Day care for pre eclampsia

Out patient care for hypertension in pregnancy can significantly reduce your need for medical intervention or the risk of developing eclampsia.

A study of 54 women with high blood pressure in their 26th week of pregnancy by James's University Hospital in Leeds showed that women treated in a day care unit fared far better than controls in treating their condition.

The control group spent nearly five times longer as inpatients than the day care group, were 8.8 times more likely to be admitted to hospital, 4.9 times more likely to have labour induced and 11.4 times more likely to develop protein in the urine.

These results throw by the board the widespread medical belief that enforced bed rest for hypertense pregnant women without protein in the urine is the treatment of choice.

"The frequencies of proteinuria, preterm delivery and perinatal death were not reduced by bed rest," concluded the study.