The heartbeats of a mother and her unborn fetus synchronize when she breathes rhythmically, researchers have said.

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen claim the connection paves the way for a new technique to detect development problems during pregnancy.

They said if this synchronization did not happen it could signal something might be wrong.

This, the researchers suggest, could allow early medical intervention.

Dr Marco Thiel, one of a team of physicists from the University of Aberdeen who worked on the study, said: "Pregnant mothers often report an awareness of a bond with their child. The fetus can sense the rhythmical shift in the mother's heartbeat and adapts its own heartbeat accordingly”

"But until now there has been no hard evidence to suggest this bond is reflected in the interaction of their heartbeats.

"Our findings reveal that synchronization between the heartbeat of a mother and fetus does actually occur - but only when the mother is breathing in a rhythmical fashion.

"The fetus can sense the rhythmical shift in the mother's heartbeat and adapts its own heartbeat accordingly."

Dr Thiel added: "Importantly, the phenomenon does not occur when a mother is breathing normally.

"Although our studies showed that synchronization between the fetus and mother's heartbeat might occur under normal conditions, this can be coincidental and not because of an actual physiological connection."

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PregnancyWeekly.com

Any weight gain during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy -- or more than a pound a week between weeks 14 and 36 -- raise the odds your child will show signs of heart disease by age 9.

The findings come from the U.K. Avon study, which is following the health of nearly 14,000 children born from April 1991 through December 1992. The study, by University of Bristol researcher Abigail Fraser, PhD, and colleagues, focuses on more than 8,500 mother/child pairs for whom detailed data were available.

Women who were overweight before becoming pregnant were more likely to have overweight or obese children.

But regardless of a woman's pre-pregnancy weight, weight gain during pregnancy affected the child's weight -- and at age 9, the child's risk of having high body fat, low levels of good HDL cholesterol, a big waistline, high blood pressure, and other risk factors for heart disease.

Children's heart risk increased with any weight gain during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, and with any weight gain over 1.1 pounds per week during weeks 14 to 36 of pregnancy. The more weight a woman gained during these times, the higher her child's heart risk.

Weight gain after week 36 of gestation was not linked to heart risk in a woman's offspring.

What's going on? Fraser and colleagues suggest that the reason why these kids already have a high heart risk by 9 years of age is their fat mass. But exactly why children tend to be fat if their mothers gain too much weight during pregnancy isn't clear.

One thing is clear, comments obstetrician/gynecologist Jennifer Wu, MD, of New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.

"In order to help ensure healthier futures for their children, women considering childbearing should try to achieve ideal body weight pre-pregnancy and to adhere to recommended weight-gain guidelines," Wu says in a statement released by the Lenox Hill press office. Wu was not involved in the Fraser study.

The Fraser study appears in the June 15 issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

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PregnancyWeekly.com

Taking common blood pressure drugs while pregnant significantly increases the chances of having hyperactive children, a new study shows.

Reduced blood flow to the baby while in the womb could be to blame, researchers believe.

However, experts warn that the benefits of the drugs, which can prevent women from suffering a stroke or even dying, far outweigh the risks.

Around one in every 14 women will develop raised blood pressure during pregnancy.

The condition can be extremely serious, both for mothers-to-be and their unborn children.

As well as a chance of stroke, complications can include kidney damage and preeclampsia, a dangerous illness which if left unchecked can cause seizures and even death.

Drugs commonly used to treat raised blood pressure in pregnant women include labetalol and methyldopa.

But researchers found that labetalol was linked to a fourfold increase in the risk of a child developing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), compared to children whose mothers had been prescribed bed rest.

Those whose mothers were given methyldopa were more than four times more likely to have sleeping problems than those in the bed rest group.

The study looked at 202 children when they were between four and 10 years of age.

A previous study which found that labetalol was linked to smaller than average babies suggested that reduced blood flow through the placenta could be to blame.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) described the findings as “speculative”.

“This study is interesting but it does not mean that pregnant women suffering from hypertension should be all prescribed with bed rest. Indeed, there may be serious consequences for the woman if timely drug treatment isn’t provided.”

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PregnancyWeekly.com

An American woman has become the first in the world to give birth to twins just months after having a heart transplant.

Stefania DeMayo was still recovering from her operation when she unexpectedly fell pregnant.

