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Life-long obesity risk of ‘eating for two’ in pregnancy: Mothers won’t lose extra weight, experts warn

By Jenny Hope

18th May 2011

It is advice that many an expectant mother will have heard as she settles down to a meal.

But ‘eating for two’ during pregnancy could leave women saddled with the extra pounds for life, researchers have found.

Pregnant women who gain excessive weight are at higher risk of obesity and health problems such as high blood pressure, later in life.

The findings, from a Bristol University study, add to mounting evidence about the harmful effects of being overweight during pregnancy.

Although weight gain during pregnancy is natural as the baby develops, research suggests that being fat puts baby and mother at risk.

The NHS advises that during the first six months of pregnancy, a woman’s recommended energy intake of 1,940 calories a day does not change, so no extra food is required.

In the latter three months, the expectant mother needs only an additional 200 calories a day – equivalent to a ready-made fruit salad and yoghurt, or a small bowl of sugar-free muesli with grated apple.

The long-term Bristol study found that those who gained more than the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy were three times as likely to be overweight, obese or become ‘apple-shaped’ 16 years later.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Rumours surround the possible pregnancy of Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, after newspaper reports quoting her father-in-law as saying she was pregnant.

17 May 2011

The German Bild newspaper quoted Pal Sarkozy as saying: “I’m glad to be having a grandchild.”

“I’m sure it will be a girl, as beautiful as Carla,” he added.

In an interview on French TV on Monday, Ms Bruni, 43, refused to comment on speculation she was expecting a baby.

Ms Bruni, who married Mr Sarkozy in 2008, already has a son, born in 2001, from an earlier relationship.

Mr Sarkozy, 56, has three sons from his two previous marriages.

Rumours have been circulating for several weeks that Ms Bruni might be pregnant, with a due date of October or November being mentioned.

Earlier, Ms Bruni’s mother, Marisa Bruni-Tedeschi, was said to have told a dinner party: “We will soon have a grandchild,” the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported.

Source: BBC NEWS

Slender Alex Gerrard shows the tiniest hint of a bump as she steps out after revealing she’s expecting third child

By Sarah Bull

17th May 2011

Alex Gerrard has revealed she is expecting her third baby with husband Steven.

The 28-year-old WAG is more than three months pregnant and said she is thrilled to announce the happy news.

Posing in a new photoshoot for OK! magazine, Mrs Gerrard also said the pregnancy has already brought her and Steven, the Liverpool and England footballer, closer together.

She said: ‘I suppose it’s brought me and Steven closer because we’re so excited. It’s great because he’s had loads of time off and we’re both really happy.

‘He’s being so nice. He took me away to Dubai and got me a very nice present. He’s very caring and is looking after me.’

Source: DAILYMAIL

Extending fathers’ leave is a positive step, but higher-income women are still benefiting at the expense of poorer mothers

Monday 16 May 2011

These guys – first David Cameron, then Nick Clegg, now Vince Cable – are proving to be quite enlightened, modern men espousing the benefits of active fathering in the early years.

Despite George Osborne’s indiscriminate slash and burn of employment regulations in the budget, the coalition is going much further than the last Labour administration with new plans announced by Cable to extend the amount of paid leave fathers can have by a month.

Labour’s last move was to introduce transferable leave, which came into force this April, whereby fathers could take up any of their partner’s unused maternity leave. But only 4% of eligible fathers are expected to take advantage of this.

The coalition is taking lessons, yet again, from Scandinavian countries like Sweden, where fathers have their own extensive leave entitlement on a use it or lose it basis. Unsurprisingly, full-time fatherhood is much more common. Cable’s new rule will give fathers in the UK, as well as mothers, an exclusive additional period of paid leave. Rob Williams, the chief executive of the Fatherhood Institute, says it will bring about a “significant culture shift in official assumptions about the role of mothers and fathers”.

