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Pregnancy fears on drinking water byproducts may be overstated

Fears that chemical byproducts resulting from purifying drinking water with chlorine boost the chances that pregnant women will miscarry were not supported by the results of a major new study. If such threats exist at all, which is uncertain, they likely are modest, it concludes.

1 Aug 2005

Spontaneous contractions suppressed in late-term rat pregnancy

A long-time aim of obstetrical research has been to find agents that could delay or diminish pre-term labor because even today pre-term birth is a leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity.

19 Jul 2005

Pomegranate juice may help babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen

Expectant mothers at risk of premature birth may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to help their babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced blood flow, a new mouse study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests.

28 Jun 2005

Anti-cancer drug may help prevent premature births

A team from University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK have found that the anti-cancer drug Trichostatin A (TSA), has the potential to control early labour contractions. They are optimistic the work, which is still in the early stages, will help to reduce the 70,000 premature births in the UK each year.

14 Jun 2005

Anti-cancer drug could be the first effective treatment for premature births

An anti-cancer drug could potentially be the first effective treatment for the many thousands of premature births that occur worldwide each year, scientific tests have found.

13 Jun 2005

Steroid treatment for prematurity put to the test

Babies whose mothers received steroid injections before giving birth have no higher risk of heart disease at age 30 than those whose mothers received a placebo treatment.

30 May 2005

Study sheds light on long term outlook for babies born before 2 weeks

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has announced that it has allocated £3 million to fund the next phase of a unique study looking into the survival prospects and long-term health and social issues facing extremely premature babies.

9 May 2005

E.Sakazakii Meningitis to become a notifiable disease

A potentially fatal form of meningitis in premature babies linked to contaminated milk powder should be made a notifiable disease according to a report released today.

5 Apr 2005

The facts on prenatal care

The nine months of pregnancy come complete with a rich folklore, from guessing at a baby’s sex by the expectant mother’s shape to home remedies for morning sickness. Along with these ageless stories and advice, women also face a variety of recommendations from the modern world of medicine on how best to take care of themselves during pregnancy.

3 Apr 2005

Medical interventions during pregnancy and childbirth may not be the best way to improve newborn survival

In Brazil neonatal mortality declined in the 1980’s but rates have virtually remained unchanged since the 1990’s. Fernando Barros (Hospital de Clinicas, Montevideo, Uruguay) and colleagues studied births in 1992, 1993, and 2004 in the Brazilian city of Pelotas. They found that important changes in maternal characteristics occurred over the 22 years covered by the study.

3 Mar 2005

Massage with sunflower seed oil helps low birth weight babies

Massaging low birth weight babies with sunflower seed oil is a low cost intervention that can protect them from infections, concludes a study published online by The Lancet.

3 Mar 2005

Lancet neonatal survival series

Three million of the four million newborn babies who die worldwide each year could be saved by low-tech and low-cost interventions, concludes a landmark series of articles published online by The Lancet (Thursday March 3, 2005).

3 Mar 2005

Researchers have identified a protein called HIF-2a, which is important in retina formation

Hoping to prevent blindness in premature babies, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a protein that responds to oxygen levels in cells and tissues and also affects the developing eye.

22 Feb 2005

Markers for premature birth risk at the molecular level

For the first time, researchers have successfully profiled the amniotic fluid metabolome (the sum of all metabolic processes occurring in the amniotic fluid), in order to identify which women who have experienced preterm labor are also at risk for delivering a premature baby.

10 Feb 2005

Bush Administration opens the door to the elimination of critical health services for the most vulnerable women, infants and children

"The budget proposal released by the Administration this morning opens the door to the elimination of critical health services for the most vulnerable women, infants and children. The March of Dimes strongly opposes any attempt to narrow Medicaid benefits for these at risk groups.

7 Feb 2005

Turning point in the history of preterm labor diagnosis

A combination of four proteins that result from inflammation and infection and lead to premature birth can be rapidly and accurately detected in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women using proteomics technology, Yale researchers report in two studies in the February issue of British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

7 Feb 2005

Nearly 10,000 preterm births could have been prevented in 2002

Nearly 10,000 preterm births could have been prevented in 2002 if all pregnant women at high risk for a premature baby and eligible for weekly injections of a derivative of the hormone progesterone had received them, according to a new study published in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

31 Jan 2005

First new guidelines in more than a decade for managing asthma during pregnancy

The report reflects new medications that have emerged and updates treatment recommendations for pregnant women with asthma based on a systematic review of data on the safety of asthma medications during pregnancy. An executive summary ("Quick Reference") of the guidelines is published in the January issue of the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.

12 Jan 2005

Vital research into the effects of premature birth throughout childhood

Results of a follow-up study into babies born extremely prematurely was published last week (Thursday 6 January) in the New England Journal of Medicine.

10 Jan 2005

High rate of disability in extremely premature babies, new research results reveal

The follow-up results of a major study into babies born extremely prematurely have revealed that a high number of these children have a disability, although the levels of severity vary widely.

10 Jan 2005