Vitamin D during pregnancy could lead to a natural birth Researchers from the University of Southampton have found that Vitamin D could increase the chances of a natural delivery. Their study, published in the Journal of Public Health, emphasises the value of good nutrition and supplementation during pregnancy. Here is a closer look at the findings and their implications. How vitamin D could help pregnant women To understand how vitamin D can help in pregnancy, the researchers analysed results from the Maternal Vitamin D Osteoporosis Study (MAVIDOS) trial, a double-blind, placebo-controlled tr ..read more

Pre-eclampsia May Raise Risk of Cardiovascular Disease, Research Suggests Pre-eclampsia is a condition that can affect women in the second half of their pregnancy, after week 20, but can also develop after childbirth. Two signs define pre-eclampsia: new onset high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Although more research is needed on the topic, experts believe that pre-eclampsia is caused by abnormal development of the placenta. As Dr William Cooke notes in his article on pre-eclampsia, the condition can cause severe headaches, issues with vision, pain beneath the ribs, vomiting, and per ..read more

New Technology Could Be Key in Neonatal Care Technology is rapidly evolving and providing healthcare professionals with new ways to care for patients. Now, a new virtual technology could help save the lives of seriously ill newborn babies. It has recently helped its first patient, and its creators hope to implement it across the country. How does it work? LocANTS is a technology developed by a team at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), which comprises Addenbrooke’s Hospital and its sister hospital the Rosie. It is a cloud-based platform that enables specialist neonatal ..read more

New Research Suggests Potential Risks of COVID-19 in Pregnancy Catching a COVID-19 infection at any time during pregnancy increases a woman and her baby’s risk of serious illness and death, a new study has found. The researchers say their findings stress the importance of protecting pregnant women from the virus through vaccination. As more and more research on COVID-19 during pregnancy is published, scientists are getting a clearer picture of how the virus affects outcomes for mothers and newborns. However, because of vast differences in how these studies are designed and conducted, it has be ..read more

New Study Suggests that a Mediterranean Diet Could Reduce the Risk of Complications A new study from the US has found that adhering to a Mediterranean diet around the time of conception may help mothers-to-be reduce their risk of complications later on in their pregnancy. While the study’s author stresses that further research is needed to explore the link between the diet and healthier pregnancies, the findings do provide an encouraging insight into how beneficial certain foods may be when eaten as part of a pregnancy diet. What is a Mediterranean diet? The Mediterranean diet is often champio ..read more

Baby Loss Awareness Week and the Global Wave of Light This year’s Baby Loss Awareness Week culminates on Saturday 15th October when a global Wave of Light will commence at 7pm. Now in its 20th year, the annual week-long campaign aims to bring together anyone and everyone within the baby loss community. It provides a global platform to raise awareness of the impact of pregnancy and baby loss and enables a commemoration focal point for affected families. In many cultures and societies across the world, miscarriage and stillbirth are still taboo subjects, and many women and men feel that those wh ..read more

Why Health Visitors are Important in Early Years Care Over the last six months, several news stories have emerged both from local and national news outlets about the shortage of health visitors around the UK. In December 2021 it emerged that findings from the Institute of Health Visiting (IHV) revealed around a quarter of all health visitors have three times the recommended number of children/families to look after. And only nine percent of health visitors are working within the recommended ratios. The report “State of Health Visiting in England” was published by IHV and stated that there was ..read more

Improving Fertility in Overweight Women – Is Weight Loss the Answer? A new study from the US has revealed that, despite decades of advice to the contrary, the likelihood of getting pregnant and carrying a baby to term for an obese woman with unexplained infertility is not improved through weight loss prior to conception. The randomised research, carried out by Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania, studied 379 women with obesity and unexplained infertility from nine medical centres across the US. Half of the cohort lost weight through intense dieting, using meal replacements and medic ..read more

Research Finds that ‘Baby Talk’ Could be Key in Spotting Autism ‘Baby talk’ is a universal language, in any language. We use a sing-song, melodic way of talking as a way to encourage baby bonding and to stimulate engagement. Most of us do it spontaneously when speaking to babies and small children; using words such as ‘doggie’ or ‘woof-woof’ for dog, ‘broom-broom’ for car, and often using a raised tone of voice. Now, researchers at the University of California in San Diego believe that when a baby doesn’t engage with ‘baby talk’ it could be an early sign of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Seni ..read more

Umbilical Cord Milking – New Research for Non-vigorous Near-term Newborns When a baby is born, the umbilical cord is clamped and cut to separate the baby from the mother and enable the placenta to be born. In a normal birth close to term (i.e. around 40 weeks), most healthcare practitioners will practice delayed (or deferred) cord clamping (DCC). During DCC, the cord will remain unclamped for around one to two minutes so that nutrient-rich blood can be naturally transferred from the placenta to the baby. DCC has been shown to have numerous benefits for near-term, vigorous newborns i.e. those s ..read more