Pregnancy
Revise guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy, says Saint Louis U. obstetrician
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Current recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy – developed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1990 – should be revised, according to an internationally recognized obesity expert and chairman of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health at Saint Louis University.
The editorial by Raul Artal, M.D., who has conducted extensive research on obesity during pregnancy, appears in the March issue of Expert Review of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an international medical journal.
Recommendations by the IOM, which are followed worldwide by obstetricians, encourage obese women to gain at least 15 pounds during pregnancy and specify no upper limit for weight gain. The IOM is a panel of national experts who provide advice on medical and health issues.
Pregnant woman uses train toilet, baby slips out
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A newborn baby girl survived an ignoble birth after slipping down the toilet bowl of a moving Indian train onto the tracks when a pregnant woman unexpectedly gave birth while relieving herself on Tuesday.
“My delivery was so sudden,” said the Bhuri Kalbi, the mother of the infant, born two months prematurely. “I did not even realize that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet.”
Viruses for a healthy pregnancy
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Sequences of DNA in the human genome that originated from ancient viral infections have some surprising effects on our bodies and are even essential for a healthy pregnancy, according to an article in the February issue of Microbiology Today.
Retrovirus infections represent the most intimate host-pathogen relationship. The virus inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of the host cell, resulting in an irreversible, stable and sometimes lifelong infection. If a sperm or egg cell is infected, the virus DNA can be passed down generations, permanently fixed in the germ line. As a result, an endogenous retrovirus (ERV) can exist for millions of years.
Lack of sleep tied to retained pregnancy weight
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Insufficient sleep during the months after childbirth may play a role in the retention of weight gained during pregnancy, research suggests.
“Even relatively short periods of sleep deprivation (6 months after delivery) may influence weight,” Dr. Erica P. Gunderson told Reuters Health.
Gunderson, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente, in Oakland, California, and colleagues found that women who got less than an average of 5 hours of sleep daily during the first 6 months after childbirth were likely to weigh at least 5 kilograms (about 11 pounds) more than their pre-pregnancy weight at one year after childbirth.
Mediterranean Diet in Pregnancy Helps Ward Off Childhood Asthma and Allergy
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Mums to be who eat a Mediterranean diet while pregnant could help stave off the risks of asthma and allergy in their children, suggests research published ahead of print in Thorax.
The findings are based on 468 mother and child pairs, who were tracked from pregnancy up to 6.5 years after the birth.
What the mothers ate during pregnancy and what their children were eating by the time they were 6 years old were assessed using food frequency questionnaires.
Alcohol and Pregnancy
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Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can be harmful to you and your growing baby. Thus, the best course is not to drink at all during pregnancy.
Protect Your Baby
Some things — such as alcohol — can harm your baby’s health. The degree of harm depends on the amount of alcohol you drink, how often you drink, and when in pregnancy you drank alcohol. Early pregnancy, when many of the baby’s organs are forming, is a time to be extra careful.
Alcohol quickly reaches the fetus through your bloodstream. It crosses the placenta to the baby.
Pollution shrinks foetus size: Brisbane study finds
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Exposure to air pollution significantly reduces foetus size during pregnancy, according to a new study by Brisbane scientists.
Queensland University of Technology senior research fellow Dr Adrian Barnett said the study compared the foetus sizes of more than 15,000 ultrasound scans in Brisbane to air pollution levels within a 14km radius of the city.
UK tells pregnant women to boost vitamin D intake
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The British government has told pregnant and breastfeeding women to increase their intake of vitamin D during the darker winter months to reduce the risk of seizures and the bone disease rickets in their children.
The Department of Health said doctors were reporting increasing numbers of cases of vitamin D deficiency in children.
Depression in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period
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The author reviews the risks and benefits of untreated maternal depression during pregnancy and the postnatal period and its effects on the well-being of the mother and infant. She then discusses the significant role psychiatrists can play in detecting and managing maternal depression as a primary measure for preventing future child psychopathology.
Pregnant women pass on the effects of smoking
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Smoking during pregnancy has many adverse effects on fetal development. A new study in mice by Andrea Jurisicova and colleagues at the University of Toronto, Canada, now adds the possibility that smoking before pregnancy or while breast-feeding might substantially decrease the fertility of female offspring to the long list of possible negative outcomes.
Jolting exercise may up miscarriage risk: study
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Exercise in the early stage of pregnancy, particularly high-impact exercise, may boost the risk of miscarriage, research suggests.
The reasons for this are not entirely clear, the researchers note, “but the fact that high-impact exercise seems to be associated with highest risk of miscarriage indicates that the jolts produced while exercising play a role,” they suggest.
Having a baby? It will cost more than $7K
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According to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the cost of having a baby, from the first prenatal visit to delivery, averaged roughly $7,600 (in 2004 dollars) for an uncomplicated birth.
“Although there have been more than 4 million births each year in the United States since 2000, there is little information in the literature regarding the average medical expenditures generated over the course of a pregnancy,” note Steven R. Machlin and Frederick Rohde of AHRQ, who worked on the report.
“Love” hormone helps mom and baby bond
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Levels of the hormone oxytocin circulating in a pregnant woman’s body play a critical role in how closely she will bond with her newborn—both emotionally and behaviorally, a new study shows.
In animals, oxytocin, dubbed “the hormone of love and bonding,” is known to be important for the development of good parenting and maintaining close relationships.
Drop in antidepressant use seen during pregnancy
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A marked fall in antidepressant use occurs when women first learn that they are pregnant, according to a report.
“It is alarming to see that there is still a fear regarding antidepressant use during pregnancy. We knew that some women were going to discontinue using their antidepressants during pregnancy but we didn’t think it would be so prevalent and inappropriately used (amongst those who remain on it),” senior author Dr. Anick Berard told Reuters Health.
Fetal cell ‘transplant’ could be a hidden link between childbirth and reduced risk of breast cancer
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Some benefits of motherhood are intangible, but one has been validated through biostatistical research: women who bear children have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer. In Seattle, Washington, researchers at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center believe they have identified a source of this protective effect: fetal cells “transplanted” to the mother before birth.
Their findings are presented in the October 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