Source: GUARDIAN

Star lobs the opening shot in the backlash against those who ostentatiously worship their pregnancy

By Zoe Williams
Monday 16 May 2011 20.00 BST

It’s sometimes hard to work out the significance of Lady Gaga’s wardrobe. It’s all very well saying “directional”, fashion ladies, but you never seem to specify which direction. On Sunday night, she emerged from a gold coffin, on a stage in Carlisle, wearing a prosthetic baby bump. She did one song – Born this Way – and then flung it off. Having said she’s hard to read, I think we can decode this a bit more easily than the meat suit. I think she’s saying “enough with the bump-fetish, ladies. Enough with the Elemental Woman fandango. Sure, it’s something to celebrate, the giving of new life, but do we have to start celebrating before it’s even arrived? Whither the modest smock dress?”

Demi Moore’s seminal bump, the one who started all this (I don’t know if we can, in fairness, blame Scout Willis), is now 19. Like the world’s first test-tube baby, she’s important not because she did anything, but because she marks the age of the trend. It is as unthinkable now to expect a woman to cover her bump as it was, 20 years ago, to expect her to pose naked with it. But the mood is probably going the other way: not all the way back to Lady Di in box pleats, just some of the way, towards a point where a bump is accepted but not worshipped.

Source: GUARDIAN

Britain’s leading health and wellbeing specialists answer your questions

3:00PM BST 15 May 2011

Since having a baby two years ago my lower back has become very painful. It was fine during pregnancy but as my daughter has got bigger the pain has got worse. Some days it’s hard to sit down or tie my laces, but I don’t know how to prevent it as she still needs lifting. What sort of exercises might help?

Source: TELEGRAPH

British troops and their families will receive priority access to school places, NHS treatment and housing under a new “legal” military covenant.

Defence Correspondent 8:00AM BST 15 May 2011

Details of the package to help services personnel will be unveiled to parliament on Monday in a statement by Liam Fox, the Defence Secetary, after government lawyers and officials spent the weekend finalising them. It is understood the measures will include an offer of free cycles of IVF fertility treatment to military families where a soldier has suffered general injuries which make it difficult to conceive – a common occurrence in Afghanistan, where many have been hurt by improvised explosive devices. Troops serving overseas will no longer be required be to pay full council tax, while a new chief coroner will be put in charge of conducting inquests of war dead.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Kate Silverton reveals how the trauma of IVF treatment ended in joy – the natural way

By Sarah Oliver
Last updated at 1:16 AM on 15th May 2011

Like many mothers-to-be, Kate Silverton cried silent tears of joy when a thin blue line on a pregnancy test bought at a corner chemist’s showed a positive result. But it was not a result she had been expecting, and because of her medical history, she attributed the first tender signs of pregnancy to looming menopause. The BBC newsreader had always known that motherhood might be one of the few challenges which would defeat her.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Not long ago, pregnant women were confined to tent dresses. Now expectant mothers appear on magazine covers, tweet the happy news and flaunt their bellies in figure‑hugging couture. Veteran magazine editor Emma Soames wonders if it’s a good thing

By Emma Soames

The three most beautiful things in the world are a rose in bloom, a ship in full sail and a woman with child.” This proverb made me roll my eyes when my mother used to pronounce it, her eyes misty at the memory of her five pregnancies. Back then sailing ships and roses were on show, but pregnant women did all they could to conceal their burgeoning bellies. What’s more, for months they put themselves into self-imposed purdah. When I bore my only child 25 years ago there was no such problem, but my wardrobe resembled a field at Glastonbury. And during the last couple of months of pregnancy, I grumbled to my friends that I felt like a garage and looked almost as attractive. While I watched an explosion of blue veins and cellulite appear on my formerly slim body, everybody around me – perhaps understandably – was more interested in what was tucked away in the “garage”.

Source: GUARDIAN

At first, the idea of using a donor egg to conceive repulsed Briony Walker. But at 44, and with only a 1% chance of conceiving each month, she was forced to reconsider…

By Briony Walker

At first, I was appalled by the idea. “We won’t be doing that!” I said scornfully when the fertility consultant suggested IVF using a stranger’s eggs. “What would be the point?” “You would be carrying your partner’s child,” he replied, “forming strong bonds during pregnancy and giving birth to your baby.” I shook my head. “No, it’s not for me. Anyway, I still have faith in my own body.” He gave me an odd look. Hadn’t I been concentrating when he showed me the difference between a 30- and a 40-year-old’s ovum on his computer screen? One resembled a bright, shiny, Saturn-like planet and the other a blurry blob. Well, no, I hadn’t, because I was suffering from the apparently common delusion that I was younger, fitter and more fertile than virtually anyone else of my age.

