Take an aspirin a day ‘to ensure a healthy pregnancy’

FROM simple pain relief to easing arthritic aches and helping prevent clotting in heart patients – the many wonders of aspirin are well known.

Now a UCD professor says that women in early pregnancy should be prescribed a low dose of the drug daily to prevent one of the leading causes of infant mortality and maternal death worldwide – a condition called pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia can cause acute problems of the liver, kidneys, brain and blood-clotting system of the mother.

It is also harmful to babies, and a quarter of those born to mothers with the condition experience growth restriction – and a third are born prematurely.

Pre-eclampsia usually happens during the second half of a pregnancy from around week 20, and the only treatment is to induce labour and deliver the baby.

A recent study published in the British Medical Journal discovered that women in Ireland are open to taking a low daily dose of aspirin to reduce their chance of developing the condition, which affects one-in-ten firsttime pregnancies.

The study has also found that the current approach of screening pregnant women in Ireland for pre-eclampsia after they show signs of the condition may not offer the best outcome for mothers and babies.

The major study involved 546 expectant mothers from the Rotunda Maternity Hospital and the Coombe’s Women and Infant University Hospital, both in Dublin.