A new interactive online atlas, which illustrates when, where and possibly how fertility rates began to fall in England and Wales during the Victorian era has been made freely available from today.
New research provides the first clear evidence that the amount of nutrients transported to the foetus by the placenta adjusts according to both the foetal drive for growth, and the mother’s physical ability to provide.
Health warnings about complications related to Zika virus significantly increased demand for abortions in Latin American countries, according to a new study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The babies of obese women who develop gestational diabetes are five times as likely to be excessively large by six months of pregnancy, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge. The study, which shows that excessive fetal growth begins weeks before at-risk women are screened for gestational diabetes, suggests that current screening programmes may take place too late during pregnancy to prevent lasting health impacts on the offspring.
Hidden tumours that cause potentially fatal high blood pressure but lurk undetected in the body until pregnancy have been discovered by a Cambridge medical team.
The new threshold for diabetes in pregnancy recently introduced by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) misses a significant number of women at risk of serious complications, a report published today in the journal Diabetologia shows.
Financial incentives could help one in five women quit smoking during pregnancy, according to new research published today in the journal Addiction. The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London, found that only a small number of women ‘gamed’ the system to receive the incentives whilst continuing to smoke.
New research reveals that the sperm cells of adolescent boys have more than six times the rate of DNA mutations as the equivalent egg cells in adolescent girls, resulting in higher rates of DNA mutation being passed down to children of teenage fathers. The findings suggest that the risk of birth defects is higher in the children of teenage fathers as a consequence.
Increased levels of stress hormones can lead pregnant mice to overeat, but affect growth of the foetus and, potentially, the long term health of the offspring, according to a study published today.
One in 200 babies dies before birth in the UK. A study aimed at determining how to reduce the risk of a pregnancy coming to a devastating end is now producing its first results.
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