Trusted Information for Healthy Pregnancies
alcohol
Smoking moms tied to lasting kids’ sleep woes
May 10th
Mothers who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have children with sleep problems from birth all the way through age 12, new research shows.
"The more cigarettes that mothers smoked during pregnancy, the more sleep problems the children had," Dr. Kristen Stone of Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health.
What's more, while most of the women who smoked during pregnancy used at least one other drug, Stone and her team found that nicotine was the only substance associated with sleep problems.
Stone and colleagues from centers in Miami, Detroit, and Memphis are following nearly 1,400 children born in 1993, 1994 or 1995 to investigate the long-term effects of exposure to substances during pregnancy.
The current study included children for whom data was available up to age 12. Among the 808 study participants, 374 had been exposed to cocaine or opiates such as heroin before birth, while 434 had not.
Children's mothers or other caregivers reported on whether a child had difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep during three periods: one month to four years of age; five to eight years, and nine to 12 years. Being exposed to cocaine, opiates, marijuana, or alcohol in the womb had no effect on a child's risk of having sleep problems, but nicotine did, and problems were seen at each of the three time points.
The researchers do not report what percentage of children had sleeping problems, but used a common measure of such problems that assigns points for items such as talking in one's sleep, sleepwalking, and having trouble falling asleep.
The link remained even after the researchers took into account factors such as socioeconomic status, whether or not a child had been abused, and whether the mother or caregiver smoked after the child was born.
The findings shouldn't be seen as showing that prenatal use of alcohol and drugs aside from cigarettes isn't as harmful to a child's sleep as smoking in pregnancy, Stone noted. Cigarettes are different from other substances, she explained, in that a person who smokes will typically do so much more frequently than a drug abuser uses cocaine or opiates.
Further, she said, many of the mothers in the study were using multiple substances while they were pregnancy. "When those substances are inside of us at the same time, they basically become a whole new substance because of their interactions with each other," she added. All of this makes it difficult to tease out the effects of nicotine and other drugs, according to the researcher.
When a child does have sleep problems, Stone said, "early and careful attention" to these issues can go along way toward helping that child sleep better.
"Even an emphasis on basic behavioral sleep education could serve those children well," she added. "Doing that would then likely improve the daytime experience for those children as well."
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Alcohol in pregnancy may boost child’s leukemia risk
May 6th
Women who drink alcohol while pregnant raise the risk that their child will develop a rare type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, a new study suggests.
In a pooled analysis of data from published studies, researchers found that drinking alcohol during pregnancy was associated with a 56 percent increased risk of AML in children.
But in an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Julie Ross of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who was not involved in the study, said it's important for women to know that childhood AML is rare (about 700 cases are diagnosed each year) and likely has many causes.
Moreover, she said: "The vast majority of women who consume alcohol during pregnancy will not have a child who develops leukemia. However, given other risks associated with alcohol drinking during pregnancy, these results can help to reiterate the message that it is probably best to abstain from alcohol if you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant."
What causes leukemia in children is largely unknown, but researchers suspect it may be an interaction between genes and the environment, including drinking alcohol, Dr. Paule Latino-Martel of the Research Center for Human Nutrition in France and colleagues note in a report published online today.
When the researchers looked at 21 previous studies of women's drinking habits during pregnancy and childhood leukemia, they found that women who drank during pregnancy had a 56 percent increased risk of childhood AML, they report in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Ross cautioned, however: "While a 56 percent increased risk sounds like a lot, in real terms it means that with a childhood AML incidence rate in the US of about 8 cases diagnosed per million children, the risk might increase to about 12 cases diagnosed per million children. Thus about 4 more cases per million children."
Despite the recommendation that women abstain from alcohol while pregnant, it's estimated that 60 percent of Russian women drink while pregnant, as do 59 percent of their Australian counterparts. Fifty-two percent of French women, 30 percent of Swedish women and 12 percent of American women drink while pregnant, according to estimates.
For American women, Ross further explained: "If we are to believe that the risk (of childhood AML) is increased by about 56 percent, and that about 12 percent of US women drink alcohol sometime during pregnancy, this means that perhaps up to about 6 percent of childhood AML in the US might be attributable to alcohol consumption."
On the flip side, "this also means that 94 percent might be attributable to other causes," Ross noted.
Only a few of the studies reviewed by Latino-Martel's group reported results according to type of alcohol consumed -- beer, wine, or spirits -- and the existing evidence does not suggest that one type of alcohol could be more related to leukemia risk than another, they say.
The limited available data also make it impossible to tell whether it matters when women drink in the course of a pregnancy, although risk tended to be higher when alcohol was consumed later in pregnancy.
The researchers say it's possible the results were skewed because some women who drank during pregnancy did not admit to it "due to the stigma." There were other limitations: Only a few of the studies adjusted for smoking during pregnancy and factors such as exposure to pesticides, folate intake, birth weight and age of the women were largely not taken into account.
Despite these limitations and caveats, the current findings serve to strengthen the public health recommendation against drinking alcohol during pregnancy, the study team, and Ross, conclude.
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Healthy Baby Campaign Uses Texts to Reach Mothers
Feb 4th
Expectant mothers are getting a new tool to help keep themselves and their babies healthy: pregnancy tips sent directly to their cell phones.
The so-called text4baby campaign is the first free, health education program in the U.S. to harness the reach of mobile phones, according to its sponsors, which include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, WellPoint and CareFirst BlueCross and Blue Shield. Wireless carriers including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have agreed to waive all fees for receiving the texts.
