Mayo Clinic recently marked its first births resulting from in vitro fertilization using a new time-lapse incubator that minimizes disturbances from human handling as embryos develop and helps fertility specialists better identify the healthiest embryos.
The Endocrine Society has made revisions to its 2007 Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for management of thyroid disease during pregnancy and postpartum. The CPG provides recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of patients with thyroid-related medical issues just before and during pregnancy and in the postpartum interval.
Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn’s umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
A new study by researchers at UAB contradicts prior reports that epidural analgesia administered during labor is associated with fever in laboring women.
The study indicates that epidural analgesia has no effect on maternal temperature.
A study from the August issue of Anesthesiology provides evidence contrary to prior reports that fever in laboring women is associated with epidural analgesia.
Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia has been selected to participate in Best Fed Beginnings, a first-of-its-kind national effort to significantly improve breastfeeding rates in states where rates are currently the lowest.
Being born to an obese mother with elevated levels of the hormone hepcidin was associated with lower iron status at birth, according to researchers at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center.
A study led by Hospital for Special Surgery researchers has demonstrated that women who have a specific type of antibody that interferes with blood vessel function are at risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes and that other antibodies in the same family thought to cause pregnancy complications do not put women at risk.
While research has shown that the heart typically functions better during pregnancy due to a rise in cardiac pumping capacity to meet increased demands, a new UCLA study in rats and mice demonstrates that heart attacks occurring in the last trimester or late months of pregnancy result in worse heart function and more damaged heart tissue than heart attacks among non-pregnant females.
Among children born full term, those conceived with the help of fertility drugs are slightly shorter than naturally conceived children but overall are physically healthy, a new study finds. Results of the study will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
Even moderate thyroid dysfunction during early pregnancy significantly increases the risk of serious complications,
underscoring the need for universal screening in the first trimester, a new study finds. The results will be presented
Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
A multicenter study involving a UT Southwestern Medical Center urogynecologist will eliminate some of the guesswork physicians face about whether to use a sling during vaginal prolapse repair to prevent urinary incontinence.
Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have made an important discovery that partially answers the long-standing question of why a mother’s immune system does not reject a developing fetus as foreign tissue.
A study to evaluate birth control methods has found dramatic differences in their effectiveness. Women who used birth control pills, the patch or vaginal ring were 20 times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than those who used longer-acting forms such as an intrauterine device (IUD) or implant.
The option of a vaginal birth after having a Caesarean delivery (VBAC) is difficult to find for women who want that procedure. More doctors and hospitals are not willing to perform the risky procedure. However, a VBAC advocate and practicing physician from Ben Taub General Hospital says provided the expectant mother meets certain guidelines and the delivery is performed in a fully-staffed and fully-equipped hospital, the VBAC can be performed safely.
A new report shows that 21.8 percent of pregnant White women aged 15 to 44 currently (within the past 30 days) smoked cigarettes. The study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also showed that cigarette smoking levels among pregnant White women were significantly higher than the levels among pregnant Black women (14.2 percent) and pregnant Hispanic women (6.5 percent) in the same 15 to 44 age range.
Tubal ectopic pregnancy (TEP) is currently the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths during the first trimester and a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) shows that the hormone adrenomedullin (ADM) may help predict this condition.
Invasive and costly tests commonly performed on women before surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) may not be necessary, according to researchers at the University of California San Diego, School of Medicine and the Urinary Incontinence Treatment Network.
Transplanting tissue from newborn fetal membranes prevents blindness in patients with a devastating disease called Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a Loyola University Medical Center study has found.
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered that changes in the gene expression of a key enzyme may contribute to high blood pressure and increase susceptibility to forming blood clots in pregnant women with preeclampsia.
Inducing labor in pregnant women when it's not medically necessary is more likely to result in complications at birth, according to a University of Adelaide study.
A new version of a labor-tracking tool for pregnant women could reduce the use of hormonal intervention during labor and lower the number of cesarean sections performed on low-risk, first-time mothers.
Ob-gyns are uniquely positioned to play a major role in reducing the effects of toxic chemicals on women and babies, according to an analysis led by University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) researchers.
Freezing eggs or ovarian tissue for the sole purpose of delaying childbearing for social reasons may prove too costly for society, according to a recent analysis by a University of Illinois at Chicago researcher.
A major study led by the University of Adelaide has found that women who have had one prior cesarean can lower the risk of death and serious complications for their next baby - and themselves - by electing to have another cesarean.
