The period from conception to birth. After the egg is fertilized by a sperm and then implanted in the lining of the uterus, it develops into the placenta and embryo, and later into a fetus. Pregnancy usually lasts 40 weeks, beginning from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period, and is divided into three trimesters, each lasting three months.
Men and women who themselves were delivered in breech presentation had more than twice the risk of breech delivery in their own first pregnancies compared with men and women who had been cephalic presentations. – A baby is twice as likely to be born bottom first if either or both the parents were themselves breech deliveries, according to a study published ahead of print on bmj.com. The results suggest genes are a contributing factor.
Royal College of Midwives and NICE UK advise is to avoid alcohol whilst pregnant, and to stop drinking alcohol if they are trying to start a family. – Responding to the release of UK’s NICE antenatal guidelines for pregnant women, Mervi Jokinen of the Royal College of Midwives, UK, said: “We welcome the guidelines which are evidence based, but feel that more clarity is needed about pregnancy and alcohol.
Women may have ideal hopes of what they would like to happen with respect to pain relief, control and engagement in decision making, but expectations are often very different from experience. Antenatal educators need to ensure that pregnant women are appropriately prepared for what might actually happen to limit this expectation-experience gap and potentially support greater satisfaction with labour. – A pain-free and drug-free labour may be many expectant mothers’ dream but a review in the open access journal BMC Medicine reveals that reality hits hard. Most women’s labour experiences differ markedly from their expectations. They are often ill-prepared for what might happen and consequently may be disappointed when the birth does not “go to plan”.
Meaningful differences in maternal smoking behavior during pregnancy: implications for infant behavioral vulnerability – Giving up smoking during pregnancy may boost the chances of giving birth to an easy going child, indicates research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
A study published in PLoS Medicine this week suggests that of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy. – Women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy, revealed by researchers.
Exposure to viral infection – especially viruses of the herpes group – may be associated with pregnancy-induced hypertensive disease (pre-eclampsia) and also with pre-term birth. – Viral infection with high blood pressure during pregnancy may lead to pre-term birth, revealed by researchers at Adelaide’s Women’s & Children’s Hospital and the University of Adelaide.
Acupuncture given within one day of IVF with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation cycle (IVF), revealed by US researchers. – Acupuncture given with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation cycle (IVF), revealed by US researchers. Acupuncture given within one day of IVF proved beneficial.
In pregnancy woman’s normal routines are disrupted and she can suffer sleep deprivation after the birth; either of these things can affect cognitive performance, and may make women slightly forgetful for a year after giving birth. – Many women believe that they become more forgetful during pregnancy: a new study by Australian researchers suggests that they are right – and that their memory can be significantly impaired for at least a year after giving birth.
First solid evidence that viral transmission through breast milk can be prevented by a drug Nevirapine HIV drug. – An antiretroviral drug already in widespread use in the developing world to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborns during childbirth has also been found to substantially cut the risk of subsequent HIV transmission during breast-feeding.
This population-based study suggests that severe stress to a mother during the first trimester may alter the risk of schizophrenia in offspring. This finding is consistent with ecological evidence from whole populations exposed to severe stressors and suggests that environment may influence neurodevelopment at the feto-placental-maternal interface. – Most societies believe that a mother’s psychological state can influence her unborn baby. Children of women who undergo an extremely stressful event-such as the death of a close relative-during the first trimester of pregnancy appear more likely to develop schizophrenia, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
