Archive for Pregnancy
Massachusetts researchers say stress experienced by mothers during pregnancy increases the risk their children will develop asthma.
The researchers, with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University in Boston, looked at the differences in immune function markers in umbilical cord blood between babies born to mothers in high-stress situations and those with lower stress.
They said in a statement that they found noticeable differences in patterns that could be linked to asthma later in the children’s lives.
The researchers said their study is the first to show that increased stress in urban environments could account for the high prevalence of asthma among African-American children.
Animal studies have already suggested that a mother’s stress during pregnancy can impact children’s immune system.
The study is published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Source
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Couples who conceive through certain types of infertility treatment may have a higher-than-normal likelihood of having a premature baby, a new study suggests.
Danish researchers found that among more than 20,000 women who gave birth at their hospital between 1989 and 2006, those who had conceived through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) had a higher risk of preterm delivery.
Of the 730 babies born to women who underwent IVF or ICSI, nearly 8 percent were premature and 1.5 percent were very premature — born before the 32nd week of pregnancy. A normal pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.
In comparison, roughly 5 percent of babies born to fertile mothers were premature, and 0.6 percent were born very preterm, the researchers report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
When the researchers accounted for factors like the mother’s age, weight and exposure to cigarette smoking, the IVF and ICSI procedures were still linked to a 53 percent greater risk of preterm delivery and a doubling in the odds of very premature birth.
Other forms of fertility treatment — namely, fertility drugs and insemination — were not related to the risk of preterm delivery.
Nor was the higher risk with IVF and ICSI explained by elevated rates of twin or higher-order births. The study included only singleton births.
Together, the researchers say, the findings suggest that something about the IVF and ICSI procedures themselves might raise the odds of preterm birth.
Both IVF and ICSI involve joining a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a lab dish, then — if fertilization is successful — transferring one or more embryos to the woman’s uterus. ICSI is typically used for male fertility problems, including a low sperm count or poor sperm quality. It involves isolating a single sperm and injecting it directly into the egg.
“The IVF/ICSI procedures include hormone stimulation and mechanical procedures. Both of these factors may influence the risk of preterm delivery,” lead researcher Dr. Kirsten Wisborg, of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, told Reuters Health in an email.
The fact that other forms of fertility treatment were not linked to preterm delivery suggests that infertility itself is not to blame, according to Wisborg. However, she pointed out, couples who undergo IVF or ICSI may have a different “reproductive pathology” than those who conceive via fertility drugs or insemination, as they frequently have been infertile for a longer period and have failed to conceive through those “low-tech” fertility treatments.
There may also be other factors, unmeasured in this study, that put women who undergo IVF or ICSI at greater risk of preterm delivery, Wisborg said.
Another possibility, Wisborg said, has to do with the “vanishing twin” phenomenon. Some of the singleton births to women who underwent IVF or ICSI may have begun as a twin pregnancy, with only one fetus surviving beyond the early stages. Research suggests that these surviving fetuses are at increased risk of preterm delivery and low birth weight.
The most important factor in reducing preterm birth risk with IVF or ICSI is to avoid higher-order pregnancies, according to Wisborg. But women can also lower the risk, she said, by not smoking and avoiding alcohol during pregnancy.
Source
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Pregnant women with rheumatoid arthritis may have increased risks of high blood pressure, having an underweight baby or needing a cesarean section, a new study suggests.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) arises when the immune system mistakenly attacks tissue in the joints, leading to inflammation, pain and progressive joint damage. The disease is more common in women than men, and frequently develops during the childbearing years.
So far, studies have come to conflicting findings as to the potential effects of RA on pregnancy. Some, for example, have found that women with RA have higher risks of preterm delivery and having an underweight newborn, while others have found no such link.
For the new study, researchers used records from Taiwan’s national health system to compare 1,912 new mothers with RA with 9,560 new mothers without the disease.
They found that women with RA had a two-fold higher risk of pre-eclampsia — a potentially dangerous condition, marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine, that develops in the second or third trimester.