Organizers say texting is an effective means of delivering wellness tips because 90 percent of people in the U.S. have cell phones.
"Especially if you start talking about low-income people, cell phones are the indispensable tool for reaching them and engaging them about their health," said Paul Meyer, president of Voxiva, a company which operates health texting programs in Africa, Latin America and India.
Studies in those countries have shown that periodic texts can reduce smoking and other unhealthy behaviors in pregnant mothers.
Meyer said the U.S. program, run by Voxiva, will be the largest health-related texting program ever undertaken.
Under the new service, mothers-to-be who text "BABY" to 511411 will receive weekly text messages, timed to their due date or their baby's birth date. The messages, which have been vetted by government and nonprofit health experts, deal with nutrition, immunization and birth defect prevention, among other topics. The messages will continue through the baby's first birthday.
Text4baby is expected to be announced Thursday morning by officials from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Government officials will be publicizing the campaign in speeches and promotional materials.
Organizers hope the effort can curb premature births, which can be caused by poor nutrition, excessive stress, smoking and drinking alcohol. About 500,000 babies are born prematurely in the U.S. each year, and 28,000 infants die before their first birthday, according to the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition. The nonprofit is among the sponsors of the campaign.
"The real scary thing is that we're an industrialized nation and we're not doing very well on infant mortality, and we know prematurity is a big part of that," said the group's director, Judy Meehan.
Currently the U.S. ranks 30th worldwide for infant mortality, according to Meehan, behind most Western European nations.
Researchers at the George Washington University have agreed to evaluate the effectiveness of text4baby by measuring health trends for mothers and newborns.
Source
Less caffeine better during pregnancy, study says
Dec 8th
For years, medical professionals have been telling pregnant women to reduce their caffeine intake, and that by doing so they could reduce their risks for problems such as premature delivery, low birth-weight babies and miscarriage.
However, for some pregnant women giving up caffeine completely simply is not realistic. For them, how much caffeine is too much?
A report from the British Medical Journal tried to answer this question. Researchers followed more than 2,600 low-risk women at two large teaching hospitals in England from 2003 to 2006. They screened pregnant women for caffeine, tobacco and other drug use. Close monitoring also noted miscarriages, low birth-weight deliveries, preterm delivery, elevated blood pressure and stillbirths.
In attempting to determine a safe upper limit of caffeine intake, the researchers looked for pregnant women who admittedly ingested significant amounts of caffeine as coffee, tea, soda or chocolate. In those women, the average amount of caffeine intake prior to pregnancy was almost 240 milligrams per day. That dropped to an average of 140 milligrams of caffeine during their pregnancies.
To put caffeine levels in perspective, a soda or cup of coffee has about 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine.
What the researchers found answered some questions, but also raised some new ones. In comparing the women who ingested more than 300 milligrams of caffeine vs. those who ingested 30 milligrams of caffeine per day, the most dramatic differences were noted in infant birth weights. Higher amounts of caffeine ingestion were associated with lower birth weights.
From past studies we have also seen a correlation of higher caffeine usage with miscarriage and premature delivery.
So the British researchers confirmed what we already knew - that less caffeine is better when it comes to pregnancy. Unfortunately, they were not able to determine if there is a safe upper limit of caffeine ingestion.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggests a maximum of 300 milligrams per day. The British government's Food Standards Agency recommends no more than 200 milligrams per day. Some doctors say to patients who just cannot say no to that morning cup of coffee is to try to keep their caffeine ingestion to less than 100 milligrams per day.
Of course, we have to keep the results of this British study in context. While levels of caffeine usage greater than 30 milligrams per day were associated with smaller birth weight babies, these differences in weight were fairly small (a few ounces).
Of course, when combined with the use of tobacco, alcohol or other substances, a few ounces could make a big difference.
Source
Alcohol in Pregnancy has Variety of Possible Effects
Nov 23rd
A new study from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found evidence that the amount and timing of alcohol consumption in pregnancy affects child behavior in different ways.
The study has just been published online in the international journal Addiction.
Lead author Colleen O'Leary said the analysis was drawn from a random sample of more than 2000 mothers who completed a questionnaire three months after the baby's delivery, and were then followed up when the child was 2, 5 and 8 years of age.
"Mothers who reported what we would classify as heavy drinking in the first trimester of pregnancy were nearly three times as likely to report that their child suffered with anxiety and/or depression or somatic complaints," Ms O'Leary said.
“Those who drank moderately during that first trimester were twice as likely to report those types of behavioral issues for their child.
“Exposure to moderate or heavy levels of alcohol in late pregnancy increased the risk of aggressive types of behaviors in the child.
“This research suggests that both the timing and the intensity of alcohol exposure in the womb affect the type of behaviour problems expressed.”
In this study low levels of alcohol did not increase the risk of harm to the baby. However, the evidence clearly shows that the risk to the baby increases with increasing amounts consumed.
“It should also be noted that in this study moderate exposure is classified as drinking 3-4 standard drinks per occasion- that's about two normal glasses of wine-and no more than a bottle of wine drunk over a week.”
Heavy drinking included women who were drinking the equivalent of more than a bottle of wine per week.
“Not every child will be affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol. However it is important that women have this information about increased risk so that they can make informed decisions to give their child the best start to life,” Ms O'Leary said.
The National Health and Medical Research Council recommend that the safest choice for women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy is to abstain from alcohol.
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