Stillbirth often linked to placenta: US research

2011-12-13T18:30:32Z

Stillbirth is often caused by pregnancy complications such as problems with the placenta or preterm labor, said US research published on Tuesday aiming to shed light on the causes and risks.

Ten years ago, little was known about the causes of stillbirth, a term that describes when a baby dies at or after the 20th week of pregnancy.

While rare in the United States, stillbirth happens in one of 160 pregnanci...

Mode of delivery doesn't affect later maternal stress

2011-12-07T14:30:24Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Whether a woman gives birth by elective C-section or vaginal delivery may not affect her anxiety or stress levels afterward, suggests a new study that questions the idea of using C-sections just for the sake of a mother's mental well-being.

Looking at more than 55,000 women in Norway who gave birth between 1...

WHO links child mortality to economic crisis

2011-11-26T16:30:20Z

The World Health Organisation warned on Saturday that only a stronger political commitment to child health could prevent a dangerous rise in mortality rates at a time of global economic turmoil.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan told the opening of a maternal and child health event in the Uzbek capital

Moms who lose a baby face higher stillbirth risk

2011-10-21T10:30:39Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents who've suffered the death of an infant may have a higher-than-normal risk of stillbirth in the next pregnancy, a new study suggests.

Stillbirth refers to the death of a fetus after the 20th week of pregnancy. It's known that, as a group, women with a history of stillbirth have a higher-than-average risk of suffering another.

But the new study suggest...

Race to save mothers, children set to fall short

2011-09-19T20:30:22Z

A global campaign to save new mothers and children under five in developing nations has made strong gains but is set to fall well shy of UN goals, according to a study released Tuesday.

Only nine out of 137 countries are on track to meet the twin Millennium Development Goals (MDG)

Global study finds newborns struggle to survive

2011-08-31T11:30:18Z

LONDON (Reuters) - Fewer newborn babies are dying worldwide, but progress is too slow and Africa is being left behind, said a global study led by the World Health Organization (WHO).

While investment over the last decade in health care for wo...

Shift work may have little impact on pregnancy

2011-08-21T19:30:06Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some studies have suggested that working the night shift may raise a pregnant woman's risks of preterm delivery or having an underweight baby, but a review says that if those effects exist, they are likely to be small.

After looking at 23 studies involving thousands of women, researchers led by Matteo Bonzini of the University of Insubria in

Shift work may have little effect on pregnancy

2011-08-19T13:00:07Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some studies have suggested that working the night shift may raise a pregnant woman's risks of preterm labor or having an underweight baby. But a new review says that if those effects exist, they are likely to be small.

Looking at 23 studies involving thousands of women, researchers found that, overall, shift work was not strongly linked to the risk of preterm lab...

Millions still die due to lack of midwives: U.N.

2011-06-20T06:00:13Z

LONDON (Reuters) - More investment in midwifery could save many of the millions of babies and hundreds of thousands of women who still die every year because of a lack of skilled healthcare during childbirth, the United Nations said on Monday.

In the first global midwifery report for 35 years, the United Nations said as...

Prenatal pesticide exposure tied to birth size

2011-06-14T13:30:44Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exposure to even moderate amounts of certain pesticides during pregnancy may affect infants' birth size, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 500 newborns whose umbilical cord blood was tested for pesticide residues, those with higher levels tended to be smaller at birth.

The chemicals in question include DDT and three other organochlori...

Seizure drugs tied to pregnancy risks

2011-06-14T13:00:05Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research on the links between seizure medication and pregnancy complications highlights the hard choices that pregnant women with epilepsy must make.

Scientists from the University of Bergen in Norway found that women with epilepsy are more likely to have pregnancy complications, and that th...

Twelve women per month died giving birth in S.Leone hospital

2011-05-17T14:30:31Z

Twelve women died every month giving birth in a Freetown hospital in 2010, in a country with one of the world's worst maternal mortality rates, a government study showed Tuesday.

Akim Gibril, chairman of an 11-person committee set up to probe challenges at the Princess Christian maternity hospital in Freetown, said the figure was "unacceptable."

"Unless the unfortunate shortcomings including poor post-delivery condi...

Can obese pregnant women safely shed pounds?

2011-05-11T14:30:51Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who are very obese may be able to safely lose some weight during pregnancy -- and possibly reduce their risk of needing a cesarean section, a new study suggests.

The findings, reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, add to evidence that at least some obese women may be able to shed pounds during pregnancy without harming themselves or their baby...

Afghanistan worst place, Norway best to be a mom: study

2011-05-03T15:30:21Z

Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be a mother and Norway is the best, an annual report released Tuesday said.

"Afghanistan has the highest lifetime risk of maternal mortality and the lowest female life expectancy in the world," putting it at the bottom of the the Mothers' Index, which has been compiled for the past 12 years by the nonprofit group The Lancet said on Thursday.

Ninety-eight per cent of the 7,000 stillbirths that occur each day happen in developing countries, it said in a series of papers.

The true tally may be even greater because this estimate is based on the Britain's stillbirth rates were condemned as a "national scandal? on Thursday after reports suggested that around 4,000 babies in the country are born dead each year -- the worst among high-income nations.