Source: GUARDIAN

The proportion of risky multiple births during IVF treatment is falling according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

13 May 2011 Last updated at 07:12 GMT

Multiple birth pregnancies have a higher chance of miscarriage, and of leading to premature birth and of babies with cerebral palsy. The HFEA said 23.6% of IVF births led to more than one child at the beginning of 2008, which fell to 22% in mid 2009. The Multiple Births Foundation said it was “great news”. Multiple births are a consequence of increasing the odds of IVF working. Implanting more embryos increases the chance of success, but also the chance of twins or triplets.

Source: BBC NEWS

One woman’s self-destructive obsession… and its terrible legacy for the daughter who loved her

By Marianne Whittaker
Last updated at 2:44 PM on 12th May 2011

No one knows exactly how early I was born. I weighed 5lb, and until just a few weeks before my arrival, I was assumed to be a tumour in my mother’s stomach. Her belly, which had been painfully concave for as long as anyone could remember, had swollen like a balloon, while her arms and legs remained stick-like. Pregnancy might sound like the obvious diagnosis — but my mother was anorexic, and, as far as anyone knew, infertile. And as I would soon learn, when it comes to anorexia, things are rarely as they seem.

Source: DAILYMAIL

A feel good chemical released in the brain during affectionate moments and social bonding could be the key to eradicating depression after childbirth.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

Scientists have found pregnant women with low levels of oxytocin – often referred to as “the cuddle chemical” – are more prone to feeling serious “baby blues” after giving birth. Post-natal depression affects up to one-in-five new mothers and can have devastating consequences for both parent and child. Little is known about its
causes

Source: TELEGRAPH>> Read full article and comment

Sadly, Kelly Brook has lost her baby five months into her pregnancy. The model and actress is not the only celebrity to have suffered the trauma of a late miscarriage in recent months.

By Zoe Brennan
Last updated at 11:43 AM on 11th May 2011

In February, Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, 40, lost a baby two months before she was due to give birth. She had also suffered a miscarriage the previous year. Last November, 25-year-old singer Lily Allen faced the same tragedy six months into her pregnancy. In 2008, she had a miscarriage when she was four months pregnant. So is the number of miscarriages among British women rising? Or are we simply more aware of the problem because high-profile celebrities have courageously told of their terrible loss? Recent research published in medical journal The Lancet shows Britain has one of the worst records for stillbirth, ranking 33 out of 35 high-income countries. Eleven babies are stillborn every day in Britain.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

The optimum number of eggs to harvest from women undergoing fertility treatment is 15, experts have discovered.

By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 7:52 AM on 11th May 2011

The magic number, determined by a major study looking at 17 years of data, gives the best chance of a live birth. Taking more than 15 eggs is not only less safe, but no more effective, it found. The study found that the number of live births declines when fewer numbers of eggs are retrieved from a woman’s ovaries during a cycle of IVF. The chances of success level off between 15 and 20 eggs and then start to fall. As more eggs are taken, there is a growing risk of complications from over-stimulation of the ovaries during drug treatment.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has ruled out attending the Cannes Film Festival for “personal and professional” reasons, adding fuel to speculation she is pregnant.

By Henry Samuel, Paris 2:31PM BST 10 May 2011

Many observers thought that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife would use Cannes, which opens tomorrow with a Woody Allen film in which she has a minor part, to finally confirm she is expecting twins. However, in a pre-recorded ten-minute interview on RTL radio, due to be broadcast tomorrow morning but leaked today on the internet, she once again sidestepped the issue. To the question, “Are you expecting a child?,” she replied : “It’s a private question. It’s your job to ask it. Mine is not to answer.” The interviewer pressed her further, saying: “You could simply say that it’s not the case”.

Source: TELEGRAPH>> Read full article and comment

With her three young boys dashing about the garden playing football and bouncing on the trampoline, Tracy Woodward seems like any other busy mother, keeping a watchful eye as she cooks a family meal.

