Childbirth News and Research

Latest Childbirth News and Research

Isis Maternity is now Isis Parenting

Today, Isis Maternity, The Place for Expecting and New Moms, becomes Isis, Parenting Starts Here. This change reflects the breadth of education, products and community that Isis delivers to its clients. Since opening its doors in 2003, Isis has helped more than 35,000 families navigate early parenting from pregnancy to preschool.

29 Apr 2010

Noninvasive method to predict premature birth

Existing techniques for predicting premature birth are inadequate or invasive - with risks and discomfort. Researcher Chiara Rabotti (Eindhoven University of Technology) developed a new measuring method, based on a rather simple electrode plaster that is attached to the abdomen. In the future every pregnant woman can thereby calmly await the moment, Rabotti expects.

27 Apr 2010

Ethnic differences in genetic factors may affect susceptibility to development of breast cancer

A new study finds that factors known to increase the risk of breast cancer among white women have less influence in Hispanic women. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that research is needed to evaluate how breast cancer risk factors differ among ethnic and racial populations.

26 Apr 2010

Health experts gather in Ethiopia to discuss child, maternal health in Africa

A group of health experts gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, to kick off a continental conference on maternal and child health, VOA News reports (Heinlein, 4/19).

21 Apr 2010

AHRQ report shows highest hospital readmission rates among Medicaid patients

One of every 10 adult Medicaid patients who were hospitalized in 2007 for a medical condition other than childbirth had to be readmitted at least once within 30 days of their initial hospital stay that year, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

20 Apr 2010

CryoSTAT cold therapy for hemorrhoids

Revolutionary new CryoSTAT is here to put the fire out when it comes to hemorrhoids by treating them on contact with cold therapy which has a proven track record of providing instant relief with no mess.

20 Apr 2010

Opinions: PEPFAR; Private-civil society partnerships in Africa; Global maternal mortality; SA HIV testing campaign

"The Obama administration's new Global Health Initiative, designed to broaden and better integrate health programming overseas, deserves wide support. But stalling on global AIDS threatens to undermine the worthy goals of the initiative," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public polity for the Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in a Boston Globe letter to the editor calling for sustained support for PEPFAR.

20 Apr 2010

New strategy, more funding needed to meet maternal, child health MDGs

"Dozens of countries are unlikely to meet" the Millennium Development Goal targets related to maternal and child health without a new strategy and an additional $20 billion each year, according to a report released Tuesday, the Canadian Press reports (Lederer, 4/14).

15 Apr 2010

A renewed effort to reduce global toll of maternal and child deaths

Widespread global use of known and proven maternal and childcare techniques, practices, and therapies could save the lives of millions of women, newborns and children each year, according to a new analysis prepared for a mid-April meeting of world leaders and technical experts on maternal and child health.

15 Apr 2010

Opinions: Preparing for next flu outbreak; Elections in Zimbabwe; U.S. response to Haiti

Now that concerns about swine flu have eased, "[o]ur fear is that the public and officials will get blase about the next flu outbreak," according to a New York Times editorial. "Efforts to rush vaccine into production did not go well. This dry run should lead health officials to push the vaccine makers even harder to adopt new technologies that can turn out vaccine more quickly.

9 Apr 2010

AHRQ: Women accounted for nearly 60% of 39.4M admissions to U.S. hospitals in 2007

Women accounted for nearly 60 percent of the 39.4 million admissions to U.S. hospitals in 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

7 Apr 2010

Hospital charges for uninsured inpatient care grows by 88%

The amount that hospitals charge the uninsured for inpatient care grew by 88 percent between 1998 and 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The average charge for an uninsured hospital stay grew from $11,400 in 1998 to $21,400 in 2007 after adjusting for inflation.

7 Apr 2010

A 2% decline in U.S. birth rate including teenage births

According to Government statistics released this Tuesday, the birthrate in the United States has dropped by 2% from 2007 to 2008 with about 4.2 million babies born during this time. This drop also means that the fertility rate has gone below 2.1 children per woman. This statistic means that Americans are not giving birth to enough children to keep the population from declining.

7 Apr 2010

NPCs as effective as doctors in performing Caesarean sections

Every year, some 7.5 million mothers and new-borns die during pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of whom are in low and middle-income countries. One reason for this is the lack of trained medical staff, particularly doctors. A doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet now shows that a solution could be the training of nurses in caesarean sections and other life-saving surgery.

3 Apr 2010

Structured and supervised exercise can prevent postnatal depression, says study

Postnatal depression (PND) or baby blues are a recognized entity with millions of mothers suffering from it in varying degrees. It affects 13% of the new mothers usually within the first 3 months after the birth of the baby.

1 Apr 2010

Fecal incontinence: Sacral nerve stimulation along with Medtronic InterStim Therapy promising

Data published in the March issue of the Annals of Surgery show that investigational use of sacral nerve stimulation with Medtronic InterStim® Therapy reduces fecal incontinent episodes and increases quality of life in patients with the condition. The 120-patient, multi-center study - the largest trial of its kind in the world and the first such trial in North America - examined the efficacy of InterStim Therapy in patients with chronic fecal incontinence who had failed or were not candidates for more conservative treatments.

30 Mar 2010

Informing young women surviving breast cancer about opportunities to have children

At a time when more and more young women are surviving breast cancer and delaying childbirth, it is important to take their needs and wishes about their future fertility into consideration when deciding on treatment, the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7) in Barcelona will hear today.

26 Mar 2010

Fertility remains a significant issue for majority of breast cancer patients

The use of chemotherapy and hormonal treatments in young women can have significant implications for their fertility.

24 Mar 2010

Caesarean births jump over 70%

There was a time when a C-Section caused both doctors and pregnant mothers’ anxiety, but not anymore. If the current trends are anything to go by more women are opting for a voluntary Caesarean baby than ever before. They have risen from 53% since 1996 to 2007. This is considerably higher than the figures for 1994 to 1998 which are at 21%.

24 Mar 2010

Passage of health insurance reforms should spur action to ensure quality maternal care

Now that health insurance reform legislation has passed, President Obama and Congress must urgently turn their attention to ensuring quality maternal care for every American woman to reduce rising deaths and complications during pregnancy and childbirth, Amnesty International said today.

23 Mar 2010