Pregnancy News and Research

Latest Pregnancy News and Research

Money alone cannot fix Russia's 'demographic crisis'

Russia "is in a demographic crisis, shedding 2.2 million people (or 1.6 percent of the population) since 2002, and the government is trying to encourage more women to bring Russian citizens into the world," journalist Natalia Antonova writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece, in which she describes her experience with the Russian medical system after "unexpectedly" becoming pregnant shortly after receiving her visa to work in Moscow.

29 Aug 2011

Plants stop lethal bleedings after birth in Tanzanian women

Researchers at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, have examined a number of plants which are used for illegal abortions in Tanzania. The lab tests show that several of the plants can make the uterus tissue contract and that the plants therefore can be used to stop lethal bleedings after birth. This new knowledge is now to be conveyed in rural Tanzania where access to medicine often is difficult.

26 Aug 2011

New guidelines on management of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy

New ESC guidelines emphasise the importance of screening and risk assessment. Pre-existing heart disease is rarely a contraindication to pregnancy - indeed, many women with heart disorders tolerate pregnancy well - but it remains a "major concern" that complications are frequent and in some cases may be life-threatening for both the mother and her child. In Europe maternal heart disease has now become the major cause of maternal death during pregnancy.

26 Aug 2011

Researchers to develop diagnostic test for folate receptor autoantibody

Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have received a $50,000 grant from the SUNY Research Foundation Technology Accelerator Fund to develop a diagnostic test for the folate receptor autoantibody. This autoantibody is associated with neural tube defects, subfertility, cerebral folate deficiency in infants and autism spectrum disorders.

26 Aug 2011

Children of women with HG more likely to suffer from anxiety, bipolar disorder

An extreme form of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) takes a heavy toll on thousands of women each year and can lead to hospitalization and pregnancy termination. But new research suggests pregnant women are not the only victims.

24 Aug 2011

Only 20.6% of Medicaid-covered Ohio youths complete full six month antidepressant treatment

About half of Medicaid-covered children and adolescents in Ohio who are in treatment for depression complete their first three months of prescribed antidepressants, and only one-fifth complete the recommended minimum six-month course of drugs to treat depression, new research suggests.

24 Aug 2011

Prenatal smoking affects early neurological development in babies

In one of the largest studies of its kind to date, researchers have found that babies born to mothers who smoke while pregnant face substantial delays in early neurological development, and the effects may be stronger than researchers had previously thought.

23 Aug 2011

Children with asthma more likely to have been exposed to tobacco smoking before birth

Children with severe asthma are 3.6 times more likely to have been exposed to tobacco smoking before birth - even without later exposure - than children with a mild form of the disease, according to a multicenter study led by researchers at University of California, San Francisco.

23 Aug 2011

Marital transitions can increase risk of large weight gain in men, women

Both marriage and divorce can act as "weight shocks," leading people to add a few extra pounds - especially among those over age 30 - according to a new study.

22 Aug 2011

Babies of mothers with higher pre-pregnancy BMI are fatter, finds study

Babies of mothers with a higher pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) are fatter and have more fat in their liver, a study published in September's issue of the journal Pediatric Research has found.

20 Aug 2011

FDA approves Seattle Genetics ADCETRIS drug to treat Hodgkin lymphoma, ALCL

Seattle Genetics, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted accelerated approval of ADCETRISTM for two indications: (1) the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous stem cell transplant or after failure of at least two prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimens in patients who are not ASCT candidates, and (2) the treatment of patients with systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma after failure of at least one prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimen.

20 Aug 2011

New quick malaria diagnostic test may help reduce overtreatment

"Health workers often treat patients for malaria even when a test indicates a different cause of the illness," a behavior seen across sub-Saharan Africa "that worries many health experts," PRI's The World reports.

19 Aug 2011

Longer looks: Doctors advocating less care; addiction as a 'disease'

These physicians are not anti-medicine. They are not trying to save money on their copayments or deductibles. And they are not trying to rein in the nation's soaring health-care costs, which at $2.7 trillion account for fully one sixth of every dollar spent in the U.S. They are applying to their personal lives a message they have become increasingly vocal about in their roles as biomedical researchers and doctors: more health care often means worse health.

19 Aug 2011

Seven UC scientists receive 2011 NARSAD Grants for brain and behavior research

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation has awarded $1.5 million in NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants to fund highly esteemed scientists for research on brain and behavior disorders.

19 Aug 2011

Flu immunization targets fall short for health workers and pregnant women

According to a new survey despite recent improvements in influenza vaccination rates among U.S. health care personnel, their rates for the 2010-2011 flu season still fell short of national health objectives.

18 Aug 2011

Australian youth mostly ignorant about sexual health

The survey found that most of the young people do not know about Pap smears, sexually transmitted infections and how the contraceptive pill works.

18 Aug 2011

Gene Security Network announces commercial launch of non-invasive prenatal test

Gene Security Network Inc. (GSN) today announced the commercial launch of its first non-invasive prenatal test powered by the company's proprietary bioinformatics technology, Parental Support™.

18 Aug 2011

Maternal stress may disrupt masculinization of developing mouse brain

Sons of male mice exposed to prenatal stress are more sensitive to stress as adults, according to a study in the August 17 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. These findings suggest experiences in the womb can lead to individual differences in stress response that may be passed across generations.

18 Aug 2011

Skin infection admissions are now the seventh-most-common reason for hospitalizations

The number of children hospitalized for skin and soft-tissue infections, most due to community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has more than doubled since 2000, a study by researchers at UC Davis and elsewhere has found.

18 Aug 2011

Semaphorin-PlexinD1 signaling pathway shows promise as therapeutic target for cancer treatment

In a new study published in the August 16th issue of Developmental Cell, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center identified a molecular mechanism that guarantees that new blood vessels form in the right place and with the proper abundance.

17 Aug 2011