Women with RA were also 47 percent more likely to have a low-birth-weight baby and 19 percent more likely to require a C-section, according to findings published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.
Still, with the exception of C-section — reported for 42 percent of women with RA and 38 percent of those without RA — the large majority of women did not have these pregnancy complications.
Just under 3 percent of women with RA developed pre-eclampsia, compared with just over 1 percent of women in the comparison group. Eight percent of new moms with RA had a baby weighing less than 5.5 pounds, versus 5.5 percent of the comparison group.
Women with RA were also more likely to have a newborn who was “small for gestational age,” a sign of restricted growth in the womb. The problem was seen in 17 percent of women with RA, and 15 percent of women without the condition.
It is not clear why there is an association between RA and certain problems of pregnancy, according to Dr. Herng-Ching Lin and colleagues at Taipei Medical University.
Although the current study was large and allowed the researchers to account for a number of factors in the odds of pregnancy complications — like the women’s age and family income — it also lacked some important information.
The researchers had no information on the severity of each woman’s RA or medication use during pregnancy. So it’s not possible to tell how those factors might have affected the odds of complications, Lin’s team notes.
A number of RA medications, like methotrexate and leflunomide, may be harmful to the fetus and must be stopped before a woman conceives. But certain other medications, like prednisone and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, may still be used during pregnancy.
Future studies, Lin’s team writes, should try to determine the roles of RA severity and medication use in the pregnancy complications seen in this study. For now, the findings reinforce the recommendation that women with RA get good prenatal care, with regular visits to their obstetrician and rheumatologist.
Source
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Women who had radiation to the abdomen in childhood to treat cancer may experience excessive bleeding after giving birth, new study findings suggest.
The study evaluated pregnancy and birth outcomes in 40 women who were 30 years old on average and had been treated when about 7 years old for cancers of the blood, kidney, bone, and other locations.
Twenty-eight of the women were pregnant with their first child, eight with their second, and the rest were on their third, fourth or fifth pregnancies.
In general, these women had outcomes similar to more than 9000 women who never had cancer, Dr. Sharon Lie Fong, at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and her colleagues found.
However, the six women previously treated with abdominal radiation appear to be the exception.
Although just two of the six bled severely after childbirth, percentage-wise this represents a higher rate (33 percent) of severe bleeding cases relative to that seen in the general population where just 5 percent bled after childbirth.
The researchers urge health care providers to be aware of this risk when treating women cancer survivors during pregnancy, particularly since this finding “has not been reported so far in childhood cancer survivors,” Lie Fong’s team notes in the journal Human Reproduction.
Notably, the women’s very young age at cancer treatment — about 7 years old on average — did not seem to prevent harmful effects of radiation to their small, pre-puberty uteruses.
The six women who received radiation to the abdomen in childhood also delivered their babies an average of 4 weeks earlier than their cancer-free peers. However, babies born to the cancer survivors, including those previously treated with abdominal radiation, appeared as healthy as those born to cancer-free moms.
Due to the increased risks noted in this study, Lie Fong’s team discourages home birth and encourages heightened prenatal care for women who received abdominal radiation for childhood cancer.
Source
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Recent research on the subject has shown that for most pregnant women, interest in sex does not diminish in the first and second trimesters.
It is seen that women may have less sex as their pregnancy progresses which could be due to a variety of reasons, but it isn’t as if they enjoy the experience any less.
A study carried out in Lisbon, Portugal where women between the ages 17 to 40 were asked to answer questions posed by a questionnaire. The study found that;
- Nearly half the women surveyed (about 44 per cent) said that it was the first trimester when the most frequent sexual intercourse took place
- About a third of those polled (little over 35 per cent) said that it was the second trimester when they had the most frequent sex.
- Only 10 per cent of the women reported to having the most sexual activity during the last trimester
- As many as 55 percent of the women polled said that at the point of the third trimester and throughout the period of the last three months, sex decreased
- As many as 80 percent were having sex even during the later stage of pregnancy, with 40 percent having had sex in the birth week.
