https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A growing share of Americans, especially in rural areas, are losing access to reproductive health care. At the same time, American women are dying during or after pregnancy at higher rates than in any other high-income country. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-doulas-play-essential-roles-reproductive.html Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:24:40 EST news684606241 A new study by Associate Professor Dennis Egger (Department of Economics and Center for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford) and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley reveals that giving unconditional cash transfers to pregnant women in rural Kenya significantly reduces infant and child mortality. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-pregnant-women-cash-infant-mortality.html Tue, 19 Aug 2025 02:10:01 EDT news674787206 Experts from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago affirm the need to screen new fathers for mental distress, recognizing the mounting research that underscores the importance of fathers in child development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-father-mental-health-plays-key.html Mon, 16 Jun 2025 11:00:08 EDT news669285766 A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting quantifies the amount of sleep loss experienced by first-time mothers in the weeks after giving birth and is the first to identify the unique type of sleep disruption that persists throughout the first months of motherhood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-mothers-average-hours-week-disrupted.html Tue, 27 May 2025 09:43:37 EDT news667557812 When Emily Rosenfeld was doing a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), she noticed that many patients were returning to the hospital for hypertension. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-qa-blood-pressure-postpartum-mothers.html Thu, 06 Mar 2025 15:55:54 EST news660498949 Bringing a baby into the world is often portrayed as one of life's happiest moments. While this is true for many, it's also normal to feel overwhelmed during the postpartum period. Mental health conditions are the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth and affect 1 in 5 mothers/childbearing people (800,000 people) annually in the United States. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-stigma-postpartum-mental-health.html Mon, 27 Jan 2025 13:20:03 EST news657203610 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 gestational-weight trajectories are comparable. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-discrimination-linked-postpartum-weight-retention.html Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:43:16 EST news650547791 Contraception for mothers of newborn babies can often be overlooked amidst the focus on the health of the newborn baby and the significant adjustments required following the birth of the child. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-contraceptive-mothers-newborn-babies.html Tue, 17 Sep 2024 10:00:23 EDT news645786018 The postpartum period is a time of anatomical, physiological and psychological transition. The recent Olympic Games brought to light the exceptional capacity of women after the birth of a child and is a story of success for women athletes globally. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-narrative-celebrating-olympic-mothers-sight.html Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:44:04 EDT news643286641 Pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. have risen 140% over the past three decades and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause. Despite existing medical guidance on pregnancy and cardiovascular health, current trends in health outcomes suggest a significant opportunity for an improved system of care, particularly in the postpartum period. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-postpartum-cvd.html Thu, 16 May 2024 13:22:58 EDT news635084572 More than half of women who smoke before pregnancy quit while pregnant, according to research published in the May 2 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-percent-pregnant-smokers-pregnancy.html Sat, 04 May 2024 06:40:01 EDT news633955044 In Illinois, 88 women a year die while pregnant or within a year of giving birth, on average, according to the latest Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report. Notably, more than 90% of those pregnancy-related deaths were deemed potentially preventable. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-pregnancy-deaths-common-black-women.html Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:48:04 EDT news632407681 New research from the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) published in Cell Metabolism suggests that pregnancy accelerates aging, but with an important caveat—there appears to be significant reversal of this effect in the postpartum period. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-pregnancy-aging.html Mon, 25 Mar 2024 12:25:03 EDT news630588301 People often have questions about using essential oils before, during and after pregnancy. These natural oils are distilled from plants or other sources and retain their characteristic fragrance. Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of essential oils, but research on its effectiveness is limited. Some studies have shown that aromatherapy may relieve anxiety and depression. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-aromatherapy-safety-essential-oils-pregnancy.html Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EDT news629546153 Black pregnant individuals frequently experience more than one mental health concern, according to findings published by Susan Gennaro, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Professor in the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, and colleagues in The Nurse Practitioner. They say prenatal screening and treatment for stress is warranted in addition to care for depression and anxiety. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-depression-anxiety-stress-frequently-co-occur.html Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:28:17 EST news619892895 Racial inequities in maternal morbidity and mortality persist into the postpartum period, leading to a higher rate of postpartum hospital use among Black and Hispanic people but until now little was understood how to best identify people at high risk. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-postpartum-hospitalizations-high-risk-populations.html Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:52:04 EST news618511921 Maternal mortality in the U.S. is on the rise and more than half of maternal deaths occur in the postpartum year. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-health-pregnant-people-year-birth.html Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:00:01 EST news618507846 For some families, the year after childbirth may not only mean loads of diapers but stacks of unpaid medical bills as well. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-childbirth-significant-medical-debt.html Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:00:01 EDT news615136165 Women with chronic hypertension and diabetes who were enrolled in an award-winning program for 12 months after childbirth were more likely to keep follow-up health care visits, which in turn led to improved care, according to initial findings of the program published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-community-based-health-mothers.html Thu, 20 Apr 2023 14:12:03 EDT news601218721 Individuals who were diagnosed with depression during pregnancy were more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease within two years after giving birth than individuals without depression, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-prenatal-depression-linked-cardiovascular-disease.html Wed, 19 Apr 2023 05:00:01 EDT news601054641 Women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic filled significantly more prescriptions for opioid medications, according to new research from the University of Georgia. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-postpartum-women-opioid-prescriptions-pandemic.html Mon, 03 Apr 2023 13:50:10 EDT news599748605 COVID-19 related stress had a greater impact on the mental health of those who were pregnant during the pandemic, compared to those who weren't, new UNSW Sydney research has found. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-pandemic-stress-greater-impact-pregnant.html Tue, 14 Mar 2023 11:23:04 EDT news598011781 Transgender men can, and often wish to, become pregnant. However, they do need extra guidance and care providers often lack the necessary knowledge and skills. Amsterdam UMC is the first to conduct qualitative research into the experiences of Dutch transgender people with maternity care. This research is now available as a pre-print in Midwifery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-dutch-health-isnt-pregnant-transgender.html Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:22:43 EST news596910157 More than half of pregnancy-related deaths occur in the postpartum period, so when the COVID-19 pandemic caused postpartum obstetric care to switch to using telemedicine, it was not without risk. With high maternal mortality rates and large racial disparities in maternal outcomes, the impact of this new care delivery model was unknown. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-telehealth-considerably-disparities-postpartum-black.html Wed, 08 Feb 2023 09:00:04 EST news595069201 According to health care experts, the benefits for brand-new parents and their infants having access to health care during pregnancy as well as during the postpartum period are indisputable. Even so, many patients—including a third of women with pregnancy coverage through Medicaid—are uninsured before or after pregnancy. To better understand how access to health care and insurance impacts postpartum health, a new study examined postpartum hospitalizations in states that had expanded Medicaid as well as those that had not. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-medicaid-decreased-postpartum-hospitalizations.html Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:06:04 EST news592589161 Hospitalizations that occur in the antenatal period—or during pregnancy, but before giving birth—and those that occur in the postpartum period, made up over half of in-hospital maternal deaths between 2017–2019, a new study reveals. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-hospital-based-maternal-deaths-childbirth.html Wed, 31 Aug 2022 17:00:28 EDT news581184024 The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Canadian women's mental health both during pregnancy and in the postpartum period, confirms the CONCEPTION study led by Anick Bérard, researcher at CHU Sainte-Justine and professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-covid-shown-affect-mental-health.html Fri, 06 May 2022 13:29:22 EDT news571062559 A newly published study from Trinity's School of Nursing and Midwifery has followed the prevalence of, and changes over time in, depression, anxiety and stress symptoms experienced by first-time mothers—from pregnancy throughout the first postpartum year. International perinatal literature focuses on depression in the postpartum period. Prevalence and pathways of depression, anxiety and stress from pregnancy through the first postpartum year are seldom investigated. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-reality-maternal-mental-health-moms.html Fri, 06 May 2022 12:02:28 EDT news571057344 The combined effects of systemic and interpersonal racism layered on top of negative experiences within the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with depression and anxiety among Black people in the postpartum period, according to a new study by researchers in The Intergenerational Exposome Program (IGNITE) of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings were published today in JAMA Psychiatry. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-racism-pandemic-stressors-postpartum-depression.html Wed, 13 Apr 2022 12:36:44 EDT news569072200 The emotional connection between a mother and her newborn baby can lay the foundation for the child's development and the family's outcomes. But poor mental health after giving birth can make it difficult for a mother to form this connection, known as mother-infant bonding. Given the rise of depression and anxiety symptoms due to the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women who have recently given birth, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital conducted a study of mother-infant bonding during the pandemic. Based on results from an online study referred to as the PEACE Study (Perinatal Experiences and COVID-19 Effects), they found that grief due to lost experiences during the pandemic as well as symptoms of depression were associated with lower levels of mother-infant bonding. However, anxiety symptoms were not, and women who reported health worries related to COVID-19 were, in contrast, more likely to report higher levels of infant bonding. Results are published in Pediatric Research. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-pandemic-related-grief-hamper-bond-mothers.html Thu, 14 Oct 2021 03:41:52 EDT news553401707