Preventing eclampsia : an interview with Tom Brewer, MD

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

Q: How does your Pregnancy Hotline work?

Dr. Brewer: I enjoy hearing from pregnant women and the people who support them, and my hotline at 802-388-0276 is reserved for that purpose. Most of the women who call learn about me from the Blue Ribbon Baby Pages at www.blueribbonbaby.org.

I like to hear their stories, and I enjoy offering a second opinion. Everyone who is in the business of helping women and babies, including midwives, obstetricians, pediatricians, lactation consultants, childbirth educators, and doulas, should know the truth about nutrition.

My dream is that one day every woman will know how easy it is to have a strong and healthy baby.

References (annotated by the author)

1. Acosta-Sison, Honora. "Relation between state of nutrition of the mother and the birth weight of the fetus: A preliminary study." Philippine Islands Med. Assn. 9:174, 1929. The incidence of low birth weight was found to be nearly 10 times higher among poorly nourished women than in those determined to have good nutritional status.

2. Mellanby, Edward. "Nutrition and child-bearing." Lancet 2:1131, 1933. Discussed the need for protective nutrients in human pregnancy and that eclampsia is a metabolic common nutrition-deficiency disease. He noted: "nutrition is the most important of all environmental factors in childbearing whether the problem be considered from the point of view of the mother or that of the offspring."

3. Theobald, G.W. "Discussion on diet in pregnancy." Proc. R. Soc. Med. 28:1388, 1935. Refuting various speculations about the causes of toxemia, the author concluded that its etiology is malnutrition.

4. Ross, Robert A. "Relation of vitamin deficiency to the toxemia of pregnancy." So. Med. J. 28:120, 1935. In North Carolina, he identified role of malnutrition and poverty in eclampsia and other human reproductive casualties.

5. Strauss, M.B. "Observations on the etiology of the toxemias of pregnancy." Am. J. Med. Sci. 190:811, 1935. Internist at Harvard recognized the role of proteins and related deficiencies in the etiology of eclampsia. Toxemia subsided in women placed on a 260-gram protein, well-balanced diet, with injections of vitamin B.

6. Dodge, E., and Frost, T. "Relation between blood plasma proteins and toxemias of pregnancy." JAMA 111:1398, 1938. The authors observed that low-protein diets, often prescribed by physicians for the treatment of toxemia of pregnancy, increased the severity of the disease. They successfully improved the condition with diets consisting of six or more eggs daily, one to two quarts of milk, lean meat, legumes and other nutritious foods; and they directly linked toxemia with low serum albumin and inadequate protein intake.

7. Ebbs, John, et al. "The influence of prenatal diet on the mother and child." J. Nutr. 22:515, 1941. The low-birth-weight incidence was 2.2 percent in the best nourished group.

8. Tompkins, Winslow T. "The significance of nutritional deficiency in pregnancy: A preliminary report." J. Intl. Col. Surg. 4:147, 1941. Eradicated pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, low birth weight, and stillbirth at Philadelphia Lying-in Hospital. Infant mortality was reduced to 4 per 1000 births.