Feature Channels: OBGYN

• share
• favorite_border

It takes a village to keep a pregnant woman at her healthiest, a new University of Michigan study shows.

• share
• favorite_border

An analysis of more than 200,000 deliveries finds that compared to infants born at full term, those born between 34 weeks and 37 weeks are more likely to have severe respiratory illness, and this risk decreases with each added week of gestational age during the late preterm period, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by UIC researchers report that babies born between 34 weeks and 37 weeks gestation are much more likely to have respiratory illness compared to infants born at full term, and their risk of respiratory illness decreases with each additional week of gestation until 38 weeks.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Cancer Institute has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University $4.1 million to test the microbicide Carraguard® against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. The research will evaluate the efficacy of Carraguard®, – a clear gel made from the seaweed derivative carrageenan – in preventing new HPV infections in women.

• share
• favorite_border

Pregnant women with antibodies that can indicate early thyroid disease are three times as likely to have placental separation during labor, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a study of more than 17,000 women.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of graduate students and their faculty adviser have invented a system to pick up very early signs that a woman is going into labor too soon.

• share
• favorite_border

A newly funded study is set to determine whether waiting two minutes to clamp a newborn’s umbilical cord after delivery could improve how well he or she recovers from corrective heart surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

With an estimated 85 percent of women experiencing hot flashes as they approach menopause, researchers are concentrating on finding effective treatments that do not include hormonal or other pharmaceutical therapies. Now, a new Baylor University study has shown that women who specifically pictured images associated with coolness during hypnotherapy had a dramatic decrease in hot flashes.

• share
• favorite_border

Asthma is the most common complication of pregnancy in Australia with harmful effects on babies, but many of these could be prevented a University of Adelaide researcher in Australia says.

• share
• favorite_border

Infertility affects about 7 million Americans -- that's about one in six couples during their childbearing years. There are many reasons for infertility, with equal chances it's his medical issue as it is hers. A new book, "A Baby at Last!: The Couples' Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant" (Fireside Books, Simon and Schuster), points the way for couples to get past the emotionally wrenching obstacle of infertility and finally bring home their bundle of joy.

• share
• favorite_border

Complication rates for vaginal and C-section deliveries can vary widely from one hospital to the next according to a study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent health care ratings organization. Along with the study, quality ratings of maternity programs for every hospital in the 19 states that make maternity care information public are now available at www.healthgrades.com.

• share
• favorite_border

Pregnant women with thyroid function test results in the upper half of the normal range have an increased chance of miscarriage, even when they lack thyroid-harming antibodies, according to a new study. The results, which the authors say show the need to change screening practices for pregnant women, will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting.

• share
• favorite_border

Children of mothers whose blood glucose (sugar) was high during pregnancy are more likely to have low insulin sensitivity—a risk factor for type 2 diabetes—even after taking into consideration the children’s body weight, a new study shows. The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

• share
• favorite_border

The largest study yet to investigate exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants and pregnant women’s thyroid hormone levels correlates exposure to PBDEs with reduced levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and increased odds of subclinical hyperthyroidism.

• share
• favorite_border

The Lamaze method of childbirth was widely used by a generation of American moms, but few people know its origins -- that it was developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War under the unwieldy name “psychoprophylaxis.” With the support of several grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, University of Iowa history professor Paula Michaels is writing an international history of Lamaze.

• share
• favorite_border

On Sunday, many fathers will settle in for a BBQ, go fishing with the kids or play with a new electronic gadget. For one dad, having his whole family home is the best gift he could hope for. Nich and his wife Jennie Pollak, 25, of Albion, Mich., had tried for a year to give their 4-year-old daughter a sibling. The young family was stunned, however, when one month on a low-dose fertility drug led to Jennie becoming pregnant with quadruplets. Read more below about this family's heartwarming story.

• share
• favorite_border

Synthetic sutures appear to cause less pain than natural “catgut” sutures in women who receive stitches after a vaginal birth.

