AP — Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of “once a C-section, always a C-section.” Fifteen years ago, nearly 3 in 10 women who had a first C-section were able to deliver their next baby vaginally, a trend called VBAC for “vaginal birth after cesarean.” Read Article
ScienceDaily — A mother’s nurture may provide powerful protection against risks her baby faces in the womb, according to a new article published online February 25 in the journal Biological Psychiatry. The research shows that fetuses exposed to high levels of stress hormone — shown to be a harbinger for babies’ poor cognitive development — can escape this fate if their mothers provide them sensitive care during infancy and toddler-hood. Read Article
The Times – A massive extension of maternity leave across Europe was last night voted for by the Womens’ Rights Committee of the European Parliament to make it compulsory for employers to pay mothers for a minimum of 20 weeks on full pay. But the move … will have to be debated by the full parliament next month and faces stiff opposition from member states before becoming law. Read article
PhysOrgcom – More than three million children have been born as a result of assisted reproductive technologies since the birth of the first “test tube baby” in 1978. While the majority of these children are healthy and normal, as a group they are at greater risk of certain kinds of birth defects and being low birth weight, which is associated with obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes later in life. Read Article
Physorg.com — A new type of morning-after pill is more effective than the most widely used drug at preventing pregnancies in women who had unprotected sex and also works longer, for up to five days, a new study says. The report was published Friday in the British medical journal, Lancet. Levonorgestrel, the most widely used emergency contraceptive pill, is only effective if women take it within three days of having sex. It is sold under various brand names including Levonelle and Plan B, and is available in more than 140 countries, including the United States, Canada and many countries in western Europe. In nearly 50 of those countries women can get it without a prescription. Read article
Ed. – 1. Ulipristal acetate (UPA; formerly known as CDB-2914) is a novel, high-affinity, selective progesterone receptor modulator, specifically developed by HRA Pharma for emergency contraception.link 2. Also, Swiss Biopharmaceutical Company PregLem in-licensed ulipristal acetate from HRA Pharma to develop and commercialize it for the treatment of uterine myoma (fibroids) in doses of 5 and 10 mg.Preglem.com 3. Regarding safety of Elleaone, adverse events were in general similar to those reported for levonorgestrel. ema
PHOENIX — The picture of Bob and Janice Numkena’s wedding day is old and faded, but Bob’s memory of the day is clear. From the beginning, they worked as a team. They didn’t have a choice. “I worked the day shift and my wife worked the night shift,” Bob Numkena said, as he sat in his Tempe living room. They worked for the same company and raised two daughters, achieving the American dream. Another picture of the family shows them smiling while on vacation. But it doesn’t show the real life, day-in and day-out struggle that has been their reality. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – It is already known that men who have ring fingers the same length as their index fingers are more likely to have fertility problems compared with men whose ring fingers are longer. Now researchers have found that boys conceived using an assisted reproduction technique where a single sperm is injected directly into the egg, instead of many sperm being mixed together with an egg, may have the same problem. Read Article
ScienceDaily — Children from urban areas whose mothers suffer from depression during pregnancy are more likely than others to show antisocial behavior, including violent behavior, later in life. Furthermore, women who are aggressive and disruptive in their own teen years are more likely to become depressed in pregnancy, so that the moms’ history predicts their own children’s antisocial behavior. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – We’ve all known mothers who can whip out a breast, whip on a baby, and lactate like mad – without effort, embarrassment or, in some cases, embonpoint. For me, breastfeeding was a slog: six months of broken nights, screaming and tears (mine, mostly). But I don’t regret a moment. Breastfeeding – if you can – is the cheapest, cleanest and healthiest way to nurture a baby. That’s not just my opinion or that of the World Health Organisation (which recommends breastfeeding for the first six months) – it’s common sense, isn’t it? Read Article
Ed. – So, breast is best. It makes sense. That’s no reason for mums who can’t breastfeed to feel bad: happy, contented Mum => happy, contented baby also makes sense. Living through tortuous breastfeeding, over a sense of guilt, makes no sense at all. Reasons women don’t breastfeed include: 1. health issues/illness/medication, 2. poor role models, lack of support => lack of confidence. Bonding? - you can bond just as well when bottle-feeding your baby, and you can put your feet up too!
