Pregnancy
Pakistan promotes birth control to slow birth rate
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Faced with the prospect of its population doubling to over 300 million people in the next 40 years, Pakistan on Thursday launched a project to promote contraception in urban and industrial areas.
“This initiative has the potential for a major breakthrough in our efforts to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice in inculcating responsible parenthood,” Population and Welfare Minister Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain told reporters in Islamabad.
Too much fish risky for foetuses
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Pregnant women who eat fish more than three times a week could be putting their baby at risk because of higher mercury levels in their blood, according to a study by Taiwanese researchers.
Mercury exposure is especially risky for foetuses when their internal organs are developing, and can result in neuronal, kidney and brain damage, and stunt growth.
Expectant Chinese mothers tend to eat more fish as they believe it is healthier than red or white meat.
‘Too thin’ women much more likely to miscarry
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Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England have found that being very thin and underweight might increase the risk of women miscarrying during pregnancy.
The researchers say really thin women are 72% more likely to miscarry in the first three months of pregnancy than women of normal weight.
Pregnant Smokers May “Programme” Their Kids to Become Smokers
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Pregnant smokers may “programme” their children to become smokers, suggests research published in Tobacco Control.
The authors base their findings on over 3,000 mothers and their children, who were part of a long term pregnancy study in Brisbane, Australia (MUSP) in 1981.
Mother’s stress may slow baby’s growth in the womb
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Pregnant women under heavy stress have smaller fetuses in mid-pregnancy than expectant mothers who are not distressed, a new study shows.
Cortisol—the hormone released by the adrenal gland in times of stress—appears to be the responsible factor, Dr. Miguel A. Diego of the University of Miami School of Medicine and colleagues conclude in their report in medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
“Women that have clinical depression or diagnosed anxiety disorder or are under some extreme level of stress should be looking for some sort of medical treatment,” Diego told Reuters Health in an interview. “There is an effect of the mother’s psychological state on the development of the fetus.”
Mental ills impede smoking cessation in pregnancy
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Depression and other psychiatric problems may make it tougher for women to quit smoking during pregnancy, according to a new study.
About one in four women stop smoking on their own when they find they’re pregnant. For the rest, some respond to help with quitting, but most do not, Dr. Louise H. Flick of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and colleagues note in the American Journal of Public Health.
People with mental health problems are known to be more likely to smoke, they add, and recent research suggests that cigarette smoking may be a form of self-medication.
Weight gain between pregnancies raises risks
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Women who gain weight between pregnancies raise their risk of suffering from complications such as high blood pressure, diabetes and stillbirth, researchers said on Friday.
Even mothers who are not overweight or obese but who increase their weight before their next pregnancy could be more likely to encounter problems.
“Weight gain increases the risk of a number of pregnancy complications and this further indicates that previously reported associations between obesity and pregnancy outcomes are causal,” said Professor Sven Cnattingius, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
High infant mortality seen with elective c-section
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A new study has found a higher risk of infant deaths among infants born by cesarean section to mothers who have no medical need for the procedure.
While c-sections have saved the lives of “countless” women and babies, and the risk of infant death is still very low, it is crucial to determine the reasons for the higher infant mortality seen with c-section, because the rates of this surgery are becoming increasingly common, Dr. Marian F. MacDorman of the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control in Hyattsville, Maryland and colleagues conclude.
Rates of cesarean have risen steadily in the US, from 14.6 percent of all first-time births in 1996, to 20.6 percent in 2004, MacDorman’s group notes in the September issue of Birth.
Largest review of Loeys-Dietz syndrome to date
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At least three severe, potentially fatal genetic diseases leave patients with aortas so flimsy that they can rupture in pregnancy and labor or even lesser activities, often without warning.
Beta blockers, curbing exercise, proactive blood vessel surgery and other approaches can be helpful, but their usefulness varies according to which disease and when they’re offered.
Now a large follow-up study of more than 50 families by a multi-institutional team led by Johns Hopkins scientists should bring better guidelines for treating the disorders. The work, published August 24 in The New England Journal of Medicine, closely compares patients having one of two types of the lesser known Loeys-Dietz syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome with better-understood Marfan syndrome. It stresses the importance of comprehensive clinical evaluations when diagnosing the diseases.
Mothers at low risk, infant mortality rates are higher among infants delivered by cesarean section
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For mothers at low risk, infant and neonatal mortality rates are higher among infants delivered by cesarean section than for those delivered vaginally in the United States, according to recent research published in the latest issue of Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed over 5.7 million live births and nearly 12,000 infant deaths over a four-year period. In general, neonatal (<28 days of age) deaths were rare for infants of low-risk women (about 1 death per 1,000 live births). However, neonatal mortality rates among infants delivered by cesarean section were more than twice those for vaginal deliveries, even after adjustment for socio-demographic and medical risk factors.
The overall rate of babies delivered by cesarean increased by 41% between 1996 and 2004, while the rate among women with no indicated risk for cesarean delivery (term births with no indicated medical risk factors or complications of labor and delivery) nearly doubled.
Smoking in pregnancy tied to kids’ behavior issues
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There seems to be a link between maternal smoking during pregnancy and behavioral problems in preschool-age children.
A study published in the journal Child Development found that two-year-olds whose mothers smoked regularly while they were pregnant were significantly more likely to exhibit an abnormal pattern of behavior over time compared to age-matched toddlers who were not exposed to cigarette smoke before birth.
While many toddlers exhibit mild behavioral problems during the “terrible twos,” the behavior problems of cigarette-exposed toddlers significantly increased between 18 and 24 months of age compared to the milder, more stable patterns of non-exposed toddlers.
Popular hypertension drugs triple the risk of birth defects
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A study by American researchers has found that certain widely used hypertension drugs, once considered safe in the early stages of pregnancy, can almost triple the risk of birth defects.
It was always considered that drugs, known as ACE inhibitors only caused problems when taken after the third month of pregnancy but this latest study demonstrates that this is not the case at all.
The drugs already carry a warning that they may cause injury and even death to the developing fetus when used during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
Mom’s high BP tied to greater preterm survival
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Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is associated with lower infant mortality in preterm infants, Canadian researchers have observed.
Study investigator Dr. Shi Wu Wen told Reuters Health that PIH might serve some adaptive role for the fetus in the face of trouble.
However, “it’s important to stress that the findings should not be viewed as an encouragement not to treat PIH.” The risks of such a course outweigh any potential benefits, Wen, from the University of Ottawa, said.
Labor can be longer for obese pregnant women
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Looking for yet another reason to stay svelte? Labor can be longer for obese pregnant women, a new Saint Louis University study finds.
The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in May, finds that it takes obese pregnant women who are given medication to induce labor longer to deliver their babies than women of normal body weight.
The obese women also needed more medication - a dinoprostone vaginal insert - to activate labor, and it took longer for the medicine to start working. The obese women also are more likely to have a cesarean deliver than a vaginal delivery.
Carrying multiple babies risky for mom: study
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Women with multifetal pregnancies have a higher risk of pregnancy-related death than those with singleton pregnancies, according to a report in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“This higher risk was seen across the board, regardless of age, race, marital status and level of education,” lead author Andrea P. MacKay, from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hyattville, Maryland, told Reuters Health.
In the past 20 years, twin birth rates have increased 55 percent in the United States and other higher order birth rates increased 388 percent, according to the authors.
