The participates all had to be in their first pregnancy. They had her fill out a ton of questionnaires/surveys, then each trimester they would draw blood for blood work and take an ultrasound of the baby (which was fun for us). They also took the placenta after the baby was born to do more blood work and tests. I'm not positive everything they measured, but I'm sure there were lots of measurements. The hope was that they get enough women to participate in the study to be able to correlate some factors with pre-eclampsia. That way, in the future, they'll be able to identify more easily common factors that put a woman at risk.

It was actually pretty cool for her to get to be a part of. Plus, she wasn't planning on eating the placenta, so donating it wasn't a big deal.