Doctors warned the 29-year-old having a baby so soon after major life-saving surgery would put her in serious danger again.

But, despite the fears, twins Melania and Natalia were born prematurely in December weighing 4lbs 2oz and 2lbs 13oz.

Only a handful of women have ever given birth after a heart transplant, and until now, never to twins.

Stefania was suffering from a rare condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy, which may have begun with a simple tooth infection.

In late 2008, after three years of suffering, Stefania was finally offered a heart that fit her rare blood type.

The heart was from a 14-year-old boy, Sean Clegg, who had been killed by a car while riding his bike.

Stefania was rushed to the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and the heart was implanted successfully.

'Before I had the transplant my life was hardly worth living but a few days later I felt amazing,' she said.

'At first I felt my heart beating so strongly in my chest I thought there was something wrong.

Stefania was allowed home with the warning against getting pregnant for at least a year.

But by chance she found she was expecting only a few months after the operation - with twins.

After breaking the news to her doctors, the couple were told their babies had a 90 per cent chance of being diagnosed with Downs Syndrome.

They faced weeks of uncertainty before a pre-natal test showed the girls did not have the condition.

A few weeks later, a scan revealed the girls had twin to twin transfusion syndrome, where one baby takes most of the nourishment in the womb.

The couple were told there was a large chance the smaller baby would die in the womb, turn toxic and kill the larger child.

'They thought both babies would die or I would have to abort the smaller baby to save the other,' said Stefania.

At just 20 weeks she started experiencing labor pains and was rushed to hospital but luckily the babies stayed in the womb.

'Thank God the babies held on,' said Stefania who almost went into labor again at 25 weeks.

Stefania was put on total bed rest for the final weeks of her pregnancy to help the girls stay inside her. Then at 31 weeks disaster struck again.

'I was very low on amniotic fluid and I was rushed to hospital yet again,' said Stefania. She finally gave birth by emergency cesarean section at 32 weeks.

'There was about 50 medical experts in the room for the birth,' she said.

The battle was not over for the smaller baby who had to undergo surgery for a rotated bowel. Doctors also had to remove her appendix.

'She was only 2lbs 13oz when they operated on her but she pulled through because she is a little fighter,' said Stefania.

Now both girls are finally at home with their mother, who recovered well after the birth.

Stefania said: 'Thanks to Sean Clegg, who gave me his heart, there are now three people living that wouldn't be here without him.'

The family went to meet the donor Sean's mother Gail, to thank her.

'She is the most wonderful kind and generous person,' said Stefania. 'I could not be more grateful for what they have done for us. Gail is like a grandmother to the twins.'

'I think of Stefania, Richard and the twins as part of the family now,' said Gail, 44, who lives in Tabernacle, New Jersey.

Gail and Stefania now want to raise awareness about the importance of carrying a donor card.

Cardiologist Dr David Baran said: 'Stefania had taken well to her new heart but we didn't know what the effect of pregnancy might be.

'It's a tremendous strain to have one child, with two, it makes the heart work even harder.

'It is a wonderful feeling to be part of the team which made this miracle possible.'

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PregnancyWeekly.com

You take your baby to the pediatrician for her regular check-ups, vaccines, and at the first sign of a fever. You keep her away from runny-nose friends and steer clear of the sun. You babyproof your home and gently bandage her boo-boos. All to make sure your child grows up healthy and strong. But compelling new research is showing that the strength of your emotional bond with your baby may well trump all of those other measures you take to help her thrive.

A close attachment can prevent diseases, boost immunity, and enhance IQ in your baby, says Deepak Chopra, M.D., the endocrinologist turned mind-body -- medicine guru, Parenting contributing editor, and coauthor of Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives: A Holistic Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth. Those hugs and kisses are a force of nature more powerful than ever thought, says Dr. Chopra. Mother-child bonding has evolved to become a complex physiological process that enlists not just our hearts, but our brains, hormones, nerves, and almost every part of our bodies.

