Health



Tag: PREGNANCY

December 9, 2008, 10:10 am

Timing Baby’s Arrival to Lower Asthma Risk

How, when and where a child is born may all play a role in lifetime asthma risk, new studies suggest.

Asthma occurs when airways in the lungs spasm and swell, restricting the supply of oxygen. The incidence of asthma in the United States has risen steadily for more than two decades, and now affects about 6 percent of children, up from less than 4 percent in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The reasons for the increase are not entirely clear. Genetics probably plays a role in risk for asthma, but an array of environmental factors — pollen, dust, animal dander, mold, cockroach feces, cigarettes, air pollution, viruses and cold air — have all been implicated in its development.

This month, The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is reporting that children born in the fall have a 30 percent higher risk for asthma than those born in other seasons. The finding is based on a review of birth and medical records of more than 95,000 children in Tennessee.

A possible explanation is that autumn babies tend to be about 4 months old at the peak of cold and flu season. By that age, many babies are in day care, regularly exposed to the outside world.

And while their lungs are still developing, they have lost immunities conferred in the womb and have yet to develop their own strong immune systems. As a result, fall babies are at particular risk to contract a severe winter virus, which may in turn increase their risk for asthma. Read more…


December 8, 2008, 8:40 am

Deciding the Fate of Frozen Embryos

In-vitro fertilization has given countless couples, rendered infertile by cancer, illness or nature, the chance to become biological parents. But as my colleague Denise Grady writes, many of them remain torn over the fate of frozen embryos that they no longer need.

At least 400,000 embryos are frozen at clinics around the country, with more being added every day, and many people who are done having children are finding it harder than they had ever expected to decide the fate of those embryos.

A new survey of 1,020 fertility patients at nine clinics reveals more than a little discontent with the most common options offered by the clinics. The survey was published Thursday in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Among patients who wanted no more children, 53 percent did not want to donate their embryos to other couples, mostly because they did not want someone else bringing up their children, or did not want their own children to worry about encountering an unknown sibling someday.

Forty-three percent did not want the embryos discarded. About 66 percent said they would be likely to donate the embryos for research, but that option was available at only four of the nine clinics in the survey. Twenty percent said they were likely to keep the embryos frozen forever.

Embryos can remain viable for a decade or more if they are frozen properly but not all of them survive when they are thawed.

Smaller numbers of patients wished for solutions that typically are not offered. Among them were holding a small ceremony during the thawing and disposal of the embryos, or having them placed in the woman’s body at a time in her cycle when she would probably not become pregnant, so that they would die naturally.

To read the full story, click here. And please join the discussion below. Have you considered or opted for in-vitro fertilization? What decision did you make about how to dispose of unneeded frozen embryos?


November 24, 2008, 3:24 pm

Water Aerobics in Pregnancy Lessens Labor Pain

INSERT DESCRIPTIONExercising away labor pain? (Lars Christensen/iStock)

Moderate exercise during pregnancy appears to markedly lower a woman’s need for epidural pain relief when she delivers her baby, a new study suggests.

Many women hope to have natural childbirth without pain drugs but find labor so difficult they end up requesting an epidural, which provides pain relief through injection of a painkiller into the epidural space at the base of the spine. Ideally, the epidural only dulls the pain, and women remain alert and can still play an active role in labor.

However, there is a downside. Epidural pain relief may also slow labor and may make the pushing stage longer and more difficult because women lose sensation in their lower body. Even when very little drug is administered, some hospitals won’t let women walk around once they’ve had an epidural.

A small study published in the medical journal Reproductive Health suggests that women can influence their risk for needing pain relief long before labor starts. Read more…


November 12, 2008, 6:25 pm

Having Baby at Home

mom and baby (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

A friend recently stumped me with a health-related trivia question. Who was the first president to be born in a hospital?

The answer, posted below, left me thinking about what a relatively new phenomenon hospital births really are. My colleague Julie Scelfo explores the issue further in today’s Home section, finding that the home birth appears to be making a surprising comeback. Since the 1950s, she explains, the overwhelming majority of American women have chosen to give birth in hospitals, the place the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says is one of the safest places for childbirth.

But midwives and childbirth educators don’t always agree and have embarked on a national campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of certified professional midwives. They argue that birth doesn’t have to be a medical event, and that when women do opt for hospital births, they often lose control of the process and many end up with unnecessary C-sections.

“In your home you’re able to move around,” said Élan McAlister, founder of Choices in Childbirth, a four-year-old non-profit educational group that publishes The New York Guide to a Healthy Birth. “If you believe birth is not a medical emergency, it is the ideal place because it’s the place you can really let go and follow what your body wants you to do.”

To learn more about the new trend toward home births, read the full story, “Baby, You’re Home” and be sure to check out the slideshow on home birth.

And to answer the trivia question: The first U.S. president born in a hospital was Jimmy Carter.

What do you think about giving birth at home rather than a hospital? Please join the discussion below.


