Results for search "Pregnancy".
Births to teen moms in the United States reached a historic low in 2022, dropping 3% from the previous year, a new government report shows.
Teenage births fell among both younger teens, ages 15 to 17, and older teens, aged 18 to 19, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
Becoming a mother is an experience like no other -- a time of joy, anticipation and love. But, for some women, new motherhood can come with challenging emotions.
Many women struggle with feelings of sadness, anxiety and overwhelming exhaustion. These emotional struggles, coupled with the physical demands of caring for a newborn, can be signs of a condition called postpartum depression (PP...
For young women who survive breast cancer, a new study offers some reassurance about pregnancy: Pausing hormonal therapy to have a baby does not raise the risk of a cancer recurrence, at least in the shorter term.
A trial of more than 500 young women treated for breast cancer found no signs of harm from interrupting standard hormone therapy to have a baby. Over three years, patients' risk...
It's important to find the right OB-GYN to guide you through some of life's greatest joys and troubles.
An obstetrician-gynecologist works with women through family planning, pregnancy, childbirth, aging, menopause and sometimes life-threatening diseases. It's important that your personalities mesh.
“You have to feel comfortable sharing intimate details of your life with this pers...
Pregnancy rates in the United States suffered a steep decline during the last decade, new government data shows.
The overall U.S. pregnancy rate fell by 12% between 2010 and 2019, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
The pregnancy rate among women aged 15 to 44 was 85.6 per 1,000 in 2019, down from 97.3 per 1,000 in 2010, ...
Despite the proven safety and effectiveness of COVID and flu vaccines during pregnancy, many young women are still doubtful, a new survey shows.
Compared with older women and adult men, the poll found higher percentages of women ages 18 to 49 doubting that vaccination against these viruses during pregnancy is safe.
The survey of 1,600 U.S. adults was conducted in January. Res...
The death rate among babies born to teen moms has dropped over the past 25 years -- but racial disparities stubbornly persist, a new U.S. government study finds.
Compared with the late 1990s, fewer babies born to teenage mothers are dying in their first year of life, according to the study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And those improvements have been seen among ...
Pregnancy should be a special time, but allergies can make you miserable.
It is estimated that up to 20% of pregnant women suffer with allergies.
In some cases, women may notice that their allergy symptoms become even more troublesome during pregnancy. This may be due to hormonal changes. Interestingly, some women's allergies stay the same or even disappear while pregnant.
I...
During pregnancy, women may need to consider different options for treating certain health issues.
The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) offers some suggestions for pregnant women living with the common skin conditions eczema and psoriasis.
“Women may consider their health care decisions differently during different stages of their lives,” said Chicago dermatologist
Common pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia may slow infant development in the womb, according to a new study.
This leads to newborns being biologically younger than their gestational age, according to researchers from universities across the United States who contributed to
Pregnant girls who are especially young, those only 10 to 15 years old, face increased risks for complications that include preeclampsia and C-section, according to new research.
Investigators from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas also found that these young patients are more likely to have problems during pregnancy that are made worse by obesity.
New research links cannabis use in the first trimester of pregnancy to poor outcomes, closely related to functioning of the placenta.
This is important information given that more U.S. states are legalizing marijuana for recreational use, researchers said. The study findings were presented Thursday at a meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, in San Francisco and online.
<...While you can't trust everything you read or see on social media, some information is reliable.
Researchers from Duke University studied popular videos on the social media site TikTok. The videos offered information on ways to obtain a medication abortion.
These were typically informative and useful, the study authors said.
“When we started the study, we expected to find mor...
New research suggests that pregnant women and new moms in rural U.S. areas are at greater risk of adverse outcomes, including death, because they are more likely to be uninsured.
Women living in rural communities had lower rates of uninterrupted health insurance before, during and after pregnancy compared to those in urban areas, a University of Michigan study found.
“Being uninsu...
Major pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and preterm birth, should be recognized as lifelong risk factors for women's heart disease, new research suggests.
Women who experience any of the five major pregnancy complications have an increased risk of ischemic heart disease up to 46 years after delivery, says the study published Feb. 1 in the BMJ.
The five compl...
Infants exposed to maternal smoking during pregnancy are more than five times more likely to die unexpectedly compared to babies of nonsmokers, a new study says.
"The message is simple. Smoking greatly elevates the risk of sudden unexpected infant death," said lead study author
A new study finds troubling information about a link between the pregnancy complication preeclampsia and future heart attack, even in younger women.
