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The essential role of midwives

Mary Ellen Stanton, a senior maternal health advisor at USAID, and Chris Thomas, global health communications and policy advisor at USAID, outline the agency's work to promote better health outcomes for women and children in the developing world on GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog.

6 Jul 2011

Maternal smoking cessation improves perinatal outcomes in children

Low birthweight is the most common negative outcome of smoking during pregnancy, but foetuses exposed to maternal smoking are also at risk of premature birth and the associated problem of brain damage, as well as congenital abnormalities such as cleft lip.

6 Jul 2011

Study: 16-month old infants learn to transfer knowledge in new situations

Researchers have identified when an important milestone in infants' development occurs: the ability to transfer knowledge to new situations.

6 Jul 2011

Maternal anxiety, depression may increase risk of asthma in children

Anxiety, stress and depression during pregnancy may lead to a greater risk of asthma for your child. Study results are published in the July issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

6 Jul 2011

Infants treated with certain HIV medication more likely to experience adrenal dysfunction

Infants of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) infected mothers who were treated before and after birth with the protease inhibitor lopinavir-ritonavir were more likely to experience adrenal dysfunction, including life-threatening adrenal insufficiency in premature infants, compared with a zidovudine-based regimen, according to a preliminary report in the July 6 issue of JAMA.

6 Jul 2011

Study: 'Vanishing twin' linked to increased risk of congenital malformations

Professor Michael Davies will tell the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today that the "vanishing twin" phenomenon, in which only one child is born from a pregnancy that originally starts as a multiple pregnancy, is linked to a nearly two-fold increased risk in any congenital malformation and to a nearly three-fold risk of multiple malformations.

6 Jul 2011

Obese children more likely to be bullied

Children who are overweight or obese are more likely to be victimised by bullying when compared to children who are not overweight.

6 Jul 2011

First bloodless heart transplant on 6-year-old boy performed at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Between injuries from severe storms that ripped across the country this spring, to the typical blood donation shortage seen each and every summer, experts say that the nation's blood supply is running low. At Nationwide Children's Hospital, doctors are helping to offset that demand by what's known as "bloodless" techniques.

5 Jul 2011

ICSI study shows strong increase in first trimester pregnancy loss after the age of 38

The research, presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, also showed that rates of preclinical abortion, miscarriage and overall pregnancy loss during the first trimester remained more or less constant until the age of 34, but increased steadily from the age of 35 onwards.

5 Jul 2011

Recursive partitioning analysis identifies children at higher risk of reabuse

Children who remain in the home after a substantiated report of abuse may have more or less risk of further abuse depending on certain characteristics of their caregivers, according to a report published Online First today by Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jul 2011

Withholding treatment appears to be primary mode of infant deaths in NICU

Withdrawal of life-sustaining support and withholding lifesaving measures (such as CPR) appear to be the primary modes of infant deaths in a neonatal intensive care unit, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jul 2011

Antidepressants during first trimester linked to increased risk of autism

Prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially during the first trimester, is associated with a modest increase the risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder, according to a report published Online First in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jul 2011

Closer look at the effect military deployment has on children

Children with a parent who was deployed in the U.S. military efforts Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) for longer periods were more likely than children whose parents did not deploy to receive a diagnosis of a mental health problem, according to a report published Online First today by Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jul 2011

Autism Speaks announces significant findings from largest study of twins with ASD

Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization, joined in announcing significant findings from the largest known study of twins with autism spectrum disorder.

5 Jul 2011

Anti-depressants during early pregnancy linked to increased risk of autism

Exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors anti-depressants in early pregnancy may modestly increase risk of autism spectrum disorders, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the current issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

5 Jul 2011

Shared environment influences susceptibility to autism more than previously thought

The largest and most rigorous twin study of its kind to date has found that shared environment influences susceptibility to autism more than previously thought.

5 Jul 2011

Stress coping strategies in child protection services

The decisions child welfare officers make are complicated and are based partly on their own investigations, partly on cooperation with, and experience of, other local government officers.

4 Jul 2011

Ways to protect children from X-ray radiation

The risk to children's health from X-ray radiation is easy to reduce without compromising diagnostic accuracy. Gerhard Alzen and Gabriele Benz-Bohm describe some ways to achieve this in the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

4 Jul 2011

Women can have successful pregnancy after recurrent miscarriage

In a subset of the ALIFE study, which investigated the effect of aspirin alone or combined with low-molecular-weight heparin, compared to placebo, on the live birth rate in women with unexplained RM, the researchers looked at the length of time between the moment of randomisation to the moment of the first day of last menstruation before the subsequent pregnancy.

4 Jul 2011

Primiparity, maternal smoking and BMI linked to risk of pre-term birth

In Sweden almost 40 000 children have now been born after IVF, around 3 500 each year, and IVF children constitute 3% of all newborns. "This represents a large number of children and any adverse outcomes related to IVF are therefore a major public health issue," said Dr. Antonina Sazonova, from Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, who carried out the research with colleagues from the hospital and from Lund University.

4 Jul 2011