Source: HealthDay
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Women of 30 years and above who are trying to get pregnant are probably reading and hearing a lot about the difficulties of conception, or carrying the pregnancy to term and the increased possibilities of birth defects.
It is all probably enough to scare any women over age 30 who are trying to get pregnant.
Yes there are more risks associated with a later pregnancy such as miscarriage and difficulty in conceiving; however, one really need not feel apprehensive or scared or at all discouraged.
Rather, it is important to be positive and be in the best health and frame of mind that one can be. There are many things that you can start right away which will not only help you conceive, they will be great for you and your bodily health.
Stop Smoking: If you do smoke, there is no incentive like trying to get pregnant than to kick the habit and the butt! Smoking, apart from a whole host of other ills, also ages your eggs by as much as 10 years. So make up that mind and quit well before you even start trying to get pregnant
Get fit: Obesity increases risk of infertility[infertility problems] and overweight women find it harder to get pregnant than do others. The amount of body fat that you have is connected to the amount of estrogen your body produces and this in turn influences fertility.
Being underweight is also a problem if one is trying to get pregnant, so eat well making sure that your body is getting all the nutrients that it needs, cut out the junk food and get active.
Get into the best physical shape that you can possibly be. That would include straightening out any eating disorder or compulsive exercising as well.
Avoid Stress: Take up mediation or another stress relieving technique if you must but make sure that your stress levels are well within control.
The amount of stress you have goes directly to issues of fertility. Avoid stress not only at work and at home, but also avoid stress about trying to get pregnant.
Understand that it is perfectly fine to take as long as 6 months of trying and not getting pregnant. This is particularly true for women who have been on birth control pill for a while; it takes several menstrual cycles for their hormones to stabilize enough to initiate a pregnancy.
It is important not to get dejected and important not to try too hard to get pregnant. If you are always obsessing about ovulations, basal temperatures and positions and times of getting pregnant, then you are stressing about it way too much. This is actually counterproductive.
Instead, you and your partner should be indulging in the sort of loving intimacy that is an end in itself; not merely the means to reproducing.
So in short, do your body and mind a favor if you’re trying to get pregnant. Eat well, exercise, lower stress levels, indulge in activities that you enjoy and which make you happy!
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Pointers on natural childbirth, and recovery are coming from an unlikely source in recent times, international fashion model Gisele Bundchen. Whereas celebs are often accused of deliberately going under the knife and opting for C sections, Bundchen has shown how it is possible to do it naturally and do it the right way.
The Brazilian beauty claims that it was Kung Fu and Yoga that kept her weight gain in control during pregnancy and what also helped get her back in shape after her baby’s delivery.
Reportedly, she gained only 30 pounds during her pregnancy. Much of this weight would have been lost during the delivery and soon thereafter.
However, the reason for her getting back in shape so fast is the fact that she kept up with her fitness routine throughout pregnancy.
Also during her pregnancy she did not over indulge. She has a point when she said, “I think a lot of people get pregnant and decide they can turn into garbage disposals.” It is true that many pregnant women think that pregnancy is an excuse to overeat, or eat just about anything they want, regardless of calorie or fat content.
As for a fitness routine, unless medically advised not to, a woman can carry right on with a fitness routine during several months of her pregnancy.
Posted on March 18, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
The Wonder Years child star, Danica McKellar, and her husband of one year, Mike Verta, are expecting their first child this fall, People reports.
“I’m nearing the end of my first trimester and I’m so excited – I’ve been bursting to tell people,” says McKellar, 35. “When you do take the home pregnancy test, it doesn’t quite seem real,” says the mom-to-be. “But when you see the baby and the heartbeat on the ultrasound, it’s so incredible. Me and Mike looked at each other and we could not stop the tears,” she says. “We are so happy.”
