Trusted Information for Healthy Pregnancies
technology
Free Parenting Application for iPhones Available for 4 days
Feb 11th
Tap into the collective wisdom of over 30 parenting experts in this insightful and accessible iPhone app.
Dealing with a toddler tantrum? Struggling with teen angst? Or maybe you've got a few quiet moments to focus on empowering yourself as a parent. Turn to the Parenting the Future iPhone app. Wyatt-MacKenzie has gathered well-known authors, leading parenting coaches, and world-renowned luminaries in parenting education.
The easiest way to get the free download is to search for "Parenting the Future" in your Apps store. You can also access it using this link and downloading through iTunes.
Older mothers’ kids have higher autism risk, study finds
Feb 8th
A 10-year study examining 4.9 million births in the 1990s has found more evidence that there's a link between autism and the mother's age at conception.
The link between the parents' age and children's health is not entirely new. Prior studies have indicated that babies born to older women have higher risks of birth defects, low birth weight and certain chromosome problems, such as Down syndrome.
A 2007 Kaiser Permanente study conducted in California reported that autism risk increased with both the mother's and father's age. An Israeli study based in statistics from 1980s had isolated only paternal age as being linked with increased risk for autism.
Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, said the latest research had a far larger sample size.
In the latest study, researchers found that mothers over the age of 40 had 51 percent higher odds of having children with autism compared with mothers between the ages 25 and 29.
The father's age also played a factor, but only when he had a child with a woman under 30.
"When the mom has minimal age risk of an autistic child, we do see increased risks as dads get older," said lead author Janie Shelton, a graduate student researcher at UC-Davis.
It's unclear why the mother's age has more bearing in autism risk than the father's.
The study authors emphasize that while autism rates have risen 600 percent in the past two decades, older women having children contributed to only 5 percent more cases of autism.
As more women delay childbearing, it's important to keep the study in perspective, said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization.
"I don't think a mom blaming herself is going to help us understand what's causing autism or help prevent further cases," she said. "I would urge parents not to blame themselves, regardless of what age they are."
Shelton and the co-authors obtained all birth records in California from 1990 to 1999 and then collected data from the state's Department of Developmental Services to count the number of autism diagnoses from children born during that decade.
How parental age increases autism risks remains unknown, but several hypotheses exist. Some suggest that the cumulative effects of the environment, changes to the autoimmune system, stress and reproductive technology may affect autism risk.
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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.
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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.
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Ultrasounds to be shown live to fathers via iPhone
Jan 11th
The new technology, which transmits video images via the 3G mobile phone network, was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Dr Topol, chief medical officer of the West Wireless Health Institute, which promotes the use of mobile phone technology in healthcare, demonstrated the technique by broadcasting images of an ultrasound examination in Sweden.
He said the new technology was designed to send ultrasound videos to doctors, friends and family, but could even be used to broadcast the examination to “Facebook, Twitter and the whole social networking scene”.
Dr Topol also showed the crowd an Apple iPhone application designed to allow doctors to check the vital signs of patients from any location.
Dr Topol said mobile phone applications have been developed to spot the early warning signs of the top ten causes of hospitalizations in the US, including Alzheimers, breast cancer and diabetes.
He said the technology had the potential to save hundreds of millions of dollars by allowing doctors to act pre-emptively and avoid expensive hospital treatment.
“These things are empowering consumers to take charge of their health,” he said. “You know how we check our emails? Next year we will be sitting here with a Band-Aids on checking our vital signs.”
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Embryo screening test is ‘safe’
Dec 29th
An embryo screening test called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is safe for the children of singleton pregnancies, Belgian researchers say.
They looked at 581 children born at one Belgian centre over 13 years who had been screened using the PGD technique.
They found that rates of birth defects and deaths were similar to those of children born using other IVF methods.
However, significantly more deaths just after or before the birth were seen in multiple pregnancies following PGD.
The findings come after concerns that the PGD screening technique, which involves removing some of the embryo's cells at an early stage, could lead to problems.
But the researchers, writing in the journal Human Reproduction, found no significant difference in birth defect rates when compared to 2,889 children born using IVF but who did not undergo the screening.
