January 8, 2009, 0:02 AM CT

Winter babies face socioeconomic disadvantages

A number of of us may often feel that we've been born under an unlucky sign. Now, new research by a pair of University of Notre Dame economists suggests that some of us are, in fact, born in an unlucky season.

In their paper, Kasey Buckles and Daniel Hungerman point out that a large body of prior research consistently has observed that people born in December, January and February are, on average, less educated, less intelligent, less healthy and lower paid than people born in other seasons.

A variety of explanations have been suggested for this phenomenon, including such social and natural factors as compulsory schooling laws, changes in climate and exposure to illness. However, the exact cause of the association between season of birth and later outcomes has never been precisely clear.

In the newly released study, Buckles and Hungerman analyzed U.S census data and birth certificates to determine if the typical woman giving birth in winter is any different from the typical woman giving birth at other times of the year.

They discovered that babies born in the winter are more likely to have mothers who are unmarried, who are teenagers or who lack a high school diploma. One explanation for the seasonal patterns in births is that summer's high temperatures inhibit sperm production. This seems to affect lower socioeconomic status women more adversely, which could explain why there are relatively fewer births to these women in the spring and early summer......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

January 7, 2009, 11:24 PM CT

Risks of choosing repeat cesarean

Women choosing repeat cesarean deliveries and having them at term but before completing 39 weeks gestation are up to two times more likely to have a baby with serious complications including respiratory distress resulting in mechanical ventilation and NICU admission.

UAB researchers, led by Alan T.N. Tita, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and his colleagues reported as per a research findings published January 8 in the New England Journal (NEJM) that women who choose to have their babies delivered via repeat cesarean at 37 or 38 weeks without a medical or obstetric indication, risk serious complications for their child.

"The cesarean rate in the United States has risen dramatically, from 20.7 percent in 1996 to 31.1 percent in 2006. A major reason is the decline in attempted vaginal births after cesarean. Because elective cesareans can be scheduled to accommodate patient and doctor convenience, there is a risk that they appears to be performed earlier than is appropriate." Tita said. "We knew from prior small studies that infants born before 39 weeks' gestation are at increased risk for respiratory distress. Because nearly 40 percent of the cesareans performed in the United States each year are repeat procedures, we undertook this large study to describe the timing of elective repeat cesareans and assess its relationship with the risk of various adverse neonatal outcomes"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

January 6, 2009, 7:48 PM CT

Smoking during pregnancy

Montreal, January 6, 2009 Women who smoke during pregnancy risk delivering aggressive kids as per a new Canada-Netherlands study reported in the journal Development and Psychopathology While prior studies have shown that smoking during gestation causes low birth weight, this research shows mothers who light up during pregnancy can predispose their offspring to an additional risk: violent behaviour.

What's more, the research team found the risk of giving birth to aggressive children increases among smoking mothers whose familial income is lower than $40,000 per year. Another risk factor for aggressive behaviour in offspring was smoking mothers with a history of antisocial behaviour: run-ins with the law, high school drop-outs and illegal drug use.

Psychiatry professor and researcher Jean Sguin, of the Universit de Montral and Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, co-authored the study with postdoctoral fellow Stephan C. J. Huijbregts, now a researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands, as well as colleagues from Universit Laval and McGill University in Canada.

"Mothers-to-be whose lives have been marked by anti-social behaviour have a 67 percent chance to have a physically aggressive child if they smoke 10 cigarettes a day while pregnant, compared with 16 percent for those who are non-smokers or who smoke fewer than 10 cigarettes a day," says Dr. Sguin. "Smoking also seems to be an aggravating factor, eventhough less pronounced, in mothers whose anti-social behaviour is negligible or zero"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

January 5, 2009, 11:14 PM CT

Procedures to stop heavy menstrual bleeding

RExperts estimate that 20 percent of women experience excessive or prolonged menstrual bleeding at some time during their lives, especially as they approach menopause. A new, less invasive procedure called global endometrial ablation (GEA) preserves the uterus, while decreasing menstrual bleeding and shortening patients' recovery time. In an article reported in the recent issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mayo Clinic scientists attempt to determine the percentage of women who do not achieve permanent symptom relief from GEA and identify several factors that put women at greater risk for this outcome.

VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Dr. Abimbola Famuyide describing the research, are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog at: http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/01/05/global-endometrial-ablation-for-heavy-menstrual-bleeding/.

For decades, hormone pills or hysterectomy, surgical removal of the uterus, were the standard therapys for excessive or prolonged menstrual bleeding. Eventhough numerous studies have established the safety of GEA, some women who undergo this procedure require additional therapy or hysterectomy later because significant menstrual pain or heavy bleeding symptoms resume.

How GEA works........ Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 28, 2008, 11:05 PM CT

Insights into the X chromosome matchmaking

A research group lead by researchers at the University of Warwick has discovered the trigger that pulls together X chromosomes in female cells at a crucial stage of embryo development. Their discovery could also provide new insights into how other similar chromosomes spontaneously recognize each other and are bound together at key parts of analogous cell processes. This is an important mechanism as the binding togetgher of too a number of of too few of a particular chromosome can cause many medical conditions such as Down's Syndrome or Turner's Syndrome.

In our cells most genes are expressed from both types of each chromosome linked gene, but the most notable exception to this rule are X-linked genes in female mammals. During embryo development, in a step necessary to survival, one of the X chromosomes is silenced in each female cell to ensure that the levels of X-derived products are equalized in XX females and XY males, via a process known as X-Chromosome Inactivation (XCI). Recent discoveries have revealed that for that stage in the process to happen the X chromosomes have to quickly pair off (or colocalize) in a way that allows each part of those pairs of X chromosomes to be very close together and be aligned in a particular way. Failure to achieve this close physical colocalization of the two X chromosomes will lead to XCI failure and cell death......... Posted by: Scott      Read more         Source

December 24, 2008, 5:16 AM CT

Making the contraceptive pills available without prescription

Making the contraceptive pill available without prescription will not reduce unwanted pregnancies, says an expert in an article published on bmj.com today.

Sarah Jarvis from the Royal College of Physicians argues that it is a lack of daily compliance with taking oral contraceptives which is partly responsible for the high rates of unintended teenage pregnancies in the UK.

Studies have shown that nearly half of all women taking the oral contraceptive pill miss one or more pills in each cycle, and nearly a quarter missed two or more. These women are three times more likely to get pregnant unintentionally than those who take the pill consistently.

She points out that the availability of emergency contraception without prescription has done little to change the rate of teenage pregnancies.

Jarvis believes that the solution lies in long acting reversible contraceptives such as the coil, or those which can be placed under the skin or injected. They last between three months and three years, and because they are not dependent on patients taking them correctly, are much more reliable than oral contraceptives, she adds.

"Increased uptake of reliable, non user-dependent methods, rather than making a potentially unreliable method of contraception more easily available, has to be the key ", she concludes......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 22, 2008, 5:19 AM CT

How you see yourself while pregnant

Body image is a tricky thing for a number of women. Like looking into a funhouse mirror, the way they perceive their bodies can make them think they're thinner or more obese than they actually are. Scientists led by Temple University's Sharon Herring, MD, MPH, have observed that this misperception is linked to excess weight gain during pregnancy which can cause complications for both mother and baby.

As per a research findings published on December 19 in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, Herring and a team of scientists from the department of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care observed that overweight and obese women who thought they weighed less than they actually did at the start of pregnancy had seven times the odds of gaining excessive weight during their pregnancy. In contrast, normal weight women who thought they weighed more than they actually did had twice to the odds of gaining excessive weight during their pregnancy.

The reasons for misperceived body weight aren't clear, but Herring and her team speculate that the high prevalence of obesity in the US might account for a skewed body image among the overweight or obese group so that they believe they are at a normal weight, and may be less likely to follow pregnancy weight gain guidelines as a result......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

December 19, 2008, 5:30 AM CT

First trimester smoking linked to oral clefts

Smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy is clearly linked with an increased risk of cleft lip in newborns. Genes that play a role in detoxification of cigarette smoke do not appear to be involved. This is shown in a new study reported in the journal Epidemiology.

Oral clefts are one of the most common birth defects. Closure of the lip occurs about 5 weeks into pregnancy, followed by closure of the palate at week 9. If this does not happen, a cleft lip and/or cleft palate are the result, requiring surgery. The scientists wanted to see if smoking or exposure to passive smoking play a role in these defects and whether genes influence the oral cleft risk through the way toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke are processed.