Also known for her role in The West Wing, Danica graduated summa cum laude in mathematics from UCLA, co-wrote and published math theorem in Hot X: Algebra Exposed, and continues to be an outspoken role model for young women to excel in math.
Congratulations to the McKellar-Verta family!
Source
Posted on March 17, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Amy Adams looks spring fresh in light blue plaid, she later gets comfortable in a gray dress, Sofia Coppola stripes her bump, Bree Turner wears a black long-sleeve dress, Bethenny Frankel wears a cute black dress that doesn’t seem to be maternity wear, and later ditches the skirt for her first pair of maternity jeans in which she strikes a reliable pose.
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Posted on March 17, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
More celebrity babies on the way! Kevin Costner is expecting his seventh child!
The 55-year-old star and wife Christine Baumgartner are expecting their third child in June. They are already parents to two sons: Hayes Logan, 1, and Cayden, 2.
Costner has four children from previous relationships; three with ex-wife Cindy Costner, and one from a brief relationship following his divorce from Bridget Rooney.
Congratulations to the Baumgartner-Costner family!
Source
Posted on March 17, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Amy Poehler and Will Arnett’s funny family is growing.
A rep for the “Parks and Recreation” star confirms that Poehler, 38, is pregnant with her second child. Further information, including a due date, has not been released.
The new addition will join big brother Archie, 16 months, whom the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member delivered in Oct. 2008.
Known for their healthy senses of humor, Poehler and Arnett, 39, take parenthood a bit more seriously.
“As sort of clichéd as it sounds, it’s just the best,” notes former “Arrested Development” star Arnett. “Because it’s a human being that you’re responsible for … that’s scary, but even in its scariest moments it’s fantastic.”
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Posted on March 17, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech.
The findings, based on the study of infants aged between five months and two years old, suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.
The research was conducted by Dr Marcel Zentner, from the University of York’s Department of Psychology, and Dr Tuomas Eerola, from the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Jyvaskyla.
Dr Zentner said: “Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants.
“We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled.”
“It remains to be understood why humans have developed this particular predisposition. One possibility is that it was a target of natural selection for music or that it has evolved for some other function that just happens to be relevant for music processing.”
Infants listened to a variety of audio stimuli including classical music, rhythmic beats and speech. Their spontaneous movements were recorded by video and 3D motion-capture technology and compared across the different stimuli.
Source
Posted on March 17, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Many pregnant women know that they have to take special care of their teeth during their pregnancy because the gums tend to get soft and spongy and are more prone to bleeding.
After all we are told that you lose one tooth for every pregnancy we undergo. So we do know that teeth need to receive special care during pregnancy; at least one routine visit to the dentist is a must.
Now we know that there is one more reason that one ought to take good care of the teeth when pregnant. According to a recent study, that examined 1000 pregnant women, it was found that those women with gum disease were more likely to have premature babies.
However, pregnant women needn’t despair; receiving proper treatment for the gum disease can help to reduce this risk of having a preterm baby it was found. At the beginning of the study, each of the subjects had gum disease.
Those women who had untreated gum disease were seen as having triple the risk of delivering their babies before 35 weeks gestation when compared with the others. Those pregnant women, however who underwent treatment for their gum disease seemed to be far less prone to giving birth early.
Posted on March 17, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson, 34, and Rob McElhenney, 32, are expecting their first baby this August, their rep has confirmed to PEOPLE.
“Rob and I are so excited it’s stupid,” says Kaitlin in a statement.
The last couple years have been pretty amazing for us and just when we thought things couldn’t get any better, the greatest little thing in the world happened! We’re totally beside ourselves.
The couple married in September 2008 in Malibu, Calif.
Rob, who created and executive produces It’s Always Sunny, will return alongside his wife for the sixth season this fall. Kaitlin recently made an appearance in Leap Year as Amy Adams’ best friend.
Congratulations to the happy couple!
Source
Posted on March 16, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Pregnant women with psoriasis have a significantly increased risk of spontaneous abortion, preterm birth, hypertension ectopic pregnancy and other problems, researchers say.
