Dr Sherene Kalloo

One com­mon ques­tion women ask dur­ing preg­nan­cy is: “Can I pre­vent preeclamp­sia?” It’s an im­por­tant ques­tion—es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing Preeclamp­sia Aware­ness Month, an ini­tia­tive led by or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Preeclamp­sia Foun­da­tion to im­prove ed­u­ca­tion and out­comes for moth­ers and ba­bies.

The hon­est an­swer is this: preeclamp­sia can­not al­ways be pre­vent­ed, but there are ev­i­dence-based steps that can sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duce the risks and im­prove ear­ly de­tec­tion. Un­der­stand­ing what works—and what doesn’t—can help women feel more in­formed and in con­trol of their care.

Why pre­ven­tion is chal­leng­ing

Preeclamp­sia is a com­plex con­di­tion that in­volves the pla­cen­ta, blood ves­sels, liv­er, kid­neys and the body’s re­sponse to preg­nan­cy. It does not have a sin­gle cause, which is why there is no guar­an­teed way to pre­vent it.

How­ev­er, re­search has iden­ti­fied strate­gies that can low­er the risk, es­pe­cial­ly for women who are more like­ly to de­vel­op the con­di­tion.

What ac­tu­al­ly helps?

1. Ear­ly and reg­u­lar pre­na­tal care

The most ef­fec­tive “pre­ven­tion” tool is ear­ly an­te­na­tal care. Start­ing care in the first trimester al­lows health­care providers to:

• Iden­ti­fy risk fac­tors

• Mon­i­tor blood pres­sure trends

• Iden­ti­fy pre­ex­ist­ing med­ical con­di­tions

• De­tect ear­ly changes be­fore symp­toms ap­pear

In Trinidad and To­ba­go, where many women be­gin an­te­na­tal care lat­er than rec­om­mend­ed, im­prov­ing ear­ly ac­cess is a key step in re­duc­ing com­pli­ca­tions.

2. Low-dose as­pirin (for high-risk women)

For women at high­er risk, doc­tors may rec­om­mend low-dose as­pirin (usu­al­ly start­ed be­tween 12–16 weeks of preg­nan­cy).

This has been shown to:

• Im­prove blood flow to the pla­cen­ta

• Re­duce the risk of de­vel­op­ing preeclamp­sia

It is not for every­one, so it should on­ly be tak­en un­der med­ical guid­ance.

3. Cal­ci­um sup­ple­men­ta­tion

In pop­u­la­tions where di­etary cal­ci­um in­take is low, cal­ci­um sup­ple­ments can help re­duce the risk of preeclamp­sia.

This is par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­e­vant in some Caribbean set­tings where nu­tri­tion­al in­take may vary. Your doc­tor can ad­vise whether sup­ple­men­ta­tion is ap­pro­pri­ate for you.

4. Man­ag­ing pre-ex­ist­ing con­di­tions

Chron­ic con­di­tions in­crease the risk of preeclamp­sia. Good con­trol be­fore and dur­ing preg­nan­cy is es­sen­tial, es­pe­cial­ly for:

• Hy­per­ten­sion

• Di­a­betes

• Kid­ney dis­ease

Op­ti­mis­ing these con­di­tions can sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­prove preg­nan­cy out­comes.

5. Main­tain­ing a healthy lifestyle

While lifestyle changes can­not ful­ly pre­vent preeclamp­sia, they do play a sup­port­ive role:

• Aim for a healthy weight be­fore preg­nan­cy

• Get a pre­con­cep­tion vis­it for ad­vice

• Eat a bal­anced di­et rich in fruits, veg­eta­bles, and pro­tein

• Stay phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive as ad­vised by your doc­tor

These steps al­so re­duce the risk of oth­er com­pli­ca­tions, such as ges­ta­tion­al di­a­betes and high blood pres­sure.

What does NOT pre­vent preeclamp­sia?

There are many myths sur­round­ing pre­ven­tion. It’s im­por­tant to ad­dress them clear­ly.

• Bed rest: Once com­mon­ly rec­om­mend­ed, but not proven to pre­vent preeclamp­sia

• Se­vere­ly re­strict­ing salt: Not nec­es­sary and may even be harm­ful

• Herbal reme­dies or sup­ple­ments: No strong sci­en­tif­ic ev­i­dence sup­ports their use for pre­ven­tion

Re­ly­ing on un­proven meth­ods can de­lay prop­er med­ical care.

Can low-risk women still de­vel­op it?

Yes. Even women with no known risk fac­tors can de­vel­op preeclamp­sia. This is why every preg­nan­cy re­quires mon­i­tor­ing, re­gard­less of how healthy you feel.

Pre­ven­tion strate­gies re­duce risk—but they do not elim­i­nate it en­tire­ly.

The im­por­tance of in­di­vid­u­alised care

Every preg­nan­cy is dif­fer­ent. A woman’s care plan should be based on her per­son­al risk fac­tors, med­ical his­to­ry, and cur­rent health.

This is why self-med­icat­ing or fol­low­ing gen­er­alised ad­vice with­out con­sult­ing a health­care provider can be risky.

A prac­ti­cal take­away

In­stead of ask­ing, “How do I pre­vent preeclamp­sia com­plete­ly?”, a more help­ful ques­tion is:

“How can I re­duce my risk and catch it ear­ly?”

The an­swer in­cludes:

• Start­ing an­te­na­tal care ear­ly

• At­tend­ing all sched­uled vis­its

• Fol­low­ing med­ical ad­vice for med­ica­tions or sup­ple­ments

• Re­port­ing any un­usu­al symp­toms prompt­ly

Fi­nal thoughts

Preeclamp­sia may not al­ways be pre­ventable, but it is man­age­able with the right ap­proach.

This Preeclamp­sia Aware­ness Month, the mes­sage is clear:

Fo­cus on ear­ly care, ev­i­dence-based pre­ven­tion, and stay­ing in­formed.

Small, con­sis­tent steps—guid­ed by your health­care provider—can make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in pro­tect­ing both moth­er and ba­by.

Dr Sherene Kalloo

MDW, MBBS, DGO, DM, FACOG

Spe­cial­ist Ob­ste­tri­cian & Gy­nae­col­o­gist