Maternal Health News and Research

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Researchers show how low-protein diet during pregnancy can cause kidney problems in babies

Besides being underweight, babies born to women whose diet lacked sufficient protein during pregnancy tend to have kidney problems resulting from alterations that occurred while their organs were forming during the embryonic stage of their development.

5 May 2021

Fighting malaria in 2021: Where are we now and where are we going?

In support of World Malaria Day, News-Medical spoke to Dr. Laurence Slutsker, an internationally recognized expert in malaria, about fighting this disease in 2021.

26 Apr 2021

Children exposed to intimate partner violence from infancy were twice as likely to have poor health

A new study has found up to half of all children with language difficulties and mental and physical health problems have been exposed to intimate partner violence, prompting calls for health and social care services to provide more effective identification and early intervention.

22 Apr 2021

Residents in majority-Black neighborhoods experience higher rates of severe maternal morbidity

Residents in majority-Black neighborhoods experience higher rates of severe pregnancy-related health problems than those living in predominantly-white areas, according to a new study of pregnancies at a Philadelphia-based health system, which was led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

12 Apr 2021

Undocumented pregnant women in Finland receive inadequate prenatal care, study shows

Undocumented women in Finland access pregnancy care later than others. Yet, screening of infectious diseases at the early stages of pregnancy would be particularly important to these women, a new study carried out in Helsinki, Finland, shows.

18 Mar 2021

Despite modest progress, maternal and child undernutrition remains a key health concern

The Lancet today published the latest Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition Progress, including three new papers that build upon findings from the previous 2008 and 2013 Series, which established an evidence-based global agenda for tackling undernutrition over the past decade.

8 Mar 2021

Study: Having children three years apart can prevent child stunting

Having children at least three years apart can help prevent stunting in children, says a study carried out in India.

4 Mar 2021

Researchers to conduct large meta-analysis of fetomaternal complications in COVID-19

A new preprint on the medRxiv* server describes the protocol written for a study that aims to perform a systematic analysis of all the data available on the effect of this syndrome on pregnancy.

1 Mar 2021

Adequate spacing between births can reduce stunting in children

Adequate spacing between births can help to alleviate the likelihood of stunting in children, according to a new study from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI).

18 Feb 2021

Study shows the impact of paid maternity leave on maternal health

A study of women who were new mothers in the late 1970s found that those who were given longer, paid maternity leave lived healthier lives as they entered middle age.

9 Feb 2021

Medicaid expansion in New York associated with reduction in severe maternal morbidity

A study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center has found that Medicaid expansion in 2014 in New York State was associated with a statistically significant reduction in severe maternal morbidity in low-income women during delivery hospitalizations compared with high-income women.

29 Jan 2021

Trump administration approves first Medicaid block grant, in Tennessee

With just a dozen days left in power, the Trump administration on Friday approved a radically different Medicaid financing system in Tennessee that for the first time would give the state broad authority in running the health insurance program for the poor in exchange for capping its annual federal funding.

8 Jan 2021

Study examines how obesity affected postpartum hemorrhage outcomes at a tertiary care center

Postpartum hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding after delivery, is still one of the leading causes of severe maternal injury and death in the United States. And the rise in obesity among pregnant women has been linked to increased rates of this potentially serious, largely preventable obstetric complication.

22 Dec 2020

WHO and HRP launch “Labour Care Guide” to improve women’s experience of childbirth

WHO and HRP launch the Labour Care Guide to improve every woman's experience of childbirth, and to help ensure the health and well-being of women and their babies.

15 Dec 2020

Iceland joins with WHO to support work towards integrated brain health

His Excellency Mr Harald Aspelund, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva and Ms Jane Ellison, WHO Executive Director for External Relations and Governance signed a new contribution agreement to support work towards integrated brain health, that will be led by a newly established unit within the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use.

8 Dec 2020

Maternal stress may lead to preterm births, accelerate child's biological aging

Why do some people age faster than others? One potential answer, a new UCLA-led study indicates, is that a mother's stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child's biological aging.

30 Nov 2020

Bangladesh women living in poorer households reluctant to use maternal health care

Women living in poorer households of Dhaka, Bangladesh are unwilling to give birth at maternal healthcare facilities.

23 Oct 2020

Women living in least restrictive states are more likely to give birth to low-birth weight babies

American women living in states with less restrictive reproductive rights policies are less likely to give birth to low-birth weight babies, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier.

13 Oct 2020

Ground-breaking maternal health trial starts across 80 hospitals in Asia and Africa

Researchers based at the University of Birmingham are starting a ground-breaking maternal health trial across 80 hospitals in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Sri Lanka.

7 Oct 2020

New report estimates the global burden of stillbirths

Almost 2 million babies are stillborn every year – or 1 every 16 seconds – according to the first ever joint stillbirth estimates released by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.