Pregnancy News and Research

Latest Pregnancy News and Research

Most pregnant people fail to achieve recommended seatbelt placement

Nearly nine in 10 pregnant participants in a study led by biomedical engineers at UBC did not achieve recommended seatbelt placement, even after instruction and hands-on guidance.

14 Jul 2026

Study tracks school readiness and academic performance in preterm children

More than half of children (57 per cent) born before 32 weeks were not ready for school at five years of age, including in areas such as communication and language, and physical and emotional development.

14 Jul 2026

New accessible placental measurement method could help prevent stillbirths

When Ann O'Neill suffered a stillbirth in 2018, she was bewildered. She was already a mother to three healthy children and therefore had received no information on stillbirth prevention from her doctors.

14 Jul 2026

Newborn breathing collapse risk highest in first 24 hours

Sudden unexpected postnatal collapse (SUPC) occurs when an apparently healthy newborn suddenly stops breathing and collapses during the first week of life.

14 Jul 2026

New consensus provides updated guidance for managing prolactinoma tumors

Prolactinomas are the most common functional pituitary neuroendocrine tumors, accounting for nearly half of all hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas.

13 Jul 2026

New report outlines practical strategies to improve hematological care for women

A new report in The Lancet Haematology, led by Cleveland Clinic hematologist Bethany Samuelson Bannow, M.D., outlines practical strategies to improve diagnosis, care and outcomes globally for women and girls with hematological conditions, such as bleeding disorders, heavy menstrual bleeding, postpartum hemorrhage, thrombosis and maternal hematologic complications.

13 Jul 2026

Study links GLP-1 treatment to fewer alcohol drinking days

Current GLP-1 receptor agonist prescriptions were associated with modestly lower AUDIT-C scores in a large, diverse US cohort. The difference appeared to reflect less frequent drinking rather than fewer drinks per occasion or fewer binge-drinking episodes.

13 Jul 2026

Cold-exposed mothers pass metabolic protection to male rat offspring through milk

Maternal cold exposure during early pregnancy improved glucose control and reduced liver fat in male rat offspring, with benefits persisting into late adulthood. The findings implicate a breast milk LCA, gut microbiota, and Th17 immune pathway, while human cohort data showed an observational link between winter conception and lower MASLD risk.

12 Jul 2026

GLP-1 exposure in pregnancy does not clearly raise major birth defect risk

A systematic review and meta-analysis of seven cohort studies involving more than 40,000 GLP-1 receptor agonist-exposed pregnancies found no statistically significant increase in major congenital malformations or several other adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, the evidence was low or very low certainty, and a urinary malformation signal based on unadjusted data requires cautious interpretation.

10 Jul 2026

Culturally tailored midwifery care improves First Nations birth outcomes

More First Nations babies are being born healthy through a culturally tailored midwifery model of care delivered at three major maternity services in Melbourne, according to a large-scale study led by La Trobe University.

9 Jul 2026

Trial offers hope for babies with fetal kidney failure

Women diagnosed early in pregnancy with a fetus lacking adequate kidney function to make the urine that serves as vital amniotic fluid have long faced virtually no chance of their fetus's survival after birth.

8 Jul 2026

Paternal postpartum depression affects more fathers than widely recognized

Postpartum depression in mothers is a widely recognized condition that affects 1 in 7 women. But less known is that 1 in 10 new fathers also experience depression.

8 Jul 2026

Customized fetal growth charts could reduce avoidable stillbirths across the NHS

One-size-fits-all fetal growth charts used in the NHS to monitor babies' growth before birth often misclassify babies as being either too small or too large, which can lead to missed cases at risk of stillbirth or unnecessary interventions, finds a study of over 3 million NHS births across England published by The BMJ today.

8 Jul 2026

Review highlights pregnancy and miscarriage rates among transmasculine people

A recent review of published research provides some evidence that a small but noteworthy minority of transmasculine people (trans, nonbinary, and other gender expansive people who were assigned female at birth) have pregnancies (6%–9%) and children (4%–9%), including after transition.

8 Jul 2026

Modern IVF treatment boosts live births while lowering twin pregnancies

Modern IVF treatment can now achieve substantially higher success rates than historical approaches while dramatically reducing twin and triplet pregnancies, according to new research presented today at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

7 Jul 2026

Hospital admissions for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy rise in England

Hospital admissions for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy have increased in England in recent years, according to research presented today at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

7 Jul 2026

Updated ABCs framework gives clinicians a clearer path to prevent heart disease

A 2026 State-of-the-Art review updates the ABCs of cardiovascular disease prevention to help clinicians apply contemporary risk assessment, lifestyle, pharmacologic, and cardiometabolic strategies in routine care. The framework emphasizes PREVENT™ risk equations, Life’s Essential 8, CKM syndrome, obesity care, lipid lowering, blood pressure control, healthy aging, heart failure prevention, and atrial fibrillation management.

7 Jul 2026

Study reveals long-term, intergenerational impacts of severe preconception trauma

Can the trauma of a parent rewrite the mental health of a child born decades later? A new compelling study reveals that children born decades after the Holocaust to parents who were older than age five at the time of the initial Nazi persecutions faced elevated schizophrenia risk.

7 Jul 2026

Could IVF affect heart health after pregnancy?

Women with IVF-conceived pregnancies exhibit higher large artery stiffness, indicating potential cardiovascular risks that warrant further investigation.

7 Jul 2026

Frozen embryo transfers dominate assisted reproduction across Europe

More than 1.15 million assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment cycles were reported across Europe in 2023, according to preliminary data presented by the European IVF Monitoring (EIM) Consortium at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

6 Jul 2026