Trusted Information for Healthy Pregnancies
cord blood banking
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.
Source
Prenatal testing curbs some genetic diseases
Feb 18th
Some of mankind's most devastating inherited diseases appear to be declining, and a few have nearly disappeared, because more people are using genetic testing to decide whether to have children.
Births of babies with cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs and other less familiar disorders seem to have dropped since testing came into wider use, The Associated Press found from interviews with numerous geneticists and other experts and a review of the limited research available.
Now, more women are being tested as part of routine prenatal care, and many end pregnancies when diseases are found. One study in California found that prenatal screening reduced by half the number of babies born with the severest form of cystic fibrosis because many parents chose abortion.
More couples with no family history of inherited diseases are getting tested before starting families to see if they carry mutations that put a baby at risk. And a growing number are screening embryos and using only those without problem genes.
The cost of testing is falling, and the number of companies offering it is rising. A 2008 federal law banning gene-based discrimination by insurers and employers has eased fears.
Genetic testing pushes hot-button issues: abortion, embryo destruction and worries about eugenics - selective breeding to rid a population of unwanted traits.
Some diseases - sickle cell, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, thalassemia, spinal muscle atrophy - occur when people inherit two bad genes, one from each parent. The genes can pass quietly for generations until two carriers mate; then children have a one-in-four chance of getting the disease.
Comparisons to couples not given prenatal screening suggested that screening had cut births of babies with severe disease in half, researchers reported at a genetics conference in 2008. Studies in Canada, Italy, Australia and in Europe also found that cases dropped after screening began.
Gene testing hasn't led to declines in all diseases. Sickle cell, a blood disorder that causes anemia and pain and raises the risk of stroke, has not dropped. It mostly afflicts blacks; gene carriers are said to have sickle cell "trait," which sounds harmless.
"Now we're actually learning that it's not as benign as we thought it was," and that carriers have higher risks for certain medical problems, said Dr. Lanetta Jordan, a Florida physician and chief medical officer of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.
Newborn screening is finding more sickle cell carriers and cases, but this doesn't seem to affect parents' future family plans, Jordan said.
The number of fertility treatments that include embryo screening has been on the rise in recent years, with nearly 5,200 screenings in 2006, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. Carrier testing also is rising. A California company, Counsyl, sells a $349 saliva test for genes for more than 100 inherited disorders. Several thousand people used it over the last year, the company reports.
Eliminating disease is a noble goal but also "should give us pause," Lerner, the Columbia historian, wrote recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"If a society is so willing to screen aggressively to find these genes and then to potentially to have to abort the fetuses, what does that say about the value of the lives of those people living with the diseases?" he asked.
Source
Natural Delivery OK in Cases of Intrauterine Growth Restriction
Feb 5th
Waiting for natural birth is as effective as inducing labor in pregnant women with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), a new study shows.
IUGR, which affects about 10 percent of pregnant women, means that the fetus is much smaller than normal. At birth, these babies are more likely to have low blood sugar, an abnormally high red blood cell count and trouble maintaining their body temperature. These babies are also at increased risk for jaundice, infections and cerebral palsy.
Later in life, people who were restricted-growth babies may be more prone to behavioral disorders, obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
Currently, doctors have two main approaches for women with suspected IUGR who are nearing delivery. Some doctors induce labor because they're concerned about complications, while others await natural delivery.
This study compared the effectiveness of the two strategies among 650 women in The Netherlands. The researchers found that median birth weight was significantly lower among babies born after induced labor (2,420 grams) than among those in the spontaneous delivery group (2,560 grams). Both groups of babies had similar rates of adverse post-delivery outcomes.
The findings show that waiting for birth is equally as effective as inducing labor, the researchers concluded.
Source
Celebrities Turn to Cord Blood Banking
Jan 14th
Some recent celebrity births might be starting a new trend - banking their baby's cord blood! Both moms were spotted with cord blood banking kits in the recent past while out and about with their husbands. Not too sure what storing your baby's umbilical cord lends itself to? Cord blood stem cells can help treat nearly 80 serious diseases that range from blood caners to immune system disorders.
Looks like Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott left their doctor's office in Los Angelos with a kit from Cord Blood Registry.
Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian were spotted shopping around Beverly Hills while Disick held a cord blood banking kit from StemCyte, a nearby cord blood bank in Covina.
If you're curious about the benefits of cord blood banking take a look at the Cord Blood Education Center where you can take a self guided tour. You'll also be able to see what other parents and doctors are saying about cord blood banking!
*Retweet & Win!
Retweet this blog post on Twitter and be automatically entered for a chance to win a pregnancy belly painting kit by Proud Belly, the Countdown to My Birth pregnancy calendar, and a guided pregnancy journal ButterFlies & Hiccups by Laurie J. Wing. This contest runs from January 14th - 17th, and we'll contact the winner via Direct Message on January 18, 2009. Please include the following hashtag #MSPW at the end of your RT so we can track you! Good luck!
Placenta Teddy Bear?
Nov 11th
After giving birth, many women choose to have the placenta tossed out by hospitals. Some women are choosing less conventional ideas...
British designer Alex Green is taking people's placentas and turning them into teddy bears.
"I was very interested in how it was discarded unceremoniously as medical waste, why it's discarded and how we could bring it back…" said Green, who thought placentas deserved a symbolic treatment whether they're saved or not. "It was really about provoking a debate about placentas and how we treat them."
Green said that the placenta must first be cured with salt to kill the bacteria and remove water. He then softens it with eggs and tannins. Once the placenta is prepared, he sews it into the shape of the bear and fills it with brown rice.
"It's more heavy than you'd imagine -- they're more the sort of thing that you'd stick on a mantel pieces," Green told ABC. "It feels soft, somewhere between leather and suede but it's much more flexible than leather -- it's bendy."
Green knows that his idea isn't for everyone. "Of course a lot of people feel it's grotesque," said Green. "But, quite a few women have expressed interest in making them."
Many readers expressed disgust at the the concept. "This is just weird, and a gimmick, and yet one more thing to sit on a shelf, take up space, and collect dust. And, of course, lots of bucks for the 'artist' who thought it up," said LS on the blog ParentDish.
Added reader Ann, "Why turn the placenta into a teddy bear. That's disgusting...I think it's better to save the placenta and spinal cord in case the baby needs it to cure a disease in the future. It's called cord blood banking and so much more valuable than what has to be the most awkward teddy bear in the world."
But many treat the placenta with respect. Some cultures bury placentas and plant fruit trees on top of them as a living monument for the birth of their children. Discovery Green offers a how-to guide. Others believe that eating the placenta can be healthy for women who have just given birth. In Chinese medicine , eating placentas are said to replenish lost blood and nutrients. Some even believe it can help with postpartum depression.
Source