http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Pregnant women with Type 2 diabetes have a better chance at good outcomes than those with Type 1, particularly if they receive proper care before and during their pregnancy, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine (Nov. 2012). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-pregnancy-diabetes-pose-women-common.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:05:34 EST news273225924 (HealthDay)—Women with cystic fibrosis (CF) can have successful pregnancies, according to research published online Nov. 12 in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-successful-pregnancy-outcomes-women-cystic.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:10:01 EST news272729084 Non-infected babies born to HIV positive mothers should be vaccinated early against measles, to avoid them acquiring the virus or passing it on to others. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-non-infected-babies-born-hiv-mothers.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:27:50 EST news269774858 Women who were born preterm are at increased risk of complications during pregnancy compared to those born at term, and the risk almost doubles for mothers born before 32 weeks, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-preterm-birth-mother-pregnancy-complications.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:00:12 EST news267702725 While the health benefits of breast feeding baby are well known, a new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Pediatrics finds that, for very low birth weight (VLBW) babies, a small amount of fortification can improve growth rates without sacrificing the benefits associated with mother's milk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-birth-weight-babies.html Pediatrics Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:00:01 EST news264344196 The study examined a group of more than 400 women from across Europe who were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer while pregnant. 197 (48%) of the women underwent chemotherapy during pregnancy, and the authors assessed whether their newborn babies suffered any ill effects that could be attributable to the cancer drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-chemotherapy-pregnancy-complications-newborn-infants.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:30:02 EST news264262739 Among pregnant women who did not develop gestational diabetes, overweight women were 65 percent more likely, and obese women 163 percent more likely, to have overly large babies than their healthy weight counterparts. In this study, an overly large infant was identified based on having a birth weight over the 90th percentile for their gestational age at delivery and gender. Gaining excess weight during pregnancy also contributed to having a large for gestational age baby, regardless of maternal weight or whether she developed gestational diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-overweight-obese-women-large-babies.html Overweight and Obesity Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:00:04 EST news264159969 Premature babies are more likely to survive when they are born in high-level neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) than in hospitals without such facilities, and this benefit is considerably larger than previously reported. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-survival-premature-babies-high-level-nicus.html Pediatrics Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:40:49 EST news262266036 (HealthDay) -- Maternal prenatal caffeine intake is not associated with behavior problems in young children, according to a study published online July 9 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-prenatal-caffeine-intake-linked-children.html Pediatrics Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:17:38 EST news261065851 The tiniest and the heaviest fetuses are at much higher risk of being stillborn than those of average weight, new research has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-smallest-largest-fetuses-greater-stillborn.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:49:17 EST news259843621 Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the second most common cause of childhood blindness in the United States, occurring in half of premature infants born earlier than or at 28 weeks gestational age. The condition is caused by abnormal blood vessel development in the retina of the eye. ROP risk increases with decreasing gestational age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-antioxidant-shown-extremely-premature-babies.html Pediatrics Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:00:01 EST news258913754 Cerebral damage and retinopathy of prematurity appear to be independently associated with visual impairment among preschool children who were born extremely premature, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Ophthalmology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-factors-visual-impairment-preschool-children.html Ophthalmology Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:58:29 EST news258649093 Caesarean section delivery may double the risk of subsequent childhood obesity, finds research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-caesarean-section-delivery-childhood-obesity.html Pediatrics Wed, 23 May 2012 18:30:01 EST news257011021 Getting a flu shot during pregnancy provides unanticipated benefits to the baby, according to the authors of a large population-based study examining the issue. Specifically, the study showed that H1N1 vaccination during the pandemic was associated with a significantly reduced risk of stillbirth, preterm birth and extremely small babies at birth. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-flu-shot-pregnancy-unexpected-benefits.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 22 May 2012 09:53:10 EST news256899177 Under some conditions, the brains of embryonic chicks appear to be awake well before those chicks are ready to hatch out of their eggs. That's according to an imaging study published online on May 3 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, in which researchers woke chick embryos inside their eggs by playing loud, meaningful sounds to them. Playing meaningless sounds to the embryos wasn't enough to rouse their brains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-embryos-born.html Neuroscience Thu, 03 May 2012 15:00:08 EST news255273191 We already know there are long-term health problems associated with pre-term birth, but what about babies born post-term? New research published in the International Journal of Epidemiology has found that post-term birth, defined as a birth after a pregnancy of 42 weeks, is associated with more behavioural and emotional problems in early childhood, especially Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-post-term-children-higher-behavioural-emotional.html Health Thu, 03 May 2012 03:00:01 EST news255232209 One out of every two women of reproductive age is overweight or obese. Researchers from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute, from the University of Ottawa (faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences) and from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute set out to discover if overweight or obese women are in fact more likely to give birth to above average weight babies, as reported in the Journal of Maternal Fetal and Neonatal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-excessive-weight-gain-pregnancy-predictor.