Aspirin Treatment for Preeclampsia

Why are you asking? Are you concerned about taking aspiring while pregnant?

Speaking as someone who developed full blown eclampsia DURING delivery of my first, I can tell you that anything the docs advise you to do to prevent it from happening..you should do. That was the most miserable I have ever felt, I lost consciousness, and then went into kidney failure. And the treatment that they give you to fix it makes you feel even worse.
I couldn't hold my son for 48 hrs after I had him because I just felt so awful.

So please. If they are telling you to take it, take it. That's not a gamble to make based on concerns for the baby you're carrying.

I was prescribed aspirin for preeclampsia. At the time, it was a new treatment, and since I'd been told not to take aspirin while pregnant, I grilled my doctor about the recommendation. He showed me the studies. The trials were well-designed, well-run, with an adequately sized test population and clear results about how aspirin encouraged blood flow, thus reducing the risk of developing full-blown eclampsia, with no elevated risks associated with the treatment itself. The science convinced me. And my own results were good. One healthy baby boy, plus no lasting detrimental effects for me.

I had preeclampsia with my first pregnancy. With my second, I started the Bradley diet at 16 weeks. There is some pretty solid evidence that a high protein diet (80-100g per day) lowers the risk of pre-e. When I delivered my second son at nearly 42 weeks, my BP was 120/80. So unless you have a condition where high proten would be bad for you, I highly recommend it! The whole diet is available online, I'm sure.

Like Manda from Chicago, I experienced extreme preeclampsia at the end of my first pregnancy. I was not feeling well on Friday so my doc had me go to the maternity clinic to get checked out. Since I had some back pain in the area of my kidneys, they thought I had a kidney infection. My blood pressure and everything else was fine. By Sunday I was miserable, when we got to the hospital the nurse thought the blood pressure machine was broken and got another one. The nurse joked that if my blood pressure was really that high, I should be dead. She stopped laughing when she checked it again with a new machine and manually. I was immediately put on meds to reduce my blood pressure and prevent seizures, as well as induced. After hours of not progressing well and minimal changes in my pressure, a C-section was done. I remember little of the birth of my son and really didn't get to see him until the next day. Even after delivery, my blood pressure did not come down and I spent a week in the hospital until the doctors released me. I then spent an additional month taking blood pressure medication.

I've had two more children since. My doctor put me on aspirin with my second as a precaution. I had no problems with my 2nd and 3rd pregnancies, and both were VBAC's. My doctor did tell me that it's more likely to occur during the 1st pregnancy.

After my experience, I say the benefits outweigh the risks.