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The womb is the small, hollow, pear-shaped organ in a woman's pelvis. This is the organ in which a baby grows. Also called uterus.

$5 million in federal funding to accelerate potential treatments for urea cycle disorders

An international research consortium co-led by Andrea L. Gropman, M.D., at Children's National Hospital has received $5 million in federal funding as part of an overall effort to better understand rare diseases and accelerate potential treatments to patients.

24 Oct 2019

Link found between unique brain cells and OCD, anxiety

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 3 people experience debilitating anxiety - the kind that prevents someone from going about their normal life.

22 Oct 2019

Autism spectrum disorder could be triggered by low placental steroid levels

A recent experimental study has shown that one reason for the occurrence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could be the deficit of a placental steroid hormone called allopregnanolone. The reason is that this hormone plays a critical role in the normal development of the brain in fetal life.

21 Oct 2019

Insufficient placental steroid may increase autism spectrum disorder risk

A study in experimental models suggests that allopregnanolone, one of many hormones produced by the placenta during pregnancy, is so essential to normal fetal brain development that when provision of that hormone decreases or stops abruptly - as occurs with premature birth - offspring are more likely to develop autism-like behaviors.

20 Oct 2019

Prenatal stress increases birth complications and decreases male births

According to a new study published this week, mothers who undergo physical and mental stress during their pregnancies are more likely to deliver prematurely and have birth complications.

18 Oct 2019

Pollution tied to silent miscarriage among pregnant women

Miscarriage happens when an embryo or fetus dies before the 20th week of pregnancy. In some cases, pregnant women experience silent miscarriage, also known as missed abortion. It happens when the fetus failed to develop or has died.

16 Oct 2019

Drug may improve the safety of cannabis use in early pregnancy

Cannabis use during pregnancy may increase the risk of psychosis in children. Scientists have now found a drug that can reduce the effects of THC on the fetus.

16 Oct 2019

Heavier babies more likely to develop childhood allergies

A new study shows that babies who weigh more at any gestational age have a higher risk of later developing food allergies or eczema in childhood. However, there was no increase in the risk of hay fever. The paper published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that the risk of food allergy went up by 44% and of eczema by 17% for each kilogram of added weight. On the other hand, restricted growth in the womb appears to be protective.

15 Oct 2019

New molecular "clock" could help monitor life-altering development disorders in children

Scientists have developed a molecular "clock" that could reshape how pediatricians measure and monitor childhood growth and potentially allow for an earlier diagnosis of life-altering development disorders.

15 Oct 2019

Maternal stress during pregnancy could affect baby's sex and birth outcomes

It's becoming well established that maternal stress during pregnancy can affect fetal and child development as well as birth outcomes, and a new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and NewYork-Presbyterian now identifies the types of physical and psychological stress that may matter most.

14 Oct 2019

New therapeutic approach for children born to mothers who used cannabis during pregnancy

As a growing number of U.S. states legalize the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana, an increasing number of American women are using cannabis before becoming pregnant and during early pregnancy often to treat morning sickness, anxiety, and lower back pain.

14 Oct 2019

Environmental estrogen burdens babies in mothers' wombs

Xenoestrogens are absorbed through the environment, especially through food. As oestrogen-like substances, they can have a profound effect on the body's hormonal balance.

10 Oct 2019

Fetal gut has more well-developed immune capabilities than previously thought

Most biology textbooks explain that the fetal immune system is largely undeveloped and that it learns after being exposed to the world at birth. New research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh challenges that paradigm, and provides the first comprehensive look at the immune system of the developing gut.

10 Oct 2019

Researchers show how food estrogen migrates through the placenta

The human fetus is considered to be particularly sensitive to environmental contaminants. A team led by Benedikt Warth from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna and Tina Bürki from the Swiss Materials Science and Technology Institute, Empa, has now been able to demonstrate for the first time how the widespread food estrogen zearalenone behaves in the womb.

10 Oct 2019

Dutch researchers to develop artificial womb prototypes

The Eindhoven University of Technology has been awarded a research grant of €2.9 million for researchers to develop artificial womb prototypes.

9 Oct 2019

They enrolled in medical school to practice rural medicine. What happened?

The University of Kansas School of Medicine-Salina opened in 2011 — a one-building campus in the heart of wheat country dedicated to producing the rural doctors the country needs.

9 Oct 2019

Need to feel balanced drives development of limb-body coordination, study finds

The need to feel balanced drives the development of coordination between body and limbs as zebrafish larvae learn to swim, a new study by NYU School of Medicine finds.

9 Oct 2019

Deficit schizophrenics are physically different from other people

The study, published in Schizophrenia Bulletin on August 19, 2019, points out some differences in mouth structure in people with one form of schizophrenia called deficit schizophrenia, compared with other schizophrenics and non-schizophrenics.

8 Oct 2019

Social hardship may hamper children's language skills

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are three times more likely to develop difficulties with language than those from more affluent areas, research suggests.

8 Oct 2019

Maternal obesity accelerates rate of aging of metabolic problems in offspring

It has long been known that obesity impairs our metabolism and predisposes to diabetes and heart disease. New research in The Journal of Physiology has shown that the effects of maternal obesity even pass across generations to offspring, accelerating the rate of aging of metabolic problems that occur in normal life.

8 Oct 2019