Daily aspirin therapy should be prescribed to all pregnant women who are at risk for preeclampsia, a new study recommends.

Preeclampsia is a dangerous form of high blood pressure that may occur during pregnancy. Occurring between three and seven percent of births, preeclampsia directly causes one out of seven premature births and one in every 10 maternal deaths.

Daily low-dose aspirin therapy is the only known preventative for preeclampsia but health organizations differ on which groups of at-risk women should take it.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends aspirin therapy for all at-risk pregnant women after 12 weeks of gestation but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is stricter, recommending it only for women who had to deliver early due to preeclampsia or who developed it during at least one prior pregnancy.

Giving the therapy to all pregnant women at risk for preeclampsia would reduce deaths, save lives, and lower health care costs to a much greater degree than the ACOG recommendations, the researchers say.

The study is published in the current online issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.