Fertility & Pregnancy

Umbilical cords of children whose mothers used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors during pregnancy may be longer than umbilical cords of other newborn children, shows a new study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, are commonly prescribed antidepressants, and this is the first time their … [Read more...]

Children whose mothers gain excess weight or have elevated blood sugar during their pregnancies are more likely to become overweight or obese during their first decade of life, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in Maternal and Child Health Journal. The study, which followed more than 24,000 mothers and their children over 10 years, is the largest to date … [Read more...]

A mother's breast milk supports immune responses in her newborn that help the infant's gut become a healthy home to a mix of bacterial species, thanks in part to newly identified antibodies from the mother, according to a study by UC Berkeley researchers. Scientists believe the gut is sterile and bacteria-free at birth, when suddenly the infant is exposed to bacteria from … [Read more...]

Mothers who live near green spaces deliver babies with significantly higher birth weights, according to a new study, "Green Spaces and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes" published in the journal, Occupational and Environmental Medicine. A team of researchers from Israel and Spain, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), evaluated nearly 40,000 single live births from a … [Read more...]

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) finds that maternal obesity leads to marked changes in the offspring's gastrointestinal microflora composition and gastrointestinal function. The gastrointestinal microflora consists of multiple species of microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts of animals and … [Read more...]

It's a daily injection to the belly for pregnant women at risk of developing blood clots and it's ineffective, according to a clinical trial led by researchers at The Ottawa Hospital and published today by the medical journal The Lancet. As many as one in 10 pregnant women have a tendency to develop blood clots in their veins, a condition called thrombophilia. For two … [Read more...]

Calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause can improve women's cholesterol profiles. And much of that effect is tied to raising vitamin D levels, finds a new study from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) just published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Whether calcium or vitamin D can indeed improve cholesterol levels … [Read more...]

A study led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center's School of Public Health presents evidence linking personal care products used during pregnancy to adverse reproductive effects in newborns. "The study found a link between women with higher levels of butyl paraben, which is commonly used as a preservative in cosmetics, and the following birth outcomes: shorter gestational age at … [Read more...]

Consuming a high-fructose diet during pregnancy may cause defects in the placenta and restrict fetal growth, potentially increasing a baby's risk for metabolic health problems later in life, according to research in mice and people by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. However, giving the mice allopurinol, a generic drug frequently prescribed to … [Read more...]

Loss of appetite during illness is a common and potentially debilitating phenomenon -- in cancer patients, especially, it can even shorten lifespan. Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered how an immune system molecule hijacks a brain circuit and reduces appetite. Their research points to potential targets for treating loss of appetite and … [Read more...]

Individual small RNAs are responsible for controlling the expression of gonadoliberin or GnRH (Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone), a neurohormone that controls sexual maturation, the appearance of puberty, and fertility in adults. This has just been demonstrated by the "Development and Plasticity of the Neuroendocrine Brain" team led by Vincent Prévot, Inserm Research Director … [Read more...]

The world's biggest study offering healthy eating and exercise advice to pregnant women who are overweight or obese has shown a significant reduction in the number of babies born over 4kg (8.8 pounds) in weight. The LIMIT Study, led by researchers from the University of Adelaide's Robinson Institute and the Women's and Children's Hospital, involved more than 2200 pregnant … [Read more...]

A pilot study found that use of a mobile phone app that provided supportive texts and an online community significantly increased the rate of breastfeeding among new mothers. An abstract of the study, "Mother's Milk Messaging (MMM): A Pilot Study of an App to Support Breastfeeding in First Time Mothers," will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2016 Meeting … [Read more...]

Feeding premature babies mostly breast milk during the first month of life appears to spur more robust brain growth, compared with babies given little or no breast milk. Studying preterm infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Louis Children's Hospital, the researchers found that preemies whose daily diets were at least 50 percent breast milk had more brain … [Read more...]

Probiotic supplements protected female mice from the loss of bone density that occurs after having their ovaries removed, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine and Georgia State University have shown. The results were published Monday, April 25 in Journal of Clinical Investigation. In mice, ovary removal induces the hormonal changes that occur with menopause … [Read more...]

