Findings from a new animal study suggest that maternal nicotine exposure during breastfeeding could be linked to problems with skull and face development.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every Tuesday throughout the duration of the outbreak.
University at Buffalo and University of Chicago scientists set out to investigate the evolution of a gene that helps women stay pregnant: the progesterone receptor gene. The results come from an analysis of the DNA of 115 mammalian species.
While the current coronavirus pandemic continues to affect all people, families will still give birth and bring new life into the world. During the COVID-19 crisis, breastfeeding and the provision of human milk to infants is recommended by national and international organizations because it is effective against infectious diseases: It strengthens the immune system by directly transferring antibodies from the mother.
Women Veterans with more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or moral injury (guilt, shame or demoralization in response to participating in or witnessing events that violate one's sense of right and wrong), are at greater risk for negative pregnancy outcomes and postpartum depression in the three years following discharge from military service.
The consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure have been highlighted by three new reports on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in a virtual issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. FASD is the umbrella term for the continuum of effects caused by prenatal drinking, encompassing the most severe form, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), and less severe forms including partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS) and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND). Children with FAS have poor growth, atypical facial features, and central nervous system problems, and all three conditions require evidence of neurobehavioral impairment for diagnosis.
Monsoon rainfall has become more unpredictable in India. Floods and droughts have become more common and pose multiple risks to human health and wellbeing, with children under five being particularly vulnerable. New research finds that more assistance needs to be provided to communities in flood-prone areas to protect children under five from undernutrition.
Scientists have created a mathematical model that can help explain why so many pregnancies and in vitro fertilization attempts fail. The Rutgers-led study, which may help to improve fertility, is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The American College of Radiology® (ACR®) today released an update to its ACR Appropriateness Criteria®, which includes 193 diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology topics with 942 clinical variants covering more than 1,680 clinical scenarios. This update includes four new and 12 revised topics.
A new national registry has been launched by specialists in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCLA Health and the University of California, San Francisco, to determine COVID-19’s possible effects on pregnant women and newborns.
E-cigarette use during pregnancy could be harmful to the respiratory systems of both mothers and fetuses, according to a new study in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.
La intervención quirúrgica realizada en un feto que aún se encuentra en el vientre materno con el fin reparar los defectos de la espina bífida motiva al cuerpo a restablecer la estructura normal del cerebro, descubrió un estudio de Mayo Clinic.
Chirality is a type of asymmetry where something can’t overlap with its mirror image, like our hands. Michael Ostap, Ph.D., is researching what causes chirality on a molecular level to better understand embryonic development and how it can go wrong.
Female eggs exposed to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, have an impaired ability to produce viable embryos, and are significantly less likely to result in a viable pregnancy, according to an animal study accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting. The abstract will be published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
Vaccine expert working on developing covid-19 vaccine, sees major differences between Covid-19 and SARS
The first human study to link blood levels of “forever” chemicals known as PFAS in pregnant women with the risk of obesity in their granddaughters is described in an ENDO 2020 abstract that will be published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
Common bisphenol A (BPA) substitutes can affect the developing fetus and cause hypertension in later life, suggests a rodent study accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting. The research will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
As the novel coronavirus spreads globally, pregnant women are concerned about how COVID-19 could affect them and their unborn children. Justin Brandt, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Medical School, discusses common questions regarding pregnancy and the coronavirus.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are launching a pair of studies to answer critical questions regarding the roles COVID-19 may play in breast milk and pregnancy.
There is still much for medical experts to learn about how COVID-19 could cause problems during pregnancy, whether it can be passed to the fetus, and how it can affect the health of babies after birth. But there is concern for women with high-risk pregnancies, including women who have diabetes, chronic hypertension or lung problems.
As the world prioritizes social distancing due to COVID-19, new research shows that extended use of Kangaroo Care, a skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest method of caring for a baby, can positively benefit full-term infants and their mothers, which has important implications for post-partum depression. The study provides evidence that the physiology of mothers and their full-term infants is influenced by Kangaroo care: it increases oxytocin levels in mothers, and during infancy, can favorably influence both neurodevelopmental trajectories and infant neurobiological functioning.
