Thank you for your interest in the Vitamins In Pre-eclampsia (VIP) trial.

Most women have entirely normal pregnancies and give birth to healthy babies, however about 4 in 100 women develop a condition known as pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia is a complicated illness, which can sometimes lead to the death of the mother or the baby. The signs of this disease are high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Midwives and doctors check these regularly in all pregnant women to pick up signs of pre-eclampsia early, before the mother or baby become very sick. Currently there is no cure for pre-eclampsia, other than to deliver the baby, consequently about 15% of all babies born prematurely are delivered early because of pre-eclampsia.

A small study undertaken by the research team at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, suggested that vitamins may help prevent pre-eclampsia. We asked a group of pregnant women, known to be at high risk of developing pre-eclampsia, to take vitamin C and vitamin E, or placebos (dummy tablets) from about 16 weeks of pregnancy until they had their babies. Neither the women nor the researchers knew who had the vitamins and who had the look alike tablets. We found that the women who had the vitamins were less likely to develop pre-eclampsia. However this was a very small project, and it is important that we know for certain whether these vitamins help protect women from pre-eclampsia, without causing any harm to the baby.

The Wellcome Trust (registered charity number 210183) has funded a larger study to enable us to answer this important question.

We are recruiting women with known risk factors in 10 geographical areas, and 22 hospitals through England. Recruitment started in August 2003 and is due to finish in 2005.

Thanks again for your interest and keep visiting the website for the latest news!