In total, 2.13% of PGD children had birth defects compared with 3.38% of the other children.
The perinatal death rate - the period immediately before and after birth - was also similar at just over 1% for singleton children in both groups.
However, for multiple pregnancies there was a difference. In the PGD group it was 11.73%, whereas among the others it was 2.54%.
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Win an iPod Touch loaded with family-friendly Glu Mobile Games + a $100 iTunes gift card
Dec 17th
Glu Mobile is a leading publisher of family-friendly mobile games designed for all cell phone types including the iPhone and iPod touch. Fun games like Diner Dash: Flo on the Go® are an entertaining diversion while waiting for an appointment or in line at the coffee shop. And pickup-and-play games like Mini Golf Wacky Worlds and Glyder are a great way to engage kids.
This is your chance to win an iPod Touch loaded with Glu Mobile games and a $100 iTunes gift card courtesy of BabyWeekly. The contest runs from December 1 - 31, 2009. We will be selecting one lucky winner.
Enter the BabySweeps giveaway by filling out the form here. No purchase necessary.
Home Fetal Heartbeat Monitors May Decieve, Experts Warn
Nov 9th
Expectant mothers may enjoy listening to their unborn babies' heartbeats, but they shouldn't rely on home fetal heart monitors to provide an accurate picture of fetal health, researchers say.
The devices may provide false reassurance in some situations, according to Dr. Abhijoy Chakladar of Princess Royal Hospital in West Sussex, England.
In the British Medical Journal, Chakladar reported a case in which a 34-year-old woman who was 38 weeks pregnant went to the emergency department because she couldn't hear her baby's heartbeat with her home fetal heart monitor.
A few days earlier, she said she had noticed that the baby was moving far less than usual. However, she reassured herself that everything was OK by listening to the monitor. A couple of days later, when she listened again, she couldn't detect anything and sought medical help.
Physicians performed an ultrasound and found no fetal heart activity. They gave the diagnosis -- intrauterine death -- but could not explain why it had happened.
All blood tests and infection screens were normal. There was no significant microbial growth from the placenta or fetus, and the fetus seemed morphologically normal, Chakladar said.
He said the stillbirth "may have been unavoidable," but listening to the fetal heart monitor "certainly delayed presentation to the hospital."
"Without training," he added, sounds heard on the monitor "could easily be misinterpreted." Likely, the mother had simply heard her own pulse or placental flow instead.
Home monitoring devices can give only a snapshot of the heart rate and "provide no indication of other important prognostic features," he said.
Medical professionals provide context that an untrained mother can't, he added. For example, midwives and obstetricians take careful histories and make experienced observations before making interpretations for a diagnosis.
But the sale and use of at-home fetal heart monitors has been on the rise, Rebecca Coombes, associate editor of BMJ, wrote in an accompanying editorial.
The devices are often sold over the Internet, making it hard for the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency -- which is responsible for regulating fetal monitors classified as medical devices -- to take disciplinary action.
But not all fetal heart monitors are medical-grade. Coombes said the regulated products use medical-grade ultrasound Doppler devices, which have to conform to medical standards and can cost $500 or more. But cheaper devices that do not use ultrasound retail for as little as $33.
"These are not considered medical devices," she said.
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IPhone Application Translates Babies Cries
Nov 5th
The Cry Translator listens to a whining child and analyzes the pitch, volume, tone and inflection of his nerve-jangling noise. Ten seconds later, it provides you with one of five “translations”: hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed or bored.
The idea of this $30 iPhone application, apart from preying on the anxieties of new parents, is to help teach you the meanings of the distinctive sounds and to help out babysitters who might otherwise try to feed your three-month old (hunger) instead of just switching over to the Family Guy from American Idol (bored). The application even gives advice on what to do, depending on the translation.
According to the seller, Biloop Technologic, clinical tests have proven the app to be accurate 96% of the time, and it will “continue to translate crying regardless of the age of the child”. This last is an excellent feature, and will help me determine the cause the next time the Lady starts to blubber. On previous experience, I can guess it will most likely be “annoyed” or “bored”. On sale here until November 11th for $10.
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