October 2, 2008, 1:55 pm

Dieters Gain More Weight During Pregnancy

Women who have a history of dieting are more likely to experience excessive weight gain during pregnancy, a new study shows.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill questioned 1,200 women about their dieting history, weight and weight gain during pregnancy. Recommendations for normal weight gain during pregnancy vary depending on a woman’s size. A woman who is underweight is encouraged to gain 28 to 40 pounds. Normal-weight women should gain between 25 and 35 pounds. Women who are overweight or obese are advised to limit weight gain to 15 to 25 pounds.

Most women with a history of dieting were more likely to exceed weight gain recommendations, regardless of their pre-pregnancy weight. The exception was women who were underweight before pregnancy. Underweight women who had a history of dieting did not gain enough weight, compared to underweight women who weren’t typically restrained eaters. The findings were published this month in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Co-author Anna Maria Siega-Riz said, in a press release, that the findings show that Read more…


September 5, 2008, 12:31 pm

Delivery Method Affects Brain Response to Baby’s Cry

crying babyWhether a child is delivered naturally or by C-section may affect the mother’s response to a baby’s cry. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

When my own daughter was born by Caesarean section delivery, I was surprised how uninvolved I was in the process. My body was numb, and my view of the surgery was blocked by a sheet. When I finally heard a baby cry, it took a minute for me to realize that the sound belonged to my own baby.

That’s why I was particularly interested to read of new research showing that the method of delivery seems to influence how a mother’s brain responds to the cries of her own baby. The brains of women who have natural childbirth appear to be more responsive to the cries of their own babies, compared to the brains of women who have C-section births. Read more…


August 11, 2008, 10:54 am

Most Moms Give Up on Breast-Feeding

Three out of four new moms try breast-feeding over the bottle, but most of them have quit by the time the baby reaches six months, a new study shows.

INSERT DESCRIPTIONBreast or bottle? (Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times)

A report from Brigham Young University shows only 36 percent of babies are breast-fed through six months. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast-feeding through the first year.

The data are based on a weighted sample of more than 60,000 children, collected from national immunization surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the data are focused on childhood immunization rates, questions also were asked about breast-feeding, giving the researchers a representative sample of nursing patterns in the United States.

The researchers found that children who were most likely to be breast-fed for more than six months typically had mothers Read more…


July 8, 2008, 11:42 am

Father’s Age Is Also a Factor in Fertility

INSERT DESCRIPTIONDoes a father’s age affect fertility? (Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times)

When it comes to age and fertility, women fear a “biological clock” and are urged to have children early. But men are rarely given the same advice and often don’t worry about fertility when postponing marriage and children.

But a growing body of research now shows the age of the potential father matters too. French researchers have collected data from more than 21,000 artificial inseminations involving 12,200 infertile couples. The data, presented yesterday at the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, found that pregnancy rates decrease and miscarriages increase when a father is over 35 years of age.

Dr. Stephanie Belloc, of the Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Paris, said this is the first time that such a strong paternal effect on reproductive outcomes has been shown. Read more…


June 18, 2008, 12:56 pm

Mother’s Diet May Affect Daughter’s Puberty

INSERT DESCRIPTIONWhat a mother eats during pregnancy may affect her offspring. (Filip Kwiatkowski for The New York Times)

What you eat during pregnancy and nursing may affect the age at which your daughter starts puberty, suggests a new animal study.

The findings, presented this week at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, are important because a girl’s age at first menstrual period may influence her lifelong health. An early first menstrual period, before the age of 12, is a risk factor for breast cancer, teenage depression, obesity and insulin resistance.

The investigators, from the University of Auckland, fed pregnant rats a high-fat diet throughout pregnancy and lactation. Another group of rats received a regular diet of rat chow. After the baby rats were weaned, they also ate either regular chow or a high-fat diet.

The onset of puberty was much earlier in all the rats whose mothers ate a high-fat diet, regardless of whether the baby rats ate high-fat or regular diets. Baby rats that ate a high-fat diet also had early puberty even if their mothers ate a healthful diet. Rats exposed to a combination of a high-fat diet inside the mother’s womb and a high-fat diet after birth also had early puberty, but it wasn’t any earlier than other rats eating a fatty diet.

“This might suggest that the fetal environment in high-fat fed mothers plays a greater role in determining pubertal onset than childhood nutrition,” said Deborah Sloboda, lead author of the study.


June 10, 2008, 2:16 pm

Voices of Infertility

INSERT DESCRIPTIONThe faces and voices of infertility.

Serious health problems often take an emotional toll, and that’s particularly true for the problem of infertility. Couples endure time-consuming and expensive treatments with no guarantee they will ever conceive or carry a baby to term.

Few people who haven’t experienced infertility can understand the challenges of living with the uncertainty of infertility or the grief that ensues when families give up the dream of having children. Worse, comments meant to soothe (”You can always adopt”) end up being insensitive.

This week, my colleague Karen Barrow’s regular series called “Patient Voices” focuses on infertility. To listen, click here.


