The idea that air pollution can hurt developing fetuses in the womb is not controversial. But new preliminary research presented this week seems to provide direct evidence of how this damage can happen, via the placenta.
Couples in the U.S. looking to either conceive or avoid pregnancy will now have a new tool available to them. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced it has permitted a digital birth control app to be marketed as such in the U.S. The app, called Natural Cycles, is the first medical device of its kind to…
The devastating story of thalidomide—a once-popular morning sickness drug later found to cause terrible birth defects—might have a few more chapters left to it. A new study published this week in the journal eLife claims to have discovered how the drug was able to so brutally harm developing fetuses in the 1950s and…
A Dutch trial meant to study whether sildenafil, the active ingredient in the brand-name drug Viagra, can prevent children from being born with low birth weight has been halted early amid a wave of tragic deaths. Nearly 100 pregnant women were given the drug during their pregnancy in the trial, and 11 babies later…
Being a millennial is no picnic. But a new study published this Friday in JAMA Open suggests it’s especially hard for expectant moms. It found that pregnant women today are more likely to feel depressed than their mothers were during their pregnancies a generation ago.
Getting an early ultrasound to figure out when your child will be born has become part and parcel of becoming a new mom in countries like the U.S. For many women living in countries with poor-quality healthcare, however, ultrasounds are rarely available or too costly to afford. But a new study published by Science on…
The ties that bind us to our ancestors might be even more influential than we knew, suggests a new study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. It found that the grandchildren of women who took a certain hormone-mimicking drug before the 1970s were at higher risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder…
American women had fewer children in 2017 than in any year since 1987, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease and Prevention Thursday. And the overall birth rate was the lowest ever recorded in the US. While there are some positive trends in the report, such as fewer teen pregnancies, there are…
Heath data is some of the most sensitive information out there, and modern life sometimes puts that information at risk of being exposed. Hackers could break into insurance company records and steal customer medical information. A hospital you’ve visited could experience a data breach. You could spit in a tube to find…
Pregnancy is hard on the body. But for women with two specific genetic variants, it may be especially difficult.
“I don’t know” and “yes” are very different things. “I don’t know if my child is allergic to peanuts” does not mean, “yes, I should feed my child peanuts.” “I don’t know if this berry is poisonous” does not mean, “yes, I should eat this berry.” And “I don’t know if light drinking will harm my pregnancy” does not mean,…
It may look like a glorified Ziplock bag, but the artificial womb could one day save the lives of the thousands of babies born every year prematurely.
Today in America, if you are poor, you are also more likely to suffer from poor health. Low socioeconomic status—and the lack of access to healthcare that often accompanies it—has been tied to mental illness, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, to name just a few.
A scary scan taken at the 22 week mark of a 33-year-old woman’s pregnancy revealed a baby with its feet extending right through the mother’s uterus, and its protective amniotic sac right along with it.
On Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, doctors told Kim that a third pregnancy would be risky and even life-threatening owing to a potential complication known as a “retained placenta.” Here’s what that means, and why Kim is now seriously considering getting a surrogate mother.
For years, scientists have speculated that morning sickness is connected to a lower risk of miscarriage, but the evidence was lacking. A new analysis involving nearly 800 pregnant women shows there may be some truth to this claim.
Since the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that the Zika virus could cause microcephaly in newborns, the list of the effects of the virus only continues to grow.
Doctors have discovered Zika virus in a stillborn infant with a severely under-developed brain, according to a chilling report published today in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Do you work for a big company? Have you been having back pain? Your company probably knows about it already thanks to high-tech healthcare companies that it hired. Welcome to our brave new world of big data.
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that women who take antidepressants during the mid-to-late stages of their pregnancy experience an 87% increased risk of having a child diagnosed with autism. Here’s what the study actually found and why there’s no immediate cause for…
