Toxemia in Pregnancy
Chiqui Brosas on Dec 05 2007 at 7:58 am | Filed under: General
Did you know that women who have poor diets during pregnancy had harder labors? Aminal experiments show their offsprings to have reduced number of brain cells with low protein intake.
Before, it was observed that women who developed toxemia had sudden weight gains. This was one of the reasons why many doctors did not like their patients to put on too much pounds. This could deprive the babies of good nutrition when their mothers cut down on food intake and calories just to be able to lose weight. The brain of the babies grow the fastest in the 3rd trimester, on the eight month of pregnancy, up to the eighteenth month of life. If the baby does not get enough nourishment at this crucial time when he needs it most, he could have some mental disability.
I have learned in the Bradley method, through Dr. Tom Brewer, that toxemia could be avoided through proper nutrition. In the Bradley method, we encourage the mothers to have 80 to 100 grams of protein a day because a study was made that mothers who had enough protein did not develop toxemia.
Toxemia happens when the body cannot throw off toxic substances stored in it’s cells. The pregnant woman retains fluid and swells up, called edema. Other symptoms of toxemia are head aches accompanied by blurred vision, protein in the urine and pain in her nape caused by high blood pressure. This dreaded desease at its worse can cause the mother to convulse and go into a coma called eclampsia, but before it gets that far she usually ends up having a caesarean. This condition is very dangerous for the unborn and its mother.