The rate of each complication was three to four times greater than seen in women who did not have psoriasis, Dr. Xinaida Lima of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and colleagues reported in their poster presentation here at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting.
Authorities agree that pregnancy adversely affects psoriasis in most cases, but mixed results have come from studies evaluating associations in the opposite direction. Indeed, the study also suggested that women with psoriasis had a significantly lower rate of cesarean section compared with women who did not have the inflammatory skin disease.
Meanwhile, some past evidence has indicated psoriasis increases the risk of certain pregnancy complications, such as recurrent spontaneous abortion and hypertension. Other research has turned up no association between psoriasis and poor pregnancy outcomes.
Lima and colleagues sought to clarify the associations between psoriasis and pregnancy in a review of medical records for women with psoriasis diagnoses in the Partners healthcare system who became pregnant between 1999 and 2009.
For comparison, the investigators compiled a matched control group of women who did not have psoriasis.
The review identified 358 psoriasis patients who had had at least two diagnoses for psoriasis and 131,424 women who were similar except for no psoriasis diagnosis.
Preliminary statistical analysis showed that the women with psoriasis had significantly higher rates of five pregnancy complications:
- Spontaneous abortion, 28.1 percent versus 7.2 percent
- Preterm birth, 21.7 percent versus 7.4
- Severe preeclampsia and eclampsia, 14.2 percent versus 2.9 percent
- Placenta previa with and without hemorrhage
- Ectopic pregnancy, 13.6 percent versus 3 percent
The C-section rate in the psoriatic patients was about a third that of the group without psoriasis, and that remained significant even after differences in race and obesity were taken into account.
Source
Posted on March 15, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Though there is some disagreement among medical professionals as what exactly constitutes Fetal distress, the term ‘fetal distress’ has itself found disfavor in the recent times, there are generally accepted symptoms that are associated with fetal distress or what constitutes fetal distress.
There are generally accepted signs and symptoms of fetal distress, though there are often false positives of distress that may be noted in electronic fetal monitoring as well, which is one of the chief criticisms against this monitoring and the fact that unnecessary medical interventions may result when relying on these.
Fetal distress is characterized by a deprivation of oxygen to a baby’s brain which is usually detectable by monitoring of the fetal heart rate.
Anomalies in the heart rate of the baby are usually the indicator relied on to detect such oxygen deprivation that could be the cause of neurological damage and which may be cause enough for the baby to be born immediately, even if it means medical intervention ranging from induction to a cesarean section.
There are two heart indicators of the healthy fetus, (a) that the heart rate should be below 160 beats a minute and above 100 to 120 beats a minute and (b) the heart rate should be steady and not irregular.
There is a view that says electronic fetal monitoring say that this actually increases the risk of a C section or an instrument aided vaginal delivery and even infection and cerebral palsy in premature babies. However the indications of fetal distress that can be watched out for are:
- The pregnant women should be keeping an eye out for decreased fetal movement, which could be due to fetal distress.
- Meconium could have been passed before birth in which case this could be mixed with the amniotic fluid, which if ingested is toxic to the baby.
- Tests that medical professionals can carry out to determine fetal distress can include the collection of a tiny sample of blood from the baby’s scalp through the open cervix during labor. This could indicate elevated fetal blood lactate levels and could be a more reliable indicator of fetal distress.
Fetal distress could result from a number of different causes such as abnormal presentation or position of the fetus, breathing problems, multiple births, umbilical cord prolapse, placental abnormalities or abruption, shoulder dystocia, nuchal cord, or premature closure of the fetus’s ductus arteriosus.
Posted on March 15, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Paz Vega and husband Orson Salazar have revealed to Hola! magazine that they are expecting baby no. 3 in September! Though the couple had always planned on having more children, they admit that the news was unexpected.
“It’s a surprise,” says the 34-year-old Spanglish star. “This baby came a bit soon, but we’re thrilled and happy.”