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:14:16 EST news253876444 Late gestation is a busy time for babies getting ready for life outside the womb, particularly for functions critical to life such as breathing and maintaining an adequate heartbeat. These two functions are connected in mature infants and healthy people throughout life, so measuring their level of connectedness can give doctors a cue about whether an infant is ready to head home or needs to remain in the care of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Current methods to analyze this connection are not yet fully developed, leaving doctors and nurses without an optimal way to deal with periodically missing data or natural variations in breathing or heartbeat. Now, however, researchers in Virginia have found a way around this problem by using a new analytical method that looks for so-called cardiorespiratory interaction using individual breaths and heartbeats and relating the two in time. The findings shed light on which infants may be mature enough to leave the NICU, showing that postnatal age seems to be an indicator of maturity, but birth weight or gestational age at birth are not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-analysis-premature-infants-heartbeats-cues.html Health Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:25:03 EST news251997884 Delivering a full-term baby of small birth weight has been shown to be an independent indicator of later heart disease for the mother, and as equivalent in risk as high blood pressure and diabetes. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston further report that the odds of ischemic heart disease (IHD) among women whose full-term babies are small for their gestational age (SGA) are twice that of other women. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-delivery-small-full-term-infant-mothers.html Cardiology Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:00:01 EST news250955216 The introduction of national, comprehensive smoke-free legislation in Scotland is linked with significant falls in preterm delivery and small for dates (gestational age) infants according to a study led by Jill Pell from the University of Glasgow and published in this week's PLoS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-scotland-linked-fall-preterm-deliveries.html Health Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:00:07 EST news250274254 (HealthDay) -- Babies born just a few weeks early appear to face a greater risk of developing asthma when compared with children born at full term, new research reveals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-late-preemie-birth-linked-higher.html Inflammatory disorders Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:20:01 EST news250174097 Vaccinating pregnant women against the influenza virus appears to have a significant positive effect on birth weight in babies, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-influenza-vaccination-pregnant-women-babies.html Health Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:00:01 EST news249046769 Heme oxygenase-1 is essential for the growth of blood vessels in the placenta and in establishing blood flow in the umbilical cord. Too little HO-1 can lead to a restriction in the growth of the fetus and even in fetal death and miscarriage. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Medical Gas Research has shown that low dose carbon monoxide therapy is able to restore placental function and prevent fetal death in mice, without any detrimental effects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-deadly-carbon-monoxide-miscarriage.html Medical research Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:31:32 EST news248934681 If you develop pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders or diabetes, you may have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, according to research in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-pregnancy-related-complications-cvd-middle-age.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:10:45 EST news248713824 One of the first things people ask new parents is how much does their baby weigh. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-babies-born-immigrants-small-incorrectly.html Health Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:55:37 EST news248529323 Research conducted at Yale School of Medicine shows that a cesarean (C-section) delivery, which was thought to be harmless, is associated with breathing problems in preterm babies who are small for gestational age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-c-sections-linked-problems-preterm-infants.html Health Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:12:12 EST news248101758 In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that for women with prior delivery via cesarean section the optimal timing of elective delivery for mother and baby is 39 weeks even after consideration of the risk with continuing pregnancy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-women-prior-cesarean-optimal-gestational.html Health Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:21:57 EST news248073686 A study of almost 3,800 pregnancies has provided the most accurate and direct evidence to date that malaria infection reduces early foetal growth. Low birth weight is the most important risk factor for neonatal mortality in developing countries. The research, carried out on the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), highlights the importance of preventing malaria in pregnancy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-ultrasound-evidence-effect-malaria-fetal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:00:07 EST news248008548 The widely-held assumption that a cesarean delivery has no health risks for the baby is being challenged today by new research that found the procedure did not help some preterm babies who were small for gestational age, and may even have contributed to their breathing problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-c-section-babies.html Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:45:50 EST news248021141 In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that women who deliver their first baby early are more likely to have a subsequent baby that is small for its gestational age, even when the second pregnancy is carried to term. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-prior-preterm-delivery-subsequent-baby.html Health Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:20:01 EST news247985214