By Beezy Marsh
Last updated at 1:35 PM on 10th May 2011

But she is perhaps more attentive than others might be. For a simple knock or cut — the stuff of childhood for roustabout boys — requires immediate medical treatment. Ten-year-old Ben, Joe, seven, and Dan, five, all suffer from severe haemophilia, the bleeding disorder caused by a lack of factor VIII, a blood-clotting agent. As a result, a graze — even a bruise, if severe — can be life-threatening. Yet the twist to this family’s story is that Ben was diagnosed with the condition when he was only one. Tracy and husband Gary then had the option of genetic testing and IVF, which could have prevented them having more children with the condition. But despite knowing the risk of passing on haemophilia was high, the couple refused.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Germany is poised to start paying couples who want families to have IVF treatment as it seeks ways to reverse its drastically declining birthrate.

Last updated at 8:47 AM on 10th May 2011>

Family minister Kristina Schröder also pledged to cut down on bureaucracy for people who want to adopt.

Pregnant herself and expecting a baby in June, Mrs. Schröder, said she found it ’intolerable’ that couples wanted children but couldn’t afford the cost of medical treatment. In an interview with Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung she went on; ‘We rarely talk about it, but most people know friends or relatives who have this misfortune.’

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Hundreds of mothers-to-be are being given drugs to stop them from having obese babies as part of a controversial NHS trial.

By Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 9:00 AM on 9th May 2011

The overweight women will take the diabetes pill, metformin, up to three times a day during their pregnancy. The treatment is designed to reduce the food supply to the baby, rather than make the expectant mother lose weight herself. The doctors behind the trial say obesity among pregnant women is reaching epidemic proportions and they need to protect the health of tomorrow’s children. However, many healthy women are likely to be uneasy about mass medication in pregnancy for a problem which can be treated through changes to diet and exercise. With studies suggesting that the seeds of obesity are sown in the womb, early intervention could save youngsters from a lifetime of weight problems and ill-health.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Newsreader Kate Silverton has announced that she is pregnant, her spokesman said.

9:58AM BST 08 May 2011

The 40-year-old BBC journalist and her husband Michael Heron are expecting a baby in October. She said she conceived the child naturally after several failed IVF attempts. The television presenter, who is four months pregnant, said she is ”extremely excited ” with the news after trying to conceive for a number of years.

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Women who carefully plan their conceptions to avoid being heavily pregnant when the weather is at its hottest now have an extra reason to start trying for a baby in the summer.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:54 PM on 6th May 2011

A new study has revealed that those conceived in winter have up to a 16 per cent greater risk of autism than those conceived in July.The risk of having a child with an autism spectrum disorder grows progressively throughout autumn and winter to early spring. The study looked at the birth records of more than seven million children born in the state of California during the 1990s and early 2000s. Its findings suggest that environmental factors, for example an exposure to seasonal viruses or a lack of vitamin D – which comes from sunlight – play a role in triggering autism.

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A seriously ill child whose parents had a “designer baby” in an attempt to heal him has been cured.

By Nick Britten 8:00AM BST 07 May 2011

Charlie Whitaker, who suffered a debilitating and extremely rare genetic condition, has been given the all clear by doctors and can now live a normal, healthy life, his parents, Jayson and Michelle, disclosed yesterday. Now aged 12, he was saved by stem cells transplanted from the umbilical cord of his brother Jamie, who was born by IVF specifically to provide a tissue match. In a case which prompted fierce debate, the Whitakers had to go to the United States for the procedure which was banned at the time in Britain.

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Ready to host this week’s National Movie Awards, Christine Bleakley says she’s hit the jackpot with Frank Lampard

By Rebecca Hardy
Last updated at 1:20 AM on 7th May 2011

Christine Bleakley wants to clear a few things up. No, Frank Lampard hasn’t proposed. No, they haven’t been shopping for engagement rings. And no, she’s not pregnant.‘People keep asking when he’s going to ask me to marry him. But I’m the last person who should know that,’ she says. ‘We went to Paris for two days a few weeks ago and suddenly it was, “Look, they’re ring shopping.” No, we weren’t and he certainly hasn’t asked.‘We’ve only been seeing each other a year and a half, which isn’t long enough for me. There are his children to think about, too. [Frank has two young daughters with ex-partner Elen Rives.

