Pregnant women who work are more than five times more likely than women who do not work to develop preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure, swelling in the legs and other symptoms. An estimated 50,000 women per year worldwide die from preeclampsia.

The complication affects as many as 1 in 10 first pregnancies. If left untreated, preeclampsia can develop into eclampsia, a life-threatening condition in which a woman has convulsive seizures in late pregnancy or during the first week after delivery. The study was performed at a large maternity hospital in Dublin, Ireland.

After adjusting for other factors that are known to increase a person's chances of having high blood pressure -- such as age, weight and smoking habits -- working moms-to-be were still about five times more likely to develop preeclampsia than those not working.

Overall, about 2% of the women developed preeclampsia, a rate similar to that seen in other studies.

It is not clear why women who work during pregnancy had a higher risk of preeclampsia than those who stayed at home, the authors point out. However, it is possible that the stress of work may lead to an increased release of stress hormones, which in turn can cause blood pressure to rise.

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health April 18, 2002;56:389-393

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Unfortunately, I only recently appreciated the fact that omega-3 fats are useful in preventing this common pregnancy complication. This was known as recently as 1995.

A study published earlier this year in the British Medical Journal, clearly showed that fish oil consumption was associated with less of a risk for premature delivery.

My sister was my office manager for ten years prior to her becoming pregnant and, being somewhat of an obsessive compulsive like me, she worked through most of her pregnancy. She eventually came down with preeclampsia that resulted in an early delivery.

I contacted the leading nutritional physicians across the country, but they could only provide suggestions of vitamin B6 and magnesium.

They, like me, were clueless about the importance of omega-3 fats in preventing this complication.

Not only do omega-3 fats dramatically reduce the complication of this problem, but they also do dramatic wonders to improve the health of all children.

DHA in fish oil, or in pasture or grass-fed animals, is absolutely critical for optimal brain and vision function. It is my estimation that omega-3 fats are likely to be the single most important nutrient that a pregnant woman could be on.

There is considerable evidence that breast-feeding provides infants with protection against several types of infection, including respiratory tract infection, gastrointestinal illness, middle ear infections, and urinary tract infections. A study in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, documents how fish oils dramatically improve the immune system of infants by increasing their cytokine production.

If you know of any pregnant woman you will certainly want to encourage them to start the omega-3 oils.

However, please be aware most of the US has now entered the sun phase of the year and anyone who has regular sun exposure should stop taking cod liver oil and switch over to plain fish oil capsules.

Fish oil does not have the vitamin D of cod liver oil which could be quite toxic during the summer months if one receives regular sun exposure.

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