There are decades of evidence to back up Dr. Chopra's claims. In one study from Ohio State University, rabbits that were cuddled by researchers were protected against the artery-clogging effects of a high-cholesterol diet. The love and attention affected the rabbits' hormone levels, the study authors concluded, helping them withstand heart disease. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal found that some female rats took more time and care to lick their infant pups than others; the pups that were licked frequently grew up to be less stressed and more adventurous in temperament, while pups that weren't groomed as much exhibited nervous, stressed-out behavior. And yet another study, published in Pediatrics, found that premature babies who were stroked gained nearly 50 percent more weight than those who were not. Such skin-to-skin contact (known as kangaroo care) has been shown to have other health benefits for preemies, too.

It's well known that the nipple stimulation that occurs when a baby nurses causes a hormone called oxytocin to be released in the mom, which in turn triggers milk let-down. But oxytocin is also called the "love hormone" because it's produced during orgasm and other affectionate moments. In fact, oxytocin behaves in the brain much the same way that morphine does; it turns on our "reward" center, easing pain, making us feel good, and causing us to crave that emotional high again and again. Women who don't breastfeed, or choose to eventually switch to or supplement with formula, happily do not miss out on the "love drug." Simply gazing into your baby's eyes while bottle-feeding or just snuggling or massaging also unleashes the feel-good hormones in both of you.

There's more evidence that we're hardwired to connect with our kids: Pheromones -- the chemicals we secrete to attract a partner -- are also secreted by our babies, ensuring that we're similarly smitten with them. In one study, 90 percent of moms were able to identify their newborns by scent alone after having spent as little as ten minutes with them. When the moms spent an hour with their babies, 100 percent of them correctly distinguished their own baby's smell from the smell of other infants.

A baby recognizes his mother's scent, too. Last year, researchers in Japan found that infants who smelled their own mother's milk while undergoing a routine heel-stick procedure exhibited fewer signs of distress than babies who were exposed to the odor of another mother's milk, formula, or nothing at all. The mere scent of their mother's breast milk was enough to calm the newborns and ease pain. Here's an interesting aside: The act of kissing may have evolved as an affectionate gesture because it puts our nose in direct contact with the base of our partner's nostrils, where pheromones are generated.

Just as scent motivates you to care for your child and motivates your child to stay close to you, so too does a smile. In a recent study conducted at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, brain MRIs were taken of women while they looked at photos of their own children and of other kids making sad, happy, and neutral faces. The scans found that when a woman saw a photo of her own child, the parts of her brain associated with rewards processing (meaning they make you feel good!) were activated, and even more so when she saw photos of her child smiling. It's all very primitive: Mom make Baby smile, Mom get reward, Mom want to make Baby smile again.

So ignore your e-mails and forget about the laundry. Don't stress about vacuuming or entertaining guests. Let bonding with your baby become your priority. Lie around with her, doing nothing. Cuddle. Play. Dr. Chopra believes in "nourishing all of your baby's senses" by holding her, massaging her, singing to her, using soothing scents (lavender, rose, vanilla), and showing her colorful, interesting shapes and objects. Remind yourself that you're building a connection that will comfort both of you for years and years. And when you need a break, take one.

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PregnancyWeekly.com

Most babies should take a daily vitamin D supplement, a new study shows.

That will be a big change for most parents - and even many pediatricians.

Only 1% to 13% of infants under 1 year now get a vitamin D supplement, available in inexpensive drops, according to a study published online today in Pediatrics.

Those drops are needed, the study says, because only 5% to 37% of American infants met the standard for vitamin D set by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2008: 400 international units a day.

Vitamin D strengthens bone and the immune system and also appears to prevent type 1 diabetes, heart disease and cancer, the paper says.

Few breast-fed babies — 5% to 13%, depending on their age — received the recommended amount of vitamin D, researchers estimated. Although breast milk is the perfect food in every other way, it's often low in vitamin D, says pediatrician Nicolas Stettler, a spokesman for the pediatrics academy who wasn't involved in the study. Because humans originated in equatorial areas with year-round sunshine, babies in the distant past wouldn't have needed to get vitamin D from breast milk, he says.

Yet many formula-fed infants don't get enough, either. Babies need to drink about 32 ounces of fortified formula a day to get 400 international units of vitamin D, says study author Cria Perrine of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Babies younger than 6 months can rarely drink that much. A supplement can give babies all they need.

Many mothers also are vitamin D-deficient.