Source:DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Mother’s anxiety can raise baby’s risk of ADHD

By Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 1:49 AM on 7th May 2011

Stressed mothers-to-be are more likely to have unruly, hot-tempered children, researchers have found.A study discovered a strong link between mental pressures on the mother in the first months of a child’s life and the youngster’s behaviour when of school age. It is thought that high levels of stress hormones in the womb affect the delicate development of the unborn baby’s brain.

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A seriously ill child whose parents had a “designer baby” in an attempt to heal him has been cured.

By Nick Britten 8:00AM BST 07 May 2011

Charlie Whitaker, who suffered a debilitating and extremely rare genetic condition, has been given the all clear by doctors and can now live a normal, healthy life, his parents, Jayson and Michelle, disclosed yesterday. Now aged 12, he was saved by stem cells transplanted from the umbilical cord of his brother Jamie, who was born by IVF specifically to provide a tissue match.

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More women die in childbirth in Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world. Global attention since 9/11 has led to more desperately needed midwives – will that change as troops pull out?

By Sarah Boseley

Roya, a midwife in Guldara, north of Kabul, is on the frontline of what may no longer be a war zone, but is still a killing field for women. Afghanistan has the highest proportion of women who die in childbirth of any country in the world.

“It is very common that women give birth at home and either the mother or the child dies,” Roya says. “Mothers at home mostly deliver in a sitting position, which can cause the baby’s body to end up in the wrong position during delivery. Because the mother doesn’t have enough milk in the first three days after delivery, they give butter to the child. Often when they deliver the baby, they don’t cut the umbilical cord properly with a clean instrument, which means it gets infected and the child dies.”

Source: GUARDIAN>> Read full article and comment

A new fertility centre is the first in the UK to focus on ‘patient-friendly’ IVF and the health of mothers-to-be to help improve conception rates, a hospital trust said today.

By Martin Halfpenny, PA

Patients at the Complete Fertility Centre at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton have access to softer, shorter and easier hormone treatments. Staff also create personal profiles for patients via one-to-one sessions before treatment begins to agree personal goals and suggest changes to give the best chance of success. This innovation – the preconception programme – stems from Professor Nick Macklon’s internationally recognised work on the effects of diet and lifestyle on fertility and birth.

Source: INDEPENDENT>> Read full article and comment

When my first child was born, she was on the cover of a national magazine (they were doing a pregnancy story and needed a new baby for the photoshoot). How proud were we as new parents? Obviously, our child was the cutest baby ever born, wasn’t she?

By Lorraine Candy
Last updated at 7:30 AM on 5th May 2011

This was proof she could be a baby model, I remember telling my friends seriously and wondering why they looked so astonished. We thought she was just the most beautiful thing ever made.I ignored the loud American woman who, when she looked into my buggy at our new ginger-haired infant, announced rudely: ‘Oh my lord, lady, you got an orangutan baby’. I couldn’t believe she didn’t see perfection, as we did.

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All pregnant women should be screened for hidden signs of thyroid disease, according to Czech researchers.

By Helen Briggs Health reporter, BBC News

A blood test can pick up about a third of mothers-to-be who have no symptoms but will go on to develop full-blown disease after giving birth, they say. Early detection could have major implications for the health of mothers and babies, they told the European Congress of Endocrinology. UK midwives say more evidence is needed of the merits of screening.The study, led by Dr Eliska Potlukova of Charles University in Prague, followed almost 200 women through early pregnancy and beyond.

Source: BBC NEWS

The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate of any industrialised nation and lags behind 30 developed countries for mothers’ well-being, a damning report says.

By Mark Duell
Last updated at 10:28 PM on 3rd May 2011

An American woman is more than seven times as likely as one in Ireland to die from pregnancy-related causes and her maternal death risk is 15 times that in Greece. Only three developed countries – Albania, Russian and Moldova – had a worse maternal mortality rate than America’s 1 in 2,100, a Save the Children report said.  The U.S. ranked 31st in the Mothers’ Index behind nations such as Estonia and Latvia, with its under-five death rate behind 40 other countries at 8 in 1,000 births. An American child is therefore more than twice as likely as a child in Finland, Luxembourg or Singapore to die before reaching the age of five.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Carla Bruni is pregnant with twins at the age of 43, according to the latest reports.