ScienceDaily — Thirteen-pound babies may make headlines, but they aren’t the norm. In fact, U.S. infants are getting smaller, according to researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute’s Department of Population Medicine, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Their findings, published in the February 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, suggest that birth weights in this country have declined during the past 15 years. Read Article
Ed. – Heavy babies can make a birth very difficult. Before Caesarian Sections and sterile technique, a baby that was too big to get out could kill the mother. A second point is that with obesity awareness increasing, especially among well-educated women, the decreasing birth weights might not be ALL bad news. If we knew whether the babies were healthy, that would tell us a LOT more.
NineMSN – The federal government has been urged to push on with its plans to tighten homebirth laws, after a new study found the practice to be more risky than conventional hospital deliveries. A comparison of South Australian births between 1991 and 2006 found the perinatal mortality rates of homebirth and hospital births to be similar. Read article
Ed. – It’s the AMA’s OPINION that they ‘know best’. Since the perinatal mortality rates of homebirth and hospital births ARE similar; if one lot are doing something that results in deaths, then the other must be doing something else that results in deaths.This also means that both are doing something RIGHT. They COULD of course, try to learn from each other. Watch Sesame St’s “Co-operation makes it happen…”
Washington Post – About 32 weeks into her first pregnancy, Christie Craigie-Carter’s obstetrician told her that the baby she was carrying was stuck in a bottom-down position — a breech baby — and that she’d have to give up her dream of a natural delivery and have a Caesarean section instead. Desperate to avoid surgery, Craigie-Carter said she wanted to deliver the baby naturally anyway, but her doctor told her that such a procedure was simply too dangerous. “She said I wouldn’t find a obstetrician on the East Coast who would deliver a breech baby vaginally,” recalled Craigie-Carter. When she asked her obstetrician to try to turn the baby into a head-down position by manually manipulating her abdomen, Craigie-Carter was told that such a maneuver might endanger the baby’s life by causing the placenta to separate from the uterine wall. Read article
BBC – Mothers who find breastfeeding so hard that they give up should not blame themselves, researchers say. A Norwegian study concludes that difficulty feeding a newborn may be down to higher levels of the male hormone testosterone during pregnancy. Read article
Ed. – To summarise in plain-speak; if it’s making you, your baby and maybe also your household miserable, then forget about breast-feeding. Yes, breast-feeding has health advantages, but there is no health advantage like being happy, to ensure smiling, playful, contented and healthy babies and mothers.
Daily Telegraph – Female cleaners and scientists are at greater risk of having a baby with birth defects than those in other jobs, a new study suggests. The findings were published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Read Article
Ed. – Commonsense tells us that cleaners would be exposed to many harmful chemicals, that at present, are legal. Add to that, the low income; and affordablity of good, clean food. This leaves the body’s immune system down, so people are more vulnerable to any disease. Re scientists: Safety standards, in laboratories in the West, are currently extremely high. Regulations, re the handling of hazardous waste, are strict. What statistical issues are arising from this study could be due to earlier exposure in careers when standards were less high. It all depends on the population studied.
Chicago Tribune – With at least two flus and plenty of colds, coughs and sore throats circulating this season, some Americans are turning to zinc to ward off viruses. Lozenges, supplements and nasal sprays that contain the mineral claim to boost immunity, and there is some evidence that they might do so. In an effort to stay well, though, we might be making ourselves sick. Consistently taking excessive amounts of zinc, according to early evidence, could lead to learning and memory problems, nerve damage, urinary tract problems and other negative effects. Read article
Ed. – This article could be reading far too much into the link between Copper and Zinc levels. Copper in Wstern Australia (WA) can easily be toxic to livestock; in the UK, livestock need copper suplementation especially during pregnancy. Many people who have in lived in WA have their hair analysis level of copper jammed against the top of the graph – and it’s not easy to get it down. High levels of copper are linked with depression. Things to consider in estimating daily intake: how much is in different soils and therefore food you buy and your local water supply.
ABC – Becoming pregnant has become a punishable offence for female American soldiers in Iraq and for those who make them pregnant as well. General Anthony Cucolo, who commands US forces in northern Iraq, says offenders including married couples could attract punishments such as a court martial, or time in prison. “I have female soldiers in absolutely critical specialties and becoming pregnant takes them out of the fight,” he said. Read article
The Daily Telegraph – Teenage girls are being offered the contraceptive Pill over the counter and without a prescription in a Government drive to reduce pregnancies among young women. The controversial project is being piloted in the two inner-city London boroughs with the highest pregnancy rates – Southwark and Lambeth – where it is hoped they will cut pregnancy rates by as much as 60 per cent. Read article
New York Times – The pregnancy was easy, the delivery a breeze. This was the couple’s first baby, and they were thrilled. But within two months, the bliss of new parenthood was shattered by postpartum depression. A sad, familiar story. But this one had a twist: The patient who came to me for treatment was not the mother but her husband. A few weeks after the baby arrived, he had become uncharacteristically anxious, sad and withdrawn. He had trouble sleeping, even though his wife was the one up at night breast-feeding their new son. What scared her enough to bring him to my office was that he had become suicidal. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – Breastfeeding a baby can significantly reduce a woman’s chances of developing a condition linked to heart disease and diabetes, research has shown. Breastfeeding could more than halve the risk of metabolic syndrome, a mix of symptoms including high blood pressure, obesity and cholesterol that if untreated can lead to major illness. For women with a form of disabetes (sic) associated with pregnancy, the effect was even stronger. Read article
ScienceDaily — Researchers from LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, have found for the first time that drinking more than 5 servings of sugar- sweetened cola a week prior to pregnancy appears to significantly elevate the risk of developing diabetes during pregnancy. Read Article
Reuters – With the help of their doctors, women planning to become pregnant should take an inventory of the medications they take, researchers from Canada advise. In a study, they found that many pregnant women still take medications long known to cause birth defects. Some medications with known fetal risk, such as drugs that control epilepsy, are essential during pregnancy, Dr. Anick Berard, at the University of Montreal in Quebec, noted in an email correspondence to Reuters Health. Read Article
The West Australian – Paediatric immunologist Richard Loh’s stats speak for themselves. He has headed the immunology departments at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children and PathWest for 16 years and no baby born to a known HIV-positive mother under the care of the WA HIV pregnancy team in that time has acquired the virus. Read article
LA Times – As the H1N1 influenza vaccine trickles into clinics and pharmacies over the next few weeks, public health officials and doctors desperately hope that pregnant women will be at the front of the line for the shot. Past influenza pandemics have proved that they’re at increased risk for severe complications — and they appear to be even more vulnerable to this new flu strain. Read article
The Biochemist – Re: Tamiflu – there is NOT a dearth of facts about Tamiflu. One fact I found early in this ‘pandemic’ was that the efficacy of both Tamiflu and Relenza (they have differing mechanisms) is not that great. Viruses have been exposed to them and developed resistance. The more ANY antibiotic or anti-viral is used – the more ineffective it becomes in the larger population as a result.
BBC – More than a million people are said to have taken part in a march in Madrid to oppose government plans to liberalise Spain’s abortion law. Several dozen centre-right opposition party joined the demonstration, which was backed by Roman Catholic bishops. Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wants to introduce abortion on demand. At present, a pregnancy can only be terminated in mainly Catholic Spain under specific circumstances. Read Article
TORONTO – Pregnant women are getting mixed messages from federal and provincial health officials about what they should do to protect themselves from the swine flu. The conflicting advice emerged Friday as officials revealed that the pandemic vaccine intended for pregnant women won’t be available when the regular vaccine arrives in early November. Read article
The Biochemist – It’s simple: Dr King is closer to the pregnant women; Dr Butler-Jones is closeted with politicians a good deal of the time; at WHO, Dr Grondin is Director of Migration Health Department (IOM) link, in addition to her Canadian role, so she mostly takes the official line; Dr Bennet, as a critic, seems to get things straight. //Scientifically, one would say the adjuvant(s) appear to be safe -as there is no population-wide proof.
