This new blood test can predict due date and premature birth

Researchers from Standford University have developed a new blood test for pregnant women that may detect whether their pregnancies will end in premature birth. The technique can also be used to estimate a foetus’s gestational age — or the mother’s due date — as reliably and less expensively than ultrasound. There have been several studies on preterm births in the past, and the reasons for it. A study by the University of Pennsylvania linked such births to changes in the mother’s bacteria. Another study by CHU Sainte-Justine in Canada found that having a baby…

Read More

Should you breastfeed or give formula to your premature baby? Here’s what WHO recommends

Babies, even those who are premature, underweight or sickly, should be exclusively breastfed, from the maternity ward and ideally for two years, UN agencies said on Wednesday. Hospitals and health facilities must support mothers in breastfeeding right after delivery and not promote use of infant formula unless there is a medical reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said. “This initiative is really about the first few days of life, it’s about what happens in our birthing facilities. ..It is a critical juncture to make sure…

Read More

Girls Who Face Early Menstruation At The Risk of Premature Menopause: Study

A new study published in the Journal Human Production indicates the risk that women who get their period early and those who’ve never had a child face. The study shows that women who have their periods before the age of 12 and those who have not borne a child till the age of 35, face the risk of early menopause. The age at which a girl gets her first period and the age at which women hit menopause are important key factors that determine the overall reproductive health. Moreover, the risk…

Read More

Calcium Deposits May Cause Premature Births

The calcium deposits in the amniotic fluid — the fluid surrounding a foetus — is the leading cause behind the rupture of the foetal membranes, commonly known as water breaking, and lead to premature birth of a baby, a study has found. Globally, more babies than one in 10 are born preterm — birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy — and nearly one million children die each year due to complications of preterm birth, according to World Health Organization (WHO). These children may be at an increased risk of a…

Read More

Poverty Can Lead To Premature Ageing

Sustained financial hardship early in life may put youngsters at risk of developing worse cognitive functions as well as premature ageing, a study has found. “Income is dynamic and individuals are likely to experience income changes and mobility especially between young adulthood and midlife,” said lead investigator Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri from University of Miami. “The study places economic hardship as the pathway to cognitive ageing and as an important contributor to premature ageing among economically disadvantaged populations,” Hazzouri added. The researchers found strong and graded associations between exposure to…

Read More

Thicker cervical stitch may up premature birth, mortality rate

Thicker cervical stitch may up premature birth, mortality rate (Suphat Bhandharangsri/Getty Images) Pregnant women who receive the cervical stitch to prevent miscarriage or premature birth with a thicker thread, can in fact have an increase in the rate of premature birth and baby death as compared with a thinner thread, says a study. cervical stitch also known as cervical cerclage is a treatment for cervical incompetence or insufficiency, when the cervix starts to shorten and open too early during a pregnancy, causing either a late miscarriage or preterm birth, and…

Read More