Breaking research in AACC’s The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine shows that the fentanyl in epidurals can pass on to babies during labor. While the infants in this study did not experience adverse effects from this fentanyl transfer, this information is crucial to ensuring that new mothers don’t get falsely accused of fentanyl abuse, which can have dire social repercussions for mother and child.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) describe the range of effects associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). The most severe forms of FASD are fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and partial fetal alcohol syndrome (PFAS), which have adverse effects on learning and memory and result in observable physical abnormalities, including a distinct pattern of facial dysmorphic features, small head circumference, and growth restriction. Identifying the specific brain regions affected is important to fully understand the impact of PAE. Poor spatial skills are common in children with FASD, and tests of navigation in rodents – and more recently, humans – have linked PAE to impairment in ‘place learning’ (the learning of physical positions or locations of objects). Place learning in rodents and humans depends on the hippocampus, a small seahorse-shaped structure in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is particularly sensitive to PAE and is smaller in people (and rodents) exposed to alcohol in
The CAP's Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine published an analysis of pregnant women with COVID-19 and the health of their infants, authored by David A. Schwartz, MD. FCAP.
Pregnant women should stay in touch with physicians via telemedicine as needed, and keep precautionary distancing measures.
A PLOS ONE study showed that an online version of Harvard’s Mind/Body Program for Fertility achieved results similar to the in-person counseling program, more than doubling pregnancy rates for women with infertility. Because many women can't access in-person therapy, the online program fills a gap.
Mexican women born and educated in Mexico who now live in Texas breastfeed longer than those born and educated in the United States. That’s the finding from new research from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) at The University of Texas at Austin, which points to a “breastfeeding gap” among some Mexican-origin women living in Texas.
Finally, some good news has emerged about the novel coronavirus that has spread to about 50 countries across the world.
For the third year in a row, the University of North Carolina School of Medicine was ranked first in the country for primary care education as a part of U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have found — in newborn mice — that a component of breast milk may help protect premature babies from developing life-threatening sepsis.
Black, Hispanic and indigenous women are more likely to have gaps in insurance around the time of pregnancy than white women, a new study suggests.
Research in sheep suggests that high levels of a stress hormone during pregnancy may alter gene expression in multiple muscle groups of offspring. These shifts may affect heart, breathing and skeletal muscle function, and could potentially increase risks of inflammation and infection. The study is published ahead of print in Physiological Genomics.
With global temperatures on the rise, medical investigators are taking a deeper look at the potential link between climate change and the rise of congenital heart disease-the most common birth defect, affecting some 40,000 children born every year in the U.S.
A new guide seeks to ensure healthcare providers are ready to help new mothers with the challenging first week of breastfeeding – and to address gaps in knowledge and support created in previous decades when breastfeeding was far less common.
A baby’s development at 18 months old is not adversely affected by being left to ‘cry it out’ a few times or often in infancy researchers at the University of Warwick have found
Paid maternity leave has major mental and physical health benefits for mothers and children – including reduced rates of postpartum depression and infant mortality, according to a report in the March/April issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
Drinking while pregnant can harm the developing fetus, leading to physical, cognitive, and neurobehavioral effects that may persist into adulthood. No safe level of alcohol in pregnancy has been identified, and many guidelines now recommend total abstinence. However, prenatal drinking remains common, particularly early on before women are aware of their pregnancy.
Rutgers School of Public Health assistant professor Thomas Mackie was awarded a $4.1 million contract from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the effectiveness of Perinatal Psychiatry Access Programs available to pregnant and postpartum women across the United States.
Little data is available about the ability of antiviral drugs used to treat COVID-19, coronavirus, to enter breastmilk, let alone the potential adverse effects on breastfeeding infants.
An artificial intelligence (AI) device that has been fast-tracked for approval by the Food and Drug Administration may help identify newborns at risk for aggressive posterior retinopathy of prematurity (AP-ROP). AP-ROP is the most severe form of ROP and can be difficult to diagnose in time to save vision.
Babies aren’t born knowing how to poop. It takes them a little while after they’re born to get the hang of it.
Newborns cry. It’s their way of letting you know when they are tired, or hungry, or need a new diaper.
A new study at UC San Diego, published February 11, 2020, found that exposure to heatwaves during the last week of pregnancy was strongly linked to an increased risk of preterm delivery – the hotter the temperature or the longer the heatwave, the greater the risk.
Having twins from IVF or other related procedures quadruples the chance that a baby may have congenital heart problems.
This is the first, evidence-based guideline related to the management of reproductive health issues for all patients with rheumatic diseases. With 131 recommendations, the guideline offers general precepts that provide a foundation for its recommendations and good practice statements.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right