A new study sheds light on a potential link between exposure to certain everyday chemicals during pregnancy and the development of asthma in children. The study analyzed data from over 3,500 mother-child pairs as part of the Japan...
A promising daily tablet is effective at increasing height and improving proportional limb growth in children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, according to a new study. And the findings could spare these children...
Children born to mothers who take antiseizure medications to manage seizures and psychiatric conditions during pregnancy may face increased risks of neurodevelopmental conditions, according to new research.
Evidence has been growing to suggest that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, poses risks to the developing fetus by impacting brain development. Now a new preclinical research study finds that this...
A new study found that, among nearly 775,000 pregnant people in Massachusetts, 31 percent of these individuals had at least one unscheduled emergency visit to the hospital, and 3.3 percent had four or more unscheduled hospital visits....
For people who are pregnant or nursing, more use of personal care products is associated with higher detectable levels of synthetic chemicals known to have adverse health effects, a new study found. The study found that using personal...
Current guidelines recommend that pregnant people receive a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) -- which typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms in most adults but can be deadly for infants -- during weeks 32-36 of...
Researchers have been unable to explain why after giving birth, Black patients are two to three times as likely to retain or gain additional weight compared to their white counterparts, even when pre-pregnancy weight and...
Clinics and hospitals currently defer medication abortion until ultrasound confirms a pregnancy inside the uterus. However, a large international study now indicates that treatment can be equally effective and safe even before the sixth...
The cost of childbirth and postpartum health care results in significant, ongoing financial hardship, particularly for lower-income families with commercial insurance. About half of people who give birth in the United States are covered...
Whether lying on their back, all-fours position, sitting upright or squatting -- women adopt different birthing positions during childbirth. What has not yet been researched is how the respective final birthing position affects the...
CBT for insomnia significantly reduces postpartum depression symptoms, directly and indirectly, by improving mood and alleviating insomnia throughout treatment.
Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are an established therapy for pregnant women at risk of preterm birth. Researchers have found that babies given ACS had notably smaller volumes of two key brain regions, the bilateral amygdalae and...
A new study, using responses from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, has found that about 6 percent of pregnant women reported using marijuana during the last month, and many did not associate it with health risks.
As cannabis is legalized and is more accessible in various forms across the country, there is increasing concern among health care providers about potential impact on children. Researchers have new findings to add to the existing...
Drosophila is one of the most thoroughly studied lab animals -- with the exception of the female reproductive tract. Now a team of biologists has taken the first deep look at the Drosophila uterus and found some surprises, which could...
A new biomedical tool successfully delivers genetic material to edit faulty genes in developing fetal mouse brain cells. This might stop disease progression of genetic-based neurodevelopmental conditions before birth.
A new artificial intelligence-based system can accurately assess the chromosomal status of in vitro-fertilized (IVF) embryos using only time-lapse video images of the embryos and maternal age, according to a new study.
U.S. babies died at a higher rate in the months following the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision, and infant mortality was highest among those born with chromosomal or genetic abnormalities, new research has...
Researchers have mapped how small RNA molecules, such as the recently Nobel Prize-awarded microRNAs, control cell development in the human embryo during the first days after fertilization. The findings may eventually contribute to...
Preeclampsia is a life-threatening pregnancy complication marked by persistent high blood pressure that is even more serious when it occurs early in the first trimester. The exact cause of early-onset preeclampsia is unknown, and it is...
Researchers have linked specific frequent defects in sperm to risk of pregnancy complications and negative impacts on the health of the baby. The study shows that high proportion of father's spermatozoa possessing DNA strand breaks is...
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, the second leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide, may be sending a significantly higher number of pregnant people to the emergency department.
There is variability in when and how cells divide during the development of embryos. While researchers traditionally believed this variability was an obstacle that needed to be regulated, a group now found that it actually promotes...
The risk of asthma in the child can be reduced by nearly half if the mother engages in active physical exercise at least three times a week during pregnancy, compared to a child of a mother who is less active, a new study shows.
Scientists have long wondered why animals get the DNA inside their mitochondria, the cell's energy center, only from their mothers. New research explains why and offers hope for treating mitochondrial disorders.
Genome-wide association studies have great potential for advancing our understanding of the genetic background of diseases, but so far, few association studies have focused on maternal and newborn diseases, and most have been based on...
An international research team has used long-term demographic data from Japanese macaques -- a monkey species within the family of Old World monkeys -- to show that, unlike humans, there is no maternal mortality in these primates linked...
The duration of breastfeeding is shorter than average among mothers with a fear of childbirth -- regardless of the mode of delivery, a new study from Finland shows.
Overweight is a major contributor to complications during pregnancy and childbirth -- this applies to both women born in Sweden and women who have moved here, something that has not been well researched so far. Interventions that promote...
The risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% higher in babies who were conceived after assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to results of a very large study.
Researchers have discovered a potential 'pause button' in the earliest stages of human development. Whether humans can control the timing of their development has long been debated. The new study suggests that this 'pause button' can be...
Researchers have shown that over 80 percent of women are iron deficient by their third trimester. The findings raise concerns as the participants in the study were a low-risk and generally healthy cohort.
Amongst women who experience recurrent pregnancy loss, around 20% test positive for a specific antibody that targets the mother's own body. A research team has now found a treatment that drastically increases these women's chances of...
Exposure to certain pollutants, like fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), during pregnancy and childhood is associated with differences in the microstructure of the brain s white matter, and some of these effects persist...
Children born during the pandemic, including those exposed to COVID in utero, were no more likely to screen positive for autism than unexposed or pre-pandemic children.
Human breast milk regulates a baby's mix of microbes, or microbiome, during the infant's first year of life. This in turn lowers the child's risk of developing asthma, a new study shows.
Researchers found that a medicine called ferric carboxymaltose given in drip through the vein works faster and better than an iron tablet taken by mouth for the treatment of anaemia -- and it is as safe as the tablet.
When screening pregnant women for gestational diabetes, casual blood glucose testing misses 70% of the cases. This study should encourage obstetricians to depend on more reliable tests to help prevent pregnancy complications and the...
Physician-scientists argue that with most placentas discarded after birth, placental pathology is underutilized clinically, should be a routine part of obstetric and neonatal care, and also deserves more research attention.
A team fhas uncovered a new mechanism that could revolutionize infertility care by promoting embryo implantation. The discovery focuses on prostaglandin (PG) receptors in the uterus that enhance the critical process of decidualization,...