NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pregnant women who regularly have
milk or yogurt with "good" bacteria may be less likely to suffer
the late-pregnancy complication known as pre-eclampsia, a new
study finds. Pre-eclampsia occurs when a woman has a sudden
increase in blood pressure after the 20th week of pregnancy.
Other signs include protein in the urine and swelling in the
face and hands. The disorder, which affects about five percent
of all pregnant women, can be dangerous if unrecognized: it may
progress to the rare condition eclampsia, which can cause the
mother to have seizures or fall into a coma. In the new study,
researchers found that of more than 33,000 Norwegian women who
gave birth over six years, those who consumed probiotic milk or
yogurt every day during pregnancy were less likely to develop
pre-eclampsia. Of those women, 4.1 percent developed pre-
eclampsia, compared with 5.6 percent of women who did not
consume probiotic food. When the researchers factored in other
differences -- like the women's we