https://medicalxpress.com/pregnancy-news/ en-us Latest health news and information about Pregnancy In Switzerland, around 2,400 children are born as twins every year. When the fetuses share a placenta, they are connected to one another via blood vessels. If the blood circulation becomes unbalanced, this can be life-threatening for both, as too much blood flows from one fetus to the other. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-robotic-high-twin-pregnancies-panoramic.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 09:00:15 EDT news708853261 Medical assistance can help women suffering from severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, but insufficient recognition of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) means many are not getting the help they need to overcome this severe and debilitating form of morning sickness. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-greater-access-women-nausea-pregnancy.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:00:04 EDT news708840661 A common and often overlooked nutrient deficiency may play a bigger role in pregnancy outcomes than previously recognized. In a recent analysis published in the Journal of Perinatology, neonatologist and pediatrician Carol L. Wagner, M.D., and Anjali G. Borsum, an M.D. candidate at MUSC's College of Medicine, found that among more than 15,000 pregnancies studied at MUSC, women with the lowest vitamin D levels faced the highest risk of preterm birth. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-decade-case-vitamin-d-pregnancy.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 19:00:01 EDT news708796261 Many women say the same thing during pregnancy: They walk into a room and forget why, misplace their keys or struggle to follow a conversation. This phenomenon, often called "pregnancy brain" or "momnesia," has long lacked a clear biological explanation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-momnesia-real-scientists-biological-explanation.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:00:01 EDT news708795421 An analysis of more than 60,000 respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) sequences from around the world found that viral variants associated with resistance to current RSV prevention tools remain rare, according to a study published in Nature. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-effectiveness-rsv-antibodies-infants-viral.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:00:03 EDT news708778321 A nutrition program for pregnant women inspired by ancestral dietary patterns and adapted to locally available foods in Ecuador increased growth in a key fetal brain region, according to a study led by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis. The study is published in the Sept. 8 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-ancestral-diet-pregnancy-trial-boosts.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:40:12 EDT news708769382 Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related death. Even after a healthy delivery, mother and baby can go home only to show signs of a postpartum hypertensive disorder days or weeks later. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-ai-pathologists-preeclampsia-advancing-diagnosis.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:40:04 EDT news708688741 Maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists (MFMs) should use their expertise to improve maternal safety by maximizing patient access to the full range of reproductive health care under current state abortion restrictions, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). Providing abortion care and counseling is central to MFM clinical practice and cannot be separated from high-risk pregnancy care, according to SMFM. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-abortion-core-maternal-fetal-medicine.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 03:00:02 EDT news708600995 As the largest insurance program for maternity care, Medicaid is uniquely positioned to shape maternal health in the United States, where maternal mortality rates far outweigh those of other wealthy nations and continue to disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic populations. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-medicaid-acos-maternal-health-equity.html Fri, 11 Sep 2026 08:00:01 EDT news708321661 Health care costs for women reporting childbirth-related PTSD were more than twice as high as those for women without symptoms during the period from six to 12 months after birth, according to a new report from City St George's, University of London, on the economic impact of postnatal PTSD on the NHS. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-outline-economic-impact-childbirth-ptsd.html Fri, 11 Sep 2026 07:20:02 EDT news708320521 Pregnancy is often one of the biggest emotional and physical transitions in a woman's life. Alongside the well-known physical changes, many women also experience shifts in mood and mental health during pregnancy and after giving birth, with anxiety and depression being quite common. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-social-developmental-delay-pregnancy.html Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:00:01 EDT news708178142 For some women, the birth of their baby is one of the happiest days of their lives. Others remember it as a frightening, overwhelming or deeply distressing experience. About 1 in 3 women report their birth experience as traumatic. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-debriefing-difficult-birth-trauma.html Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:40:04 EDT news708165001 Researchers using a portable MRI scanner found that measurable differences in brain volumes emerged at around 12 months of age, offering some of the earliest evidence yet that maternal anemia shapes infant brain development in the first year of life and beyond. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-anemia-pregnancy-linked-differences-babies.html Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:20:14 EDT news708168182 Researchers in Denmark have found that girls whose mothers took paracetamol during pregnancy had smaller ovaries, fewer ovarian follicles (the structures that contain immature eggs), smaller uteruses and lower levels of reproductive hormones at 3 months old. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-links-prenatal-paracetamol-exposure-reproductive.html Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:00:01 EDT news708011761 Pregnancy and early motherhood can be challenging under any circumstances for adolescents. But in Kenya, the challenges are huge. Many pregnant and parenting adolescents face stigma, interrupted education, financial hardship, strained family relationships and limited social support. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-simple-group-therapy-depressed-teen.html Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:40:01 EDT news708097868 University of Manchester scientists have uncovered a hidden role for immune cells in the womb, opening the door to new treatments for infertility, miscarriage and other reproductive conditions that affect millions of women worldwide. The findings are a breakthrough in our understanding of women's reproductive biology, one of the most underresearched areas of medicine, despite infertility and pregnancy complications affecting millions of families. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-hidden-immune-cells-key-tackling.html Tue, 08 Sep 2026 11:00:01 EDT news708081166 New research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy (Sept. 28–Oct. 2) shows that among women who develop type 2 diabetes (T2D), those who had gestational diabetes (GD) during pregnancy develop T2D, on average, almost 13 years earlier than those who did not. Those who had GD are also twice as likely to have more advanced disease requiring insulin treatment for their T2D within the first two years after their T2D diagnosis than those who did not have GD. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-gestational-diabetes-history-linked-earlier.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:00:08 EDT news707649448 Scientists have found that targeting a particular group of proteins in the uterus muscle (myometrium) can suppress human uterine contractions in laboratory studies and delay preterm birth in a preclinical model. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-uterine-ion-channels-potential-delay.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:00:10 EDT news707664781 The ever-changing social, political and economic landscape in many countries has become more tenuous and intense in recent years. Respondents in a 2026 report from the World Economic Forum indicated a prevailing mood of uncertainty, with 50% anticipating a turbulent or stormy outlook on life over the next two years. This negative perception swells to 57% of respondents when looking ahead to the next 10 years. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-moms-cope-stressful-news.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:00:08 EDT news707659441 Researchers at the University of Oulu have identified alpha-1 antitrypsin as a potential target for preventing spontaneous preterm birth. In a large genetic study of more than 200,000 mothers, a variant in the SERPINA1 gene, which encodes alpha-1 antitrypsin, was associated with shorter pregnancies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-alpha-antitrypsin-deficiency-preterm-birth.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:20:02 EDT news707649417 Across Europe, cases of congenital syphilis nearly doubled in just one year, from 78 in 2023 to 140 in 2024, in 14 countries reporting data. In contrast, Denmark has marked 10 years without a single case of vertical syphilis transmission from mother to child since 2016. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-decade-congenital-syphilis-danish-success.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:00:04 EDT news707553954 Becoming pregnant again soon after giving birth is associated with risks for both mother and child. A study led by Karolinska Institutet and published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women's Health shows that approaches and guidance developed jointly by midwives and mothers can increase the proportion of women who choose effective contraception after childbirth, but also that organizational barriers limit opportunities for equitable care. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-postpartum-contraceptive-choices-organizational-barriers.html Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:40:04 EDT news707562774 Researchers at University College Dublin (UCD) have published the full study protocol for Bump2Baby & Me+ (B2B&Me+) in the journal PLOS One. The study tests how a digital health coaching program for pregnant women at risk of gestational diabetes performs when it moves out of a clinical trial and into routine hospital care. The publication coincides with the close of the study's recruitment phase, which began in December 2025 across hospitals in Ireland, Spain, Poland and Norway. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-country-digital-health-everyday-maternity.html Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:40:01 EDT news707473296 Cambridge scientists have identified a key protein that could act as a predictor for preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction, two of the major causes of stillbirth and illness among mothers and newborns. The discovery helps explain why placental cells fail to properly "invade" the uterus in these related conditions and could lead to tests that help identify those at greatest risk and new treatments. The findings are published in Nature Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-preeclampsia-discovery-treatments-pregnancies.html Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news707389861 A prospective cohort study quantifying the associations of parental vitamin B12 and red blood cell (RBC) folate with birth defects found that higher parental vitamin B12 before conception and higher maternal RBC folate concentrations after conception were associated with lower birth defect risk. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-higher-vitamin-b12-parents-birth.html Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:00:06 EDT news707386082 The effects of childhood trauma may persist for decades, resurfacing during one of life's most demanding transitions: becoming a mother. A George Mason-led study found that women who had experienced multiple forms of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) reported the highest levels of postpartum depressive symptoms. But despite those elevated risks, these women were no more likely to receive postpartum depression screening than their peers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-childhood-adversity-women-higher-postpartum.html Sun, 30 Aug 2026 16:30:01 EDT news707111582 Tens of thousands of new mothers across Britain may be suffering from undiagnosed PTSD following childbirth, according to a University of East Anglia report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-thousands-mothers-britain-undiagnosed-ptsd.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 19:10:01 EDT news707044501 Forever chemicals have been linked to preterm births, miscarriage, preeclampsia and lower birth weights. Now, a first-of-its-kind study published in Environmental Science & Technology may offer clues about why. UC San Francisco Associate Professor Joshua Robinson, Ph.D., of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and colleagues conducted what they believe is the first comprehensive study to examine how forever chemicals may alter proteins in donated human placental cells. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-chemicals-pregnant-women-fetuses.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:40:08 EDT news707051362 Artificial intelligence (AI) may help identify women and babies at risk of serious health problems earlier in pregnancy, according to a new study analyzing data from more than half a million pregnancies across Sweden, Chile and Singapore. The machine learning models, which used information available during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, generally outperformed the early risk assessment methods currently used in each setting. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-ai-pregnancies-earlier-personalized-prenatal.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:50:02 EDT news707034202 Researchers have uncovered a biological mechanism that helps explain why hepatitis E virus infections can be especially severe—and often fatal—during pregnancy, finding that normal pregnancy-related hormonal changes inadvertently trigger a cascade allowing the virus to thrive. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-pregnancy-deadly-hepatitis-outcomes.html Wed, 26 Aug 2026 17:00:08 EDT news706981382