Just thirteen weeks along, Paz says she wanted to wait until the end of her first trimester to share the exciting news: “Ava’s birth was very recent,” she explains. “And I have had two c-sections.”
Paz and Orson, who are already parents to son Orson, 2 ½, and Ava, 7 ½-months, are already trying to think up baby names: “Orson prefers a boy,” shares the soon-to-be mom-of-three. “Personally I have always liked boys, but if it’s a girl, marvelous, because I was raised among women.”
Congratulations to the Vega-Salazars!
Source
Posted on March 12, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
For most people, the 2009 movie “Away We Go,” has all but faded from memory, a wry little comedy that didn’t gain much traction at the box office and was all but ignored during the past awards season.
But for some people one scene in that movie continues to echo at playgrounds, coffee shops and on city sidewalks. The characters Burt and Verona, played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, arrive at the home of a friend and mother of young children, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and proudly present her with something she does not own: a stroller.
The result is not the warm “Thank you” they expect.
“I love my babies,” she exhorts before banishing the stroller from her house and flying into a rage. “Why would I want to push them away from me?”
And that’s exactly the question some parents are asking themselves these days. For them, the last decade’s coveted Bugaboo or Maclaren stroller has been largely supplanted by baby carriers — chic wraps, minimalist pouches and soft structured packs.
Hardly new, wraps and other types of baby carriers are traditional in many parts of the world, and Western versions have been used in North America and Europe for decades. But lately, “wearing” one’s baby has taken on a certain cachet, with celebrities like Brad Pitt and Keri Russell pictured in star-gazing magazines and blogs with their babies strapped to their bodies.
In recent years, the number of carriers has expanded from a handful of styles to scores. “In 2004, there were barely any carriers,” said Bianca Fehn, an owner of Metro Minis. “You had to find these work-at-home moms who made them and go on a waiting list for weeks or even months to get a carrier.” Before opening the store, she started an Internet community called Slings in the City that held regular baby carrier demonstrations around town.
But as carriers have grown more popular, their safety has been questioned, with particular alarm about bag-style slings, which have contributed to the suffocation deaths of several infants. On Tuesday, Inez M. Tenenbaum, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, announced a forthcoming warning about slings, saying that “we know now the hazard scenarios for very small babies” carried in them. Many specialty stores, like Metro Minis, do not sell bag-style slings whose safety has been challenged, and instructs buyers to position babies in any sling upright and tight against the caregiver.
While most people using baby carriers extol the convenience of having their hands free to steer a toddler, dial a cellphone or maneuver through a grocery store, some see it as an integral part of their parenting philosophy, which holds that babies should be worn on the body to foster a strong attachment to their parents.
“Close physical contact is important for babies,” said Byron Egeland, a psychologist at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, who has studied and written extensively about infant attachment. “But I would quickly add that a parent using a stroller is not going to make or break whether their child is securely or anxiously attached.”
Claire Moore, 33, nuzzled her 7-week-old daughter, Zoë, while explaining that her carrier had been picked by her husband, Adrian. Walking their dog most mornings in nearby Prospect Park, he had spent months during her pregnancy trying to figure out the most practical, comfortable carrier for them both by surveying the park’s many fathers with babies tethered to their chests. Eventually, Ms. Moore said, he settled on the ERGObaby; they bought one in cranberry.
“He’d been keeping an eye out and knew that was the one,” she said. “All the dads are wearing it.”
Source
Posted on March 12, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Simply put, hyperpigmentation is the darkening of the skin or the nails due to excessive production of melanin in the body. Most pregnant women experience hyperpigmentation in some or other form.
Sometimes it can manifest itself by way of the mask of pregnancy; also known as Chloasma or Melasma. This is usually a butterfly shaped patch on the face and it may also manifest itself on other parts of the body such as the arms. Chloasma can get worse with successive pregnancies.
Many women experience hyper pigmentation in the form of the linea nigra that forms in the middle of the abdomen during pregnancy. The linea nigra originates at the navel and extends down to the pubic bone, seems to bisect the abdomen into two perfect halves.
