Maternal Health News and Research

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Maternal happiness during pregnancy linked to child's brain development

Study reveals that maternal emotional well-being during pregnancy is linked to significant brain development benefits in children, particularly in the hippocampal volume of female offspring.

30 Jan 2024

Prenatal air pollution exposure increases the risk of severe respiratory distress in newborns

Prenatal exposure to air pollution increases the risk of severe respiratory distress in newborn babies, according to new research conducted at the Penn State College of Medicine in collaboration with the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Study led by Health Canada.

29 Jan 2024

Neonates exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero at higher risk of respiratory distress, study finds

Researchers found that neonates born to mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection face an increased risk of respiratory distress, potentially due to an inflammatory response triggered by prenatal exposure.

29 Jan 2024

Improving communication could promote positive birth experiences for Black birthing people

This study explored the perspectives of Black birthing people on how better communication with care teams may have improved their birth experiences.

22 Jan 2024

California offers a lifeline for medical residents who can’t find abortion training

Bria Peacock chose a career in medicine because the Black Georgia native saw the dire health needs in her community — including access to abortion care.

10 Jan 2024

The equity imperative: A roundtable on transforming healthcare

In the Roundtable titled "A Glimpse at How Stakeholders Are Working Towards Achieving Health Equity," published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Equity, two expert panel discussions examine efforts to achieve maternal health equity and changes that health systems can make to operationalize health equity.

9 Jan 2024

Exploring environmental influences on pregnancy, child health and disabilities

How does a pregnant person's environment, diet, stress, medications and social wellbeing affect their pregnancy and -; down the road -; their child's health?

3 Jan 2024

How a malaria drug may hold the key to ending malnutrition's cycle of devastation

Wars, drought, displacement, and instability are causing a dramatic increase in the number of pregnant and breastfeeding women around the world who suffer from malnutrition.

20 Dec 2023

Deep learning reveals hidden patterns in adolescent mental health

The personal yet global struggle with mental health may be more visible now than ever before. Yet many people still find it difficult to access the support they need. In Japan, suicide is sadly the leading cause of death for young people.

13 Dec 2023

Being Black and pregnant in the deep South can be a dangerous combination

O'laysha Davis was a few weeks shy of her due date when in mid-August she decided it was time to switch doctors.

8 Dec 2023

Study provides insights into the challenges faced by American moms in the year after birth

Maternal mortality in the U.S. is on the rise and more than half of maternal deaths occur in the postpartum year.

6 Nov 2023

Pregnant women in blighted neighborhoods have higher testosterone levels, study finds

Pregnant women living in blighted neighborhoods with high levels of known stressors have higher levels of testosterone – the primary sex hormone in males -- which disrupt hormone regulation and may lead to life-threatening complications during and after childbirth, according to Rutgers research.

3 Nov 2023

Medical-legal partnerships can help improve maternal and infant health outcomes

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs), which include a lawyer as part of a patient's care team, can help health systems address health-harming legal needs and better support pregnant and postpartum patients, according to a new research commentary published today in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

27 Oct 2023

Excessive weight gain during pregnancy linked to higher risk of death decades later

Pregnant people who gained more than the now-recommended amount of weight had a higher risk of death from heart disease or diabetes in the decades that followed, according to new analysis of 50 years of data published in The Lancet and led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

19 Oct 2023

Biden pick to lead NIH finally has her day, but still gets caught up in drug price debate

A Senate committee finally held a hearing Wednesday on President Joe Biden's pick to lead the National Institutes of Health. But the panel's chair, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was focused on drug prices — an issue over which the NIH has very little control.

19 Oct 2023

$12.5 million grant awarded to NYU Langone Health for developing digital tool to reduce maternal mortality

The maternal mortality rate in the United States, which has doubled in the past 20 years, is higher than in any other industrialized nation.

16 Oct 2023

Healthcare needs of pregnant adolescents is being ignored in low-and middle-income countries

The healthcare needs of pregnant adolescents will continue to be ignored in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) unless there are major changes to healthcare delivery and frameworks, according to a new study by UCL and Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) researchers.

15 Oct 2023

Severe maternal morbidity, opioid use, and prior hospital care linked to pregnancy-associated deaths

The majority of research and public discourse on US maternal mortality focuses on pregnancy-related maternal deaths-;deaths caused or accelerated by a pregnancy-;rather than the broader category of pregnancy-associated maternal deaths, which are deaths from any cause during pregnancy or up to one year postpartum, including those that are pregnancy-related.

11 Oct 2023

Hybrid closed-loop technology could be game-changing for pregnant women with type 1 diabetes

For pregnant women with type 1 diabetes, a technology giving insulin doses as informed by a smartphone algorithm, helps them better manage their blood sugars, compared to traditional insulin pumps or multiple daily injections, according to a new randomized trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) meeting.

10 Oct 2023

Mothers of color can’t see if providers have a history of mistreatment. Why not?

When Selam Solomon Caldwell and her husband learned she was pregnant last year, the stakes for finding the right OB-GYN felt high.

6 Oct 2023