More News

Woman learns labor’s burden can be eased by a little H20 (and vitamins)

Silver Spring residents develop product for pregnant women

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Dr. Angela Patterson (left) and Gretchen Cook-Anderson, shown with Cook-Anderson’s daughter, Layla, 10 months, display a bottle of Saphia water. Patterson and Anderson, both Silver Spring residents, developed the water, designed to provide pregnant and nursing mothers with nutrients.

But when she was given an intravenous tube and hydrated, the contractions stopped.

Doctors told the Silver Spring resident she wasn’t drinking enough water.

So Cook-Anderson, never a big water drinker, started consuming more water, but squeezed lemons or oranges in it (pulp and all) to make it more palatable. And, in addition to her children, an idea was born.

Cook-Anderson, along with Silver Spring resident Dr. Angela Patterson, 43, developed and recently launched Saphia water, geared toward women who are nursing, pregnant or hoping to become pregnant. The water is flavored —lemon, berry or peach — and has small amounts of nutrients essential to pregnant women, like folate and B vitamins.

The product launched in Silver Spring July 8 and can be purchased online, though the women are negotiating with retailers to sell it in stores.

Hydration is critical for pregnant women, Patterson said, and can be key to thwarting problems like high blood pressure. However, some women can find it hard to consume their recommended daily intake of water especially in situations like Cook-Anderson experienced, when having two babies meant she needed to drink even more.

Pregnant women should drink at least six eight-ounce glasses of water during the day, according to information from the National Women’s Health Information Center. They should also drink another glass of water for each hour of activity.

Water plays a key role during pregnancy, according to NWHIC. It carries nutrients to the baby and can help prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, excessive swelling and urinary tract and bladder infections. Not getting enough water can lead to premature or early labor.

‘‘It was very difficult for me,” Cook-Anderson said of having to drink large amounts of water. ‘‘It was actually a task. I’m not a natural water drinker.”

But by the time her sons were born, she was voluntarily drinking 14 16.9-ounce bottles of water a day because she had learned how to make it taste better. Cook-Anderson said if some flavor made it easier for her, it would probably make it easier for other women as well. She said she believes hydration was directly responsible for stopping her contractions and helping her carry her twins longer.

Cook-Anderson took her idea for Saphia water to Patterson, a neonatologist, who agreed it was something women could benefit from. Together they researched what nutrients could be put in the water — and what nutrients, like iron, might take away from the water’s taste — and formed a medical board to advise them on the process.

Patterson said the water is not a substitute for prenatal vitamins and its primary goal is to hydrate. Women could feasibly drink five or six 16.9-ounce bottles of Saphia water a day.

The water has some sugar and flavoring, as well as nutrients like calcium, folic acid and vitamin B12. It’s good for women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, as well as women who are breastfeeding, Patterson said.

‘‘You have to have liquid in to put liquid out,” she said.

Hydration is important, but it’s also important to help women take care of themselves and feel good about being pregnant, which she thinks Saphia water does, Patterson said.

‘‘Glorify your pregnancy,” she said. ‘‘Be proud of yourself. ... What you do now has an impact on how your child ends up later.”