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Safe pregnancy
INJECTIONS OF Epsom salts can more than halve the risk of a common pregnancy complication becoming life threatening. Doctors involved in the international trial involving more than 10,000 women said the findings would have an instant impact on the treatment of pre-eclampsia.
The three-year, 2.5 million-pound study was conducted in 33 countries, including Britain. The results, published in The Lancet, found that women given magnesium sulphate, commonly used as Epsom salts to soak away aches and pains, had a 58 per cent reduced risk of pre-eclampsia progressing to eclampsia.
Pre-eclampsia, a condition that affects up to one in 10 pregnancies and causes a surge of blood pressure, accumulation of fluid in tissues, and protein in the urine.
If untreated it can lead to eclampsia, which produces seizures due to a lack of blood flow to the brain.
Magnesium sulphate treatment is widely used in the U.S. for eclamptic conditions but much less commonly in Britain and not at all in many other countries.
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