Posts Tagged ‘premature births’
Alcohol can affect pregnancy
Alcohols pregnancy the womb babies are fed through the umbilical cord of all nutrients that are in the placenta. Therefore, the quality of supply that has the mother influences the quality of food that will have the baby.
While it is true that the mother’s body purifies what it transmits to the baby, no one knows for sure how much alcohol you can drink without harming the mother the baby’s health, so doctors recommend not drinking during pregnancy and even while you breast feed.
What does science has found is that mothers who consume high amounts of alcohol are highly likely to produce fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). It happens that if the mother can not eliminate alcohol from your body, it passes to the baby’s body, who unable to eliminate it still be in development, alcohol begins to accumulate in your body.
In this case, the damage generated in alcohol if the baby’s development, manifesting mental and physical problems such as:
* Spontaneous Abortion.
* Low birth weight.
* Problems in the nervous system (coordination, mental retardation, hyperactivity, etc.)..
* Developmental problems (learning, concentration, behavior, etc.)..
* Defects in the formation of their organs.
If you are pregnant and drink alcohol, you should see your doctor, keeping it abreast of your drinking and especially the frequency of drinking alcohol, the aim of providing these data is that there is an assessment of your case and take measures to avoid harming the health of your baby.
Inadequate attention to maternal and reproductive health
The attention to maternal and reproductive health worldwide is often poor and inaccessible, however, many governments are not doing enough to respond to complaints and identify problems, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch presented a summary of their reports on issues related to reproductive health, with views of the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, 28 May 2010.
The ten-page summary, “” unaccountable: Addressing Reproductive Health Care Gaps, “(” Irresponsible: Addressing gaps in reproductive health care “), illustrates the lack of accountability of the health system in Asia, Latin America , Africa, America and Europe. The accountability is an important issue of global initiatives to improve maternal health, including those related to the Millennium Development Goals United Nations and the G-8 summit of 2010.
“Governments have long promised to reduce maternal deaths and improve reproductive health care,” said Janet Walsh, deputy director of Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch. “However, many of them are not even taking basic steps such as allowing patients to file complaints, responding to complaints, establish medical standards and keep track of births and deaths,” he added.
In interviews around the world, hundreds of women and girls have described their attempts to receive reproductive health care as an obstacle course. There are logistical barriers, cultural and financial services and information for and discrimination and health care providers abusive that stand in your way.
Premature Babies
When the baby is born prematurely need special medical care. Can be monitored in a particular sector of motherhood, or even being hospitalized in a pediatric service. When the child is premature or ill there is another solution: The neonatal units.
It is considered premature baby who was born before 37 weeks gestation. As a consequence, their bodies and core functions have not reached maturity. The premature baby will need to develop within the incubator in the first place if born before the end of the eighth month, if less than 2.5 kilos, if you are malnourished, if you have trouble breathing or have had a difficult birth. In any case, it will be kept under close surveillance by the medical team. Read the rest of this entry »
Progress in Malaria Vaccine During Pregnancy
A recent study has developed an important step towards the creation of a vaccine against pregnancy-associated malaria. The parasite causes the disease can cause fatal reactions in women during their first month of pregnancy.
With the development of the vaccine will prevent many deaths and problems during pregnancy.
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite of the genus Plasmodium that is transmitted to people by the bite of a mosquito. When these mosquitoes bite people, the parasite enters the liver where it multiplies rapidly and goes on to infect red blood cells or erythrocytes. Febrile seizures this causes sudden, intense, every two or three days. This process is exhausted, leaving the body in the case of young children is a high probability of fatal without treatment.
That is why malaria causes about 400-900 million cases of fever and approximately 2-3 million deaths annually, the vast majority of cases occur in children under 5 years. The only way to direct infection among humans is that a pregnant woman transmits them by spraying insecticides to the fetus, which is why these women were particularly vulnerable to this disease because the parasite prevents nutrients from the mother pass through the placenta, thus resulting in abortions and premature births. This disease is very worrying, especially in countries with high infant mortality.
Read the rest of this entry »
Global Study of Preterm Birth
The World Health Organization has recently published a study which raised a number of objectives, such as evaluating the incidence of preterm birth and knows their distribution in the world to develop strategies for prevention and action.
Global prematurity rates, regional distribution and assessment strategies have been the targets they have set the research team led by Stacy Beck in the study has been published by WHO in its official gazette the name of “Impact World of preterm birth: systematic review of maternal morbidity and mortality. ”
To accomplish this were based on data on maternal mortality and morbidity between 1997 and 2002 officers also carried out a widespread search which extended the period until the year 2007, with missing data and models were found by multiple regressions specific to each location.
A 9.6% of premature births registered in 2005, of which 85% of those between Africa and Asia, 7% in the Caribbean and Latin America and 4% in both Europe and North America, excluding Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »
Preventing The Complications of Premature Birth
Preventing the complications of premature birth prenatal therapy of corticosteroid administration significantly reduces respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), intraventricular hemorrhage (bleeding in brain) and infant death.
The most noticeable benefits concern the reduction of severe cases of RDS, a problem that affects 40 thousand children a year in the U.S. and that becomes the leading cause of infant mortality. The average duration in hospital was reduced and approximately one third of children were treated with corticosteroids.
This therapy has been available since 1972 but has ceased to be used is not very clear about the level of effectiveness and cases of treatment with potential complications.
However, after reviewing the scientific work and listen to some experts, one can conclude that corticosteroids generate many benefits for prenatal management and reduce potential risks.
Corticosteroids are hormones produced by the adrenal gland. These hormones have been synthesized and administered when the woman is pregnant, accelerating the maturation of specific organs, including lungs in the fetus.
The medication is effective in pregnant women between 24 and 34 weeks. Studies in children over age 12 who received treatment showed no adverse effects on motor skills, language, cognition, memory, concentration and academic performance.
Previously, antenatal corticosteroid treatments showed great effectiveness in mothers who were given the substance two or 7 days before delivery. There are still many areas of research: the biological mechanism of action of the hormone, the dissemination of clinical practice of this therapy and its impact on women with premature rupture of the uterine membranes.
Genetically Selected Infants
In a hospital near Paris was born the first genetically selected baby in France to avoid an incurable disease. This baby, whose gender has not been clarified, was born one month premature and ahead of schedule, so physicians should wait several days before a final decision on the success of the process.
In any case, his birth is a novelty in France because it represents the first application of preimplantation diagnosis system (DPI), based on genetic analysis and selection of embryos to circumvent any incurable diseases of genetic origin.
This procedure, approved in France for just over a year, allows parents carry the gene for a genetic disease “particularly grave and incurable” having a child completely free of this disease.