Pregnancy in Biological News

New research finds possible genetic link to cause of pregnancy loss and disorders

KNOXVILLE -- Scientists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have published new findings about a cause of a condition at the root of genetic disorders such as Down Syndrome, pregnancy loss and infertility. Called aneuploidy, the condition i...

Women with endometriosis need special care during pregnancy to avoid risk of premature birth

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: The largest study to date of endometriosis in pregnant women has found that the condition is a major risk factor for premature birth, the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard today (Wednesday July 1). Dr. Henrik Falco...

Single thawed embryo transfer after PGD does not affect pregnancy rates

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Transferring just one embryo at a time to a woman's womb after embryos have undergone preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and freezing at the blastocyst stage has become a real option after researchers achieved pregnancy rates that were as good as those for blastocy...

New, less invasive genetic test greatly improves pregnancy rates in older women with poor prognosis

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A new test examining chromosomes in human eggs a few hours after fertilisation can identify those that are capable of forming a healthy baby, a researcher told the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today (Monday 29 June)...

Complications early in pregnancy or in previous pregnancies adversely affect existing or subsequent pregnancies

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Complications in early pregnancy or in previous pregnancies can predict the likelihood of further problems in current or subsequent pregnancies, according to research carried out by an international group of experts. Their findings will help clinicians to predict mor...

3 to 6 months to lose weight gained in pregnancy is normal

This release is available in German . Kilos often melt away by themselves but there is no guarantee Gaining weight in pregnancy is not only normal, it is necessary. The mother's body has to nourish the growing baby. Her body needs to take on more fluid to support the extra circulati...

New guidelines to fight obesity in pregnancy issued

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. MAY 28, 2009 -- Starting pregnancy at a healthy weight and gaining the right amount during pregnancy is critical to giving a baby a healthy start in life, the March of Dimes said today in response to new guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The Institute of Medic...

Smoking during pregnancy may impair thyroid function of mom and fetus

Chevy Chase, MDCigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with potentially harmful changes in both maternal and fetal thyroid function, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ( JCEM ). "We studied the i...

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy nearly doubles risk of having a heavy baby

(PORTLAND, Ore.) October 31, 2008 A study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research of more than 40,000 women and their babies found that women who gained more than 40 pounds during their pregnancies were nearly twice as likely to have a heavy baby. Published in the November issue of O...

Depression during pregnancy can double risk of preterm delivery

October 23, 2008 (Oakland, Calif.) - Depressed pregnant women have twice the risk of preterm delivery than pregnant women with no symptoms of depression, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. The study is published online in the Oxford University Press's journal ...

New study indicates link between weight gains during pregnancy and dieting history

October 1, 2008, St. Louis, MO Women who have a history of dieting or other restricted eating practices are at risk of gaining an inappropriate amount of weight during pregnancy. In a study published in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers from...

Scientists find 'redesigned hammer' that forged evolution of pregnancy in mammals

New Haven, Conn. Yale researchers have shown that the origin and evolution of the placenta and uterus in mammals is associated with evolutionary changes in a single regulatory protein, according to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . "Many past studies have shown that...

Monitoring outcomes of suicide attempts in pregnancy can better assess drug dangers

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (17 September, 2008) Monitoring the health of children born to women who attempted suicide while pregnant can shed light on which medicines and what doses are particularly dangerous to developing fetuses, according to researchers from Hu...

Stem cells may solve mystery of early pregnancy breast cancer protection

The answer to why an early pregnancy seems to protect against breast cancer could rest with a decrease in stem cells found after animals have given birth, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Stem Cell. Women who have chil...

Alcohol binges early in pregnancy increase risk of infant oral clefts

A new study by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, shows that pregnant women who binge drink early in their pregnancy increase the likelihood that their babies will be born with oral clefts. The researchers f...

Consumption of nut products during pregnancy linked to increased asthma in children

Expectant mothers who eat nuts or nut products like peanut butter daily during pregnancy increase their children's risk of developing asthma by more than 50 percent over women who rarely or never consume nut products during pregnancy, according to new research from the Netherlands. "We were pre...

National Zoo giant panda pregnancy update

Scientists at the Smithsonian's National Zoo detected a secondary rise in urinary progestin levels in the Zoo's female giant panda Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) earlier this month. The results from the test on Thursday, June 19 lead scientists to believe the hormone rise indicates that it would be mid- to...

Diet prior to pregnancy determines sheep's gender

Maternal diet influences the chances of having male or female offspring. Research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology has demonstrated that ewes fed a diet enriched with polyunsaturated fats for one month prior to conception have a signifi...

A new gene trigger for pregnancy disorder identified

BOSTON The COMT gene known already for its role in schizophrenia has been found to play a role in preeclampsia, according to a report in todays advance on-line issue of Nature. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the study further suggests that a steroid molec...

Exercise during pregnancy leads to a healthier heart in moms- and babies-to-be

SAN DIEGO, CA Studies have shown that exercise has a positive effect on mothers-to-be, and no detrimental impact on their developing offspring. A new study further extends the knowledge of research in this area and has found that not only do women benefit from exercise in pregnancy, but their fet...