Danish researchers found a fourfold higher risk of heart attack and stroke within just seven years after delivery. Risks continued to be elevated more than 20 years later, according to findings published Jan. 26 in the European Journal of...
When birth rates fall in the United States, experts try to figure out what's happening.
The fertility rate is at its lowest since the 1970s -- 1.71 per woman, according to a new study.
But it's not that young people today don't want children, new research suggests. In fact,...
COVID-19 infection in pregnancy raises a woman's risk of death sevenfold and significantly elevates her odds for needing intensive care, a new study finds.
Getting the virus during pregnancy also ups the likelihood of pneumonia, according to researchers at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
"This study provides the most comprehensive evidence to date suggesting that CO...
It's never too late for an expectant mom to adopt healthy habits for her baby and herself.
The American Heart Association (AHA) offers some heart-healthy tips.
"Pregnancy is often a pivotal time in a woman's life from both short- and long-term perspectives," said Dr. Michelle Albert...
Women who had diabetes during pregnancy might want to treat themselves to another cup of joe.
New research shows that drinking coffee may lower their risk of type 2 diabetes.
Compared to the general female population, women who had gestational diabetes may have 10 times the risk for type ...
Pausing longer-term hormonal therapies to have a baby will not raise a breast cancer survivor's risk of her tumor recurring, a new clinical trial concludes.
Women whose cancer is fueled by female hormones such as estrogen often are treated with medications -- such as aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen -- that suppress those hormones or block their function, in an effort to keep the cance...
Pregnant and postpartum women are dying of drug overdoses in record numbers, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse, a new study shows.
Deaths increased about 81% over the past four years, hitting a record high in 2020, according to researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.
"We've seen significant increases in fatal and non...
Pharmacists can now. prescribe hormonal contraceptives in 20 U.S. states, plus Washington, D.C., giving women easier access to birth control, a new report says.
Another 10 states have legislation in the works, according to research presented Monday at a meeting of the American Society for Health-System Pharmacists, in Las Vegas.
Having easy access to birth control has been a hot top...
Moms-to-be can safely take Paxlovid to help keep their COVID infection from turning serious, a new study shows.
Nearly everyone in a group of 47 pregnant women prescribed Paxlovid did well on the drug, which did not appear to interfere with their pregnancy in any significant way, researchers report in the Nov. 29 issue of the journal
Children exposed to the Zika virus may need more support as they start school, even if they were not diagnosed with Zika-related birth defects and congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), a new study suggests.
Children may still have differences in brain development, including those in thinking skills, mood and mobility, though researchers said some identified in the study may have been a measure ...
Researchers have found that nearly 3% of pregnancies in the United States were exposed to addictive opioid drugs.
The finding stems from an analysis of data from 21,905 pregnant women in what's dubbed the ECHO program (Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes), a federally funded effort to investigate the effects of early life exposures on several key areas of child health.
Many women experience back pain during pregnancy and a new study review suggests an ancient treatment can help.
Acupuncture provided significant relief of lower back and pelvic pain, according to an analysis of 10 trials from various parts of the world. The findings were published Nov. 21 in BMJ Open.
"Acupuncture significantly improved pain, functional status, and quality ...
U.S. stillbirth rates still need to be tackled at the local, state and national levels because efforts to reduce the risk have stalled, new research claims.
Racial disparities remain as well, with Black women more likely to experience stillbirth (the loss of a baby before or during delivery) than white women.
"Over the last 40 years, we have reduced certain risk factors for stillbi...
Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 while pregnant provides higher levels of antibodies for both mom and baby than catching the virus does, a new study finds.
When pregnant women received one of the two available mRNA vaccines, researchers found that the women had 10-fold higher antibody concentrations than those who were infected naturally.
The research team from Children's Hospital o...
When preteen children or very young teenagers become pregnant, they face higher rates of complications and a greater risk of winding up in the intensive care unit than older teens do, a new study finds.
The question about what happens when a young girl goes through pregnancy and delivery takes on more relevance after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June and subsequent abo...
A hormone therapy commonly used to prevent preterm births probably isn't effective, a new study reports.
Doctors have been prescribing vaginal progesterone treatments to help at-risk pregnant women delay delivery for as long as possible, researchers said.
But a new study involving more than 1,600 pregnant women with a history of early delivery revealed that vaginal progesterone had ...
