On October 18, the Iowa Section of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses hosted Preeclampsia: A Team Approach to help provide healthcare providers with a greater understanding of the disease. More than 70 participants enjoyed the viewing of the 2009 Chairman's Hope Award for Outstanding Service video highlighting John and Brenda Warner, opening comments by Sue Gehlsen , Executive Director of Women's Services at Iowa Health, presentations by Joseph Hwang, MD, FACOG and George Lederhaas, MD on hypertension in pregnancy and ...

111th Congress, Second Session

Congress has adjourned until after the November 2nd election.  For the next few weeks, members of Congress will be focused, almost exclusively, on campaigning for re-election.  Congress is expected to return in the third week of November for a “lame duck” session - a post-election legislative session during which members convene to wrap up unfinished business before the end of the calendar year.  Because these sessions include those members who failed to win reelection and some who are retiring, lame duck sessions are not usually very productive and can be very volatile and difficult to predict.

While the exact agenda for the upcoming lame duck session is still unclear, measures that will likely be taken up include a food safety bill and certain tax provisions.  In addition, Congress must address how to fund the federal government for the next fiscal year as they have yet to finalize all of the various bills that fund current ...

Raising Awareness of Hypertension (H. Res. 1656) - Status: Introduced.  Sponsor: Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL).  Aims to increase awareness of hypertension and reduce its prevalence in the United States through education, research, community programs, culturally competent strategies, and efforts to reduce the excess salt content in foods.  The resolution notes that women with high blood pressure are more likely to experience certain complications during pregnancy, including kidney and other organ damage, low birth weight, early delivery, stillbirth, and maternal ...

PREEMIE Act (Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who Deliver Infants Early Act) (S. 3906) -  Status:  Introduced.  Sponsors:  Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT).  Reauthorizes programs Congress established in 2006 to address premature birth.   Calls for expanding work conducted at the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration to conduct research and improve access to prenatal care.  Among its provisions, the legislation creates trans-disciplinary research centers, will result in additional epidemiological studies, and supports telemedicine services to improve access to care.  Expands and supports federal activities conducted under the 2006 statute, which would otherwise expire at the end of fiscal year 2011 (September 30, 2011).  (Text of legislation is ...

National Nurse-Managed Health Clinic Week (S. Res. 643) – Status:  Passed Senate.  Sponsor:  Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI).  Recognizes the role that nurse-managed clinics play in the health care system, designating the week of October 3 as “National Nurse-Managed Health Clinic Week.” States that clinics offer a broad scope of services that may improve access to care in communities, including prenatal ...

Nationally Enhancing the Wellbeing of Babies through Outreach and Research Now (NEWBORN) Act (H.R. 3470) – Status:  Passed House.  Sponsor: Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN).  Authorizes $10 million for Fiscal Year 2011 and $50 million between 2011 and 2015 for a grant program to create, implement, and oversee pilot programs in areas with high rates of infant ...

The Preeclampsia Foundation announced today that Ms. Jill Siegel of Chicago, IL is the 2010 recipient of its annual Hope Award for Volunteer of the Year. This prestigious award will be presented to Ms. Siegel at its annual benefit gala, Saving Grace – A Night of Hope Around the World, on Saturday, November 6, at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel in Seattle, Washington. The award recognizes an individual who epitomizes the true spirit of volunteerism and has made significant contributions to the Foundation.

Eleni Tsigas, Executive Director of the Preeclampsia Foundation, said, “It’s hard to identify Jill’s most significant contribution as she has been instrumental in so many areas. In 2009, she served as our Saving Grace chair, organizing, motivating and arranging everything for our annual fundraising gala and throughout 2010 has done an overwhelming ...

What a whirlwind Walk season it has been! The final 2010 Promise Walk concluded just a week ago. This year, a newly formed National Walk Team (NWT) assisted coordinators
around the country in planning memorable and successful walks. The NWT also created a new and dynamic website (www.promisewalk.org) that enabled Walk Coordinators and participants to easily register and raise donations for their local Promise Walk. 
 
More than 30 volunteer coordinators produced fabulous local events - 24 Walks across the U.S. taking place between April and August, including inaugural Walks in Atlanta and Chicago and adding a second Walk location in both California and Iowa. This volume represents a 60% increase over last year. The 24 Walks collected approximately $168,000, which is more than a 150% increase over 2009. There ...

Last month, a team from the University of Alberta reported in the journal Hypertension on a method to determine that a woman is at high risk of developing preeclampsia.  While this method may or may not be developed into a screening test in the future, it confirmed that changes in the metabolism and the vasculature of women who go on to develop preeclampsia can be detected at 15 weeks gestation.
 
Two Preeclampsia Foundation members were involved in media coverage on the topic and we are very grateful to them for bringing a human face to the stories about preeclampsia. Because of the press conference and media efforts of the University, a lot of lay press picked up the story and we are fortunate that the Foundation was mentioned in several of those stories.  The research findings while seemingly exciting to a lay public are far from commercial realization and would need more validation for most governmental oversight bodies (e.g., FDA).  Our message of "cautious ...

Research into preeclampsia and its relationship to the long-term health of mother and baby reveals both good news and bad news for preeclampsia survivors.
 
Evidence is unequivocal now that women who have experienced preeclampsia, particularly severe or early onset preeclampsia, are at a significantly increased risk for cardiovascular problems later in life compared to women with a history of healthy pregnancies. The "take home lesson" for preeclampsia survivors is to establish a healthy lifestyle (weight loss, exercise, no smoking) and to discuss cardiovascular assessment and follow up with your health care provider.
 
"There are very few identified risk factors for later life heart disease in women; preeclampsia is one of the few warning signs we'll get and we should take advantage of it," explained Executive Director Eleni Tsigas.
 
One study demonstrated that women who have a history of preeclampsia experienced an increased risk of ...

Vitamin D and Microchimerisms:

Could the sun really have something to do with preeclampsia?
"Maternal vitamin D deficiency may be an independent risk factor for preeclampsia. Vitamin D supplementation in early pregnancy should be explored for preventing preeclampsia and promoting neonatal well-being," reads a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2007. Although some of us who had our babies in, say, Portland, Oregon, where the sun rarely shines, would love to claim Vitamin D deficiency, other preeclampsia survivors sweltered under the Arizona or California sun. If you think this might be a possible therapy to explore, talk to your health care professional and check out the discussions in our Community Forum on this topic.
 
Micro-what?
Researchers have found that women with preeclampsia, which causes high blood pressure in ...

  Although the literature is scant, research has shown that lack of patient information is correlated to poor health outcomes.  Our own research shows that fewer than half of pregnant women are educated about the signs and symptoms of preeclampsia by their health care providers.  (As an aside, we've been working with epidemiologists at the University of Iowa to conduct deeper analysis of our data; this research has been deemed compelling enough that we'll be sharing our findings via an oral presentation at the ISSHP World Congress in Melbourne, Australia.)

Thus, patient education is high on our list of priorities. This includes involving a broad spectrum of health care providers in this effort.

There are many occasions where pregnant women come in ...