11:48AM BST 03 May 2011

Tracy Sant was told she couldn’t have children, but a ‘mild’ fertility treatment worked. Why aren’t more women offered this option?

By Anastasia Stephens

For someone who was told she’d never have her own biological children, 40-year-old Tracy Sant, who has an 18-month-old daughter and is now expecting a son, is doing well. Like many other women, the former RAF pilot was turned away from fertility clinics as a matter of course because her levels of Follicular Stimulating Hormone (FSH) were considered too high. ”A well-known clinic in Wimpole Street turned me down because my FSH was 12,” Sant says. “Four months later we went to another fertility centre in Cambridge. By then my FSH levels had risen to 22. ”The consultant told me this meant I was approaching the menopause and wouldn’t be able to have a child naturally. Egg donation, he said, would be my only option. Well, we weren’t ready to hear that and were absolutely devastated.

Source: INDEPENDENT

She gave birth to her daughter Violet just over a year ago.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:59 PM on 2nd May 2011

But there was no sign of any post pregnancy lumps and bumps today as Christina Milian showed off her stunning figure on the beach in Miami. The toned and attractive mother enjoyed a visit to the beach today with her adorable 14-month-old daughter Violet.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has fuelled rumours that she was pregnant, refusing to deny it by saying “my lips are sealed to protect something”, in her first interview since the news surfaced.

By Henry Samuel, Paris 12:07PM BST 02 May 2011

After three miscarriages and failed IVF treatments, Stacy and James Bodle feared they might never have a family of their own.

By CHRIS BROOKE
Last updated at 7:21 PM on 1st May 2011

But they say an experimental fertility treatment using egg yolks and soya oil cured the condition causing the miscarriages and they are now celebrating the arrival of twins Libby and Harry. ‘I’ve hardly slept for the 13 weeks since they were born but I’m not complaining,’ said Mrs Bodle, 30. ‘They have been the happiest weeks of our lives. ‘We were trying for three years for a family and we started to think this day would never come. There were so many awful times and to sit here and see our lovely twins staring back at us is wonderful.’ The treatment involved a combination of natural fats made up from egg yolks and soya oil. Doctors believe this intralipid liquid, a calorie-rich potion normally used in tube-feeding sick patients, could help more women achieve their dream of motherhood.

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Significantly more American women are using the emergency contraceptive ‘morning-after’ pill now it is available over-the-counter, a study says.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:44 AM on 28th April 2011

More than twice as many women aged 15 to 44 used the pill between 2006 and 2008 in the U.S., compared with 2002 when it was still prescription-only, researchers found. The emergency contraceptive has been available in the U.S. for 12 years and cuts the risk of pregnancy after unprotected sex by stopping the ovaries releasing an egg. But the pills, which contain the hormone progestin, must be taken within 72 hours of having sex to be effective. After the first 12 hours the risk of pregnancy rises by a half. The U.S. approved ‘Plan B’ for ‘behind-the-counter’ sales to adults in 2006 after years of political controversy, meaning they would not need to wait for a prescription.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Two years after tying the knot, our regular columnist and her husband, Toryboy, are about to have a baby. Are they ready? Are they heck…

By Lucy Mangan

“Oh my God,” said my sister when I told her. “You’re actually spawning? With him?” I had, reluctantly, to confirm the news that, after two years of marriage, Toryboy and I had decided to try for and then successfully conceived a baby. “I’m sorry,” I said. “But you had to know there was a chance this might happen.” “I know,” she said sorrowfully. “But I always hoped that your wrongness for each other would extend to your gametes. But, as they say in Jurassic Park, life finds a way. So…congratulations.” And here I am, eight and a half months into pregnancy, an experience at once so profound and so mundane that you daily risk a dozen stress fractures across your psyche.

Source: GUARDIAN >> Read full article and comment

When Suzanne Franklin fell pregnant, she was at a loss as to how she would eat for two.

