Protect the Preemies - November 18th Is Premature Baby Awareness Day

healthnews.com — My mother always tells the story that my brother and I didn’t want to be Fall babies as predicted and were stubborn enough to be born in the Summer months. Although my older brother and I are three years apart, we were both born three months early, the preemie-preemies. Hospitals have come a long way since the 1980s but premature birth is still a huge risk for babies and for those that survive, just the fact that the babies weren’t fully developed in the womb before birth can cause health and mental problems down the line. One in every 8 babies born in the United States are premature. (Premature is defined as delivery prior to 37 weeks of gestation.) A lot of babies are kept in the hospital weeks or months after delivery until they are able to go home, throwing families into turmoil waiting for their little one to get released, hopefully without any lingering health problems. read more...

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Report urges states to tackle preterm birth crisis

news.yahoo.com — The odds of having a premature baby are lowest in Vermont and highest in Mississippi. The March of Dimes mapped the stark state-by-state disparities in what it called a "report card" on prematurity Wednesday — to track progress toward meeting a federal goal of lowering preterm births. There's not much chance of meeting that goal by the original 2010 deadline, if the "D" grade the charity bestowed on the nation is any indication. More than half a million U.S. babies — one in every eight — are born premature each year, a toll that's risen steadily for two decades. The government's goal: No more than 7.6 percent of babies born before completion of the 37th week of pregnancy. Preterm birth can affect any mother-to-be, stressed a recent U.S. Surgeon General's meeting on the problem. Scientists don't understand all the complex causes. read more...

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Teen pregnancies tied to tastes for sexy TV shows

news.yahoo.com — CHICAGO – Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much higher among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among those who have tamer viewing tastes. "Sex and the City," anyone? That was one of the shows used in the research. The new study is the first to link those viewing habits with teen pregnancy, said lead author Anita Chandra, a Rand Corp. behavioral scientist. Teens who watched the raciest shows were twice as likely to become pregnant over the next three years as those who watched few such programs. Previous research by some of the same scientists had already found that watching lots of sex on TV can influence teens to have sex at earlier ages. read more...

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Obesity increases risk of miscarriage

news.yahoo.com — Obesity appears to increase the risk of miscarriage, according to a review study appearing in the journal Fertility and Sterility. "Obesity has been described as the new worldwide epidemic, and as the (rate) of obesity increases, so does the number of women of reproductive age who are becoming overweight and obese," Dr. Mostafa Metwally and colleagues from the University of Sheffield, UK, write. The investigators conducted a review of articles published in medical journals over the last few decades to identify studies that compared normal-weight and overweight women who miscarried. The main outcome measure was pregnancy loss at less than 20 weeks. read more...

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Dieting History Tied to Weight Gain in Pregnancy

health.msn.com — Women with a history of dieting or other practices that restrict their eating habits may be more vulnerable to gaining too much or too little weight during pregnancy, a new study finds. University of North Carolina researchers, in a study of more than 1,200 women, found these previously restricted eaters tended to gain more than the recommended amount of weight if they were either normal, overweight or obese at the start of pregnancy. Restricted eaters who were underweight at the start of their pregnancy tended to gain less than the recommended amount. read more...

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Hookworm Infection Linked to Anemia Among Pregnant Women in Africa

nytimes.com — Almost seven million pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with hookworm, the parasite that lives in the intestine and causes anemia, according to a study released last week by the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. That amounts to a quarter to a third of all pregnant women on the subcontinent, said the authors, who reviewed 105 studies and databases to make their estimate. Severe anemia — a low red-blood-cell count — is a major contributor to deaths of mothers during pregnancy and to low birth weights, which contribute to deaths of newborns. read more...

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Mums-to-be confused over advice

news.bbc.co.uk — There is widespread confusion among mums-to-be about pregnancy health, largely compounded by conflicting information, a survey reveals. A third of the 1,303 women polled by Tommy's and Johnson's Baby were confused by what you can eat and which drugs are safe to take in pregnancy. read more...

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Study links preterm births, simmering infections

health.yahoo.com — Infections may play a bigger role in premature birth than doctors have thought, says a new study that found almost one in seven women in preterm labor harbored bacteria or fungi in their amniotic fluid. It's a small study, and it doesn't prove that the germs triggered the early labor. But Monday's research used specialized molecular testing to uncover microbes that ordinary methods miss, and thus uncovered more women with simmering infections than previously estimated. read more...

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