According to the medical journal The Lancet the figure of 4,100 is equal to about 11 children still born everyday, though wide regional variations were det...

2.6 million stillbirths each year - Lancet

2011-04-13T20:30:16Z

Around 2.6 million stillbirths occur each year, inflicting a devastating toll on couples that can often be averted with good medical care, The Lancet said on Thursday.

Ninety-eight per cent of the 7,000 stillbirths that occur each day happen in developing countries, it said in a series of papers.

The true tally may be even greater because this estimate is based on the CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than 2.6 million pregnancies a year end in stillbirth, a tragedy which mostly hits women in poor countries and accounts for more deaths than AIDS and malaria combined, researchers said on Wednesday.

A series of studies published in the journal Lancet by researchers from the

Pregnancy complication deaths drop, but not equally

2011-03-25T15:00:18Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Deaths from a dangerous pregnancy complication in which the embryo implants outside the womb have decreased in recent decades, according to a new study.

However, the authors found that the chance of dying from an ectopic pregnancy is almost seven times higher in black women than white women.

The overall decline is "a nice success story," Dr. Kurt Barnh...

Asians at greater risk for tear during delivery

2011-01-06T14:30:14Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Asians are nine times as likely as other women to experience severe tearing of the skin around the vagina during childbirth, Israeli researchers report.

They also found that vacuum-assisted delivery, giving birth for the first time, and a front-facing orientation of the baby in the birth canal were linked to higher risks.

Still, severe tears of the perineum ...

German researchers capture first birth on open MRI

2010-12-08T09:00:37Z

BERLIN (Reuters) - Doctors in Germany have captured a live birth by open MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) for the first time, offering insight into potential pregnancy complications, Berlin's Charite hospital said on Wednesday.

"The main reasons for the research are to a...

Things to Know About Pregnancy in a Chihuahua Dog

2010-11-30T12:37:25Z

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The Risks of Demerol During Pregnancy and Delivery

2010-11-29T14:33:11Z

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Gestational Weight Gain Guidelines Questioned

2010-11-29T14:46:40Z

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Weight loss in pregnancy linked to benefits, risks

2010-11-18T14:09:31Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obese women who lose weight during pregnancy may have a lower risk of certain pregnancy complications, but -- with the exception of extremely obese women -- those benefits may be outweighed by negative effects on the baby's birth size, a new study suggests.

The findings, published in the obstetrics journal BJOG, add to the fairly controversial idea that it can be ...

Midwives' leader Cathy Warwick: U-turn over 3,000 more staff puts women at risk

2010-11-29T14:59:57Z

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True or False?

2010-11-29T14:47:12Z

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Pregnancy Over 35

2010-11-29T14:47:11Z

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Induction

2010-11-29T14:47:11Z

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Stillbirth Can Be Devastating, Unpredictable

2010-11-29T14:42:27Z

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Midwife or Doctor? Choosing a Midwife in Canada

2010-11-29T14:52:15Z

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Cutting the Cord after Birth - Experts Now Recommend Waiting

2010-11-29T14:52:06Z

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Umbilical Cord

2010-11-30T13:49:28Z

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Nerve O

2010-11-30T13:48:21Z

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Placental Abruption

2010-11-30T13:48:39Z

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Delivery Decisions

2010-11-29T14:47:10Z

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Delivery-Room Drama

2010-11-29T14:47:09Z

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Mobile technology can help improve global health: Gates

2010-11-09T18:00:36Z

"The mobile phone is pretty interesting for lots of things," Gates said in a keynote address at the mHealth Summit here, a gathering of public and private sector groups and companies involved in mobile technology and health.

"There's a whole lot of opportunities," said Gates, who stepped down from day-to-day duties at Microsoft two years ago to concentrate on global health care through the Colorado Springs, Colo., Coltyn, right, begs for a kiss from his mom Tracy Hermanstorfer at their home. Tracy Hermanstorfer, now 34, went into cardiac arrest while preparing to give birth at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs on Dec. 24, 2009. Doctors quickly delivered Co...

Eaten Alive

2010-08-09T08:30:15Z

In this Saturday, April 10, 2010 picture, Sandy Wilson gives her son, Christopher, 5, a taste of his birthday cake's frosting before the party in Columbia, Md. After cesarean section surgery to deliver him, she developed necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating infection, and was in hospitals for years, unable to care for him. Finally healthy, Wilson threw her son his first ...

C SECTIONS

2010-03-28T16:31:50Z

Graphic shows results of two regional studies about the prevalence of C-sections

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Risky C-sections

2010-03-28T16:38:05Z

Mai My Binh, 32, lies beside her newborn Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010, three days after giving birth by cesarean section at the Central Maternity Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. Rates of C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries worldwide, the WHO said in a report sur...

Risky C Sections

2010-03-28T16:38:06Z

In this photo taken June 27, 2007, a nurse examines Deng Qin, who was scheduled to deliver her quadruplets by caesarean section, at a hospital in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province. Rates of C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries worldwide, the WHO said in a report surveying nine Asian nations. (AP Photo)

Prenatal Care Information