New moms get enough sleep, just not good sleep
(Reuters Health) – Contrary to popular belief, new mothers may often get a decent amount of sleep in their babies’ first few months — but it’s not a good-quality sleep, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed a group of new moms, found that on average, the women got just over 7 hours of sleep per night during their babies’ first four months. That is within what’s generally recommended for adults, and, based on past studies, more than the average American gets.
On the other hand, the study found, that sleep is also frequently disrupted — with the women typically being awake for a total of two hours overnight.
The finding may not sound surprising, especially to parents. But the study does challenge a central assumption about new mothers’ typical sleep patterns, according to lead researcher Dr. Hawley E. Montgomery-Downs, an assistant professor of psychology at West Virginia University in Morgantown.
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Miscarriage tough on men, harder on women
(Reuters Health) – Many men suffer emotionally when their partner loses a pregnancy, new research shows. But they recover more quickly from their distress than women do, the study shows.
Not too long ago, experts thought that a man didn’t bond with his unborn child, and that miscarriages didn’t affect men. While several investigators have since reported that men also report feelings of loss, sadness, and helplessness, it’s not clear how severe their distress is, or how long it lasts.
To investigate, Dr. Grace Kong of Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong and colleagues followed 83 couples for one year after a miscarriage. They used two tests to gauge levels of psychological distress in both men and women: the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). None of the study participants had a history of mental illness.
Immediately after the miscarriage occurred, the researchers found, more than 40 percent of the men were suffering significant psychological distress, as measured by the GHQ-12. By three months, however, just 7 percent reported this level of distress, and at one year, 5 percent of the men did.
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Some caffeine okay during pregnancy: obstetricians
(Reuters Health) – A cup of coffee a day during pregnancy probably won’t increase a woman’s risk of miscarriage or premature birth, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said today.
Until recently, studies have had conflicting findings about the effect of moderate caffeine consumption on pregnancy complications.
But, “I think it’s time to comfortably say that it’s okay to have a cup of coffee during pregnancy,” Dr. William Barth, the chair of a College committee which reviewed the evidence, told Reuters Health.
The College’s Committee on Obstetric Practice said that 200 milligrams of caffeine a day, about the amount in a 12-ounce cup of coffee, doesn’t significantly contribute to miscarriages or premature births. That definition of “moderate caffeine consumption” would also include drinking about four 8-ounce cups of tea or more than five 12-ounce cans of soda a day, or eating six or seven dark chocolate bars.
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Mother’s diet, genes raise birth defect risk: study
(Reuters) – Mothers who eat a high fat diet before and during pregnancy may be putting their offspring at risk of birth defects, scientists said on Tuesday.
British researchers studying mice found that a pregnant mother’s diet may interact with the genes her unborn baby inherits and influence the type or severity of birth defects such as congenital heart disease and cleft palate.
“These are very important findings as we have been able to show for the first time that gene-environment interactions can affect development of the embryo in the womb,” said Jamie Bentham of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics at the Oxford University, who led the study.
“We know that poor diet and defective genes can both affect development, but here we have seen the two combine to cause a much greater risk of developing health problems and more severe problems. We are excited by this as it suggests that congenital heart defects may be preventable by measures such as altering maternal diet,” he said in a statement about the findings.
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IVF kids as mentally healthy as others
(Reuters Health) – Parents who conceive through in vitro fertilization (IVF) can rest easy – their children will be just as moody as other teenagers conceived “the old fashioned way” but no more so or less so. That’s the conclusion of new research from the Netherlands.
“This is a most important study, very well designed, and very reassuring,” Dr. Sergio Oehninger, medical director at the Eastern Virginia Medical School’s Jones Institute of Reproductive Medicine, told Reuters Health. The first U.S. IVF baby was produced at the Norfolk clinic in 1981. Oehninger was not involved in the Dutch study.
In vitro fertilization, the most technologically advanced of assisted reproductive technologies, involves removing an egg cell from a woman’s body, fertilizing it in the lab, and placing it in the woman’s womb. It can cost up to $15,000 per “cycle” of medications and procedures, with successful pregnancies often requiring several cycles.
