Prenatal News and Research

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Type 1 diabetes incidence rose by 11% after rotavirus vaccine rollout in Norway

New research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy (Sept 28 – Oct 2) and published in Diabetologia (the journal of EASD) shows that incidence (the new case rate) of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children aged 0.5-5 years in Norway was 11% higher following the rapid roll out and uptake of the rotavirus vaccine in September 2014.

1 Oct 2026

Maternal depression linked to neurodevelopmental disorders in children

Children of mothers with depression had higher rates of certain neurodevelopmental disorders regardless of whether they were exposed to antidepressants in the womb, reports a new study led by Saraid McIlvride of the University of Glasgow, UK, published September 29th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine.

29 Sep 2026

Mount Sinai researchers discover how Alzheimer's gene damages blood vessels

Mount Sinai researchers have identified how APOE4, the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, damages the brain's blood vessels and promotes the buildup of abnormal proteins linked to neurodegenerative disease.

24 Sep 2026

Sudden unexpected infant deaths drive widening Black-white mortality gap

After years of declines in sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID), rates have been ticking up again, particularly among babies born to Black mothers, new research shows.

23 Sep 2026

Early treatment may improve outcomes in Shwachman-Diamond syndrome

More than 90% of children born with the rare bone marrow condition called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SDS) survive beyond age 20. But fewer than 30% live beyond age 50.

23 Sep 2026

Study finds no causal link between prenatal paracetamol and neurodevelopmental disorders

Various studies over the years have linked prenatal use of the pain reliever paracetamol (acetaminophen) with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, but many of the studies were small, poorly designed, or found only weak associations

23 Sep 2026

Common chemical exposures in pregnancy may be linked to early attention and memory

Researchers examined whether prenatal exposure to aromatic amines and cotinine was associated with attention, processing speed, and memory in 250 infants assessed at 7.5 months. The study found mixed patterns across cognitive measures, with several estimates suggesting poorer attention or memory but carrying substantial statistical uncertainty.

23 Sep 2026

Poor sleep health in late pregnancy linked to higher childhood obesity risk

New research has found that mothers with poor sleep quality in late pregnancy had babies with lower weight in the first 6 months of life, but higher weight after age 1-2 years.

22 Sep 2026

Prenatal cannabis exposure linked to subtle brain and behavioral differences in children

A large ABCD study of 10,838 children found that prenatal cannabis exposure was associated with small differences in resting-state brain connectivity, higher behavioral and emotional problem scores, and lower performance on several cognitive measures in late childhood. PCE-related connectivity patterns partly overlapped with those linked to psychopathology and cognition, although the cross-sectional observational design cannot establish causality or mediation.

22 Sep 2026

Sex differences in infant attention are present hours after birth

Cambridge scientists have shown that girls and boys show differences in what they pay attention to, even at birth.

21 Sep 2026

AI spots at-risk pregnancies for earlier, more personalized prenatal care

Artificial intelligence (AI) may help identify women and babies at risk of serious health problems earlier in pregnancy, according to a new study analyzing data from more than half a million pregnancies across Sweden, Chile, and Singapore.

18 Sep 2026

Wildfire smoke poses greater health risks than other pollution

As climate change drives more frequent and intense wildfires, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have published two large-scale studies showing that wildfire smoke may pose greater health risks than other sources of air pollution, with higher risks of hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease and poorer survival among patients with lung cancer.

17 Sep 2026

Groundbreaking technology uses quantum sensors to measure heart activity

Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a groundbreaking technology that uses quantum sensors to measure biomagnetic signals, such as heart activity.

17 Sep 2026

A large US study found no overall link between fluoride in pregnancy and children’s behavior

A US cohort study of 5,520 children found no overall association between prenatal exposure to fluoride in public drinking water and internalizing or externalizing behavioral problems across the primary analyses. Exploratory analyses identified some associations with externalizing problems at higher fluoride concentrations and in certain subgroups, but the researchers said these findings require further investigation.

13 Sep 2026

Neighborhood environments impact long-term health of 9/11 responders

Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that environmental conditions where World Trade Center responders live may influence their long-term physical and mental health.

11 Sep 2026

Medicaid ACOs can improve maternal care quality and equity

A new study details how Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations can improve maternal healthcare quality and equity in the US by aligning performance mandates with innovative care coordination and social needs support among patients before, during, and after pregnancy.

10 Sep 2026

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease research

Marcel Nelen discusses his team’s early evaluation of a new workflow for rare disease genomics.

From Illumina, Inc. 10 Sep 2026

The link between PM2.5 and ADHD held up after researchers tested other explanations

Using two decades of U.S. county-level data, researchers found that long-term PM2.5 exposure was robustly associated with higher childhood ADHD prevalence, while associations with low birth weight and diabetes weakened after accounting for county-specific temporal trends. The ADHD association persisted after socioeconomic, demographic, state-level, exposure-period, and spatial adjustments, although the ecological study cannot establish an individual-level causal relationship.

9 Sep 2026

Early pregnancy emotions may predict childhood developmental delay risks

Pregnancy is often one of the biggest emotional and physical transitions in a woman's life. Alongside the well-known physical changes, many women also experience shifts in mood and mental health during pregnancy and after giving birth, with anxiety and depression being quite common.

9 Sep 2026

Prenatal paracetamol exposure linked to smaller ovaries in daughters

Researchers in Denmark have found that girls whose mothers took paracetamol during pregnancy had smaller ovaries, fewer ovarian follicles (the structures that contain immature eggs), smaller uteruses and lower levels of reproductive hormones at three months old.

8 Sep 2026