From Metabolic Toxemia of Late Pregnancy: A Disease of Malnutrition
By Dr. Tom Brewer
In the last fifteen years obstetricians have narrowly focused on the blood
pressure of the pregnant woman as being of central concern regardless of
her nutritional metabolic status, liver function, blood volume and
placental function. If the diastolic blood pressure rises 15 or 20 mm Hg
or the systolic rises 20-30 mm Hg, a diagnosis of "pregnancy-induced
hypertension" (PIH) is made. All "PIH" is then "managed" the same as if
every hypertensive pregnant woman were in jeopardy of convulsions, brain
hemorrhage, abruption of the placenta, fetal death, etc. This is simply
not true; *most hypertension in human pregnancy is physiological or benign,
not related to MTLP at all.*
British investigators Mathews et al. have shown the benign nature of
hypertension in the well-fed pregnant woman. (British Medical Journal, vol.
2, p. 623, 1978) When these workers abandoned the traditional "therapies"
for hypertension in pregnancy, bed rest, low calorie, low salt diets,
sodium diuretics, sedatives, pre-term induction, for women with
"non-albuminic hypertension" as they termed it, they found that their
hypertensive patients achieved *the same outcome of pregnancy* as in women
with normal blood pressures attending their prenatal clinics. Their
recommendation for those with hypertension not attributable to any medical
disease is simply to refrain from aggressive therapies and have [the
patient's] case followed by the district midwife. In the United States
this would translate to having her continue to be followed by her chosen
care provider, not to be referred to a "high-risk" perinatal specialist.
Reprinted from Midwifery Today E-News (Vol 2 Issue 16 April 21, 2000)
To subscribe to the E-News write: enews@midwiferytoday.com
For all other matters contact Midwifery Today:
PO Box 2672-940, Eugene OR 97402
541-344-7438, midwifery@aol.com, Midwifery Today
|
|