Is It Safe to Drink Small Amounts of Alcohol During Pregnancy?
The National Institute For Health and Clinical Excellence (or NICE) recently claims that pregnant women can drink up to 1.5 units of alcohol (or one and a half small glasses of wine) without harming the unborn child. This comes after the Department of Health advises that expectant mothers should abstain from drinking entirely. So between these contradicting sets of advice, where is the truth?
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Prenatal Multivitamins May Reduce Risk of Pediatric Cancers
Moms-to-be, take your multi-vitamins.
It's become widely accepted that mothers taking folic acid during pregnancy can help reduce the risk of several birth defects. But a new study at the University of Toronto finds a correlation between pre-natal multivitamins containing folic acid and the decreased risk of several pediatric cancers: leukemia, brain tumors, and neuroblastoma (a malignant tumor in nerve tissue).
This report in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics found that taking a multivitamin with folic acid before and during early pregnancy could reduce the risk of leukemia by 36%, childhood brain tumors by 27%, and neuroblastoma by 47%.
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Pesticides Found in Pregnant Women
Researchers have found the presence of numerous harmful pesticides in the placentas of pregnant women.
According to a study by the University of Granada, fifteen different substances linked to pesticides have been found in pregnant women. Additionally, 100% of the women involved in the study had contamination with an average of 8 pesticides in their placentas during pregnancy. Researchers say these organochlorine substances may be potentially harmful to genitor-urinary development.
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Postpartum Depression and Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding can counter the effects of depression in new mothers.
Studies published in the International Breastfeeding Journal, conducted by University of New Hampshire researcher Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, has found evidence supporting a connection between breast feeding and mental health for mothers.
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Reducing Stress Lowers Risk of Cardiovascular Problems
Pregnancy and Exercise
Zina Macias says she is somewhat of a fitness fanatic. When she got the news that she was pregnant, Zina was determined to continue working out, after receiving the stamp of approval from her doctor. “I like to walk on the treadmill, bike on the bicycle, anything just to keep my circulation, especially in my legs, flowing,” says Zina.
Exercising while pregnant has tremendous benefits. It helps maintain body weight during pregnancy and can prevent and control gestational diabetes. But, if you’re going to exercise during the summer months, you need to take precaution.
“I try to advise pregnant patients to stay as cool as possible while exercising, this means staying in an air conditioned environment, this is not the time to be jogging outside at noon, swimming is an ideal summer sport, it is easy to keep cool in the water, and the buoyancy is a lot more comfortable on the joints and it is a lot more comfortable as pregnant women gain more weight,” says obstetrician, Dr. Jennifer Wu of Lenox Hill Hospital.
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Clinton's stand on Plan B
Perhaps the best way to make a “no”—as in not a yes decision, is, in fact, to make no decision—preventing the yes vote from ever happening.
Many are arguing that’s been the tactic of the FDA over the past two years with regard to making available over the counter the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill...referred to as “E.C.”
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In Vitro Fertilization
Today, thanks to the miracle of science, thousands of couples desperately wanting children, who can't conceive naturally, are able to become parents.
"In the in vitro fertilization process women are given hormonal treatments to try to stimulate their ovaries to release eggs, and then we remove those eggs fertilize them outside the body in a laboratory with sperm and place the embryos back into the uterine cavity," says Dr. Daniel Stein of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital.
But, one of the greatest challenges with IVF is multiple births.
"We often have to replace more than one embryo back into the uterus, about a third of pregnancies from in vitro fertilization are multiple pregnancies, the majority of those are twin pregnancies, but there is also an increased rate of triplet and quadruple pregnancy rate, we want to try to reduce the multiple pregnancy rate because there are so many problems associated with multiple pregnancy, like cerebral palsy, other types of neurological damage, increase c-section rates for the mom," says Dr. Stein.
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Clinton's stand on Plan B
Birth Control Options
It’s back on the road again for 31 year old Jill Pearson. Jill, a technology trainer, travels extensively for work, but, monthly painful periods which included crushing migraines, were making her business trips unbearable. She decided to try Seasonale, one of the newer oral contraceptives, allowing her to get a period just four times a year. “I have total control of when I get my period, you know I get to decide, do I want it this week, do I want it next week, do I want to wait another month until I have it, and it just makes me in total control,” says Jill Pearson.
Seasonale and Seasonique are two innovative contraceptive regimens offering fewer periods over the course of a year. “Women are looking for options that will allow them to have better controlled menstrual cycles so that they can have less of the PMS, be more active and not really be tied down based on what time of the month it is, says gynecologist, Dr. Nancy Roberson Jasper of Columbia University.”
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Diabetes and Pregnancy
Labor and delivery is not uncharted territory for 38 year old Karen Asar, she’s mom to six year old Ben and four year old Lucas and is due any day now with baby number three. But, unlike her prior pregnancies, Karen developed gestational diabetes this time around. “I have to monitor myself and my blood sugar 7 times a day. I have to really watch what I eat, and monitor the sugars after I eat,” says Karen.
And Karen’s vigilance has paid off, no major health issues during the pregnancy. But, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal, the risk of death and major birth defects are still high in babies born to women with diabetes, despite an international strategy to raise standards of diabetes care.
“They are at risk of the babies themselves of being big and fat. And, having obesity as children and obesity as adolescents, and certainly they’re at risk of developing diabetes later in life,” says Dr. Barak Rosenn of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.
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Anti-Depressants and Pregnancy
Even though many don’t want to talk about it, depression is a very common problem---major depression affects 20% of American women at some point in their lives.
So when a woman becomes pregnant, is it safe to take an antidepressant?
The answer may not be so clear.
There have been three major studies on antidepressants during pregnancy in the past week.
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