• share
• favorite_border

New techniques to detect chromosomal abnormalities can offer a higher degree of accuracy. Chromosomal abnormalities are a well-known cause of multiple congenital anomalies, and conventional methods of culture analysis have proven unsuccessful in 10% to 40% of cases. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques were tested and found successful by analyzing tissue from children who had multiple congenital anomalies.

• share
• favorite_border

If more women quit smoking before they became pregnant, it would save infant lives, concludes a new study from the CDC.

• share
• favorite_border

A national study involving a UT Southwestern Medical Center neonatologist provides new insight into how much oxygen preterm infants should receive as well as the optimal way to deliver it to them.

• share
• favorite_border

If you're among the parents-to-be who've used one of the increasingly popular online Chinese calendar charts to predict your baby's sex, a University of Michigan epidemiologist recommends that you hold off on painting the nursery pink or blue.

• share
• favorite_border

Pregnant women who contract the H1N1 flu strain are at risk for obstetrical complications including fetal distress, premature delivery, emergency cesarean delivery and fetal death, according to a report in the May 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

• share
• favorite_border

Two popular procedures for female stress incontinence were found to be equivalent in efficacy but differed in side effects, according to data published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ 58th Annual Clinical Meeting. These surgical techniques, called mid urethral slings, are increasingly common for the treatment of stress incontinence or urine loss from physical activity such as coughing, sneezing or laughing.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recently discovered a link between offspring lung function and maternal vitamin A supplementation.

• share
• favorite_border

Nausea in pregnant women tends to fade after the first three months, but during the second and third trimesters it can be a sign of flu, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a study of expectant women who sought medical care.

• share
• favorite_border

Living in a food-insecure household during pregnancy may increase the odds of greater weight gain and pregnancy complications, particularly gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), according to a new study published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Household food insecurity, the inability to obtain nutritious and safe foods in socially acceptable ways, is increasingly recognized as an independent risk factor for many poor health outcomes among women.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Adelaide research is showing that the sex of the baby determines the way it responds to stressors during pregnancy and its ability to survive pregnancy complications.

• share
• favorite_border

Tamiflu and two other drugs used to treat influenza appear safe for pregnant women and their babies, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a retrospective study of 239 cases of women who received the medications during pregnancy.

• share
• favorite_border

One researcher is investigating how specific factors released from the placenta of women with preeclampsia inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells.

• share
• favorite_border

Pregnant women had a disproportionately higher risk of death due to 2009 influenza A(H1N1) in the U.S., and early antiviral treatment appeared to be associated with fewer admissions to an ICU and fewer deaths, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

Center for Reproductive Medicine (CRM) doctors and staff are celebrating the first birth in Florida resulting from In Vitro Maturation (IVM), an alternative for some patients to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) that costs less, is quicker and does not require the hormone injections associated with IVF.

• share
• favorite_border

Northeastern University has received a $9.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the impact of exposure to environmental contamination on preterm birth rates and to develop sustainable solutions.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that epigenetic marks on human placentas change from the first trimester of pregnancy to the third, a discovery that may allow clinicians to prevent complications in pregnancy.

• share
• favorite_border

Obese women who have bariatric surgery before getting pregnant are at significantly lower risk for developing dangerous hypertensive disorders during pregnancy than those who don’t, according to a study of medical insurance records by Johns Hopkins experts.

• share
• favorite_border

Most women scheduled for gynecologic surgery to address noncancerous symptoms said in a recently published survey that they were not worried about the effects of the procedure on their sex lives.

• share
• favorite_border

The Columbus Fetal Medicine Collaborative has been formed by Mount Carmel Health System, OhioHealth, The Ohio State University Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital joining together to provide optimal outcomes for high-risk expectant mothers and their babies with suspected fetal abnormalities. This collaboration among all the Columbus hospital systems is one of only a few in the U.S. and brings together a unique blend of medical experience and expertise.

• share
• favorite_border

According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), regular moderate-intensity aerobic exercise led to a modest reduction in offspring birth weight without restricting the development of maternal insulin resistance.