I am still going to her class... because she was really amazing with our loss, the first class back with this pregnancy I was a crying mess and she helped me through it. Her heart is in the right place, but like so many other people she just doesn't understand- she never will. I'm not sure how you can read everything I said to her and still go on posting those things without understanding... but such is life I guess.

This may be kinda late, are you still going to her yoga class? Sometimes I hate those righteous yoga gurus! This isn't from an article, but my story probably helps somewhat in that diet didn't help my case. I have always been a healthy eater before I got pregnant. I don't eat fast food at all, I like tofu and fruit and organic foods. I probably started eating bad when I first got pregnant. I kinda had that thought that I could indulge....more pizza lets say, lol. But I still ate greek yogurt, bananas, cheese sandwiches with sprouted bread, and shredded cabbage, cheese and milk with no hormones, etc. I shopped at Trader Joes religiously. But then the edema started, and it got really bad. My doc kept telling me it was all normal because my bp was normal and no protein in my urine until 32 weeks. But before I lost Soleil, for about a month or two before, I started a brown rice diet, where every night for dinner I ate brown rice. (I did not just eat brown rice only for 2 months, just at dinner). I would mix it with tofu and no salt tomato sauce, or eat it with sprouted bread and no salt butter. I read that brown rice can reduce your swelling. It did and I started to feel so much better, I could walk with more ease. But in the end, it didn't help. The brown rice wasn't going to save me or my daughter. It is always advisable to eat healthy when your pregnant, but when it comes to this it just won't do anything. I got my placenta results back and it never attached correctly from the beginning, no organic tempeh with green beans and vegan bread is going to prevent that. ;)

ps: my mom ate a half dozen donuts a DAY when she was pregnant with me and I turned out ok :D

I've run into this too, with people asking whether I'm taking better care of myself now since this pregancy is going great and the first one was a disaster. In reality, I took much better care of myself my first pregnancy and this time around I've been pigging out on mcdonalds and cookies and have gained 38 pounds! I don't think they have any clue how offensive it is to tell pre-e moms it's all their fault for being irresponsible with their health, ugh. The reason this pregnancy is going well probably has more to do with my anticoagulant and close pregnancy spacing than my diet, and even then there's no way to know for sure.

I have a feeling it's because she's so sure she's right regardless of what you say. I mean if Dr Brewer said every single woman who ate what he suggested never got preeclampsia then it must be true! I ran into this with my first baby. I was so sure of how I was going to do everything from my planned homebirth and intention for long term breastfeeding. Things just don't always work out and it's not because we didn't do it all right. And it was my other most natural minded friends who were the most judgmental about it and the most unwilling to believe that it wouldn't have been different if only X, Y or Z had been done. I know it really hurts when people are more concerned with the dogma of their beliefs than the feelings of those around them. It sounds like this friend could have at least attempted to show more compassion to your feelings.

And truthfully I am a health freak. I'm uber crunchy in many areas. But I've been humbled enough to know that it's simply NOT all within our control!

Well...she didn't get upset, but it clearly didn't really sink in either. She just skirted the issue and said how if you're on fb then you're bound to see things you don't like and I was more than welcome to post my article links on her page. Pretty frustrating, she just doesn't understand... but at least I tried.

That was a great note to her. Did she respond and take it well?

I agree. Very well written and I get no sense of any kind of an attack.

Beautifully said! No sense of attacking her, but scientific and sincere - really well written!

Thank you! In case anyone is interested, this is the email I ended up sending her:

I saw the article you posted on facebook about nutrition and preventing preeclampsia, and I just wanted to write you an email and give you my perspective on this. First I want to tell you I know that posting things like that comes with the very best of intentions, and I along with all of your students, certainly appreciate the level of care and devotion you show to us and to healthy pregnancies. I hope you won't take this is as any sort of personal attack. First, I just want to tell you the other side to the story, that article is 5 years old. Newer research is beginning to show that preeclampsia is most likely not related to nutrition. Unfortunately, it's a really under-researched disease so you can't really find definitive answers one way or another. However, I have a lot of faith in both of my doctors and I belong to an active preeclampsia forum, full of women who would do anything to prevent getting it again... but the reality is we cannot prevent it. I know women who followed the brewer diet or other "miracle fix" kind of diets to a "t" and still got preeclampsia again. I also know women who didn't change anything about their diet, and didn't get it again. I don't expect you take my word for it of course, here's one article (from just this year) on preeclampsia.org, this is a foundation dedicated entirely to the research and understanding of this horrible disease:

http://www.preeclampsia.org/component/lyftenbloggie/2012/03/01/121-analyzing-the-nutritional-hypothesis

Then this one is a blog written by another preeclampsia mother, she is not a doctor, but did a lot of research and posts links to her research in the blog:

http://whatyourunningfor.blogspot.com/2012/05/brewer-diet.html

I realize that it may seem like there's no harm in posting things like that because eating healthy certainly cannot hurt. Unfortunately, there a pretty strong emotional backlash to this sort of mentality to those of us who have had it, especially those who had it and lost their baby like me. I am a very healthy person, I always have been. I eat healthier than at least 80% of the people I know and I can say that confidently. My husband and I buy our produce at the farmer's market, I'm a vegetarian and I love beans and kale and it's just always been a priority for me to be super healthy. I up my healthy eating when I'm pregnant, did from the start. So you have to imagine how it makes me feel when articles like this claim I could have prevented getting sick if only I'd eaten the right things. Then I look at the pregnant woman next to me who eats donuts and macaroni cheese for 9 months because that's what she's craving and her pregnancy and baby are healthy. To say it's frustrating would be an understatement. Again, I KNOW it's all well-intentioned... and if it were true it would be well worth it. I don't expect you to just take my word for it, so here's a post to a thread on the preeclampsia forums of other women explaining just how frustrating this point of view can be:

http://www.preeclampsia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2274

There are literally research teams who are currently dedicated to finding support articles to stop these kinds of articles from being circulated in order to stop the emotional damage that it does to women like me. I don't hold any of this against you, I'm not angry.... I understand where you are coming from. If you read all this and decide you want to keep posting articles like that (although I'd recommend not posting ones that are 5 years old) that is completely your right and your choice and I won't bring it up again. However, I just wanted to give you my side of the story, and I promise I speak for many other women as well. It's a side that's not heard too often. Too many women just quietly blame themselves for their loss or their baby's premature birth when it really wasn't anything that could have been prevented. I hope you don't get offended by this and I'd be happy to talk to you about all if it in person if you want! Sorry, this got super long!

I totally understand what you mean. There's a Bradley instructor in my area who promotes the Brewer diet heavily. I've been round and round with her.

Is she promoting a particular diet, or just a generally healthy diet? I'm not an expert, and my blog isn't professional, but I wrote this recently on the Brewer diet: [url]http://whatyourunningfor.blogspot.com/2012/05/brewer-diet.html[/url]

And this one on various vitamins: [url]http://whatyourunningfor.blogspot.com/2012/05/treatment-options-vitamins-and-minerals.html[/url]

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but thought I'd throw it out there. I did include lots of links to original research and other websites.