Trusted Information for Healthy Pregnancies
baby brain
Pregnancy baby brain lapse ‘a myth’
Feb 3rd
Expectant mums need to stop blaming their bump for memory lapses, say experts who want to dispel the "baby brain" myth.
Neither pregnancy nor motherhood addle a woman's brain, say the researchers based on their study of 1,241 women both before and after having babies.
Any absentmindedness might be adaptive, shifting attention to the baby, the British Journal of Psychiatry says.
Lead researcher Professor Christensen said: "Part of the problem is that pregnancy manuals tell women they are likely to experience memory and concentration problems - so women and their partners are primed to attribute any memory lapse to the 'hard to miss' physical sign of pregnancy.
Her team from The Australian National University followed up the large group of women at four-year intervals using memory tests.
During the course of the study more than half of the women fell pregnant, but this did not appear to have any impact on memory.
The test scores remained unchanged before and after pregnancy and did not differ greatly between the group of women who became mums and the group of those who did not.
Professor Christensen and her team said: "Not so long ago, pregnancy was 'confinement' and motherhood meant the end of career aspirations.
"Our results challenge the view that mothers are anything other than the intellectual peers of their contemporaries.
"obstetricians, family doctors and midwives may need to use the findings from this study to promote the fact that 'placenta brain' is not inevitable."
Cathy Warwick of the Royal College of Midwives said: "It is about time that some research lays to rest this notion of pregnant women and the 'baby brain' myth.
"The physical and emotional stresses on a woman's body from pregnancy can make women feel more tired than usual.
"As we all know tiredness - for men as well as women - can make us lose concentration and cause us to function less effectively.
"This is why midwives encourage pregnant women to take appropriate rest breaks, at home and at work. Many pregnant women will need this rest, and all of them deserve it."
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Safety of ‘souvenir’ ultrasound baby scans in question
Feb 2nd
Parents-to-be should weigh the possible risks of going for non-essential scans purely to get keepsake pictures of their unborn babies, experts conclude.
Although ultrasound scans to check the baby's health are entirely justifiable and safe, the Health Protection Agency is concerned about "boutique" scanning.
Its independent advisory board looked at the available evidence for any possible health ill effects.
It said more research is needed to determine the long-term consequences.
There have been some unconfirmed reports suggesting possible neurological effects on the unborn child.
The concern is that with souvenir scans the beam of ultrasound stays static over the baby's head for longer in order to get a sharp mug shot.
Some studies have linked ultrasound scans to higher rates of left-handedness in baby boys.
The report found no evidence to suggest that routine ultrasound scans used for antenatal checks in hospitals negatively affected the health of babies.
But the evidence surrounding commercial ultrasound use was too patchy to make a judgment.
Chairman of the report, Professor Anthony Swerdlow, said: "Ultrasound has been widely used in medical practice for 50 years, and there is no established evidence of specific hazards from diagnostic exposures.
"However, in the light of the widespread use of ultrasound in medical practice, its increasing commercial use for 'souvenir' fetal imaging, and the unconfirmed indications of possible neurological effects on the fetus, there is a need for further research on whether there are any long-term adverse effects of diagnostic ultrasound."
The British Medical Ultrasound Society agreed with the HPA findings.
They urged all patients who had diagnostic scans booked to keep their scheduled appointments as these ultrasound scans have been arranged for a clinical purpose.
They said it was also fine to take home keepsake pictures from these scans - but advised parents against seeking scans solely for the purpose of getting a "nice snapshot for the baby book".
Source
Prenatal Learning Products Draw Expert Skepticism
Jan 12th
For those who say you're never too young to learn, try typing "smart baby" into YouTube. It may give you some doubts.
You'll find plenty of brainy babies who will dazzle you with geography and other skills, their parents pushing them every step of the way. But you might find yourself thinking there is such a thing as too young to learn.
Monique Heller, of Conn., is nine months pregnant. She's already started trying to teach her new baby before the new daughter is even born.
"I want to give her every advantage that we're able to," said Heller. "And to a certain extent, I want her to be prepared for school as early as possible." Heller uses a device called Baby Plus, marketed as a "prenatal education system." The motto: "Your womb ... the perfect classroom."
"I used it in my pregnancy with my daughter Giovanna," said Heller. "And I'm using it now with my second daughter. And the product claims to help babies self-soothe and come out of the uterus a little more calm."
Heller insists it worked for her first daughter. So why not for daughter No. 2? The device straps right onto the mother's belly, for one hour, twice a day.
Baby Plus spokeswoman Lisa Jarrett explained how the device works.
"It plays a sound that is simple and similar to the maternal placental heartbeat. And that encourages a child to discriminate. That discrimination over time strengthens learning skills for life."
Proponents of the device claim it leads to babies that nurse more readily, that soothe themselves, that are more interactive and responsive, more relaxed and more ready for school.
"Ninety-seven percent of parents who utilize this curriculum would use it again, recommend it to a friend, and feel that it has made a difference," said Jarrett.
But Janet DiPietro, a developmental psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, says there's no evidence whatsoever that products like Baby Plus actually help a developing fetus.
"Just because fetuses respond to something doesn't mean that they are learning it," said DiPietro. "Or that it's important to give that sound. So what fetuses seem to respond to most are loud sounds: the vacuum cleaner, a rock concert. And just because they might get kind of jazzed up to one of those things doesn't mean it's either good or bad for them. They just react to it."
We asked Jarrett if there were any studies to back up her product's claims.
"Yes," she said, "there's a study that was published in the Preimparnatal Psychology Journal. It was small. My experience has been with the anecdotal evidence. ... It's been studied. It's just not been studied in long-term huge clinical trials. ... There's one early study... [by] Dr. Brent Logan ... and a developmental specialist in Russia. And it was years ago."
Why didn't it get studied here?
"Well, we are trying," said Jarrett. "We are trying."
Katherine Kranenburg is a middle-class mom in Washington who, like every mom, wants to give her kids every advantage. She has a 2-year-old, Kennedy. And Kennedy's little brother -- not yet born -- already has a teddy bear that plays the sound of a mother's heartbeat.
Kranenburg said she also does prenatal yoga. And she agreed to try out another brainy baby product, made in Israel, called the Ritmo. It hooks up to your iPod, so that mom can play tunes right into her belly.
Kranenburg played Bob Marley. And sure enough, the fetus responded.
But our expert at Johns Hopkins was dubious about the Ritmo, too, because, she says, all that fluid in the mother's belly doesn't muffle the sound -- it amplifies it.
"Which is counterintuitive to most people," DiPietro said. "Because as it goes through the amniotic fluid, the sound gets more intense, not less intense. So when you take these devices and you put them on your abdomen, you're blasting sound at the ear. ... You're taping their head to the speaker. It's akin to taking your sleeping newborn -- because fetuses are mostly asleep -- and putting speakers right next to their crib and blasting Mozart while they're asleep. ... Who would do that?"
Ritmo's manufacturer says its device "works through a sophisticated controller to regulate the output of sound to a level safe for a baby in-utero."
But it may surprise expecting mothers to learn that you have to take their word for it. The government does not require them to meet any special product safety standards.
Source
Pregnancy in Winter Months Increases Risk of Newborn Neurological Problems
Jan 11th
Sunlight is important for our health. In these days when people are afraid of skin cancer and smother on sunscreen, Vitamin D absorption has been reduced. Vitamin D is also vital to infant development, and new research suggests that mothers who are pregnant during winter months have an increased risk of delivering babies with neurological issues. Of particular concern is the increase in babies with multiple sclerosis (MS) born in April.
According to research published in the European Journal of Neurology, lack of vitamin D in pregnancy "predisposes" individuals to MS. The Telegraph reports:
Vitamin D, which is largely gained through sunlight and food, is known to regulate a gene that can predispose individuals to MS. If the gene is passed on to the unborn child, without being regulated by a sufficient amount of vitamin D, it could “hard wire” them to develop the disease in later life…
Professor George Ebers, from Oxford University’s department of clinical neurology at the John Radcliffe Hospital, said: “The difference [in developing MS in Scotland] between being born in April versus November is an astounding 50per cent. This is real, there’s no doubt of a seasonal link. There are different theories, but I think the April excess of births could be linked to a sunlight deficiency.
Should parents living in climates that lack winter sun try to conceive at times to avoid winter pregnancies? Researchers believe this may be prudent if there is a family history of neurological disorders, such as MS, but most women can simply take a vitamin D supplement.
Vitamin D has also been shown to be important in preventing the flu.
Source
Breast not always best, study shows
Jan 6th
Women should forget what they have been told about the health benefits of breastfeeding, researchers have claimed.
A controversial new study has concluded that, contrary to the view of many experts, breast is not necessarily best for children in the first months of life.
Professor Sven Carlsen, who led the Norwegian team, declared: "Baby formula is as good as breast milk."
What really affects the health of a growing infant is the hormone balance in the womb before birth, according to the research.
This in turn influences a woman's ability to breast feed, resulting in a misleading association between breastfeeding and child health, it is claimed.
The only benefit from breastfeeding supported by genuine evidence is a "small IQ advantage", said the scientists. And even this was yet to be properly confirmed.
Prof Carlsen's team reviewed data from more than 50 international studies looking at the relationship between breastfeeding and health. Most concluded that the more children were breastfed, the healthier they were.
On the surface this was correct, said Prof Carlsen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. But he added: "Even if this is statistically true, it is not because of breastfeeding itself. There are very few studies that have examined the underlying controls on breastfeeding ability."
The largest study on breastfeeding was conducted in Belarus and involved more than 17,000 women and children who were monitored for six years. It "cut the legs out from underneath most of the assertions that breastfeeding has health benefits" said the scientists. For example, the study found no evidence that breastfeeding reduced the risk of asthma and allergies in children.
The research is published in the January edition of the journal Acta Obstestricia and Gynecologia Scandinavica.
Source
ADHD linked to obesity during pregnancy
Jan 6th
Children are at double the risk of displaying symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder if their mother was overweight or obese when she became pregnant, according to European research.
It confirms for the first time in a large-scale study a suspected link between mothers' weight and children's mental health.
The study of nearly 2000 Swedish children identified a reduced ability to pay attention at school or preschool among those whose mothers had been overweight. This was even after taking into account the possible effects of mothers' mental health - which could influence the children's upbringing - and the children's own weight.
Children of obese mothers were also twice as likely to express negative emotions such as sadness and fear, and to have difficulty dealing with these appropriately, according to the research by Alina Rodriguez, a psychologist from the University of Uppsala. Her study followed the health of children from the first weeks of their mother's pregnancy through to age five.
Dr Rodriguez said a possible explanation was that excess weight might disrupt mothers' metabolism, making it harder for nutrients essential to brain development to reach the foetus.
Pregnancy puts huge stress on the metabolism, she said, and excessive weight gain might throw it out of balance - perhaps by raising mothers' levels of blood glucose, or of the hormone leptin.
Alternatively, the findings might result from inadequate vitamin D - which is linked to mental development and is known to be present in lower levels in overweight women - or from greater exposure to damaging chemicals, which accumulate in body fat.
Dr Rodriguez said her results, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, could not prove whether maternal obesity caused the problems.
Source
Phthalates in Pregnant Women Affect Masculinity of Baby Boys
Nov 16th
The fact that hormone-disrupting chemicals present in various household products are interfering with the development of children has been substantiated by researchers at the University of Rochester in New York State, who have reported that baby boys born to mothers with above-normal levels of 'phthalates' generally depict less masculine behavior.
The study, published in the International Journal of Andrology, states that phthalates block the activity of male hormones like androgens, thereby changing masculine brain development.
The findings of the study were based on a phthalate-tracing test that the researchers conducted on the urine samples from mothers in the 28th week of pregnancy. The women, who gave birth to 74 boys and 71 girls, during 2000-2003, were contacted again by researchers, who then inquired from the mothers about the personalities of their toddlers, the kind of toys and activities they liked.
It was found that boys born to mothers with high phthalate levels were less likely to play with guns, cars, and trains; and mostly indulged in “gender neutral” activities, like sports.
The study’s lead author, Shanna H. Swan, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said that the results of the study are “consistent with our prior findings that link phthalates to altered male genital development,” as well as “compatible with current knowledge about how hormones mold sex differences in the brain, and thus behavior.”
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