A second study in Pediatrics reports that 58% of newborns and 36% of mothers were deficient in vitamin D, according to blood tests. Although taking prenatal vitamins helped, more than 30% of moms who took them were still deficient. Getting lots of sunlight helped raise vitamin D levels in moms, but not in their newborns.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies get no direct sunlight in their first six months, to prevent skin damage and cancer. After 6 months, the academy says, babies should wear sunscreen, hats and protective clothing in the sun.

Relatively few pediatricians today talk about vitamin D with parents, says Wendy Sue Swanson, a pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital who wasn't involved in the new research. That may be because the pediatrics academy's previous vitamin D recommendation — 200 international units a day, set in 2003 — was easier to meet, Swanson says.

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PregnancyWeekly.com

The list of health benefits for people who were breastfed as babies is growing, with research unveiled this week showing they are more likely as adults to have higher levels of good cholesterol.

Numerous studies have shown babies whose mothers breastfed them enjoy health advantages over formula-fed babies. These include fewer ear, stomach and intestinal infections, fewer digestive problems, skin diseases and allergies, and less likelihood of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

Now, a study presented at an American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Fla., found that breastfed babies are better off than bottle-fed babies in two heart disease risk factors as adults - levels of good cholesterol (HDL) and body mass index.

The study looked at 962 people, average age 41, taking part in the long-running Framingham Heart Study centred on Framingham, Mass. About a quarter of the children were breastfed for at least a month as babies.

Those who were breastfed were 55 per cent more likely to have high average levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol in adulthood than low levels. Those who were breastfed on average had a lower BMI as adults - 26.1 compared to 26.9 for their bottle-fed counterparts. Adults with a BMI above 25 are considered overweight and at higher risk for heart disease.

Having a higher HDL is considered to protect against cardiovascular disease such as stroke and heart attack.

These cholesterol and BMI differences were modest but significant, according to Nisha Parikh of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who led the study. "The results are intriguing in that they point to this concept that early nutrition or early environmental exposures may affect long-term health," she said.

Breastfeeding was not associated with benefits in other heart disease risk factors the researchers examined, including total cholesterol and blood pressure. The mothers of all the people tracked in the research were also part of the Framingham study.

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PregnancyWeekly.com

Black women are at significantly increased risk for developing a potentially deadly weakening of the heart muscle around the time of childbirth, researchers report.

A study examining the incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy in women who gave birth at a Medical College of Georgia's teaching hospital between July 2003 and July 2008, showed that while 55 percent of the women were white, 93 percent of those who developed cardiomyopathy were black, said Dr. Mindy B. Gentry, an MCG cardiologist.

"When it hits, it's totally unexpected because these are young, otherwise healthy women with young children. (They aren't patients) you'd expect to have any sort of health problem much less heart failure," Dr. Gentry said.

Other risk factors include hypertension, being unmarried, smoking during pregnancy and having more than two previous pregnancies, but African-American race was the most important predictor, said Dr. Gentry, corresponding author on the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Two previously published studies from Haiti and South Africa found a higher incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy than in other parts of the world but essentially all the participants were black. The heterogeneous population giving birth at MCGHealth Medical Center made it easier to assess the effect of race, Dr. Gentry noted.

Further research is needed to identify potential environmental and/or genetic factors associated with African descent that explain the increased risk, the researchers said. They have begun follow up studies looking for any racial differences in healthy hearts following delivery, such as how much blood is ejected with each beat.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy typically occurs in the last month of pregnancy or the first few months after delivery. Symptoms include shortness of breath, particularly when lying down, as excess fluid congests the lungs and the rest of the body. The suffocating backlog is caused by an enlarged, stiff heart muscle that no longer pumps efficiently.

Drugs can improve pumping efficiency. About half the time, the condition spontaneously reverses but it can cause debilitation and death, with mortality rates ranging from 15-56 percent. Of the 28 women with peripartum cardiomyopathy in the MCG study, one patient died and another required a heart transplant.

In every pregnancy, the blood volume increases about 50 percent to accommodate increased demands from the placenta and baby. Heart rate increases to help circulate the extra blood, Dr. Gentry said. Black women also are at increased risk for abnormal increases in blood pressure, called preeclampsia, that can occur late in pregnancy.

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PregnancyWeekly.com

Black women are at significantly increased risk for developing a potentially deadly weakening of the heart muscle around the time of childbirth, researchers report.