The pigmentation of darker areas of the body will become more concentrated during this time. So, if a woman has freckles or moles, she will find that these markings will become darker and more prominent at this time.
Even those women who do not experience noticeable conditions like Chloasma will most often notice a darkening of the nipples and aureoles as well as the genital area during pregnancy.
Most forms of hyperpigmentation fade and disappear soon after childbirth and are nothing to worry about.
Posted on March 12, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
There are a number of reasons why flu shots are recommended to be taken during pregnancy, and now we are informed that there is yet another: a recent study has suggested that having a flu shot during pregnancy could lower chances of the baby developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia later in life.
In the study, pregnant monkeys were examined, some of whom had mild influenza and some of whom were fully healthy. At birth all the baby monkeys appeared to be perfectly healthy and their birth weight normal as well. Their size at birth was normal as well as with normal behavioral and neuromotor activity.
However, when done a year later, differences were seen in the brains of those babies whose mothers had flu and those whose mothers had not.
The brains of those monkeys whose mother had the flu were noticeably smaller and had reduced areas of white and grey matter.
The changes that were seen in the flu group were similar to those observed in patients with schizophrenia.
Though the findings do not apply directly to humans, the researchers suggest that having a flu shot may prevent flu which in turn may prevent possible brain damage of the child.
Source: Examiner
Posted on March 12, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Pregnant women planning a night at the cinema might want to steer clear of tear-jerkers.
Scientists have discovered that unborn babies respond to their mother’s mood while she is watching a movie – and become quiet and still if the film is sad.
In a bizarre experiment, fetuses threw their arms around when their mothers watched a feel-good clip from The Sound of Music – but became subdued during a sad scene from The Champ.
Researchers have no idea how the babies pick up on their mothers’ emotions, but suspect that the rush of hormones triggered by an emotional film are transmitted indirectly to the fetus.
The findings, reported today in New Scientist magazine, add to the evidence that a pregnant mother’s mood and stress levels can affect her unborn child. Past studies have shown that stressed mothers-to-be are at higher risk of stillbirth and premature birth.Babies born to stressed mothers are twice as likely to have lower-than-average IQs. They are also more likely to be hyperactive, suffer from emotional problems and refuse to do as they are told.
In the new study, carried out at Nagasaki University in Japan, ten pregnant volunteers were asked to watch an upbeat five-minute clip from the Julie Andrews musical, The Sound of Music. Another 14 watched a tear-jerking five minutes from the 1979 Franco Zeffirelli film The Champ, in which a boy cries at the death of his father. The clips were ’sandwiched’ between two extracts of neutral programs so the researchers could measure any changes in the movement of the babies.
The mothers-to-be listened to the movies using earphones to guarantee their unborn babies were not being influenced by the movie’s soundtrack.
Dr Kazuyuki Shinorhara, who led the study, used ultrasound scans to count the number of arm, leg and body movements of the babies while their mothers were watching the clips.
Researchers found that the fetuses moved their arms significantly more during the happy clip from The Sound of Music. But in the other group, the unborn babies moved significantly less than normal while their mothers watched the sad scenes.
Source
Posted on March 12, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Hospitals and professional societies should end bans that that keep many women who’ve had a C-section from opting for a natural birth in later pregnancies, an NIH advisory panel today urged.
About 75% of women succeed in having a vaginal delivery after previous cesarean delivery, assuming that it’s not a multiple birth, that the baby is in the normal position, and that their previous C-section required only a single incision.
But women who might want to give labor a try very often don’t get a chance. That’s because of so-called “VBAC bans” — hospital policies that forbid a vaginal birth after a cesarean (VBAC) unless fully equipped and staffed surgical and anesthesia services are readily available. These policies align with current guidelines set by gynecology and anesthesia professional societies.
