PHILADELPHIA – Elizabeth Howell, MD, MPP, an accomplished researcher of health inequities and a respected women’s health leader, has been named chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She will join Penn on Sept. 1, 2020, from her post as a professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Laurie Schwab Zabin, PhD, a professor of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an internationally recognized expert on adolescent pregnancy, abortion, and sexual behavior, died Monday.
The following are various story ideas regarding the COVID-19 illness. To interview experts in these tips or others at Johns Hopkins, contact [email protected].
An international consortium of researchers has identified particular sources of prenatal stress, as experienced by mothers, that have a direct effect on a child's subsequent mental health.
A microbiome “fingerprint” method shows that an individualized mosaic of microbial strains is transmitted to the infant gut microbiome from a mother giving vaginal birth. The study analyzed existing metagenomic databases of fecal samples from mother-infant pairs and used a germfree mouse model.
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.
A new study suggests that treating a breastfeeding parent with a common diabetes drug may provide male offspring lifelong protection against diabetes and obesity. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism. It was chosen as an APSselect article for May.
There are a lot of health concerns that come with pregnancy, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created additional fears about risks for both mom and baby.
A new national survey conducted by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center confirms these fears, finding that nearly 80% of respondents would be concerned about themselves or an expectant mother in their life in the midst of the current COVID-19 outbreak, with almost half expressing fear of going to a scheduled prenatal appointment.
In a study published online in the journal American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM, physician-researchers from UH Cleveland Medical Center and Georgia State University project 52 COVID-19 related maternal mortalities in the United States this year.
If you're looking for health and fitness story ideas, view these research highlights from ACSM’s flagship research journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise®.
Amid the rapidly evolving global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has already had profound effects on public health and medical infrastructure across the globe, many questions remain about its impact on child health.
BIDMC’s Blair Wylie, MD, MPH, Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and Chloe Zera, MD, MPH, Director of Obstetric Population Health, provide some information and advice for expecting parents.
Lactating mothers who use e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapies may be putting their breastfed babies at risk for skull defects, a new study in animals suggests.
Researchers have discovered a common molecular pathway in women who experience preterm labor and are using this insight to develop new treatments for woman who experience early labor.
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.
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.
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.
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.