Baby Aspirin Benefits and Risks During Pregnancy

Possible benefits of using Aspirin during pregnancy

As a blood thinner, Aspirin is used to prevent inappropriate clotting of blood that could cause thromboses, heart attacks, and strokes. [1] The use of Aspirin during pregnancy is controversial and generally discouraged unless specific health conditions in the mother exist, so that the benefits of using a low dose Aspirin regimen outweigh possible risks.

We'll discuss the conditions under which pregnant women should and should not use Aspiron in more detail below.

Studies have shown that low-dose Aspirin — defined as 60 to 100 milligrams (mg) a day — during pregnancy can reduce the risk of having a premature birth in women who have several risk factors for premature births, like having had a premature birth or preterm labor in the past or having diabetes or high blood pressure. [2]

A French study in women taking low dose Aspirin, also often called "Baby Aspirin", during pregnancy to prevent premature birth showed that the children of these women had fewer problems five years after birth than the children of women who had not taken low-dose Aspirin during the pregnancy. [3]

Low dose Aspirin during pregnancy is also often prescribed for women who have risk factors for developing a pregnancy-associated disease that is called preeclampsia and that causes the blood pressure to rise to extreme and unsafe levels and also damages the kidneys.

This condition can advance to a potentially fatal disease for both mother and child, and this complication of preeclampsia is called eclampsia. Risk factors for developing preeclampsia during pregnancy are having had preeclampsia in a prior pregnancy, diabetes, kidney disease, and chronic high blood pressure.

Although scientific studies have shown that some women at risk for preeclampsia can benefit from taking low dose Aspirin during their pregnancy, there is controversy about which women are the best candidates for this therapy, at which stage of pregnancy such women should start taking Aspirin, and how long and how much Aspirin should be taken in this case. [4]

Other health conditions for which low dose Aspirin are prescribed are conditions that come with an increased risk of blood clotting or thrombosis. These blood clotting conditions can appear in a wide variety of pregnant women, and they include women who have lupus and produce a blood clot producing antibody that is called lupus coagulant [5] or women with a related disease called antiphospholipid syndrome. [6]