Pregnancy News and Research

Latest Pregnancy News and Research

Eating junk food during pregnancy and breastfeeding gives offspring taste for junk food

Mothers who eat junk food during pregnancy and breastfeeding may be putting their children at risk of overeating and developing obesity, according to a study funded by the Wellcome Trust and carried out at the Royal Veterinary College, London.

16 Aug 2007

Pregnant women advised to cut out junk food for their child's sake

British researchers are warning pregnant women that a penchant for junk food may be condemning their children to crave the same diet.

14 Aug 2007

Risk of bacterial vaginosis linked to preterm birth appears higher for African-Americans

Risk of a common vaginal infection linked to preterm birth appears to escalate when even one partner is African-American, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study presented today at the 34th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Boston.

13 Aug 2007

Diovan (valsartan) granted pediatric exclusivity by FDA

Diovan (valsartan) has been granted pediatric exclusivity by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on studies conducted in children with high blood pressure.

13 Aug 2007

Overweight kids at greater risk of school absenteeism

In the first study of how weight may affect school attendance, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University have found that overweight children are at greater risk of school absenteeism than their normal-weight peers.

13 Aug 2007

Genetic engineering offers promising new approaches to improve dietary iron intake

Using selective plant breeding and genetic engineering could be used to reduce the incidence of iron deficiency worldwide by improving the quality of dietary iron, conclude authors of a Seminar in this week’s edition of The Lancet.

13 Aug 2007

Obesity and poorer school attendance go hand in hand

New research in the U.S. has found that there is a connection between school attendance and obesity.

12 Aug 2007

Maternal obesity and birth defects

Mothers of babies born with some structural birth defectsincluding missing limbs, malformed hearts and underdeveloped spinal cordsappear more likely to be obese prior to becoming pregnant than mothers whose children are born without such defects, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

7 Aug 2007

Improved guidelines for providing intrauterine devices

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have found that intrauterine devices are safe and effective in a population of women previously not considered as good candidates for this method of birth control.

6 Aug 2007

Determinants of inadequate prenatal care utilization by African American women

Fewer African-American women living in urban communities are likely to get adequate prenatal care during their pregnancy than white women are, a new study finds, and the main reason could be their negative views about the need for such care.

6 Aug 2007

Abstinence only sex programmes - a waste of government money?

The latest research confirms and supports earlier work which has stated that programmes which exclusively advocate abstinence from sex in order to stop risky sexual behaviour or help in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy, are ineffective.

6 Aug 2007

Abstinence from sex fails to cut risk of HIV infection in high income countries

Programmes that exclusively encourage abstinence from sex do not seem to affect the risk of HIV infection in high income countries, finds a review of the evidence in this week's BMJ.

3 Aug 2007

Study looks at progesterone therapy

Progesterone therapy does not reduce the chances of preterm birth in women pregnant with twins, reported researchers in a network sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

3 Aug 2007

New pregnancy labeling rules should be approved without delay

Marks the tenth anniversary of a public hearing that was hoped to spark substantial changes in the way drugs are labeled for use during pregnancy.

2 Aug 2007

Tips for relief from gastroesophageal reflux disease

Are you suffering from heartburn? Heartburn can be a symptom of a serious problem called "gastroesophageal reflux disease," also known as GERD.

1 Aug 2007

Xenomics issued European patent for Transrenal Nucleic Acid Technology for Prenatal Diagnostics

Xenomics, Inc. has announced the issuance of its first European patent "Methods for detection of nucleic acid sequences in urine", EP 1634966 A2 that covers use of its proprietary transrenal nucleic acid technology in the area of prenatal diagnostics and genetic testing.

1 Aug 2007

Babies born to mothers who smoked have higher systolic blood pressures

Infants whose mothers smoke during pregnancy have substantially higher blood pressures in their first months of life, Dutch researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

1 Aug 2007

Folic acid protects againts exposure to bisphenol A in the womb

Experiments in animals have provided additional and tantalizing evidence that what a pregnant mother eats can make her offspring more susceptible to disease later in life.

1 Aug 2007

Active management of risk in pregnancy lowers Cesarean rates

At a time when national rates of cesarean delivery have climbed above 30%, a four-year study of patients receiving an alternative method of obstetric care experienced a significantly lower rate of cesarean births, according to a study published in the current issue of the Annals of Family Medicine .

1 Aug 2007

Disparities in infant mortality more to do with racism than with race

The cause of low birth weights among African-American women has more to do with racism than with race, according to a report by an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

1 Aug 2007