By LUCY LAING
Last updated at 12:12 PM on 25th April 2011

The 23-year-old had suffered from extreme food allergies for year from eggs to dairy and fruit and vegetables. Doctors warned her that pregnancy would make the symptoms worse but that antihistamines could harm her baby. But Ms Franklin knew she wasn’t allergic to McDonald’s burgers – so she ate a Big Mac burger everyday throughout her pregnancy. Any worries about her unusual diet affecting her baby’s growth were unfounded – as she has given birth to her own 10Ib 2oz whopper.

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The Elysee Palace on Sunday fuelled rife speculation in France that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the first lady, has fallen pregnant with a long-expected first child by the French leader.

By Peter Allen 4:18PM BST 24 Apr 2011

Newspapers across the political spectrum on Sunday reported that the 43-year-old former model was expecting a first child with President Nicolas Sarkozy, 56, whom she married following a whirlwind romance in 2008. Neither the Elysee Palace nor senior ministers denied the claims. A spokesman said the matter was part of the couple’s private life and there would be no official statement. The latest edition of French Closer magazine reported under the headline “Pregnant at last”, that sources were “absolutely certain” about the information.

Source: TELEGRAPH

A German woman has given birth to a one-pound baby after only 21 weeks and five days of pregnancy, making it one of the world’s most premature babies to survive.

1:24PM BST 23 Apr 2011

The baby, named Frieda, was born on November 7 measuring 11 inches and weighing only one pound. She is thought to be one of the world’s most premature babies to live. The previous record was thought to be held by Canadian James Gill, who was also born 21 weeks and five days early, in 1987.

Source: TELEGRAPH

High levels of pesticide exposure in pregnant women have been linked to lower IQs in their children, according to three separate US studies released on Thursday.

Friday, 22 April 2011

Two studies were done in New York City and a third was in Salinas, a farming area of northern California. All spanned nearly a decade, tracking levels of pesticide in expectant mothers and testing nearly 1,000 children up to age nine. Researchers looked at exposure to a family of pesticides known as organophosphates, which are commonly used on fruit and vegetable crops. The reports are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. In the California study involving 392 kids, “researchers found that every tenfold increase in measures of organophosphates detected during a mother’s pregnancy corresponded to a 5.5 drop in overall IQ in the seven-year-olds.

Source: INDEPENDENT

Singer becomes first woman to secure maternity rights with her record label after finding success eight weeks into her pregnancy.

By Jenny Stevens

Talk of gestation periods and trimesters isn’t the usual domain of record company bosses, but such was the case at Island Records this week as a pregnant singer signed what’s thought to be the first ever recording contract with a maternity clause. Marli Harwood is set to release her debut album in May, under a deal stating that she will not work more than 20 hours a week in the second trimester of her pregnancy and will not need to work after 1 July. Her first child is due on 7 August. Music industry lawyer Adam van Straten, who represents Harwood and negotiated the “pregnancy-friendly” deal, said it is easier for established artists, such as MIA who performed at the Grammys on the day her baby was due, to start a family because they can be more selective about promotional work.

Source: GUARDIAN

Forty years ago doctors realised a drug used to prevent pregnancy complications could have devastating consequences for babies. Now a new study has found those effects could be felt by a third generation.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:08 PM on 21st April 2011

French researchers report that the grandsons of women who took diethylstilbestrol (DES) are more likely than other men to have deformations in the opening of the penis. Doctors prescribed DES to pregnant women between the 1940s and 1970s to prevent miscarriages and premature labour. It was given to as many as two million women in the U.S and four million women worldwide Then research revealed girls exposed in the womb had a far higher chance of developing a cancer in the vagina. Later studies found that girls whose mothers took DES while pregnant were also more likely to have birth defects and fertility problems.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Pregnant women exposed to certain widely used pesticides may give birth to children with lower intelligence, according to a new study.

By Stephen Adams 6:30AM BST 21 Apr 2011

Researchers found that exposure during pregnancy to pesticides called organophosphates – used on food crops – may impair child cognitive development. They found that every tenfold increase in measures of organophosphates detected during a mother’s pregnancy corresponded to a 5.5 point drop in overall IQ scores in children by the age of seven.

Source: TELEGRAPH

MISCARRIAGE and pre-term birth are the two things all parents-to-be worry about.

