Some drugs are so simple we don't even know how useful they are until years afterwards.

Take the aspirin, for example. Ages after we discovered its use as a painkiller, we discovered that its usefulness extended to preventing heart attacks. Now doctors are using it to treat some pregnant patients who are experiencing preeclampsia and intrauterine growth retardation. The magic in this little white pill is its blood-thinning qualities.

Carmen Staicer's third pregnancy was problematic and it was discovered that her uterus was malformed, possibly due to poor blood flow. Her baby girl suffered from intrauterine growth retardation and was born at 36 weeks at 5 pounds. When she became pregnant again, her doctors took preventive measures.

"In my fourth pregnancy, my doctor suggested that I take a baby aspirin daily to keep the blood flow moving to my placenta," Staicer says. "I had more ultrasounds than typical, but there were no problems in this pregnancy. In fact, I went two weeks over and was induced, and he was 7 pounds, 8 ounces."

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