The Annals of Family Medicine today published an article detailing research showing that women with a history of pregnancy loss are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease later in adulthood than other women, work completed by physicians in the Center for Primary Care and Prevention (CPCP) at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. The article "Risk of Cardiovascular Disease … [Read more...]

A new Kaiser Permanente study, published in Pediatric Obesity, found that pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of the child becoming overweight at age 2. The study also found breastfeeding for at least six months helped reduce the likelihood of a child being overweight at age 2. In the past 30 years, obesity … [Read more...]

Although rice and rice products are typical first foods for infants, a new study found that infants who ate rice and rice products had higher urinary arsenic concentrations than those who did not consume any type of rice, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Arsenic exposure from rice is a concern for infants and children. Infant rice cereal may … [Read more...]

Women have wider hips than men because their pelves must allow for the birth of large-brained babies. Nevertheless, many female pelves are still not wide enough, which can result in difficult births. Traditionally, the human pelvis has been considered an evolutionary compromise between birthing and walking upright; a wider pelvis would compromise efficient bipedal locomotion. … [Read more...]

One of the secrets to rich milk production in lactation has been uncovered by researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Their studies have revealed that breast cells develop two nuclei as the breast switches on lactation to nurture the newborn. This change begins to occur in late pregnancy with the generation of vast numbers of cells with two nuclei. The … [Read more...]

Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), which includes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), is the leading cause of death in infants 1 month to 1 year of age in the United States. Although the reason is unknown, maternal age less than 20 years is associated with an increased risk of SIDS. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found … [Read more...]

Now women have yet one more incentive to lose weight as a new study has shown evidence that behavioral weight loss can help manage menopausal hot flashes. The pilot study, which was published online last month in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), consisted of 40 overweight or obese white and African-American women with hot flashes, which … [Read more...]

Nursing infants' gastrointestinal tracts are enriched with specific protective microbes. Mother's milk, itself, guides the development of neonates' gut microbiota, nourishing a very specific bacterial population that, in turn, provides nourishment and protects the child. Now a team from the University of California, Davis, has identified the compound in the milk that supplies … [Read more...]

Women who stayed on a low fat diet for approximately eight years reduced their risk of death from invasive breast cancers and improved their survival rates when compared with women who had not followed the dietary regimen, according to a study presented at a clinical trial plenary session, entitled "Transformative Clinical Trials in Breast Cancer," at the American Association … [Read more...]

Women with epilepsy are just as likely to achieve a successful pregnancy as women without the neurological disorder, according to a new study led by research teams at multiple centers, including NYU Langone Medical Center. In a prospective study, women with epilepsy had a comparable likelihood of achieving pregnancy, time taken to get pregnant, and pregnancy outcomes such as … [Read more...]

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Development Economics, researchers Professor Marco Manacorda (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner (University of Leicester) focused on evidence from the exposure of day-to-day violence in Brazil by analysing the birth outcomes of children whose mothers were exposed to local violence, as measured by … [Read more...]

Data presented today demonstrates that healthy maternal Body Mass Index (BMI) and exclusively breastfeeding a child for at least six months can reduce the risk of infants developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adolescence. The results were presented at The International Liver CongressTM 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. Pre-pregnancy BMI within the normal range was … [Read more...]

Babies born to pregnant women taking the epilepsy drug lamotrigine may not be at an increased risk of birth defects, such as cleft lip, cleft palate or clubfoot, according to a study published in the April 6, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Lamotrigine is an epilepsy drug used on its own or in combination with other … [Read more...]

Children born to mothers who eat salmon when pregnant may be less likely to have doctor diagnosed asthma compared to children whose mothers do not eat it, new research has shown. The study, led by Professor Philip Calder of the University of Southampton, was presented at the recent Experimental Biology Congress in San Diego. Professor Calder presented the findings after … [Read more...]

The babies of obese women who develop gestational diabetes are five times as likely to be excessively large by six months of pregnancy, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge. The study, which shows that excessive fetal growth begins weeks before at-risk women are screened for gestational diabetes, suggests that current screening programmes may take place … [Read more...]