Low vitamin D during pregnancy linked to pre-eclampsia

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 7 Vitamin D deficiency early in pregnancy is associated with a five-fold increased risk of preeclampsia, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences reported this week in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. A serious...

Drug could improve pregnancy outcomes in wider range of women with insulin resistance

St. Louis, Sept. 6, 2007 Women who are obese, have type 2 diabetes or a family history of type 2 diabetes could one day have more successful pregnancies because of a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This study, performed in mice, suggests that Metformin, the mos...

Study identifies warning signs of pregnancy danger

Warnings signs such as increased stress could indicate that pregnancy-induced hypertension is reaching life-threatening levels, found Temple University researcher Kathleen Black, DNSc, RNC, the author of a study in the September/October issue of the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nu...

Stuff of stink bombs investigated for role in pregnancy

Scientists at the University of Leicester are investigating how the stuff of stink bombs and flatulence could play a critical role in the human reproductive system. Hydrogen sulphide partially responsible for the foul odour of stink bombs- is also a toxic gas and has been used for chemical warf...

Report updates guidelines on how much weight women should gain during pregnancy

WASHINGTON -- A growing amount of scientific evidence indicates that how much weight women gain during pregnancy and their starting weight at conception can affect their health and that of their babies, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. The report...

Treatment for extreme nausea, vomiting during pregnancy

This press release is available in French . Montreal, May 6, 2009 Nausea and vomiting are telltale indicators of pregnancy, affecting more than 80 percent of future mothers. For a few moms-to-be, symptoms can become so severe that hospitalization is required. Yet a new medication proto...

Differences among exercisers and nonexercisers during pregnancy

NEW ORLEANSNo one doubts that mothers especially pregnant mothers are among the busiest people on earth. And while the benefits of exercise for these women and their developing fetuses are widely known, many expectant mothers do not exercise. A survey examining daily activities of moms-to-be wil...

Differences among exercisers and nonexercisers during pregnancy

NEW ORLEANSNo one doubts that mothers especially pregnant mothers are among the busiest people on earth. And while the benefits of exercise for these women and their developing fetuses are widely known, many expectant mothers do not exercise. A survey examining daily activities of moms-to-be wil...

Guidelines urge physical activity during pregnancy

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

A new analysis method allows to find out the sex of the baby from the second month of pregnancy

The spin off of the University of Granada Lorgen, in collaboration with the Foetal Medicine Unit of the Maternity Hospital Virgen de las Nieves of Granada, has managed to develop a genetic trial that identifies the sex of the foetus from the eighth week of pregnancy separating the DNA found in th...

Herpes virus link to complications in pregnancy

Researchers at Adelaide's Women's & Children's Hospital and the University of Adelaide, Australia, have made a world-first discovery that links viral infection with high blood pressure during pregnancy and pre-term birth. The research findings, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics & G...

Experimental vaccine given during pregnancy reduces stillbirths from common virus

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV)—a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in e...

Heavy smoking cuts women's chance of pregnancy -- even with donated oocytes

Heavy smoking may reduce female fertility by directly affecting the uterus ?making it less receptive and reducing the chances the embryo will implant, according to research published on line (Thursday 9 November) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction. The finding, ...

Study challenges myth that sex late in pregnancy hastens birth

A new study debunks the widely held belief that engaging in sexual intercourse during the final weeks of pregnancy can hasten labor and delivery. In fact, just the opposite was true in 93 women studied at Ohio State University Medical Center. Women who were sexually active in the final three week...

Any exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy is risky

A re-examination of data from earlier studies suggests that exposure to second-hand smoke during pregnancy can be just as detrimental to a developing fetus as primary exposure through maternal smoking, according to a recent paper from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. ...

Major new UNC-based drinking water study suggests pregnancy fears may be overstated

Fears that chemical byproducts resulting from purifying drinking water with chlorine boost the chances that pregnant women will miscarry were not supported by the results of a major new study. If such threats exist at all, which is uncertain, they likely are modest, it concludes. The national stu...

Study explains potential failure of oral contraceptives with obese women

...AND, Ore. Researchers have identified a potential biological mechanism that could explain why oral contraceptives may be less effective at preventing pregnancy in obese women, as some epidemiological studies have indicated. Although conventional oral contraceptives appear to eventually reach the effective ...

Toxin detection as close as an inkjet printer

...etylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors such as paraoxon and aflatoxin B1 on paper using a "lateral flow" sensing approach similar to that used in a home pregnancy test strip. The process involves formulating an ink like the one found in computer printer cartridges but with special additives to make the ink ...

2 reproductive factors are important predictors of death from ovarian cancer

...r lifetime ovulatory cycles. Robbins explained that the number of lifetime ovulatory cycles a woman has is affected by her use of oral contraceptives, pregnancy and breastfeeding, all of which temporarily cause ovulation to cease and reduces the total number of cycles. Furthermore, the researchers determine...

ADA releases updated position paper on vegetarian diets

... from ADA's evidence analysis process and information from the ADA Evidence Analysis Library to show vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate in pregnancy and result in positive maternal and infant health outcomes. Additionally, an evidence-based review showed a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower...