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Health News : Researchers have developed an algorithm which can predict the risk of gestational diabetes even before pregnancy, an advance that may lead to lifestyle interventions for reducing high blood sugar which affects nearly one in six pregnant women. The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, analysed data on nearly 6,00,000 pregnancies available from Israel's largest health organisation, Clalit Health Services. "Our ultimate goal has been to help the health system take measures so as to prevent diabetes from occurring in pregnancy," said study senior author Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. According to the researchers, gestational diabetes is characterised by high blood sugar levels which occur during pregnancy in women with no history of diabetes. Read Complete Article

Obese women who have weight-loss surgery between pregnancies may be less likely to experience complications like high blood pressure and preterm births in their second pregnancy, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined hospital records from 2002 to 2014 for more than 1.6 million women 15 to 45 years old in New South Wales, Australia. The study focused on 326 women who had bariatric surgery between their first and second pregnancies and 461,917 women who had two pregnancies without a weight-loss operation in between. The study found that for obese women who had the surgery between pregnancies, the risk of complications dropped markedly from the first pregnancy to the second, although it didn’t reach the level seen in the general population of women. “ The odds of adverse pregnancy outcomes among women who have bariatric surgery do not decrease to the level observed in the general birthing population; however, there was substantial improvement,” lead study author I Ibie...

Business Standard : Although smoking during pregnancy is reported to have an adverse effect on foetus health, a new study shows that regular intake of Vitamin C by smoker mom -to-be may help reduce harm done to infant's lungs after birth. The study showed that at three months of age, infants whose mothers took 500 mg of Vitamin C per day in addition to their prenatal vitamin had significantly better forced expiratory flows (FEFs) that measure how fast air can be exhaled from the lung and can detect airway obstruction. In addition, the researchers also found an association between the infant FEFs and a genetic variant some of the mothers possessed that increased the negative impact of nicotine on the babies before they were born. "Smoking during pregnancy reflects the highly addictive nature of nicotine that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations," said lead author Cindy T. McEvoy, Professor from the Oregon Health and Science University...

Business Standard : According to a new research, dietary and lifestyle interventions are important for overweight and obese women before their pregnancy . The study was published in the journal 'The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology'. The researchers reported the results of a large study of birth outcomes in more than 500 overweight or obese women from three public maternity units in Adelaide, Australia. The GRoW (Metformin for Gestational Restriction of Weight in pregnant women) trial was designed to reduce risks for pregnant women who are overweight or obese . The researchers investigated the potential of the use of common diabetes medication metformin during pregnancy to reduce pregnancy weight gain and improve pregnancy outcomes. "In high-income countries, roughly 50% of women are already overweight or obese when they become pregnant. This places both the mother and her infant at risk of a range of pregnancy and birth outcomes and can also lead to ...

Business Standard : According to a recent study, pregnant women with higher intake of the Mediterranean diet have 32 per cent lower risk of having children with an accelerated growth pattern, as compared to offspring of women that did not follow such diet. The Mediterranean diet is characterised by a high content of fruits, vegetables, olive oil, legumes and nuts. This healthy diet pattern has earlier been associated with lower obesity and cardiometabolic risk in adults. This study, conducted at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, aimed at evaluating the association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy and growth patterns and cardiometabolic risk in early infancy. The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Pediatrics. It was performed with data of over 2,700 pregnant women, who filled in a questionnaire on dietary intake in the first and third trimester of pregnancy. In addition, the diet, weight and height of their offspring...

Women who are in the habit of popping up over-the-counter painkillers during pregnancy could increase the risk of their daughters entering puberty earlier than normal, warns a research. The study observed that girls whose mothers consumed paracetamol during pregnancy exhibited pubertal symptoms such as breasts, pimples, menstruation, hair growth in places and unpredictable mood swings, on average, three months earlier, than the normal. These symptoms were visible even more earlier if the mother took paracetemol for more than 12 weeks during pregnancy. "While entering puberty one-and-a-half to three months earlier may seem unimportant, when taken together with the frequent use of paracetamol during pregnancy, our findings ought to make people take notice," said Andreas Ernst, a post-doctoral student from Aarhus University in Denmark. "Our results are certainly not the decisive factor that should change current practice, but the perception of paracetamol as ...

Business Standard : According to a recent study, a mother's weight during early pregnancy may affect how well her baby is able to self-regulate during its first months and years of life. The research suggested that there is a one in five chance that overweight or obese women will have babies who suffer from multiple regulatory problems, and these babies may also show a delay in some developmental milestones when they reach childhood. Previous research has found that one in every five infants struggles to self-regulate in the first year of life. This means that these babies may cry excessively, have problems feeding or difficulties falling asleep unless soothed by a caregiver. As they grow older, such children often show behavioural and neurodevelopmental problems such as hyperactivity or difficulties concentrating, as well as having poorer muscle function. Some have lower IQs or are placed on the autism spectrum. As part of the study, researchers drew on data from 3,1...

Multiple pregnancies might make women's cells age more quickly, a new study suggests. A Northwestern University study, led by Calen Ryan and Christopher Kuzawa of Northwestern and Dan Eisenberg at the University of Washington, helps explain why women with many children tend to show signs of accelerated aging. The findings were reached by looking at two separate markers of cellular aging telomere length and epigenetic age in hundreds of young women with different reproductive histories in the Philippines. Lead author of the study, Ryan said, "Telomere length and epigenetic age are cellular markers that independently predict mortality, and both appeared 'older' in women who had more pregnancies in their reproductive histories." Cellular aging was accelerated by between 0.5 and 2 years for each additional pregnancy, a surprisingly large effect according to the researchers. Senior author of the study, Kuzawa said, "Paradoxically, even...