“What women eat while they are in the early stages of pregnancy influences the sex and health of their unborn baby”, The Daily Telegraph reported. It said that eating breakfast and a high fat diet around the time of conception made it more likely the offspring would be a boy.

The newspaper article is actually reporting two different studies. The findings about the effect of a high fat diet and breakfast on a child’s gender are from a study in humans that the newspaper says was published two years ago.

Read the complete story

I'm lying in hospital, shaking with fear. There are no familiar faces, only doctors and midwives hovering above me, their mouths moving silently. The contractions keep coming, and I'm horribly confused. How can I be in labour when I would never have allowed myself to get pregnant?

Welcome to my subconscious, which regularly reminds me of my terror of childbirth. The nightmares started in my teens, when I decided I could never cope with giving birth; the pain would be intolerable. Since then, the merest glimpse of a heavily pregnant woman has filled me with searing panic – my hands shake, my heart races. I had grown used to the idea that I would not have children. But when friend after friend started a family, seeing them with their babies led to a brief suspension of terror, and six months ago I got pregnant. At first, it didn't seem too worrying – after all, I had the best part of a year to go – but the anxiety has grown and grown.

Read the complete story

 Figures published by the Office of National Statistics show the teenage pregnancy rate in Wiltshire has dropped. Teenage pregnancy figures in Wiltshire are lower than the national and the SW average. The number of young women conceiving in the county fell to 30.3 per 1,000 in 2008 from 31.6 women in 2007.

Denzil Longland, teenage pregnancy coordinator says the council will continue to work with NHS Wiltshire and other agencies to reduce numbers further: “An awful lot of hard work has gone into bringing teenage conception rates down in Wiltshire and these figures show we are making progress.

Read the complete story

A controversial abortion billin Utah meant to prevent planned assaults on unborn children may have opened a loophole that could allow women to be charged with murder if their reckless behavior causes miscarriages. Gov. Gary Herbert has not indicated whether he will sign the bill into law or veto it, although supporters of the bill say they expect him to approve it. If Herbert does nothing by March 8, the measure automatically becomes law.

The bill was prompted by the case of a pregnant teenager last year who paid someone to beat her, hoping to cause a late term abortion.

But critics argue that allowing homicide charges if a woman's "reckless behavior" causes the unborn child to die opens up the possibility that prosecutors could seek a murder conviction against women who miscarry after not wearing their seatbelts or returning to a partner who has a history of physical abuse.

Read the complete story

Learning difficulties, physical disabilities and behavioural problems are all part of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders [FASD]. These lifelong conditions can drastically impact on the lives of the individual and those around them. BMA Scotland said that the reality is that these conditions are completely preventable by not drinking any alcohol during pregnancy.

There is proven risk that heavy drinking by pregnant women can cause these disorders in their children. However, evidence is continuing to emerge on the effects of low or moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and until there is clarification the only message is that it is not safe to drink any alcohol during pregnancy or when planning a pregnancy.

Read the complete story

Thousands more Scots children are suffering from less obvious symptoms such as learning difficulties caused by women who drink too much in the later stages of pregnancy, according to a new report.

The study, which has been sent to both the UK and Scottish parliaments, warns too much emphasis has been placed on the cost of adults misusing alcohol, and the impact on their unborn children has been ignored.

Dr Jonathan Sher, director of research, policy and programmes at Children in Scotland, which has more than 450 members including children’s charities and community groups, compiled the report. The study warns that Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and the less obvious Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are entirely avoidable and completely incurable.

Read the complete story

A study that included 150 women who were 12-14 weeks pregnant with major depression concluded that acupuncture might provide relief from depression when these women were randomly assigned to undergo the procedure. According to the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, acupuncture is based on ancient Chinese medicine, and attempts to treat conditions by stimulating points on the body, most often with needles stuck in the skin and moved by hand or electrical stimulation.

This Stanford study published in the journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, assigned 52 of these women to undergo acupuncture specifically developed for depressive symptoms, 49 to undergo regular acupuncture and 49 to get a Swedish massage, which, like the traditional Chinese medicine, does not specifically target depression. Each woman received 12 sessions of 25 minutes each; those given acupuncture did not know which type they were getting. The study did not compare any of these treatments with antidepressants or psychotherapy.

Read the complete story

According to a recent study, women who gain excessive weight during the early stages of pregnancy may be at an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes. The three-year study, which was conducted by researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, found that women who gained more weight during pregnancy than recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine were 50 percent more likely to develop gestational diabetes.

The strongest link between diabetes risk and weight gain was seen in non-white women who added excessive weight during the first trimester. "Health-care providers should talk to their patients early in their pregnancy about the appropriate gestational weight gain, especially during the first trimester, and help women monitor their weight gain," said lead author Monique Hedderson. "Our research shows that weight gain in early pregnancy is a modifiable risk factor for gestational diabetes," she added. Gestational diabetes, which affects as many a 7 percent of pregnant women, is associated with an increased risk of prenatal complications and can increase the child's chances of developing diabetes and obesity later in life.

Up to a quarter of all women suffer from depression  during pregnancy, and many are reluctant to take antidepressants. Now a new study suggests that acupuncture  may provide some relief during pregnancy, even though it has not been found to be an effective treatment against depression in general.The Stanford University study recruited 150 depressed women who were 12 to 30 weeks pregnant, and randomly assigned 52 to receive acupuncture specifically designed for depressive symptoms, 49 to regular acupuncture and 49 to Swedish massage.

Read the complete story

A new study finds that the children of women who take antidepressants while pregnant may have delayed development and specifically are slower to reach developmental milestones.

Focusing on developmental data on more than 80,000 babies born in Denmark, researchers found that children whose mothers took antidepressants during their second or third trimesters sat up without support later and walked later than children whose mothers did not take medication. Published in the March issue of Pediatrics, researchers noted that by 19 months, motor skills for the most part evened out in both groups.  So, should expecting moms stop taking depression medications while pregnant? Not necessarily, say experts.

Read the complete story