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Guardian columnist examines family planning in Nepal

In a Guardian opinion piece, part of the series "The politics of family planning," columnist Zoe Williams examines family planning Nepal. Noting her trip to the country with Save the Children, Williams discusses a number of barriers to family planning for Nepalese women -- including the practice of child marriage, stigma surrounding menstruation, and cultural beliefs about contraception -- and writes, "In Nepal, opportunities for women are not all they should be, and child pregnancy is a big issue."

11 Jul 2012

Giving up smoking associated with weight gain

Giving up smoking is associated with an average weight gain of 4-5 kg after 12 months, most of which occurs within the first three months of quitting, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

11 Jul 2012

Anemia prevention in pregnancy works just as well with fewer iron supplements

Taking iron supplements one to three times a week instead of every day is just as effective at preventing anaemia in pregnant women, according to the findings of a new Cochrane systematic review. The authors of the review also showed that women experienced fewer side effects when taking iron supplements intermittently rather than daily.

11 Jul 2012

Victims of stray-bullet shootings are often children, females

Most people killed or wounded in stray-bullet shootings were unaware of events leading to the gunfire that caused their injuries, and nearly one-third of the victims were children and nearly half were female, according to a new nationwide study examining an often-overlooked form of gun violence.

11 Jul 2012

Family planning summit commits to trebling the number of women and girls’ lives saved by 2020

At the London Summit on Family Planning, IPPF - the world’s foremost sexual and reproductive health and rights organization - has made an unprecedented commitment to treble the number of women’s and girls’ lives saved each year by 2020.

11 Jul 2012

'Impatient Optimists' blog posts address family planning ahead of London summit

Leading up to the London Summit on Family Planning taking place July 11, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog published several posts addressing family planning issues.

11 Jul 2012

Lancet series reviewing family planning evidence published on eve of London summit

A Lancet series on family planning, published Tuesday, "reviews the evidence for the effects of population and family planning on people's well-being and the environment," according to the series' executive summary.

11 Jul 2012

President Obama signs FDA bipartisan bill

President Obama signed into law the bipartisan Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) on July 9.

11 Jul 2012

Improving access to health care for minority women could reduce racial disparity in infant mortality

Improving access to health care for minority women of childbearing age could improve pregnancy outcomes and reduce racial differences in infant mortality, according to an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

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.

11 Jul 2012

Increasing obesity could cut some couples' fertility in half

As American waistlines continue to expand, research shows that increasing obesity could cut some couples' fertility in half, leading ultimately to a population decline, says one expert in fertility and obesity.

10 Jul 2012

Family planning allows women to determine their future

With the London Summit on Family Planning scheduled to take place this week, Melinda Gates writes in a post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog that family planning "can mean everything to so many of the women and families I meet."

10 Jul 2012

Financial Times examines integration of family planning, HIV services in Ethiopia

The Financial Times examines efforts by "Ethiopian policymakers, faced with a rapidly expanding population and rising numbers of HIV/AIDS infections," to integrate family planning into HIV counseling and testing programs in the country. "When counseling women on reproductive health or child immunization, family planning clinics can also discuss HIV testing and prevention, particularly condom use, as well as introducing pregnant women to mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention services," the newspaper notes.

10 Jul 2012

Federal judge to decide Wednesday on Miss. abortion law that could close last clinic

The Republican-appointed judge is expected to rule this week whether to block a law that could effectively shutter the state's only abortion clinic. Abortion politics could also affect the availability of services in Indiana and D.C.

10 Jul 2012

Sitting down for less than 3 hours a day could extend life expectancy

Restricting the amount of time spent seated every day to less than 3 hours might boost the life expectancy of US adults by an extra 2 years, indicates an analysis of published research in the online journal BMJ Open.

10 Jul 2012

Satisfying unmet need for contraception could reduce maternal deaths by 30%

New research published as part of The Lancet Series on family planning provides startling new estimates of the effect that contraceptive use has on the number of mothers who die every year, suggesting that satisfying the global unmet need for contraception of women who want to limit or space their pregnancies but are not using contraception could reduce maternal deaths by 30%, saving around 104000 lives per year.

10 Jul 2012

Family planning is central to global development according to new evidence in the Lancet

Increasing access to family planning will play a central role in achieving UN targets for maternal health, eradication of poverty, education, and gender equality, according to a major new Series on Family Planning published today by The Lancet.

10 Jul 2012

MammaPrint more cost-effective and clinically-useful test than Oncotype DX

New research from University of the Sciences' Mayes College of Healthcare Business and Policy suggests that MammaPrint - a gene expression profiling (GEP) test used to identify whether women with early-stage breast cancer would benefit from chemotherapy - is the more cost-effective and clinically-useful test than the most frequently used GEP in practice in the United States today.

10 Jul 2012

Combination of estrogen and MPA increases synapses in the prefrontal cortex

A new study of aged female rats found that long-term treatment with estrogen and a synthetic progesterone known as MPA increased levels of a protein marker of synapses in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region known to suffer significant losses in aging.

10 Jul 2012

Overproduction of hepcidin appears to impair maternal-fetal iron transfer

A growing number of studies imply that children born to obese mothers face health problems stemming from the womb.

10 Jul 2012

Women's Health News

Guardian columnist examines family planning in Nepal

Giving up smoking associated with weight gain

Anemia prevention in pregnancy works just as well with fewer iron supplements

Victims of stray-bullet shootings are often children, females

Family planning summit commits to trebling the number of women and girls’ lives saved by 2020

'Impatient Optimists' blog posts address family planning ahead of London summit

Lancet series reviewing family planning evidence published on eve of London summit

President Obama signs FDA bipartisan bill

Improving access to health care for minority women could reduce racial disparity in infant mortality

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

Increasing obesity could cut some couples' fertility in half

Family planning allows women to determine their future

Financial Times examines integration of family planning, HIV services in Ethiopia

Federal judge to decide Wednesday on Miss. abortion law that could close last clinic

Sitting down for less than 3 hours a day could extend life expectancy

Satisfying unmet need for contraception could reduce maternal deaths by 30%

Family planning is central to global development according to new evidence in the Lancet

MammaPrint more cost-effective and clinically-useful test than Oncotype DX

Combination of estrogen and MPA increases synapses in the prefrontal cortex

Overproduction of hepcidin appears to impair maternal-fetal iron transfer

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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