Womb News and Research

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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.

Research suggests that male mice may be vulnerable to effects of maternal inflammation than females

Johns Hopkins researchers report that fetal mice - especially males - show signs of brain damage that lasts into their adulthood when they are exposed in the womb to a maternal immune system kicked into high gear by a serious infection or other malady.

7 Feb 2014

Mother's illness, allergen exposure during pregency may predict child's risk of asthma and allergy

Women that are pregnant may want to take extra precaution around those that are sniffling and sneezing this winter. According to a new study published today, the more common colds and viral infections a woman has during pregnancy, the higher the risk her baby will have asthma.

4 Feb 2014

Viewpoints: High court weighs home health care workers' union rights; abortion protections becoming 'all but meaningless'

On Tuesday, the justices were presented with a golden opportunity to further increase inequality. The court heard arguments in Harris v. Quinn, a case testing whether home-care providers who work under a union contract with the state of Illinois can avoid paying dues that support the union's collective-bargaining work.

23 Jan 2014

Cedars-Sinai physicians awarded grant to study pregnancy problems resulting from fertility treatments

Two Cedars-Sinai physician-researchers have been awarded grants totaling $4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how the environment - both in the womb and in the hospital where the baby is born - can affect the newborn and the mother.

18 Dec 2013

PPDC receives $1.5 million grant to advance pediatric medical devices

For medical devices, as with many medicines, the market for children is a small fraction of the adult market, and there are far fewer child-sized devices. But, of course, the need exists, even if proper devices may not.

12 Dec 2013

Longer looks: Providing dental care in rural Alaska; the after-effects of the ICU; cure for allergies

Aniak, Alaska, is a Yu'pik village of 500 people on the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, about 400 miles northwest of Anchorage. It is in this special and isolated community where I practice as a dental therapist, trained and certified to deliver some, but not all, types of dental care. Dental therapists have been practicing in Alaska for nine years and now provide routine dental care to 40,000 Native Alaskans. In the United States about forty-seven million people live in areas where there is a shortage of dentists, and millions more can't afford to see them. For so many Americans, even the most basic dental care is out of reach. Yet right here in Alaska, I think we've found part of the solution (Conan Murat, November, 2013).

28 Nov 2013

Supreme Court to hear arguments on health law's contraceptive coverage mandate

The justices accepted a pair of cases that raise questions not just about religious freedom and equality for female employees, but whether the religious beliefs of the owners of secular corporations allows them to not comply with a law.

27 Nov 2013

First Edition: Nov. 27, 2013

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz, in collaboration with McClatchy, reports: "Like half the states, South Carolina chose not to expand Medicaid under the federal health law next year, citing the program's high costs and inefficiency. Yet, state officials still forecast a 16 percent enrollment jump by the end of June, 2015, triple that of a typical year and even higher than the 12 percent average increase expected in states that are expanding eligibility.

27 Nov 2013

Childhood exercise help mitigate obesity due to prenatal exposure to high-fat diets

Rats whose mothers were fed a high-fat diet during pregnancy and nursing were able to stave off some of the detrimental health effects of obesity by exercising during their adolescence, new Johns Hopkins research shows.

26 Nov 2013

Steroid injections given before premature birth may increase child's mental health risks

Steroid injections given to pregnant women before premature birth may increase the child's risk of later behavioural and emotional difficulties, a study has found.

23 Nov 2013

Many primary care pediatricians feel uncomfortable in providing care to patients with genetic disorders

Many primary care pediatricians say they feel uncomfortable providing health care to patients with genetic disorders. Also, many do not consistently discuss all risks and benefits of genetic tests with patients, according to research published today in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

20 Nov 2013

U-M researchers collaborate with MDCH to evaluate statewide influenza vaccination reminder campaign

A new University of Michigan study found that the state immunization registry - the public health database that tracks vaccinations- can be an effective tool to encourage influenza vaccinations during a pandemic.

19 Nov 2013

Pregnant women's proximity to organic compounds impacts risk of heart defects in children

Children's congenital heart defects may be associated with their mothers' exposure to specific mixtures of environmental toxins during pregnancy, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2013.

18 Nov 2013

Researchers shed light on how and when immune system forms

Researchers at Lund University have shed light on how and when the immune system is formed, raising hope of better understanding various diseases in children, such as leukaemia.

13 Nov 2013

Two organochlorine pesticides associated with increased risk of endometriosis

A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center-led study has found that two organochlorine pesticides are associated with an increased risk of endometriosis, a condition that affects up to 10 percent of reproductive-age women.

5 Nov 2013

Biomarker may predict poor pregnancy outcomes in lupus patients

Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City have identified a biomarker that may predict poor pregnancy outcomes in lupus patients.

28 Oct 2013

Children born to mothers with lupus have twice the risk of autism spectrum disorders

According to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Diego, children born to mothers with lupus may be at twice the risk of autism spectrum disorders than those born to mothers without the disease.

28 Oct 2013

World Bank must define life expectancy, say international public health experts

The World Bank must define life expectancy, its key poverty indicator, as starting at the time of conception and not at the time of birth if millions of lives are to be saved from injury or death. International public health experts, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, said that definitional oversight, in which the life of the child is inadvertently cut into two, ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the womb, covers up risks to the fetus and is particularly unfair to children born in areas increasingly at risk to disasters and already disadvantaged by poverty, hunger and social deprivation.

25 Oct 2013

Researchers find 5-fold increase in high cholesterol risk

What leads to high cholesterol? Your genes and lifestyle factors may not explain it all. A study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress has connected some of the risk for high cholesterol in adults to their mother's cholesterol levels before she even became pregnant.

17 Oct 2013

Findings shed light on the role of environmental event in development of neural circuits in newborns

Neurons that process sensory information such as touch and vision are arranged in precise, well-characterized maps that are crucial for translating perception into understanding. A study published by Cell Press on October 14 in the journal Developmental Cell reveals that the actual act of birth in mice causes a reduction in a brain chemical called serotonin in the newborn mice, triggering sensory maps to form.

16 Oct 2013