By Hayley Crawford and Helen Thomson

MISCARRIAGE and pre-term birth are the two things all parents-to-be worry about. Two studies published this week could help establish why some pregnancies go wrong, and offer hope for new treatments to prevent pregnancies ending this way. One in five pregnancies end in miscarriage, and the risk increases with the age of the mother. Patricia Hunt and colleagues at Washington State University in Pullman have now identified a surprising contributing factor: a lack of quality control during egg-making.

Source: Newscientist>> Read full article and comment

Heart disease drugs are to be trialled on a group of pregnant mothers showing early signs of the potentially fatal condition, pre-eclampsia.

20 April 2011 Last updated at 10:47 GMT

Edinburgh University hopes statins could prevent the disease affecting up to 8% of pregnant women in the UK. It kills 70,000 women a year around the world and is responsible for about four million premature births annually. If the trial is successful, it could be a major breakthrough in creating a cheap, life-saving treatment. Scientists at the university have found that statins, which are prescribed to lower heart disease, could also help to decrease amounts of two proteins linked to pre-eclampsia. The drugs act on an enzyme linked to production of these proteins, soluble FLt-1 and soluble endoglin.

Source: BBC NEWS

When a 15-year-old has a baby, it doesn’t have to mean the end of her education and her hopes of a career. Amelia Hill visits the school that treats motherhood as an opportunity.

By Amelia Hill

Pregnant at 15, Tanya didn’t think having a baby would ruin her life. But then, she didn’t think she had much of a life left to ruin. Rarely going to school, fighting with her mother, and depressed, Tanya had been devastated to discover that John, her boyfriend and the father of her child, was just 13 years old; throughout their 15-month relationship, he had pretended to be 17. The couple stayed together during the pregnancy, but five weeks after the birth of their daughter, Amy, John told Tanya he didn’t want anything to do with either of them. Yet today, Tanya is bubbling with love for her 10-month-old daughter, with shy pride in herself and hope for both their futures. In the past 14 months, she has gained five GCSEs and two level 1 qualifications. Next year, she will take two more GCSEs. If all goes to plan, she will then start a beauty therapy course at the local college.

Source: GUARDIAN

Leading scientists have appealed to Andrew Lansley to set a timetable for the introduction of a controversial technique known as “three-parent IVF” after a scientific review found no evidence it was unsafe.

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor

The procedure involves swapping genetic material before the IVF embryo is implanted in the womb to prevent the transmission of some of the most severe inherited disorders. But it would lead to permanent changes in the genetic make-up of children that would be passed on to subsequent generations and breaks new ground in IVF research. Mitochondrial disease – mutations in small structures called mitochondria which surround the cell nucleus – is carried by thousands of women and is passed down the maternal line, leading to the birth of about 100 severely disabled children every year. Some women with the disorder have had up to six children who have died because of the severity of their disabilities. In an open letter to the health secretary signed by the heads of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and four other bodies, the scientists said regulations governing use of the gene-switching technique should be drawn up now so it can be introduced without delay once sufficient evidence of its safety and efficacy has been amassed.

Source: INDEPENDENT

More research is needed into a controversial fertility treatment, known as three-parent IVF, before it can be considered safe for clinical use, a review has concluded.

By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

Mitochondrial transfer aims to replace a faulty part of a mother’s egg with healthy material from a donor. This means a baby would have a small amount of the donor’s genetic material, and therefore three biological parents. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) carried out the study. The HFEA is the UK’s independent fertility treatment regulator and its conclusions are published in a scientific review of the technique commissioned by the Department for Health.

Source: BBC NEWS

Can you trust your midwife to keep your baby safe?.

By AMANDA REVELL WALTON
Last updated at 1:33 AM on 19th April 2011

When Teresa Wood went into hospital to have her first baby, she and her husband were excitedly looking forward to holding him in their arms for the first time. Though she had developed high blood pressure in the late stages of the pregnancy, doctors assured her that competent staff would be on hand to oversee the delivery. Yet just 17 hours later, Teresa and her husband Richard were indeed cradling newborn Freddie — to say goodbye as he drew his last breath. The 7lb 2oz boy had suffered brain damage and organ failure after being deprived of oxygen during birth. It later emerged the midwife in charge had failed to carry out the most basic of checks on mother and child.

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