https://medicalxpress.com/pregnancy-news/ en-us Latest health news and information about Pregnancy Wildfires are well-known health risks. Now, in a new Frontiers in Environmental Health study, researchers in the U.S. have—for the first time—evaluated how prenatal PM2.5 exposure has changed over space and time on a national scale and what role wildfires play in shaping these trends. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-wildfires-dominant-contributor-unhealthy-air.html Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:01 EDT news705228629 Previous research has shown that women who experience complications during pregnancy face roughly twice the risk of dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-women-pregnancy-complication-premature-cardiovascular.html Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:20:01 EDT news705231517 Pregnant women in Australia are facing an unfair two-tiered system for managing morning sickness, with financial status affecting who can access the full range of modern anti-nausea medications available rather than simply clinical need. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-gap-drug-subsidies-income-pregnant.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:00:03 EDT news705152102 Each morning during rounds as a resident at University of Rochester Medicine, Marika Toscano noticed the same troubling pattern. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-early-mental-health-birth-postpartum.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:40:09 EDT news705139982 Regan Odysseus was scared. She'd tried Prozac before, but the medication made her mental health worse, leaving her unsure whether further treatment would help or hurt. But between her full-time job as an ICU nurse, her full-time job as a mom, and the hormone shifts from her second pregnancy, the pressure on her mental health was becoming unsustainable. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-solutions-perinatal-mental-health.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 22:00:03 EDT news705065641 As the use of GLP-1 and other incretin-based medications for obesity continues to grow worldwide, researchers at Marshall University have contributed to an international effort to address one of medicine's most pressing unanswered questions: How should these medications be used by women before, during and after pregnancy? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-glp-medications-women-reproductive-years.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 19:40:01 EDT news705064141 Tiny, near-invisible fragments of plastic shed from the products we use every day through sunlight and mechanical wear have been quietly working their way deep into the human body. Microplastics have already been found in the human brain, semen and even the placenta. A recent study investigated how these micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) might move through the placenta and whether they affect a baby's development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-microplastics-placenta-barrier-disrupt-key.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:20:04 EDT news705055580 Discovered in 1955, the Oropouche virus has circulated mainly in the Amazon, causing a febrile illness virtually indistinguishable from those caused by dengue, Zika and chikungunya, viruses also transmitted by biting mosquitoes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-zika-oropouche-virus-affect-brains.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:20:12 EDT news705064563 One in eight mothers in England is now diagnosed with gestational diabetes, with diagnoses rising by 60% in just five years, according to a major study published in the journal BMJ Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-gestational-diabetes-affects-mothers-england.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:40:01 EDT news705042902 A research team from the School of Nursing at the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) has found that video-call support from trained peer mothers helped first-time mothers breastfeed more successfully. Among mothers who received this support, the study revealed a 42.6% relative increase in the number of mothers exclusively breastfeeding their babies at two months after birth, along with greater confidence in breastfeeding. This is the first-of-its-kind randomized clinical trial in Hong Kong to evaluate video-call-based peer support for breastfeeding and is also one of the first trials globally to rigorously examine the effectiveness of this digital approach in improving breastfeeding outcomes. The research findings were published in JAMA Network Open. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-video-based-peer-boost-breastfeeding.html Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:20:04 EDT news704980381 McGill University researchers have developed a new tool to identify heart disease risk in women earlier in life. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-pregnancy-complications-heart-disease-years.html Mon, 03 Aug 2026 13:20:03 EDT news704976901 Research from Oregon Health & Science University's Center for Mental Health Innovation provides new evidence that the way caregivers interact with children when they're very young can protect against the negative effects of inflammation during pregnancy, including increased attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, symptoms in children. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-link-caregiver-child-relationship-adhd.html Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:40:01 EDT news704954461 A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, found no increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or major congenital anomalies among women inadvertently exposed to ivermectin from two weeks before conception through the first four weeks of pregnancy. The findings, published in eClinicalMedicine, add to the available evidence on the safety of this antiparasitic drug during the very early stages of pregnancy, although the researchers stress that the number of cases remains too small to warrant changes to current recommendations. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-ivermectin-pregnancy-adverse-outcomes.html Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news704728576 An evidence review of international research suggests widespread misconceptions within the medical community about early milk production, pacifiers and breast pumps may be undermining breastfeeding success in the critical first days after birth. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-hours-hospital-routines-undermine-breastfeeding.html Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:10:01 EDT news704619421 Breastfeeding support should move beyond simply encouraging women to breastfeed and instead focus on providing personalized, compassionate and culturally sensitive care, according to new research published in Women and Birth as part of World Breastfeeding Week. The commentary reviews some of the latest breastfeeding research and argues that while most women understand the benefits of breastfeeding and want to breastfeed, many are still not receiving the tailored support they need to achieve their own feeding goals. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-personalized-women-breastfeeding-goals.html Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:20:04 EDT news704702702 In November 2020, Lupe was in the final weeks of her pregnancy when dark spots began distorting her vision. Lupe, a participant in a study on emotional distress and maternal health in El Paso, Texas, recounted her birth experience in a postpartum interview. (All participant names, including Lupe's, are pseudonyms used to protect privacy.) https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-preeclampsia-minority-communities-social-roots.html Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:00:08 EDT news704633341 Autoimmune diseases primarily affect young women and interfere with their plans to start a family. Pregnancy in women with autoimmune diseases carries greater risks for several reasons. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-car-cell-treatment-enable-healthy.html Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:40:06 EDT news704622685 University of Liverpool researchers have identified that hospital admissions in England for ectopic pregnancy (when a fertilized egg implants outside the womb) have been increasing since 2021, with more than twice as many admissions among women from the most deprived areas as among those from the least deprived areas. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-hospital-admissions-ectopic-pregnancy-england.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:30:03 EDT news704529642 A father's diet can affect his children's health and body composition before they are even conceived. A study of 43 triads of fathers, mothers and newborns treated in the public health care system of Ribeirão Preto in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, demonstrated this. The analysis revealed that the greater the consumption of ultra-processed foods by the fathers, the higher the birth weight and the greater the accumulation of fat in the baby's thighs and suprailiac region. High birth weight and elevated body fat early in life are risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases in adulthood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-consumption-ultra-foods-fathers-babies.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:40:01 EDT news704539954 Researchers from the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics (Wits VIDA) Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) have played a leading role in an international phase 1/2 clinical trial demonstrating the safety and immunogenicity of an investigational maternal vaccine against Group B Streptococcus (GBS)—a major cause of life-threatening infections in newborns worldwide. The findings have been published in Nature Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-trial-maternal-vaccine-newborns-group.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:40:01 EDT news704540768 Pregnancy places extra strain on the kidneys, and for women with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease (CKD), around half will experience a decline in kidney function during pregnancy. Despite these risks, outcomes for pregnant women with CKD have changed little over the past 30 years, and many of the treatments used to manage kidney disease are not safe during pregnancy, meaning women often need to stop their medication for at least nine months. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-beetroot-juice-benefit-pregnant-women.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:20:04 EDT news704534282 A key question in a Massachusetts murder trial is whether postpartum psychosis drove a mother to kill her three children. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-postpartum-psychosis-affect-mom-reality.html Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:56:13 EDT news704458534 When a woman who is breastfeeding develops an infection or a flare of a chronic condition, she faces a decision that sounds simple but rarely is: Should she take the medication to treat her condition? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-breastfeeding-mothers-medication-decisions-good.html Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:20:05 EDT news704364902 Prenatal alcohol exposure—a contributor to adverse pregnancy outcomes and the leading preventable cause of neurodevelopmental disability worldwide—has increased in the United States over the past decade. The new paper by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is published in JAMA. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-upward-trend-alcohol-pregnancy.html Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:00:16 EDT news704366411 The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) has released a new clinical guideline on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in pregnancy. Published in the journal CHEST, the guideline contains nine evidence-based recommendations that provide a reliable model for caring for pregnant patients with OSA. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-guideline-disordered-pregnancy.html Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:20:03 EDT news704354702 Unusual behavior in the cells of mothers and babies with preeclampsia may provide new therapeutic targets for the condition, a new UCL-led study finds. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-potential-therapeutic-preeclampsia.html Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:00:10 EDT news704023501 New research has found that a hormone is responsible for making mothers' interactions with newborns feel rewarding rather than just necessary. The University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka study, published in Science Advances, looked at how a mother's brain changes to help her devote her energy to providing for her infant's needs. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-mother-devotion-newborns-brain.html Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news704025181 Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or "brittle bone disorder," is a connective tissue disorder that affects collagen, a protein that makes up much of the body's structure. There are more than 10 different types of OI, and while severity varies from type to type, they all cause some form of increased skeletal fragility, deformity and muscle weakness. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-muscle-protein-bone-health.html Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:00:04 EDT news703949701 Most Americans are unaware or unsure of which vaccines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends during pregnancy, according to a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-americans-unsure-vaccines-cdc-pregnancy.html Wed, 22 Jul 2026 14:40:09 EDT news703948081 Exposure to a widely used herbicide during the middle months of pregnancy may increase the chance of giving birth too early, before 37 weeks, a new study shows. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-exposure-weed-killer-pregnancy-preterm.html Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:03 EDT news703926362