Maternal Health News and Research

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'Dual burden' of prematurity and serious maternal complications occurs in one of 270 births

A quarter of women who have serious maternal complications during childbirth also have premature births, posing a "dual burden" on families, finds research from NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, the University of California, San Francisco California Preterm Birth Initiative, and Stanford University.

17 Jul 2019

Federal nutrition program improves health of pregnant women and children

A major 2009 revision to a federal nutrition program for low-income pregnant women and children improved recipients' health on several key measures, researchers at UC San Francisco have found.

2 Jul 2019

Overdoses and suicides found to be common reasons for deaths of new mothers

Overdoses and suicides were among the most common reasons for mothers dying within a year of giving birth in California, according to a new study from Michigan State University and the University of California, Merced.

12 Jun 2019

Queen’s researchers develop innovative rapid test to improve maternal health in developing countries

A grant from the McClay Foundation will enable Queen's researchers to work with clinicians to offer fast diagnostic testing to prevent meningitis and sepsis in maternity wards for the first time in Malawi.

31 May 2019

Increased out-of-pocket spending threatens universal health coverage in 'missing middle' countries

One in six countries is expected to have substantially high out-of-pocket spending as a proportion of total health expenditures by 2050, according to a new scientific study.

25 Apr 2019

New program to address longstanding perinatal health disparities

Despite being home to a world-class medical center, renowned physicians and high-quality medical treatment, many communities in Houston experience significantly higher infant and maternal death rates.

11 Apr 2019

First-of-its-kind study provides pregnancy statistics of imprisoned U.S. women

In what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind systematic look at pregnancy frequency and outcomes among imprisoned U.S. women, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say almost 1,400 pregnant women were admitted to 22 U.S. state and all federal prisons in a recent year.

22 Mar 2019

Intervention can increase exclusive breastfeeding rates

Interventions which educate and support new mothers in West Africa to exclusively breastfeed (where infants are only fed breast milk) can significantly increase the practice, according to new research published in The Lancet Global Health.

15 Feb 2019

PSMF supports two federal laws aimed to improve maternal safety in hospitals

The Patient Safety Movement Foundation supports two federal laws aimed to improve the safety of mothers in hospitals across the United States.

11 Jan 2019

Study examines relationship between growth restriction and risk of childhood mortality

Almost all children live to see their eighteenth birthday despite a severe growth restriction, as long as they have survived their first month during infancy. This is indicated in a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, which is published in the journal PLOS Medicine.

18 Dec 2018

Doctors find no association between autism and drugs taken during pregnancy

A new study has found that babies exposed to medications in the womb are at no more risk of developing autism than babies who are not exposed to any drugs.

31 Oct 2018

Survey: Strong bipartisan support for public health

At the launch of the autumn flu season and amid a rash of weather-related disasters affecting many states, nine in 10 registered voters (89%) believe public health departments play an important role in the health of their community, according to a new poll released today by the de Beaumont Foundation.

30 Oct 2018

Religious upbringing may be protective factor for health, well-being in early adulthood

Participating in spiritual practices during childhood and adolescence may be a protective factor for a range of health and well-being outcomes in early adulthood, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

14 Sep 2018

Overweight mothers more likely to stop breastfeeding sooner than healthy weight women

Overweight mothers are more likely than those classed as being of a healthy weight to stop breastfeeding in the first week after having a baby and less likely to continue past four months, according to a new study from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Auckland.

12 Sep 2018

Unique composition of mother's breastmilk may help reduce food sensitization in infants

The unique composition of a mother's breastmilk may help to reduce food sensitization in her infant, report researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine with colleagues in Canada.

12 Jun 2018

Agendia and Angsana partner to market MammaPrint, BluePrint breast cancer tests in Southeast Asia

Agendia, Inc., a world leader in personalized medicine and molecular cancer diagnostics, and Angsana Molecular & Diagnostics Laboratory Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Parkway Pantai, announce a partnership to market the MammaPrint Breast Cancer Risk of Recurrence test and the BluePrint Molecular Subtyping test to physicians across Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Myanmar.

31 May 2018

UAB professor receives award for malaria prevention study in pregnant women in Cameroon

Jodie Dionne-Odom, M.D., assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Division of Infectious Diseases and chief of Women's Health Services at UAB's 1917 Clinic, has been awarded a five-year, $841,000 K23 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

25 May 2018

Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian launch new Mothers Center

In time for Mother's Day, NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center announced the opening of the Mothers Center, a new space that will provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary care before, during and after a high-risk pregnancy, starting later this month.

10 May 2018

Simple question could help clinicians better understand women and infants' health, study suggests

"Have you ever been sexually active for a year or more without using contraception and becoming pregnant?" A study by George Mason University's Dean of the College of Health and Human Services, Dr. Germaine M. Buck Louis, and colleagues from the University at Albany and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development suggests that asking this question could help clinicians better understand women and infants' health.

9 Feb 2018

Breastfeeding for longer protects mothers from hypertension, finds study

According to a new study, women who have been breastfeeding their babies for longer periods of time are less likely to suffer from hypertension.

1 Feb 2018