Not all hospitals are able to comply with this standard, so many women who have had a C-section have no choice in the matter. In fact, 30% of hospitals stopped offering women this choice after the professional-society guidelines went into effect.
The panel of experts heard three days of testimony and scientific presentations on questions surrounding VBAC. In the end, they urged the professional societies to reconsider their guidelines and urged hospitals to reconsider their policies. However, the panel has no power to force a change in policy.
Panel chairman F. Gary Cunningham, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, noted that much more research is needed before doctors can identify the rare women who suffer VBAC complications.
While rare, the complications can be severe and even fatal. However, panel member Carol J. Rowland Hogue, PhD, MPH, director of the women’s and children’s center at Emory University, noted that VBAC isn’t the only risk for a pregnant woman.
“Pregnancy is something of a risky endeavor,” Hogue said at a news conference. “Women do suffer complications and their babies do have problems. Fortunately these are rare — but they occur irrespective of mode of delivery. The very rare experience of maternal death is higher for C-section regardless of whether it is primary or repeat. This is very important for providers to weigh.”
Source
Posted on March 11, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
Congratulations to actor Joseph Fiennes and his wife Maria Dolores Dieguez, who are the proud new parents of a baby girl! A rep for the FlashForward star confirms that the couple’s first child was born on Monday, March 8.
Joseph and Maria, who tied the knot this past summer, announced the pregnancy in September, saying they were “utterly thrilled” to have a baby on the way.
There’s been no word on a name just yet.
Source
Posted on March 11, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
It’s hard enough for a mom of one babe to keep track of her newborn’s eating and sleeping habits, but it’s doubly difficult when there are two little bundles of joy. For sleep deprived parents, this can pose a problem when it comes to identical twins! So here are some tips that people use to tell the darlings apart or ways to make it easier on extended family and friends.
Physical Characteristics
Even when twins are identical, one may have chubbier cheeks, fuller lips, more angled ears, or a few freckles. Find the facial characteristic that sets the kiddos apart and use it to figure out who is who. Or look note a physical difference like one twin being taller or having a bigger build.
Personalities
Even wee babes have big personalities. One tot may be more of a morning person and the other a little night owl. There might be a smiling infant and another newborn who tends to scowl. Paying attention to these traits from fussiness to friendliness can help people figure out which identical twin is which.
Color Coded Dressing
Outfits can work wonders! Lots of moms choose a couple of colors for one twin and a few different hues for the other. This cuts down on arguments over who gets to wear what as the children grow and helps friends and preschool teachers tell the identical duo apart. But beware, the trick might be on you once the kiddos are old enough to swap shirts!
Painted Finger or Toe Nail
Infants snooze a lot so some new parents need a little help figuring out which child is which before their personalities are evident. Moms and dads have painted one fingernail or toenail of an identical twin to use as an identifier.
Temporary Tattoos or Stickers
I recently heard about a grandfather who decided an easy way to differentiate his identical grandsons was to give one a temporary tattoo! A non-toxic tatt on the arm or a sticker on the hand of an older tot works too.
Source
Posted on March 11, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
VBAC is the term used to describe a vaginal birth after a cesarean section, whereas in 1996 almost a third of births were vaginal after a previous C section; this rate has fallen down to just 10% VBAC deliveries.
In recent times, there is an alarming trend that has women being dismayed by the lack of hospitals and doctors willing to let a woman deliver naturally if she has had a previous C section. It is seen that:
- VBAC is safe for all those women who have had a horizontal cut low on the uterus in their previous C section delivery.
- 70% of women who have had a previous C section are good candidates for a VBAC.
- Between 60 to 80% of those that try for a normal delivery after a c section also succeeds.
- Because this tendency of repeated C sections, the national average of C section births is going on rising and is up to nearly one in three births.
- The rule of “Once a C section always a C section” actually does not apply anymore, since in 1980 it was declared to be safe for the mother to try for a natural delivery even after a previous C-section.
Source: NY Times
Posted on March 11, 2010 | Filed under Pregnancy | Permalink
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