Brewer Diet for Pre-E

citymama2012 · August 2014

Hello all,

I delivered my son about 2 years ago at 36 weeks (induced due to pre-e; bedrest began at 32 weeks). Last time I was told about the Brewer diet but it was really too late for it to take effect. I am pregnant again and considering giving it a try. A little family background, both my mom and her grandmother (my great-grandmother) had pre-e with their 1st child, both only had 1 child. This will be my 2nd; 2 doctors have told me my chances are lower with my second although this is inconsistent with what I've read.

I guess I feel good nutrition can only be a good thing. However, I'm really having a hard time eating all the food suggested by Brewer. Curious to hear others' experience/opinions.

mcgeeva · August 2014

Never heard of Brewer diet but just wanted to say congrats and good luck! I had pre-e was on bedrest at 31 weeks and delivered early as well. This time around I had high bp on and off all pregnancy but it did not happen the second time around. Protein showed up in my urine this time around at 38 weeks and my water broke two days later. I was told by my 5 of my doctors it's a small chance of happening again and one told me high. The only thing they did different was doing 24 hour collections the whole pregnancy and checked my pacenta a few times. So hopefully like me you will avoid the pre-e the second time around.

citymama2012 · August 2014

Thanks! It does help to hear your experiences!!!

kflynn81 · August 2014

I had preeclampsia/HELLP and lost my son to it at 20 weeks. I'd looked into the Brewer Diet but when I brought it to the "Preeclampsia Survivors" group I belong to on Facebook most the opinions were that it was hooey. I guess its one of those things maybe it works for some and not others but like you mentioned, that's a lot of food to be getting in daily I don't really know that I can keep up!

catsinawindow · August 2014

I had severe PreE with my DS. When I got pregnant with DD I did a lot of research to find out if there was anything I could do to prevent it with her. Being a researcher, I looked for actual peer-reviewed studies that showed some benefit.

The Brewer's diet has never shown peer-reviewed benefits. My MWs also didn't recommend it (although they did say that getting a good amount of protein was a good idea, just not that much)! Therefore, I didn't follow the Brewer's diet.

What I did do was the following:
Calcium (500mg + Vit D once a day) as well as a good amount from my diet. Calcium has been shown to reduce PreE rates. Based on this, my MWs strongly recommended a daily calcium supplement as well as making sure I got a good amount of calcium in my diet everyday (I think they told me to shoot for more than 1000 mg in my diet alone).

Selenium - a study showed that selenium supplementation reduced PreE rates. For whatever reason, my MWs believed the calcium study a lot more than the selenium study, but they told me it couldn't hurt and might help so I took the supplement.

We also considered a baby aspirin regimen. This has also been clinically shown to reduce rates of PreE for women who are at high risk. While I was at increased risk due to my history of PreE, my care providers felt that baby aspirin benefited women who developed PreE early (mine developed late, at 39 weeks) or women with pre-existing hypertension. Because I fell into neither of these categories, we decided that baby aspirin was not likely to benefit me. Maybe it could be an option for you, though?

In the end, I did not develop PreE or PIH with my DD. I'll never know whether or not it was due to the extra precautions I took, but I'll still probably do them with future PG, just in case. Good luck to you!

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