A study examining the incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy in women who gave birth at a Medical College of Georgia's teaching hospital between July 2003 and July 2008, showed that while 55 percent of the women were white, 93 percent of those who developed cardiomyopathy were black, said Dr. Mindy B. Gentry, an MCG cardiologist.

"When it hits, it's totally unexpected because these are young, otherwise healthy women with young children. (They aren't patients) you'd expect to have any sort of health problem much less heart failure," Dr. Gentry said.

Other risk factors include hypertension, being unmarried, smoking during pregnancy and having more than two previous pregnancies, but African-American race was the most important predictor, said Dr. Gentry, corresponding author on the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Two previously published studies from Haiti and South Africa found a higher incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy than in other parts of the world but essentially all the participants were black. The heterogeneous population giving birth at MCGHealth Medical Center made it easier to assess the effect of race, Dr. Gentry noted.

Further research is needed to identify potential environmental and/or genetic factors associated with African descent that explain the increased risk, the researchers said. They have begun follow up studies looking for any racial differences in healthy hearts following delivery, such as how much blood is ejected with each beat.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy typically occurs in the last month of pregnancy or the first few months after delivery. Symptoms include shortness of breath, particularly when lying down, as excess fluid congests the lungs and the rest of the body. The suffocating backlog is caused by an enlarged, stiff heart muscle that no longer pumps efficiently.

Drugs can improve pumping efficiency. About half the time, the condition spontaneously reverses but it can cause debilitation and death, with mortality rates ranging from 15-56 percent. Of the 28 women with peripartum cardiomyopathy in the MCG study, one patient died and another required a heart transplant.

In every pregnancy, the blood volume increases about 50 percent to accommodate increased demands from the placenta and baby. Heart rate increases to help circulate the extra blood, Dr. Gentry said. Black women also are at increased risk for abnormal increases in blood pressure, called preeclampsia, that can occur late in pregnancy.

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PregnancyWeekly.com

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements are believed to have many health benefits, but the one thing they can't do is help women with a history of delivering their babies early carry their next child to full term, new research finds.

"The omega-3 did not add any benefit," said study author Dr. Margaret Harper, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC. The study appears in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Harper and her colleagues randomly assigned 852 pregnant women with a history of a preterm birth either to get a daily omega-3 supplement or a placebo beginning about week 16 to 22 and continuing through week 36 of gestation.

All women also received weekly intramuscular hormone injections of hydroxyprogesterone caproate, which has been shown to improve the chances of carrying a baby to term, Harper said.

Her team followed up to see which women delivered before 37 weeks. Full-term is defined as 37 weeks of completed gestation.

Delivery before 37 weeks occurred in 37.8 percent of those taking omega-3, and 41.6 percent of those in the placebo group, a small difference.

Prematurity is the leading cause of newborn death, the authors write in the report, and it is increasing in the United States. A woman who delivers one baby before term is more likely to deliver future babies early.

Harper's team decided to study the value of the omega-3 supplements after conflicting findings about the value of the supplements for women at high risk of premature delivery. For those at low-risk, she said, the findings seem to agree that omega-3 supplements don't further reduce the risk of preterm birth.

A recent large review of published studies found only one that showed benefit of the supplements in high-risk women, she said.

According to Harper, omega-3 fatty acids, when metabolized, are converted to much less potent biochemicals called prostaglandins, which make the uterus contract, than are omega-6 fatty acids -- also essential fatty acids but typically over-eaten in Western diets. Adding omega-3s to an omega-6-heavy diet, so the thinking went, might result in better chances of carrying the baby to term.

Omega-3 supplements, in other research, have been found to help heart health, to lower blood pressure and to reduce the risk of abnormal heartbeats.

But in Harper's study, she also noted that women getting omega-3 supplements were more likely to give birth to a baby with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). While 59 babies (13.9 percent) of those in the omega-3 group had RDS, only 35 (8.7 percent) of those in the placebo group did. In other words, the omega-3 mothers' babies were 1.6 times more likely to get RDS than infants born to mothers taking placebo. It's the first time such a finding has been reported in clinical trials, the authors wrote.

"While the study's results showed no difference, there is early evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for fetal brain development, so women should still consider taking them, in conjunction with their doctor's advice, despite what seems to be little benefit for the reduction of spontaneous preterm birth."

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PregnancyWeekly.com