Newborn News and Research

RSS

American Academy of Pediatrics says circumcision benefits outweigh risks

Shifting its stance, the pediatricians' group now says the benefits of circumcising boys to protect against disease outweighs the risk, but that the decision should be up to parents.

28 Aug 2012

Study explains how breast milk fosters colonies of microbiotic flora in a newborn's intestinal tract

The benefits of breast milk have long been appreciated, but now scientists at Duke University Medical Center have described a unique property that makes mother's milk better than infant formula in protecting infants from infections and illnesses.

28 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 27, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about this week's GOP convention, the politics of Medicare and abortion, and the latest health policy news from the states.

27 Aug 2012

Laminin-111 protein therapy could treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy

A novel treatment in development at the University of Nevada School of Medicine for the most common form of muscular dystrophy is advancing towards human trials with a $308,000 boost from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

23 Aug 2012

Declining circumcision rates in the US raise healthcare costs and disease risk

A team of disease experts and health economists at Johns Hopkins warns that steadily declining rates of U.S. infant male circumcision could add more than $4.4 billion in avoidable health care costs if rates over the next decade drop to levels now seen in Europe.

21 Aug 2012

Declining rates of circumcision in US infant males could add billions to health care costs

21 Aug 2012

Talk smoothes the way to better understanding sick babies

Clinicians must foster improved communication with the mothers of critically ill newborns to improve understanding of their child’s condition, research suggests.

20 Aug 2012

Vanderbilt University signs TIPQC to increase breast-feeding in hospitals and delivery centers

Vanderbilt University has signed on for a statewide project to increase exclusive breast-feeding in hospitals and delivery centers.

18 Aug 2012

Communication problems between clinicians and mothers of critically ill newborns

Research from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center suggests that common language may also be the divide standing between mothers of critically ill newborns and the clinicians who care for them.

17 Aug 2012

Pregnant women who undergo chemotherapy do not appear to increase their baby’s risk of complications

The babies of breast cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy while pregnant do not appear to be at higher risk of complications, according to an Article published Online First in The Lancet Oncology.

16 Aug 2012

Newborn death risk increases with maternal obesity in sub-Saharan Africa

New research published Online First in The Lancet indicates that babies born to mothers who are overweight or obese in sub-Saharan Africa, where rates of obesity are projected to increase at an alarming rate during the next two decades, are significantly more likely to die in the first two days after their birth. The study is the first to shed light on the role of maternal obesity in neonatal death (during the first 28 days of life) in developing countries.

9 Aug 2012

Giving antibiotics just before cesarean section prevents infections

Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn's umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

3 Aug 2012

Greenwich Hospital to educate women about breastfeeding during first week of August

At Greenwich Hospital, as throughout the world, the first week of August is recognized as World Breastfeeding Week to educate people about the health benefits of breastfeeding for both baby and mother. Promoted at the global level by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the spotlight is part of an effort to reduce world hunger and illness.

2 Aug 2012

Stem cells can actually replace dead tissue after heart attack very early in life

Stem cells can actually replace dead heart tissue after a heart attack very early in life — but those same cells lose that regenerative ability in adults, according to researchers at Cornell University and the University of Bonn.

31 Jul 2012

Excess maternal iodine supplementation can lead to congenital hypothyroidism in infants

Congenital hypothyroidism is thyroid hormone deficiency at birth that, if left untreated, can lead to neurocognitive impairments in infants and children. Although the World Health Organization recommends 200-300 -g of iodine daily during pregnancy for normal fetal thyroid hormone production and neurocognitive development, the US Institute of Medicine considers 1,100 -g to be the safe upper limit for daily ingestion.

26 Jul 2012

HemoGlobe device can identify women with anemia

Could a low-cost screening device connected to a cell phone save thousands of women and children from anemia-related deaths and disabilities? That's the goal of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering undergraduates who've developed a noninvasive way to identify women with this dangerous blood disorder in developing nations. The device, HemoGlobe, is designed to convert the existing cell phones of health workers into a "prick-free" system for detecting and reporting anemia at the community level.

25 Jul 2012

Seattle summit addresses global crisis of preterm birth

Leaders of prominent, international philanthropic and research organizations are convening in Seattle July 14-16 to address the global crisis of preterm birth and develop an action roadmap of research priorities and opportunities.

16 Jul 2012

PCR assay ‘superior’ to culture for neonatal sepsis, meningitis

In neonates with probable sepsis or meningitis, a realtime polymerase chain reaction assay specific for a virulence gene in Streptococcus agalactiae is superior to standard bacterial culture identification, results of a pathology study show.

11 Jul 2012

Contraceptive use likely prevents more than 272,000 maternal deaths from childbirth each year

Contraceptive use likely prevents more than 272,000 maternal deaths from childbirth each year, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers further estimate that satisfying the global unmet need for contraception could reduce maternal deaths an additional 30 percent. Their findings were published July 10 by The Lancet as part of a series of articles on family planning.