Childbirth News and Research

Latest Childbirth News and Research

Number of breast, cervical cancer cases rose significantly over past 30 years, global study says

"The number of cases and deaths from breast and cervical cancer is rising in most countries across the world, especially in poorer nations where more women are dying at younger ages, according to a global study of the diseases" by researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Reuters reports.

16 Sep 2011

U.N. report highlights innovations aimed at improving maternal and child health

PBS NewsHour's blog "The Rundown" examines a "report from the U.N.'s Every Woman, Every Child Innovation Working Group, out in the Lancet Monday, which looks at some of the promising and innovative projects" aimed at improving maternal and child health

14 Sep 2011

Tips for choosing a childbirth education class

A recent report from the World Health Organization set off alarm bells for many expectant parents. The report showed that newborns in 40 countries, including Cuba, South Korea and Poland, have a lower risk of death than newborns in the United States.

13 Sep 2011

HSPH receives Gates Foundation grant to improve maternal health in developing countries

A new three-year, $12 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will support a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) effort to significantly improve maternal health in developing countries.

8 Sep 2011

New guidelines for the treatment of acromegaly, a serious growth hormone disorder

It’s said a lot can happen in seven days. In seven years, a lot has happened in the understanding of acromegaly, a debilitating condition that causes a patient to have too much growth hormone. It’s seven years since the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists last produced guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acromegaly. Their 2004 guidelines were just 13 pages long. Their latest, the 2011 guidelines, have grown – to 44 pages.

31 Aug 2011

Money alone cannot fix Russia's 'demographic crisis'

Russia "is in a demographic crisis, shedding 2.2 million people (or 1.6 percent of the population) since 2002, and the government is trying to encourage more women to bring Russian citizens into the world," journalist Natalia Antonova writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece, in which she describes her experience with the Russian medical system after "unexpectedly" becoming pregnant shortly after receiving her visa to work in Moscow.

29 Aug 2011

Plants stop lethal bleedings after birth in Tanzanian women

Researchers at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, have examined a number of plants which are used for illegal abortions in Tanzania. The lab tests show that several of the plants can make the uterus tissue contract and that the plants therefore can be used to stop lethal bleedings after birth. This new knowledge is now to be conveyed in rural Tanzania where access to medicine often is difficult.

26 Aug 2011

State-wide QI initiatives seek to improve outcomes of maternal, child care

Maternal/child nurses are at the forefront of efforts to design and implement effective quality improvement (QI) programs to improve care for mothers and infants throughout labor and delivery, according to the special September/October issue of MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing.

26 Aug 2011

The growing field of hospital medicine

Hospital medicine is a fast-growing field, attracting many of the young doctors who pursue general internal medicine. It

17 Aug 2011

Maternal mortality rate in South Sudan estimated to be highest worldwide

The maternal mortality rate in Africa's newest nation, South Sudan, is estimated to be more than 2,000 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, "the highest in the world," MediaGlobal reports. "'In South Sudan, a woman has a bigger chance of dying during childbirth than to go to high school,' Jane Coyne, program manager from Medicins Sans Frontieres, told MediaGlobal," the news service writes.

12 Aug 2011

Experts troubled by global rise in c-section rates

Almost one-third of infants in the U.S. are delivered by caesarean section (c-section), a trend that is now growing globally, PRI's The World/PBS NewsHour reports. "The c-section rate in Thailand has reached 34 percent, in Vietnam, it is 36 percent, and in China, nearly half of all births are by c-section," the article states.

12 Aug 2011

Teen pregnancy contagious to sisters: Study

According to a new study teenage pregnancy and motherhood is contagious within families. Scientists have discovered that the sister of a teenage mother is twice as likely to follow in her footsteps as a girl with no family experience of early motherhood.

10 Aug 2011

First bioengineered anal sphincter for treatment of fecal and urinary incontinence

Researchers have built the first functional anal sphincters in the laboratory, suggesting a potential future treatment for both fecal and urinary incontinence. Made from muscle and nerve cells, the sphincters developed a blood supply and maintained function when implanted in mice.

10 Aug 2011

New York Times examines maternal mortality in Uganda

"Half of the 340,000 deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes each year occur in Africa, almost all in anonymity," the New York Times writes in an article profiling several cases of women who have died during childbirth in Ugandan hospitals.

2 Aug 2011

Stroke in pregnancy on the rise

According to latest reports the number of strokes among pregnant women and new mothers has risen to a new peak probably because more of them are obese and suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease.

29 Jul 2011

Study reveals clear need to halt escalating use of Caesarean sections

Caesarean section rates are steadily increasing globally. Requiring two doctors to agree that a Caesarean section is the best way to deliver a baby, rather than just needing one opinion, providing internal feedback to doctors on the number of operations performed and seeking support from local opinion leaders may reduce the use of this procedure.

27 Jul 2011

Gates Foundation awards phase 1 grant to St. Joseph's scientist for post-partum research

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Robert Garfield, PhD, a researcher at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, a $100,000 phase 1 grant to develop a device to prevent post-partum hemorrhage.

27 Jul 2011

Four-year study to test effectiveness of WHO Safe Childbirth program

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has been awarded a $14.1 million, four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of an innovative checklist-based childbirth safety program in reducing deaths and improving outcomes of mothers and infants in 120 hospitals in India.

27 Jul 2011

Understaffed maternity units in UK struggling to cope

Across the UK, maternity units were forced to close to new admissions 1,055 times last year, nearly always because of understaffing or lack of beds, a series of Freedom of Information requests have found. At least 927 women were turned away. On the other hand in some London trusts one in five midwifery posts lies vacant. The Royal College of Midwives says at least 4,700 extra midwives are needed in England and Wales.

25 Jul 2011

C-sections on the rise: One in three mothers opting for procedure

According to the latest study reports, one in three births in the U.S. are now delivered by Caesarean section, which is an all time high and an increasd of 25 percent over seven years.

24 Jul 2011