The study is based on an extensive Norwegian case-control study on oral clefts with collaborating scientists from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, University of Bergen, Rikshospital, Haukeland University Hospital and the National Institutes of Health in USA. Between 1996 and 2001, 676 babies born with oral clefts were referred for cleft surgery, and of these, 573 participated in the study. 763 babies born during the same period in Norway were randomly selected as controls.

DNA and questionnaires

Blood samples were taken from the children referred for surgery and their PKU test samples, routinely taken at birth, were also retrieved. Their mothers and fathers donated cheek swabs and blood samples. From the control group, cheek swabs were obtained from the mother, father (after November 1998) and child, plus the PKU test sample taken at birth. DNA was extracted from the samples......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 16, 2008, 9:55 PM CT

Caffeine when pregnant may damage the heart of offspring

A new study published online in The FASEB Journal shows that the equivalent of one dose of caffeine (just two cups of coffee) ingested during pregnancy may be enough to affect fetal heart development and then reduce heart function over the entire lifespan of the child. In addition, the scientists also observed that this relatively minimal amount of exposure may lead to higher body fat among males, when in comparison to those who were not exposed to caffeine. Eventhough the study was in mice, the biological cause and effect described in the research paper is plausible in humans.

As per Scott Rivkees, Yale's Associate Chair of Pediatric Research and a senior researcher on the study, "Our studies raise potential concerns about caffeine exposure during very early pregnancy, but further studies are necessary to evaluate caffeine's safety during pregnancy".

To reach their conclusion scientists studied four groups of pregnant mice under two sets of conditions for 48 hours. The first two groups were studied in "room air," with one group having been injected with caffeine and another injected with saline solution. The second two groups were studied under conditions where ambient oxygen levels were halved, with one group receiving caffeine and the other receiving saline solution. They observed that under both circumstances, mice given caffeine produced embryos with a thinner layer of tissue separating some of the heart's chambers than the group that was not given caffeine......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 16, 2008, 9:49 PM CT

Benefits of breastfeeding outweigh risks

A study comparing breastfed and formula fed infants across time showed that the known beneficial effects of breastfeeding are greater than the potential risks linked to infant exposure to chemicals such as dioxins that may be present in breastmilk, as per a report reported in the December issue (Volume 3, Number 4) of Breastfeeding Medicine, a peer-evaluated journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com) and the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/bfm.

This compelling study, entitled "The Heart of the Matter on Breastmilk and Environmental Chemicals: Essential Points for Health Care Providers and New Parents," encompassed an historical review of the medical literature and included time periods when levels of environmental chemicals were higher than they tend to be at present.

The authors of the report, Judy LaKind, PhD (LaKind Associates, Catonsville, MD), Cheston Berlin, Jr, MD (The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, PA), and CAPT Donald Mattison, MD (National Institutes of Health), advise health care providers to continue to encourage new mothers to breastfeed their babies. In agreement with the World Health Organization's (WHO's) continuing support of breastfeeding, this study's findings, based on epidemiologic data, do not downplay the adverse effects of exposure to dioxins and other environmental toxins. However, the authors distinguish between the statistical significance of risk/benefit assessments in an individual in comparison to population effects......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 16, 2008, 9:47 PM CT

Vitamin D deficiency in infants and nursing mothers

Once thought to beimportant only for bone health, vitamin D is now seen as having a critical function in maintaining the immune system throughout life. The newly recognized disease risks linked to vitamin D deficiency are clearly documented in a report in the December issue (Volume 3, Number 4) of Breastfeeding Medicine, a peer-evaluated journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com), and the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (www.bfmed.org). The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/bfm.

Vitamin D deficiency is common across populations and especially among people with darker skin. Nutritional rickets among nursing infants whose mothers have insufficient levels of vitamin D is an increasingly common, yet preventable disorder.

Carol Wagner, MD, Sarah Taylor, MD, and Bruce Hollis, PhD, from the Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston), emphasize the need for clinical studies to determine the dose of vitamin D needed to achieve adequate vitamin D levels in breastfeeding mothers and their infants without toxicity.

