. Valuable for women of any age.

66. Preventing Nutritional Complications of Pregnancy: A Manual for SPUN Counselors. Chicago: SPUN, 1978. A practical reference for those who wish to teach applied scientific nutrition and physiology to pregnant women. Concludes with a practical quiz of 25 questions.

67. Brewer, Gail Sforza. What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know: the Truth about Diets and Drugs in Pregnancy. New York: Penguin, 1979. Available from www.pregnancybooksonline.com. The physiological adjustment of pregnancy and how to meet its nutritional stresses to help the expectant mother maintain proper nutritional status and problems caused by conventional care. Spanish translation: Lo Que Toda Mujer Embarazada Debe Saber: La Verdad Acerca de las Dietas y las Medicinas Durante el Embarazo. Mexico, D. F.: Editorial Diana, S.A., 1980.