Smoking women finds difficulties in getting pregnant because of some harmful effects on uterus. Smoking also cut the chances of IVF and success rate is low in them. New research finds that heavy smoking impairs women’s fertility by reducing the odds that a fetus will implant in the uterus.
Exposure to industrial chemicals in the womb or early in life can impair brain development but only a handful are controlled to protect children, researchers said on Wednesday.
Advances in medicine mean that families and health professionals can be faced with extremely difficult decisions about the care of very premature or seriously ill babies, which may concern:
Scientists supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, report in this week?s New England Journal of Medicine that pregnant women who received non-surgical treatment for their periodontal, or gum, disease did not also significantly lower their risk of delivering a premature or low-birthweight baby.
Amniocentesis, or an Amniotic Fluid Test (AFT), is a medical procedure used for prenatal diagnosis, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is extracted from the amnion around a developing fetus. It is usually offered when there may be an increased risk for genetic conditions in the pregnancy.
Amniocentesis is the most commonly prescribed invasive test performed during pregnancies in the United States. Most women fear them while doctors recommend them based on guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. These guidelines stem from past research studies and recommendations by the CDC that were based only on maternal age.
Tom Brenna of Cornell University in America has conducted research on how fatty acids, in particular, plant and animal forms of omega-3, are essential to the development of the brains of infants. He particularly stresses the importance of the animal form, called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), present in oily fish and the eggs of hens fed seeds high in plant omega-3.
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) announced the availability of triplets monitoring functionality for its industry-leading line of obstetrical care fetal and maternal monitors, Avalon FM20 antepartum and Avalon FM30 intrapartum. Philips is the first company to introduce a fetal monitor that enables non-invasive triplets monitoring with a single device.
A couple’s risk of having a pregnancy end in miscarriage appears to rise along with the father’s age, regardless of how old the mother is, researchers reported Monday.
A new study has shown that exposure to low doses of environmental estrogens during development of the prostate gland in the male fetus may result in a predisposition to prostate cancer later in life.