Women Health Online

Pollution from many road intersections negatively affects gestation times

Babies are born earlier when their mothers live near a concentration of freeways and main roads, a study of 970 mothers and their newborn babies in Logan City, south of Brisbane, has found.

Senior research fellow Associate Professor Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) said the study, published today in the online journal Environmental Health, showed that the more freeways and highways around a pregnant woman’s home, the higher the likelihood of her baby being born prematurely.

“The most striking result was the reduction in gestation time of 4.4 per cent or almost two weeks associated with an increase in freeways within 400 metres of the women’s home,” said Professor Barnett, whose earlier study found a strong association between increased air pollution and small fetus size.

“Although the increased risks are relatively small, the public health implications are large because everyone living in an urban area gets exposed to air pollution.

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Deborah is 36 weeks pregnant and has gestational diabetes. She’s been careful about diet and exercise and has maintained very stable blood sugar levels. Her doctor, however, is warning her she’ll probably need to be induced at 39 weeks and may need a c-section. He wants her to get an early epidural so she’ll be ready for surgery, “just in case.”  Deborah’s warning bells are going off because that’s not the labor she had in mind. She’s hoping for a spontaneous and un-medicated labor and worries her doctor is setting her up for interventions she doesn’t want.

Gestational diabetes (GD) can have a big impact on mothers’ and babies’ health, but it doesn’t always have to be a big deal that requires all the tools in the medical toolbox. Often times, complicatio

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KABUL More than a million mothers and newborn babies are dying each year from easily prevented birth complications because of a chronic shortage of midwives across much of the developing world, a new report from Save the Children said on Friday.

In the world’s least developed countries over half of mothers give birth without any trained help — compared with only one percent in Britain — and some 2 million women face one of the most frightening days in their life entirely alone.

Some 1,000 mothers and 2,000 newborns die every day as a result. Ano

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Kim commented on a recent blog, “It was only during my pre-admittance paperwork appointment that I found out an epidural means a catheter is left in your spinal column/spinal membrane for the whole delivery.” The idea of a foreign object being attached to Kim’s spinal column “scares the bejeezus” out of her.  Kim, countless women share your sentiment.  

Alex wonders, “What’s the difference between an epidural and spinal anesthesia?” She described a spinal as “the shot that made me numb for my cesarean.”  She’s hoping for a VBAC with her next baby, but doesn’t want to go through labor “naturally.” Alex asks, “Can I get a spinal instead an epidural because, “that tube creeps me out?”  Alex, it creeps a lot of women out. 

Before I tackle “the creeps” and “bejeezus” let’s break down the difference between spinal and epidural anesthesia. Both numb your abdomen, uterus, genitals and legs

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Obese mothers may not get to become grandmothers, according to a new study.

The potential problem lies in a hormone called ghrelin, which regulates reproduction in animals and humans. Obese women have low levels of ghrelin, and the research — to be published in April’s issue of Endocrinology — found that mice whose mothers had low levels of the hormone were less fertile due to a defect in implantation.

The scientists at Yale University School of Medicine believe that a baby born to a woman with low ghrelin levels may be less fertile as an adult because her uterus was misprogrammed in the womb.

“While our study involved mice, we believe our findings have significant implications for women,” said Hugh Taylor, the study’s lead author. “Our

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