April 23, 2008, 12:59 pm

Boy or Girl? The Answer May Depend on Mom’s Eating Habits

How much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl, a new report shows.

INSERT DESCRIPTIONThe sex of a child may depend on a mother’s diet. (Paul Hilton for The New York Times)

The report, from researchers at Oxford and the University of Exeter in England, is said to be the first evidence that a child’s sex is associated with a mother’s diet. Although sex is genetically determined by whether sperm from the father supplies an X or Y chromosome, it appears that a mother’s body can favor the successful development of a male or female embryo. Read more…


April 1, 2008, 10:58 am

C-Section Moms Less Likely to Have More Kids

Women whose first child is born by Cesarean section are less likely to have more kids compared to women who give birth in the traditional way, a recent study shows.

INSERT DESCRIPTIONDo C-sections lower birth rates? (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)

The finding is based on nearly 600,000 births between 1967 and 2003 tracked by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the University of Bergen. The study, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, showed that women who underwent C-section to have their first baby were 12 percent less likely to have another child than women who gave birth vaginally. Read more…


March 12, 2008, 1:10 pm

Mad at Your Parents? Motherhood May Be Rocky

Women who have unresolved conflict with their own parents are more likely to struggle with the transition to motherhood, a new study shows.

The research, conducted at the University of Haifa in Israel, examined 160 women’s expectations about motherhood while they were still in the last trimester of their first pregnancy.

The study suggested that women who felt their childhood relationships with their parents were characterized by “rejection and unresolved conflicts” were likely to view children as more demanding compared to women with happier childhoods. Women with childhood conflict also may become stricter parents. Women who clashed with their parents were also more likely to indicate they would set a lot boundaries for their children than other women in the study.

Women with happy childhoods were the most optimistic about parenthood, according to the research, which was the result of a dissertation and is likely to be published in the near future. They expected to feel a low level of separation anxiety from their child and thought childrearing would be easy and that their relationship would be characterized by warmth, say the study researchers.

The research is based on a relatively small sample and select group of women, so the results may not apply to every woman. However, it does suggest that paying attention to a pregnant woman’s thoughts and perceptions about parenting may help identify women at highest risk for adjustment problems once the baby arrives. “Such an evaluation will enable early identification of women who are concerned they will have difficulty contending with parental roles and offer them tools that will help them adapt better to the transition to motherhood,” the researchers noted.


December 17, 2007, 9:59 pm

‘The Fertility Diet’: Help or Hype?

A new book from Harvard researchers called “The Fertility Diet” is certain to offer hope to the six million couples in the United States alone who are struggling with infertility. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to help most of them.

The book, which I wrote about in my Well column in Tuesday’s Science Times, is based on research findings that apply only to women with irregular ovulation, which affects fewer than a third of infertile women. In addition, although the research shows strong associations between certain eating habits and fertility, the study wasn’t designed to test whether women who changed their diets are more likely to become pregnant.

The book authors note that even if the diet doesn’t boost a couple’s fertility, it promotes sound nutrition that is good before, during and after a pregnancy. While that is true, I wonder if the hype over “The Fertility Diet” will end up helping couples or merely add to their emotional burden.

“Infertility is an awful disease,’’ notes Dr. Jamie A. Grifo, director of the New York University Fertility Center. “My patients are as depressed as cancer patients. Your whole life view and picture of your world changes, and it’s devastating….You don’t need another layer of guilt about something you already feel beat up over.’’

What do you think? Will women now blame themselves for poor eating habits if they can’t conceive? Or is the book a useful tool for women to use to educate themselves about the links between nutrition and fertility? For my full article on “The Fertility Diet,” click here. Post your comments below.

Update: The authors of “The Infertility Diet” have written a letter commenting on my article about their book. To read it, see comment #73 below.


November 27, 2007, 4:48 am

Scans of Pregnant Women on the Rise

Should you get scanned when you are pregnant? (Susan Farley for The New York Times)

Pregnant women are exposed to twice the amount of radiation from medical scans as they were a decade ago, a new study has found.

Although the total amount of radiation exposure to pregnant women is still relatively low, the doubling effect in just a decade is the latest indicator that medical scans are exposing patients to record amounts of ionizing radiation, a type of radiation that can alter cells and lead to health risks, including cancer.

Researchers from Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School looked at the use of several imaging techniques that can expose a patient to ionizing radiation, including nuclear medicine exams, CT scans and plain-film X-rays. They studied more than 3,200 patients who had received scans from 1997 to 2006, some of whom were pregnant. The investigators found that during this time, the number of imaging studies that would expose pregnant women to radiation increased by 121 percent. The findings are being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Read more…


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Tara Parker-Pope on HealthHealthy living doesn't happen at the doctor's office. The road to better health is paved with the small decisions we make every day. It's about the choices we make when we buy groceries, drive our cars and hang out with our kids. Join columnist Tara Parker-Pope as she sifts through medical research and expert opinions for practical advice to help readers take control of their health and live well every day. You can reach Ms. Parker-Pope at well@nytimes.com.

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