Most pregnant women are told it's safe to have one cup of coffee a day because it won't trigger miscarriages or preterm deliveries, but new research suggests a surprising risk: Moms-to-be who consume caffeine, even in small amounts, may have shorter kids.
"The main takeaway is that even low exposure to caffeine during pregnancy was associated with shorter height in childhood," said study ...
Women who have autism are more vulnerable during pregnancy to depression and anxiety, according to a new British study.
That makes it imperative that effective mental health screening and support is available to help this group, said lead researcher Sarah Hampton, from the University of Cambridge.
...It's not high blood pressure, hemorrhage or sepsis that is more likely to kill pregnant women -- it's their husbands and boyfriends.
Homicide is a leading cause of death in pregnant women in the United States, and the risk is growing, researchers warned in a new study published Oct. 19 in the BMJ.
It's ...
Millions of women routinely check Instagram after giving birth, only to see posts by other new moms showing off how fast they got back into svelte shape.
Of course, photos like those can be a real downer for women who don't have the time or resources to lose pregnancy weight...
Frozen embryos appear to be linked with a significantly higher risk of dangerously high blood pressure for the woman in pregnancies achieved through in vitro fertilization, a major new study reports.
Expectant moms were 74% more likely to develop high blood pressure if her pregnancy resulted from a frozen embryo, as opposed to a fresh embryo or natural conception, according to analysis of...
Using marijuana after the first weeks of pregnancy is linked to mental health issues in children that linger well into early adolescence, a new study shows.
Exposure to cannabis after about five to six weeks of fetal development was associated with attention, social and behavioral problems, according to...
Research has suggested that kids born to moms who had the flu or another infection during pregnancy may be more likely to have autism, but a new study implies infection may not be the cause after all.
"We found no evidence to suggest that infections contracted by mothers during pregnancy would cause autism in the child," said study author Martin Brynge. He's a doctoral student in the glob...
The number of babies born with a virus that commonly causes birth defects may have dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research suggests.
That was true in Minnesota, the first state to start screening all newborns for congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV).
In the five years leading up to the pandemic, about 1 in every 200 babies was born with CMV. That dropped to 1 in...
While exposure to smog is a known risk factor for preterm birth and low-birth weight, new research suggests it also may heighten risk of COVID-19 infection for pregnant low-income women.
Scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health analyzed the COVID test results for more than 3,300 pregnant women in New York and also assessed their long-term exposure to
Many new parents have been jarred awake in the dead of night when they hear their baby let out that telltale barky cough that signals a bout of croup.
Until now, nothing was thought to stave off the disease in babies who are prone to it, but a new study has discovered that when women took hi...
Folic acid, a B vitamin that's used widely to fortify foods and lower the risk of birth defects, may carry a hidden risk for those who have to take huge quantities of it: A new study shows those folks were more likely to get COVID-19 and to die from it.
“We examined whether COVID-19 diagnosis and death were related to the large doses of folic acid -- five times the safe upper limit -- p...
Pregnant women are exposed to toxic chemicals in dishware, hair coloring, plastics and pesticides that can heighten their risk of cancer and harm child development, a new study warns.
Gen Zers and millennials are about twice as likely to develop high blood pressure during pregnancy than women from the baby boom generation were, a new study finds. This includes conditions such as preeclampsia and gestational hypertension.
It's usually believed that the odds of developing high blood pressure during pregnancy rise with the age of the mother, but after taking age into acco...
A new and inexpensive same-day test could help pregnant women learn if their developing fetus has genetic problems that increase their risk of miscarriage.
The Short-read Transpore Rapid Karyotyping (STORK) test can detect extra or missing chromosomes using samples collected from standard prenatal tests like
Using a lower threshold to diagnose pregnancy-related diabetes does not seem to reduce the risk of having a big baby, on average — but some women do benefit, a new clinical trial suggests.
Gestational diabetes is diagnosed when a pregnant woman's blood sugar levels are abnormally high. The condition can h...
Pregnant women with epilepsy battle anxiety and depression more often than their peers who aren't pregnant or don't have epilepsy, a new study reveals.
"The good news is we did not find that pregnant women with epilepsy were any more likely to have episodes of major depression than the other two groups," said st...
The most popular COVID-19 vaccines are safe to use in pregnancy, a large, new Canadian study has concluded.
About 4% of pregnant women given an mRNA vaccine had a signif...