Psychiatric medication puts pregnant women at preterm delivery risk

October 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An extensive review of published research and data from previous flu seasons has revealed that pregnant women who catch the flu are at a serious risk for flu-related complications, including death. The review, conducted by scientists from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Emory University and Cincinnati Children's Hospital, found substantial and persistent evidence of high complication risk among pregnant women infected with the flu virus, while confirming vaccine safety.

October 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A newly developed optimised mouthpiece design can aid efficient drug delivery to the lungs by reducing the amount of medication wasted as it passes through the mouthpiece of an aerosol inhaler. With current inhaler designs, only approximately 10 to 20 percent of asthma medications are delivered to the lungs.

September 29th, 2009 LONDON - Having a baby at home with a registered midwife is just as safe as a conventional hospital birth, a new study says. The study, which looked at 2,889 home births and 4,752 ­hospital births with the same midwives and 5,331 hospital births attended by doctors, showed women who had a planned home birth are less likely to run into serious problems during labour.

September 24th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A Sydney doctor has developed a test that can predict the chances of a pregnant woman miscarrying from six weeks. Brainchild of associate Professor George Condous, the test is about 80 per cent accurate.

August 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Debunking an age-old belief, a group of researchers in the U.S. have found that inducing labour does not necessarily increase a woman's risk for caesarean section delivery in childbirth.

July 29th, 2009 Study: Pregnant women with swine flu more at riskLONDON — Pregnant women who get swine flu are at least four times as likely to be hospitalized as other people with the virus, a new study says. While experts don't know if pregnant women are more susceptible to swine flu, they say once pregnant women are infected, they have a higher risk of complications.

July 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Researchers at University College London and King's College London have developed a simple saliva test that may help detect which expectant women are likely to go into premature labour. Researchers believe that early identification would allow mothers to be given steroids which help in the development of the baby's lungs, preventing disability and death.

June 11th, 2009 Washington, June 11 (ANI): Women of all races, who suffer from pre-pregnancy depressive mood, face heightened risk of premature birth, according to a study. However, black women have nearly two times the odds of having a pre-term birth compared to white women, said Amelia Gavin, a University of Washington assistant professor of social work and lead author of the study.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Being abused in childhood can have damaging outcomes for the victim throughout his or her life, leading to more suicide attempts, prevalence of substance use disorder and proneness to personality disorders. These victims also had an earlier onset of mental illness and an increase in psychiatric hospitalisations, said a Mayo Clinic study.

May 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Seat belts in cars are meant to save lives. However, many pregnant women do not wear them thinking that the belt itself could injure the baby in a car crash.

May 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that taking folic acid supplements for at least a year before conception may help reduce the risk of premature birth. Babies born prematurely are less likely to survive than full-term babies and are more likely to have breathing difficulties and learning or developmental disabilities.

March 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has delved into the emerging practice of drug delivery systems that use light to activate medications in the body. The new process makes use of biocompatible materials that are sensitive to certain physiological variables or external physicochemical stimuli.

March 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Paediatric researchers have found that common practice of visual inspection (looking for yellowish eye, or skin tone) is not a reliable method to predict a newborn's risk of jaundice. The yellowness comes from a blood byproduct, bilirubin, and a child that develops high levels of bilirubin has a potentially serious condition called hyperbilirubinemia.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Calculating the benefits of HPV (human papilloma virus)-vaccination, Norwegian scientists have found that it may even reduce the number of pre-term births. Chronic HPV -infections can lead to cellular changes in the cervix that can be a pre-stage to cervical cancer.

January 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Magnesium sulphate protects very premature babies from cerebral palsy and could help reduce incidence of the disabling condition which affects 10 percent of this segment of births. The neuro-protective function of magnesium in preterm babies was first suggested in the early nineties.