In a paper entitled, "Does Vitamin D Make the World Go 'Round'?" the authors point out that vitamin D is now viewed not simply as a vitamin with a role in promoting bone health, but as a complex hormone that helps to regulate immune system function. Long-term vitamin D deficiency has been associated with immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type I diabetes, and cancer......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 16, 2008, 8:56 PM CT

First Pregnancies May Lower Mom's Blood Pressure Permanently

"In women with healthy pregnancies, blood pressure levels were lower among women after a first pregnancy, in comparison to women who did not give birth," as per the study's lead author Erica P. Gunderson, Ph.D., an epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. "Because lower blood pressure appears to persist years after delivery, pregnancy may offer insights into mechanisms that may be useful for controlling adult blood pressure".

Scientists examined blood pressure changes in 1,373 women who had never given birth at baseline. They observed that the average systolic blood pressure was lower by 2 millimeters of mercury and the average diastolic blood pressure was lower by 1.5 mm of mercury for the 635 women who'd had a first pregnancy uncomplicated by hypertension, in comparison to 738 women who did not give birth during the 20-year study period.

The lower blood pressure was sustained regardless of the number of subsequent births, as per the researchers. Lower blood pressure after a first pregnancy compared with no births remained after adjusting for blood pressure and body mass index before pregnancy, age, race, smoking, education, medications to treat hypertension, oral contraceptive use, and weight gain, they explained.

A 2-mm mercury reduction in mean blood pressure for women's long term health could translate into a 6 percent reduction in stroke mortality, a 4 percent reduction in coronary heart disease, and a reduction in total mortality for 3 percent of the population, Gunderson said......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 11, 2008, 5:11 AM CT

Late preterm births present serious risks to newborns

More than half a million babies are born preterm in the United States each year, and preterm births are on the rise. Late preterm births, or births that occur between 34 and 36 weeks (approximately 4 to 6 weeks before the mother's due date), account for more than 70% of preterm births. Despite the large number of affected babies, a number of people are unaware of the serious health problems correlation to late preterm births. A new study and an accompanying editorial soon would be published in The Journal of Pediatrics investigate the serious neurological problems linked to late preterm births.

Dr. Joann Petrini of the March of Dimes and his colleagues from institutions throughout the United States studied more than 140,000 babies born between 2000 and 2004, ranging from preterm (30-37 weeks) to full term (37-41 weeks). The scientists reviewed the babies' neurological development and observed that late preterm babies were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed with cerebral palsy as full term babies. They also observed that late preterm babies were at an increased risk for developmental delay or mental retardation.

Editorialist Dr. Michael Kramer of McGill University points out that the "rates of preterm births are increasing, particularly in the United States, and the associated risks are a serious public health concern." He sees the increasing number of twins and induced labors as contributing factors in the rise of preterm births. "The rise in twins may be due to the use of fertility therapys like hormones and in-vitro fertilization," Dr. Kramer explains. However, he notes that the increased risks may not always come from early delivery itself, but from other underlying problems, such as gestational diabetes, that may lead to early delivery......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 6, 2008, 4:00 PM CT

Secondhand smoke raises odds of fertility problems

If you need another reason to quit smoking, consider that it may diminish your chances of being a parent or grandparent. Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have observed that women exposed to second hand smoke, either as adults or children, were significantly more likely to face fertility problems and suffer miscarriages.

An epidemiologic analysis of more than 4,800 non-smoking women showed those who were exposed to second hand smoke six or more hours per day as children and adults faced a 68 percent greater chance of having difficulty getting pregnant and suffering one or more miscarriages. The study is published online in Tobacco Control and is one of the first publications to demonstrate the lasting effects of second hand smoke exposure on women during childbearing years.

"These statistics are breathtaking and certainly points to yet another danger of second hand smoke exposure," said Luke J. Peppone, Ph.D., research assistant professor at Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.

In the study, four out of five women reported exposure to second hand smoke during their lifetime. Half of the women grew up in a home with smoking parents and nearly two-thirds of them were exposed to some second hand smoking at the time of the survey......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 4, 2008, 5:21 AM CT

Cutting the cord to determine babies' health risk

Despite the well-known dangers of first- and secondhand smoke, an estimated ten percent of pregnant women in the U.S. are smokers. Exposure of a developing baby to harmful cigarette byproducts from mothers who smoke affects an estimated 420,000 newborns each year and poses a significant health care burden.

Now, in the first study of its kind, a team of scientists has completed a global assessment of newborns' umbilical cord blood to better understand the fetal health risks from smoking mothers. The research was led by Johns Hopkins University and included Rolf Halden, a researcher from the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.

"Cigarette smoking is a massive onslaught on human physiology," said Halden, who works in the institute's Center for Environmental Biotechnology. Cigarette smoke is known to contain more than 4,000 chemicals, potentially affecting the health of a newborn baby on multiple levels, including low birth weight, premature delivery and small size for gestational age. The exact cause of these health effects continues to be the subject of investigation.

"Unfortunately, maternal cigarette smoking puts babies at risk of adverse birth outcomes and increases susceptibility to other diseases during the later part of life," said Halden......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 4, 2008, 5:20 AM CT

Concerns about embryo disposition

Fertility patients who are done having children feel responsible for the stored, frozen embryos left over from their therapy, yet more than half are against implanting the embryos in anyone else, as per a new study by scientists at Duke University Medical Center.

"This really turns our moral presumptions on their heads," says Anne Drapkin Lyerly, MD, an obstetrician/gynecologist and bioethicist at Duke, and lead investigator of the findings that appear online in Fertility & Sterility

"Parents care very much about what happens to their embryos, but that doesn't mean they want them to become children. Our study shows that a number of feel they have to do what they can to prevent their embryo from becoming a child".

The survey of more than 1,000 fertility patients is the largest and only multi-site study to shed important light on the state of the nation's 500,000 frozen embryos currently in storage. It reveals previously unexplored concerns that patients have about their embryos, and it comes at a time when several states and even the federal government are attempting to enact legislation that would either assert an embryo is a person, allow abandoned embryos to be adopted by another couple, or allow unused embryos to become "wards of the state."........ Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

December 1, 2008, 6:06 PM CT

Maternal exposure to folic acid antagonists

Exposure to folic acid antagonists during pregnancy is linked to a higher risk of placenta-mediated adverse outcomes such as preeclampsia, placental abruption, fetal growth restriction or fetal death reports a retrospective cohort study published in CMAJ http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg1263.pdf.

Folic acid antagonists include a broad range of drugs used to treat epilepsy, mood disorders, high blood pressure and infections. As approximately 50% of pregnancies in industrialized countries like Canada are unplanned, there is a risk of unintended exposure to these medications.

The study, conducted by scientists from Ottawa, Montreal, Saskatoon and Hunan, China looked at 14 982 women who had taken folic acid antagonists one year previous to delivery and 59 825 women who did not. Dr. Shi Wu Wen and co- scientists observed that maternal exposure to folic acid antagonists was linked to a slightly higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. They suggest re-classifying some folic acid antagonists and recommend increased folic acid supplements for women requiring folic acid antagonists during pregnancy.

In a related commentary http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg1243.pdf, Dr. Joel Ray suggests the research study presents some "thought-provoking findings, but the results may not be ready for adoption by clinical practitioners or drug policy makers." He cites some real concerns with the study design and the need for clinically relevant finding as cautions about translating findings into practice......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 31, 2008, 5:12 AM CT

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy

A study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research of more than 40,000 women and their babies observed that women who gained more than 40 pounds during their pregnancies were nearly twice as likely to have a heavy baby. Reported in the recent issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the study observed that more than one in five women gains excessive weight during pregnancy, doubling her chances of having a baby that weighs 9 pounds or more.

"Too a number of women gain too much weight during pregnancy. This extra weight puts them at higher risk for having heavy babies, and these babies are programmed to become overweight or obese during the later part of life," said study lead author Teresa Hillier, MD, MS, an endocrinologist and senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Oregon and Hawaii. "A big baby also poses serious risks for both mom and baby at birth--for mothers, vaginal tearing, bleeding, and often C-sections, and for the babies, stuck shoulders and broken collar bones. ".

While scientists have known for some time about the link between diabetes during pregnancy and heavier birth weights, and recently have learned how maternal weight gain affects the birth weight, this is the first study to determine that women who gain excessive weight are even more likely to have heavy babies than women who are treated for gestational diabetes......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:37 PM CT

Guidelines urge physical activity during pregnancy

Moderate physical activity during pregnancy does not contribute to low birth weight, premature birth or miscarriage and may actually reduce the risk of complications, as per a Michigan State University professor who contributed to the U.S. government's first-ever guidelines on physical activity.

Kinesiology professor James Pivarnik and doctoral students Lanay Mudd and Erin Kuffel wrote the section on pregnancy and postpartum activity as part of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines unveiled Oct. 7 in Washington, D.C., by the Department of Health and Human Services. Pivarnik, president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine, attended the event and spoke on behalf of the organization and MSU.

"There has been quite a dramatic change in regards to pregnancy and exercise," said Pivarnik, who has studied the topic for more than 20 years. "While it used to be thought that avoiding exercise meant avoiding harm to the fetus, research now shows physical activity can not only improve health of the mother but also provide potential long-term benefits for the child".

Specifically, the guidelines call for women to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week during pregnancy and the postpartum period, preferably spread throughout the week. In addition to health benefits, moderate physical activity also may reduce the length of labor, evidence suggests. The guidelines call for women to avoid doing activities that involve lying on their back after the first trimester and activities with high risk of falling or abdominal trauma......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 25, 2008, 11:06 PM CT

Continuous glucose monitoring in diabetic pregnant women

Continuous glucose monitoring as part of antenatal care for women with diabetes improves maternal blood glucose control and lowers birth weight and risk of macrosomia* (excessive birth weight in babies), as per a research studypublished on bmj.com today.

During pregnancy it is important that women with diabetes keep their blood glucose under control. If not, there may be an increase in the amount of glucose reaching the baby, which makes the baby grow faster than normal, and may cause difficulties at birth as well as an increased longer term risk of insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Evidence suggests that measuring glucose more often improves outcomes, but the optimum frequency of blood glucose testing is not known.

Dr Helen Murphy and his colleagues examined whether continuous glucose monitoring during pregnancy can improve maternal glucose control and reduce birth weight and risk of macrosomia in babies of mothers with diabetes.

They recruited 71 pregnant women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes from antenatal clinics in the UK.

The women were randomly assigned to standard antenatal care (intermittent self monitoring of glucose levels using the finger prick technique) or intermittent monitoring plus continuous glucose monitoring (using glucose values from subcutaneous tissues measured electronically every 10 seconds, giving up to 288 measurements a day)......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 25, 2008, 11:04 PM CT

English health care system failing to encourage breastfeeding

The English healthcare system is failing to encourage breast feeding and a national strategy to promote breast feeding is urgently needed, say experts on bmj.com today.

In the UK, the women most likely to use formula milk are young, white and from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and this has created a major public health and inequalities challenge, write Professor Mary Renfrew from the University of York and Professor David Hall from the University of Sheffield.

It is well known that breast feeding improves infant health, and it has been shown to be the single most important preventive approach to saving children's lives.

In spite of national and international policy initiatives, 40% of women in the UK who start to breast feed discontinue by the time their baby is 6 weeks old, and only 20% of infants are exclusively breast fed at six weeks.

Yet evidence has shown that the main reasons cited for discontinuing breastfeeding could be easily remedied. For example, problems getting the baby to feed, or women reporting that breast feeding is painful.

In addition, recent data show that health professionals, particularly doctors, are not adequately trained in giving advice on breast feeding, and often do not know how to position the baby so that feeding is effective and pain free......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 17, 2008, 5:15 PM CT

Physical Therapy Treatment Resolves Symptoms Of Urinary Incontinence In Women

In response to a new study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that pelvic floor disorders, such as urinary incontinence, affect up to one-quarter of American women, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is urging women who suffer from this widespread disorder to consider therapy from a physical therapist.

Recent research has demonstrated physical treatment's effectiveness at treating the symptoms of urinary incontinence. A study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine (March 18, 2008) reports that pelvic floor muscle training, in conjunction with bladder training, resolved the symptoms of urinary incontinence in women. As per APTA, proper preventive measures and therapy by a physical therapist can help patients manage, if not alleviate, this often debilitating condition.

The study, which included 96 randomized controlled trials and 3 systematic reviews from 1990 through 2007, concluded that pelvic floor muscles training and bladder training resolved urinary incontinence in women, as in comparison to drug treatment, electrostimulation, medical devices, injectable bulking agents, and local estrogen treatment.

"The Annals of Internal Medicine study is significant for a number of reasons, none more so than because it provides the highest levels of evidence to support the importance of intervention by a physical therapist who specializes in treating urinary incontinence," says Cynthia E Neville, PT, BCIA-PMDB, director of Women's Health Rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source