Obstetrics News and Research

RSS

Gynecology and obstetrics are twin subjects that deal with the female reproductive system. While obstetrics deals with pregnancy and its associated procedures and complications, gynaecology involves treating women who are not pregnant.

Moderate alcohol intake during pregnancy does not influence child's development and intelligence

Children born by mothers who have of consumed between 1 and 6 alcohol units per week are just as intelligent and well-developed as children of abstaining mothers. Mothers who have been drinking 5 or more drinks on a single occasion a limited number of times before realizing that they were pregnant may also breathe a sigh of relief; their children have not been harmed.

22 Jun 2012

Midurethral slings can prevent pre-operative urinary incontinence in women with vaginal prolapse

A multicenter study involving a UT Southwestern Medical Center urogynecologist will eliminate some of the guesswork physicians face about whether to use a sling during vaginal prolapse repair to prevent urinary incontinence.

21 Jun 2012

Family planning summit offers opportunity to integrate reproductive services with HIV, other health initiatives

Noting that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.K. government will co-host an international family planning summit in London in July, Gavin Yamey of the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco; Craig Cohen, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services at the University of California; and Elizabeth Bukusi, chief research officer and deputy director of research and training at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, write in a BMJ commentary, "More than 120 million women worldwide aged 15-49 years have an unmet need for family planning, which is due a renaissance after years of neglect."

21 Jun 2012

New clues to why some urinary tract infections recur persistently

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found new clues to why some urinary tract infections recur persistently after multiple rounds of treatment.

19 Jun 2012

Study on identification of novel stem cell population in neuroblastoma to be presented at ANR conference

Dr. Eugene Kim, a pediatric surgeon with Texas Children's Cancer Center and assistant professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), and Dr. Jason Shohet, chair of the Neuroblastoma Research Program at Texas Children's Cancer Center and associate professor in the Section of Hematology-Oncology at BCM, will speak at the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research (ANR) conference about the identification of a novel stem cell population in neuroblastoma.

19 Jun 2012

New U-M hESC lines now available for federally-funded research

Six new human embryonic stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan have just been placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research.

15 Jun 2012

Women pregnant with twins should elect to give birth at 37 weeks

University of Adelaide researchers say women pregnant with twins should elect to give birth at 37 weeks to avoid serious complications.

14 Jun 2012

ORMC offers bronchial thermoplasty for severe asthma

Doctors at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) are delivering heat directly to the source to treat patients with severe asthma - a respiratory disease that causes the airways in the lungs to narrow, making it difficult to breathe.

13 Jun 2012

Pharmanest commences SHACT Phase II study in women

Today, Pharmanest AB announced that the first patient has been dosed in a randomized Phase II study of SHACT, a product developed for pain relief associated with intrauterine device (IUD) insertion. Karolinska Development AB (STO:KDEV) owns 58.9 percent of Pharmanest.

12 Jun 2012

VHC extends Obstetrics services to Kaiser Permanente members

Virginia Hospital Center announced today an expansion of services offered at Virginia Hospital Center, to include Obstetrics for Kaiser Permanente's members.

11 Jun 2012

Novel assay accurately detects trisomy 21 or 18 from maternal blood samples

Current screening strategies for Down syndrome, caused by fetal trisomy 21 (T21), and Edwards syndrome, caused by fetal trisomy 18 (T18), have false positive rates of 2 to 3%, and false negative rates of 5% or higher. Positive screening results must be confirmed by amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, which carry a fetal loss rate of approximately 1 in 300 procedures. Now an international, multicenter cohort study finds that a genetic test to screen for trisomy 21 or 18 from a maternal blood sample is almost 100% accurate.

6 Jun 2012

Researchers identify chromosomal make-up of human eggs

In a groundbreaking study, Yale School of Medicine researchers and colleagues at the University of Oxford have identified the chromosomal make-up of a human egg. This discovery may soon allow them to avoid using abnormal - or aneuploid - eggs during infertility treatments, and instead to pick eggs that are healthy enough for a successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle.

2 Jun 2012

First U.S.-based study to assess per-patient annual economic costs of fecal incontinence

Care for patients with fecal incontinence costs $4,110 per person for both medical and non-medical costs like loss of productivity, according to new research from the University of Michigan.

2 Jun 2012

RUSM, KMC announce 10-year affiliation agreement

Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) and Kern Medical Center (KMC) in Bakersfield, Calif. today announced a 10-year affiliation agreement to allocate, on an annual basis, a significant number of core clinical rotation slots to RUSM students.

31 May 2012

Marshall Edwards initiates ME-344 Phase I trial in solid tumors

Marshall Edwards, Inc., an oncology company focused on the clinical development of novel therapeutics targeting cancer metabolism, announced today that the first cohort of patients has been dosed in a Phase I clinical trial of ME-344, the Company's lead mitochondrial inhibitor drug candidate, in patients with refractory solid tumors.

30 May 2012

Referral to telephone-based nurse consultation may improve outcomes in women with GDM

Among women with gestational diabetes mellitus, referral to a telephone-based nurse management program was associated with lower risk of high baby birth weight and increased postpartum glucose testing, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers.

28 May 2012

Fever during pregnancy associated with autism or developmental delay

A team of UC Davis researchers has found that mothers who had fevers during their pregnancies were more than twice as likely to have a child with autism or developmental delay than were mothers of typically developing children, and that taking medication to treat fever countered its effect.

25 May 2012

State lawmakers wrestle with Planned Parenthood funding, contraception coverage

Legislation in Pennsylvania would bar the use of state and federal funding by Planned Parenthood. Also, some Georgia physicians fear their opposition to a state abortion bill has triggered retaliation.

25 May 2012

Cedars-Sinai receives ACGME’s first approval for obstetric anesthesiology fellowship program

Cedars-Sinai has received the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's first approval for an obstetric anesthesiology fellowship program.

25 May 2012

IUDs and implants effectively reduce risk of unintended pregnancy

A study to evaluate birth control methods has found dramatic differences in their effectiveness. Women who used birth control pills, the patch or vaginal ring were 20 times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than those who used longer-acting forms such as an intrauterine device (IUD) or implant.

24 May 2012