Researchers at the California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS) Pregnancy Health Information Line, a statewide non-profit organization based at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have found women exposed to certain antidepressants during pregnancy were significantly less likely to breastfeed their babies compared to unexposed women.
Race is a key factor in properly dosing the antibiotic azithromycin in pregnant women, according to new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Using a Weizmann Institute method for determining the “family trees” of cells, a cross-disciplinary team of scientists was able to prove—and disprove—some ideas about the female mammal’s egg supply.
Many pregnant women who suffer from asthma are putting their unborn child’s health at risk by failing to use the right medication, according to a University of Adelaide researcher.
A nationwide, federally funded study has found that testing a developing fetus’ DNA through chromosomal microarray (CMA) provides more information about potential disorders than does the standard method of prenatal testing, which is to visually examine the chromosomes (karyotyping). The results of the 4,000-plus-participant clinical study are being presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas on Feb. 9, 2012. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Although women over age 50 who become pregnant via egg donation are at an elevated risk for developing obstetrical complications, their complication rates are similar to those of younger recipients, according to a study by Columbia University Medical Center researchers to be published in the February 2012 issue of the American Journal of Perinatology. This is contrary to epidemiological data suggesting that these women are at greater risk of certain complications of pregnancy, including hypertension, gestational diabetes, premature birth, and placenta abnormalities.
Study in model that mimics human effects of multiparity (giving birth more than once) finds mouse moms who gave birth 4 times accrued significantly more fat vs. primiparous females (those giving birth once) of similar age. Multiparous moms also had more liver inflammation.
New research from lead author Medge Owen, M.D., a professor of obstetrical anesthesiology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, outlines how QI initiatives that demonstrate best practices and care can increase overall survival rates for mothers and their children.
Researchers at the California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS) Pregnancy Health Information Line, a state-wide non-profit organization based at the University of California, San Diego, have found new links between the timing of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and certain characteristics of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).
Pelvic pain and abnormal bleeding aren’t the only signs of gynecologic cancer. As part of Cervical Health Awareness Month in January, experts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center share other symptoms that often are overlooked.
In the first study of its kind, researchers at Queens College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that low socioeconomic status (SES) and maternal gestational diabetes together may cause a 14-fold increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in six year olds.
A new study co-authored by the University of Kentucky's Dr. John O'Brien found that applying vaginal progesterone to women who are at a high risk of preterm birth significantly decreased the odds of a premature delivery.
Experts in pregnancy and breastfeeding health at the California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS) Pregnancy Health Information Line warn expectant moms about the potential dangers of common cold medicines during pregnancy.
Half of all stillbirths result from pregnancy disorders and conditions affecting the placenta, according to results reported by a National Institutes of Health research network established to find the causes of stillbirth as well as ways to prevent or reduce its occurrence.
Using antenatal corticosteroid therapy for mothers of infants born at 23 to 25 weeks' gestation was associated with a lower rate of infant death or neurodevelopmental impairment at 18 to 22 months of age, according to a study in the December 7 issue of JAMA.
Women with a history of high blood pressure before getting pregnant have a higher risk of depression than women who develop pregnancy-related hypertension, according to a new study in General Health Psychiatry.
Researchers at UC San Diego Health System’s Department of Reproductive Medicine and the National Latino Research Center (NLRC) at Cal State San Marcos University recently presented data at the American Public Health Association Conference in Washington D.C., demonstrating the impact of text4baby, a free mobile service that provides pregnant women and new mothers in San Diego with maternal, fetal and newborn health information via text messages and connects them to national health resources.
Highlights: 1) A test done mid-pregnancy accurately predicts which women will later develop preeclampsia, a late-pregnancy disorder characterized by high blood pressure and excess protein in the urine. Left untreated, preeclampsia can lead to serious—even fatal—complications for a pregnant woman and her baby. 2) Women with high blood pressure during pregnancy risk experiencing high blood pressure, kidney problems, and stroke in the future compared to women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered that the infiltration of white blood cells into an expectant mother’s blood vessels may explain high blood pressure in pregnancy.
Women who take ACE inhibitors to treat high blood pressure in the first trimester of their pregnancies are at no greater risk of having babies with birth defects than are women who take other or no types of high blood pressure medication.
A new study presented at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2011 investigated whether an increase in pain treatment in patients at high risk for severe pain after surgery reduces these complications after a cesarean delivery.