The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also known as Children of the 90s) is a unique ongoing research project based in the University of Bristol. It enrolled 14,000 mothers during pregnancy in 1991-2 and has followed most of the children and parents in minute detail ever since.
In its early and most critical stages, human reproduction requires precise, vital functions. The role of one sperm-delivered protein, which is crucial to the process, is being closely observed by scientists from the United States and Canada. Lab tests in recent years have produced valuable information and hopes of regulating that protein to enhance fertility.
Women who had more body fat during their pregnancy or are overweight tended to have fatter babies, revealed by British researchers. The study based on information gathered from 448 women before and during pregnancy.
To address the high rate of multiple births resulting from in-vitro-fertilization (IVF), researchers at Yale School of Medicine and McGill University have developed a procedure that estimates the reproductive potential of individual embryos, possibly leading to a decrease in multiple-infant births and a higher success rate in women undergoing IVF.
HIV infection is on the rise in South Africa, and women continue to be most affected, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) said on Wednesday, reported by IRIN.
Women who develop preeclampsia during pregnancy are more likely to develop certain dangerous autoantibodies than women with normal pregnancies, and these autoantibodies are still present two years after childbirth in about 20 percent of women who had the disorder, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh report in the March issue of Hypertension, the journal of the American Heart Association.
A large majority of the Emergency Medicaid expenditures in North Carolina are for childbirth and complications of pregnancy for patients who are undocumented immigrants, although spending for undocumented elderly and disabled patients is increasing at a faster rate, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on access to care.
An analysis of state Emergency Medicaid spending contradicts assumptions about emergency care provided to recent immigrants, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence have found.
Small amounts of alcohol can interfere with the growth of a fetus, but added cholesterol may help prevent a wide array of neurological and physical defects from alcohol exposure, according to a new study in laboratory fish.
A new study reveals the true costs of the increase in maternal obesity and how it is impinging on service delivery in the NHS. It was carried out by The Centre for Food, Physical Activity and Obesity Research at the University of Teesside with 33 healthcare professionals based in the North East of England recruited for the study.