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Induced labor may double the odds of C-section
(Reuters Health) – First-time mothers who have their labor induced may face a greater risk of needing a cesarean section than those who go into labor naturally, a new study finds.
In a study of 7,800 first-time mothers who gave birth at one U.S. medical center, researchers found that those who had their labor induced were twice as likely to ultimately need a C-section.
Of all women in the study, 44 percent had their labor induced — and the researchers estimate that failed induction accounted for 20 percent of the C-sections performed.
The findings, reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, firm up the link seen in past studies between labor induction and an increased risk of C-section. By definition, labor induction is performed before a woman’s body is ready for spontaneous labor, and in some cases there will be problems with labor progression that necessitate a C-section.
The connection is important because while cesarean section is a generally safe procedure, it requires a longer recovery time than vaginal birth, and does present certain risks, such as blood clots, infection at the incision site or in the lining of the uterus, and breathing problems in the baby.
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New study supports exclusive breastfeeding for first six months
By Miriam Falco
CNN Medical Managing Editor
New research provides more evidence that when moms exclusively breastfeed their newborns and infants for the first six months of life, they can signficantly reduce their baby’s risk of serious lung and intestinal infections.
Researchers in the Netherlands looked at data from more than 4000 infants. They found that babies who were exclusively breastfed for more than four months had a “significant reduction of respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases in infants.” They also found that being breastfed until six months of age seemed to be even more protective and even appeared to reduce the number of infections for the next six months of the child’s life.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
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Having a Baby: Depression Affects New Fathers, Too
By RONI CARYN RABIN
One in 10 new fathers experience prenatal or postpartum depression, a condition long thought to affect only mothers, according to a new analysis of dozens of earlier studies.
The men are at highest risk for depression three to six months after the birth of a child, and their depression often corresponds with depression in the mother, the paper found.
“It may be Mom’s depression leading the way; it may be Dad’s depression leading the way; it may have to do with the child’s temperament,” said Dr. James F. Paulson, of the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., the lead author of the paper, published in the May 19 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
“We don’t know much about the causes, but this suggests we should do more to screen for depression in fathers,” Dr. Paulson said.
The research analyzed 43 studies involving 28,004 fathers observed during the period between the first trimester of pregnancy until one year after the birth. Researchers concluded that the overall estimate of paternal depression was 10.4 percent, more than double the 4.8 percent prevalence among men in the general population. About a quarter of women experience depression during pregnancy and about one-tenth have postpartum depression.
American fathers were at greater risk for depression than fathers in other countries, with rates of 14.1 percent compared with 8.2 percent elsewhere. Dr. Paulson said the disparity might be because of cultural differences, along with more liberal paternity-leave policies in other countries.
Postpartum depression: When moms feel out of control
(CNN) — Nine years ago, Chris Loo thought about putting her newborn daughter, Becky, in a basket on the steps of a church down the street from her home, and leaving her there.
“I don’t think I really wanted to get rid of her, I just think I wasn’t thinking at all,” said Loo, 43, a social worker in Flushing, New York. “I started to really feel suicidal, like I just couldn’t go on anymore.” Watch her iReport
Becky, Loo’s third child, is rarely ever in a bad mood, and people will ask Loo if they can spend time with her daughter when they’re feeling down. But when the girl was born, Loo couldn’t get up in the morning. She felt like she couldn’t do anything.
About 10 percent of mothers, such as Loo, experience postpartum depression, severe emotional difficulties following the birth of a child, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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Quarter of U.S. women ambivalent toward pregnancy
(CNN) — Nearly one in four women of childbearing age in the United States are unconcerned about getting pregnant — but aren’t trying either — and would be happy either way, according to a recent study.
“This finding dramatically challenges the idea that women are always trying, one way or another, to either get pregnant or not get pregnant,” said Julia McQuillan, professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the study’s lead author.
About 71 percent questioned in the study of nearly 4,000 women ages 25 to 45 who were sexually active said they were not trying to get pregnant, while 6 percent said they were. But nearly one in four, or 23 percent, told researchers they were “OK either way,” meaning they were neither trying to conceive, nor trying to prevent a pregnancy.
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