Childbirth News and Research

Latest Childbirth News and Research

Carnegie professor receives NIH Director's New Innovator Award

Kathryn Whitehead, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, has been awarded a 2018 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award for her project titled "Fate, Function, and Genetic Engineering of Breast Milk Cells for Infant Therapy."

3 Oct 2018

Study: PVC-floored homes are source of phthalate uptake in pregnant women

A new study in the SELMA project at Karlstad University, Sweden, shows that plastic flooring in the home are a source of uptake of phthalates in pregnant women, phthalates that are considered dangerous in the EU chemical regulation system.

27 Sep 2018

Obese mothers who underwent bariatric surgery can have safer deliveries

Obese mothers who lose weight through bariatric surgery can have safer deliveries. The positive effects are many, including fewer cesarean sections, infections, tears and hemorrhages, and fewer cases of post-term delivery or uterine inertia.

27 Sep 2018

Breastfeeding could be important way to prevent childhood obesity, study finds

In the UK a quarter of two-to-five-year olds are overweight or obese. The World Health Organization classify childhood obesity as one of the most serious global health challenges for the 21st century and in 2016 estimated that more than 41 million children under five years old were overweight or obese worldwide.

26 Sep 2018

Biomedical review finds failure rates in some surgical mesh treatments to be unacceptably high

Failure rates in some treatments using surgical mesh are unacceptably high according to a newly published comprehensive biomedical review that considers the findings from peer-reviewed scientific articles assessing its use.

18 Sep 2018

Children born by cesarean more likely to develop food allergies, shows study

Children born by cesarean, or C-section, more often develop food allergies. The opposite applies to very preterm children.

10 Sep 2018

New study assesses factors determining shared lifetime of grandchildren and their grandmothers

The importance of grandmothers in the lives of their grandchildren has changed. The shared lifetime between grandmothers and their grandchildren has a fundamental effect on how grandparents and grandchildren influence each other.

7 Sep 2018

Mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus have elevated risk of postpartum depression symptoms

Mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus have an elevated risk of developing postpartum depression symptoms, according to a new Finnish study.

4 Sep 2018

Likelihood of IVF success increases if 18 to 20 eggs are collected

The likelihood of childbirth after in vitro fertilization treatment increases if 18 to 20 eggs are stimulated to mature in a woman's ovaries, a dissertation at Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden, shows. That is more eggs than the number aimed at in today's IVF treatments.

3 Sep 2018

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What the Health?’ See you in court!

A federal district court judge in Texas has set Sept. 10 as the date for oral arguments in a case filed by Republican state attorneys general and governors from 20 states.

17 Aug 2018

New QUT study sheds light on factors promoting and inhibiting 'normal' birth

Research led by QUT Associate Professor Yvette Miller, from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, asked almost 6000 women about their birthing experiences in Queensland, Australia.

24 Jul 2018

Woman's pregnancy history may be linked to Alzheimer's disease risk

A woman's history of pregnancy may affect her risk of Alzheimer's disease decades later, according to a study published in the July 18, 2018, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Jul 2018

Research reveals why risks of complications in pregnancy vary based on baby's sex

The sex of a baby controls the level of small molecules known as metabolites in the pregnant mother's blood, which may explain why risks of some diseases in pregnancy vary depending whether the mother is carrying a boy or a girl, according to new research from the University of Cambridge.

12 Jul 2018

Study explores childbirth preferences of pregnant women

Nearly four million women give birth in the U.S. each year, and it is the number one reason for all hospital admissions. But hospital satisfaction surveys generally don't include specific questions about women's experiences with their care in labor and delivery, according to researchers at Cedars-Sinai.

12 Jul 2018

Screening mothers for PPD in emergency setting

It's a scenario that Children's emergency medicine specialist Lenore Jarvis, M.D., M.Ed., has seen countless times: A mother brings her infant to the emergency department in the middle of the night with a chief complaint of the baby being fussy. Nothing she does can stop the incessant crying, she tells the triage nurse.

30 Jun 2018

New heat stable version of Carbetocin to prevent hemorrhage after birth

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a new heat stable version of a drug Carbetocin can save lives of new mothers could “revolutionize” therapy. The results of the study looking at the effectiveness of the new version of the drug were published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

28 Jun 2018