Copyright 2008 Medical News Today Latest Pregnancy / Obstetrics News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/pregnancy/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115882.php The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday examined the "life-and-death" decisions pregnant women with cancer must make and the treatment options available to them. According to the Post-Dispatch, as many as one in every 1,000 pregnant women in the U.S. is diagnosed with cancer. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115727.php A record number of infants were born in the U.S. in 2007, according to provisional data released last week by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, USA Today reports. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115726.php Former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack is traveling throughout the state to discuss unplanned pregnancies and ways to reduce their numbers in Iowa, which ranks 43rd in the U.S. in family planning funding and 48th in access to contraception, the Daily Gate City reports (Iutzi, Daily Gate City, 7/18). In January, Vilsack launched the Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115674.php Yesterday, Monday 21st July, safefood and the HPSC urged pregnant women to be extra vigilant when consuming certain types of food and issued advice on how to avoid the risk of listeriosis. During 2007, 9 cases of pregnancy associated Listeria were reported in Ireland, five of these were among women for whom English was not their first language. "Listeria is a bacterium found in many types of food", said Dr. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115658.php The Rudd Government will provide $5 million to help establish a 24-hour toll-free national helpline to support breastfeeding mothers and their families, and to support research into breastfeeding. There is strong evidence of the links between breastfeeding and prevention of obesity and asthma in children as well as prevention of chronic diseases such as breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115691.php Maternal obesity has been associated with diabetic complications in the resulting offspring, according to experiments in mice reported recently by researchers at the University of Louisville. Obesity is presently a worldwide health issue, and it is commonly considered a risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. When a pregnant woman is obese, her children can be affected by malformation, functional abnormalities, obesity, and type II diabetes. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115620.php One in every two pregnant Australian woman still consume alcohol during pregnancy, according to a study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The responsibility of providing accurate information about the harmful effects of alcohol and its lifelong effects on the child falls on obstetricians and other health professionals. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115612.php Scientists know that children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) often have structural brain damage. Yet little is known about how white matter connections, and deep gray matter structures that act as relay stations, are affected in children with FASD. A new study has used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to identify several specific white matter regions as well as deep gray matter areas of the brain that appear sensitive to prenatal alcohol exposure. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115588.php Prenatal alcohol exposure may be particularly destructive for neurotrophins, a family of peptides that influence the growth, development and functional plasticity of the fetal brain. A new rodent study of alcohol's effects on three key neurotrophins has found that, even though environmental enrichment may be able to improve some fetal-alcohol effects, those benefits do not appear to be mediated by neurotrophins. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115540.php A survey carried out among 250 pregnant women showed that 24 percent of them do not feel adequately informed by their gynaecologist, and almost half do not take part in any prenatal course. The study, prepared by the Head of the Obstetrics Department at the Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, Miguel Angel Herraiz, also showed that 80 percent of those surveyed prefer a "medicalised" birth, with epidural anaesthesia, to a natural birth. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115440.php Similar to a national trend, the teenage birth rate in West Virginia has increased for the first time in eight years, the Charleston Daily Mail reports. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115433.php New research suggests that one reason behind racial disparities in preterm birth may have a lot to do with where the mother lives. Written by Northeastern University professor Theresa Osypuk, the study found that regional hypersegregation (residential racial segregation across four or more dimensions) may contribute to the higher rate of preterm births among black women. Prior research has shown that infants born to Black women in the U.S. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115392.php Ark Therapeutics Group plc("Ark" or the "Company") today announces that it has received positive feedback from the EMEA Gene Therapy Working Party (GTWP) regarding the pre-clinical toxicology and Phase 1 trial requirements for EG013, an adenovirally mediated VEGF based product, being developed for foetal growth restriction. The GTWP commented on the nature of the pre-clinical models, toxicology and the design of a Phase 1 trial. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115322.php The St. Petersburg Times on Monday examined the controversy surrounding home births, which has pitted some home birth advocates and physicians against each other. While supporters of home births have "flung phrases like 'father knows best' and 'power play,'" opponents have used "trendy" and "the latest cause celebre," according to the Times. Last month, the Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115269.php The lack of a fall in the maternal death rate in the latest report by the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) has been partly attributed to the increasing percentage of births from immigrant women. Women from ethnic minority groups (defined as those other than white British women), immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and those from the gypsy population have been identified as being significantly more at risk of maternal mortality. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115250.php Women exposed to high levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls - a group of banned environmental pollutants) are less likely to give birth to male children. A study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health found that among women from the San Francisco Bay Area, those exposed to higher levels of PCBs during the 50s and 60s, were significantly more likely to give birth to female children. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115232.php Despite the routine delivery of babies by caesarean section, there is no consensus among medical practitioners on which is the best operating method to use. In a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library, researchers call for further studies to establish the safest method for both mother and infant. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115144.php The concept of "teenage pregnancy" is "stigmatizing, prejudicial" and "counterproductive" and should be abandoned by advocates aiming to reduce unplanned pregnancies among teenagers, Mike Males, a researcher for the online information service YouthFacts.org, writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115143.php One in five women who gives birth in the U.S. is obese, and physicians are seeing a greater number of pregnant women who are morbidly obese -- weighing 400, 500 or 600 pounds -- the New York Times reports. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115229.php In Caesarean deliveries the placenta is usually removed by hand or by a technique known as 'cord traction'. A recent systematic review by Cochrane Researchers shows that cord traction poses less risk to the mother than manual removal. Removal of the placenta in Caesarean births may affect a woman's chance of complications such as endometritis (infection of lining of the womb) and post-operative bleeding. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115227.php Women often undergo early caesareans or induced labour following detection of decreased amniotic fluid volume, because this is seen as a sign of foetal distress. While no gold standard exists for measuring amniotic volumes, a new Cochrane Systematic Review suggests that the single deepest vertical pocket (SDVP) technique is better than the commonly used amniotic fluid index (AFI) method. Amniotic fluid protects unborn babies from trauma and infection. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115192.php Overweight mothers give birth to offspring who become even heavier, resulting in amplification of obesity across generations, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston who found that chemical changes in the ways genes are expressed - a phenomenon called epigenetics - could affect successive generations of mice. "There is an obesity epidemic in the United States and it's increasingly recognized as a worldwide phenomenon," said Dr. Robert A. Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/115133.php Women taking antiepileptic drugs and planning a pregnancy are advised to prepare well ahead of conception to reduce the risk of birth defects, according to an article in the current edition of Australian Prescriber. Associate Professor Cecilie Lander, Department of Neurology at the University of Queensland, states in the article that these women have two to three times more risk than other women of having a baby with a foetal abnormality. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/114972.php The U.S. teenage birth rate increased by 2.8% from 2005 to 2006, marking the first increase in the rate in 15 years, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics -- a consortium of 22 federal agencies, Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/114901.php Expectant mothers who eat nuts or nut products like peanut butter daily during pregnancy increase their children's risk of developing asthma by more than 50 percent over women who rarely or never consume nut products during pregnancy, according to new research from the Netherlands.