Using our mobile app? Be sure to check for any new app updates to receive any enhancements.
Logo

Get Healthy!

Results for search "Premature Birth".

Health News Results - 131

Surging temperatures caused by climate change could lead to more premature births worldwide, a new study reports.

Researchers found a strong association between exposure to extreme heat during the third trimester of pregnancy and the risk of premature delivery.

“High night-time temperatures can disrupt circadian rhythms and potentially influence blood pressure, which may be an iss...

There is no significant link between premature birth and autism, new research out of Israel suggests. 

Findings from the study of more than 100,000 deliveries were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine in National Harbor, Md.

A summary of the findings was simultaneously published in a supplement to the

  • Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
  • |
  • February 14, 2024
  • |
  • Full Page
  • Preterm births linked to “hormone-disruptor” chemicals in plastics cost the U.S. health care system billions of dollars, a new study claims.

    Daily exposure to phthalates -- chemicals used to manufacture plastics -- might be tied to nearly 56,000 preterm births in the United States in 2018, researchers report.

    Estimated medical costs resulting from those early births run from&nbs...

    Using ultrasound to measure blood flow in the placenta and the fetus could help spot issues tied to low birth weight, researchers report.

    As the Dutch investigators explained, about 10% of fetuses are determined to be "small for gestational age" after ultrasound examination in the womb.

    Some underweight newborns do just fine, but others may have a malfunctioning placenta, and that c...

    Pregnant women exposed to flame-retardant chemicals could face an increased risk of premature birth, a new study warns.

    Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are commonly used as flame retardants in products like furniture, baby items, electronics, clothes and building materials, researchers said. The chemicals also make plastics more flexible.

    Manufacturers started using OPEs after flame r...

    Babies born even slightly early have a higher long-term risk of developmental difficulties that could affect their behavior and learning ability, a new study finds.

    Infants born moderately (32-33 weeks) or late preterm (34-36 weeks) are more likely to have epilepsy or problems with brain function, motor skills, vision or hearing, according to analysis of data from more than 1 million Swed...

    Ultrasound scans that pick up "microstructural" changes in a woman's cervix could point to her having a higher risk for preterm birth, researchers report.

    The scans were done as early as week 23 of pregnancy and could help assess risks for "preemie" delivery, even among first-time moms.

    Between 10% and 15% of births occur before term.

    “Today, clinicians wait for signs and sy...

    Having mom or dad hold their preemie baby against their own skin immediately after birth appears to help the infants in their development months later, new research shows.

    In many neonatal wards, babies born prematurely are transferred soon after delivery to an incubator, to keep them warm and help them stabilize.

    But even a few hours of skin-to-skin contact between a newborn and a ...

    COVID vaccines saved the lives and health of countless babies by preventing their premature births, a new study shows.

    COVID-19 initially caused an alarming surge in premature birth rates, but those returned to pre-pandemic levels following the introduction of vaccines, researchers found.

    These findings should help allay vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women, said researcher

    THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2023 (Healthday News) -- Using cannabis during pregnancy may not be as benign as some think, with a new review showing it raises the risk for both premature and low birth weight newborns.

    In turn, that raised the chances of these infants winding up in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for special care.

    There was reassuring news in the analysis, published Nov. ...

    The timing of a simple, standard part of childbirth could mean the difference between life and death for premature babies, a pair of new evidence reviews have concluded.

    Preemies whose umbilical cords are clamped 30 seconds to two minutes after birth are less likely to die before leaving the hospital, compared to those whose cords are immediately clamped, researchers report in the Nov. 14...

    Air pollution from heavy traffic may be driving pregnancy complications and health concerns for infants.

    Researchers who matched more than 60,000 birth records with air-monitoring data found that pregnant patients living in an urban area with elevated levels of nitrogen dioxide had higher rates of preterm birth.

    This included delivery before 28 weeks, according to

  • Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
  • |
  • October 16, 2023
  • |
  • Full Page
  • Smoking during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for premature births, but drinking coffee is not, new research suggests.

    Women who smoked during pregnancy were 2.6 times more likely to give birth prematurely compared to nonsmokers, a risk that was double that of previous estimates, the University of Cambridge scientists found.

    “We've known for a long time that smoking during...

    Advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will weigh the possibilities and parameters of experiments with artificial wombs for premature human babies.

    Scientists have already had some success with the concept in animals.

    During a two-day

    Infants born three to six weeks early -- considered late preterm -- are at risk for learning problems, but they can be overcome, researchers say.

    Preschool attendance and sensitive parenting can help them bridge the gap academically, a new study shows.

    "Our findings highlight an opportunity for pediatric providers to offer prevention strategies to parents of late preterm infants to...

    About 1 in 5 newborns hospitalized for surgery to treat a life-threatening bowel infection are given opioids for pain relief and some then need methadone to wean off the addictive drugs.

    But there is wide variability in use of opioids after surgery in infants, and babies who need methadone tend to remain in the hospital a lot longer, a new study shows.

    “Nobody wants a baby to be i...

    Black women have significantly more preterm births than white women do, and though almost a third of these extra cases can be explained by heart issues and social factors, the rest remain a mystery.

    However, targeting those known factors could improve birth outcomes, a new study suggests. Social determinants of health include factors such as income, education, insurance and access to care...

    Steroids are often unnecessarily prescribed to pregnant women thought to be at risk of preterm birth, a new evidence review contends.

    As a result, millions of babies are needlessly exposed to long-term health problems associated with steroid use in gestation, such as increased risk of infection and delayed brain development, researchers say.

    Steroids can't prevent preterm birth, but...

    It's not only a mother's mental health that is tied to the risk for preterm birth — the father's matters, too.

    New research found that the risk of premature birth was higher for infants whose mothers or fathers had a psychiatric diagnosis than for those whose parents did not.

    Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden analyzed data on all live births to Nordic parents in ...

    About half of extremely preterm babies have at least one life-threatening bacterial infection in their bloodstream after 72 hours of life.

    Now, new research points to the babies' own gut microbiomes as the source.

    Knowing that the most common bacteria in bloodstream infections are also commonly found to colonize the gut without causing disease at first, researchers set out to test...

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday formally withdrew its approval of a drug that was meant to prevent preterm births.

    Sold as Makena, the drug was first approved in 2011 under the FDA's accelerated approval program, but subsequent research questioned the medication's effectiveness and noted serious side effects that included blood clots and depression.

    "It is tragic t...

    While an incubator can save the life of a premature baby, it may be contributing to hearing loss in these vulnerable infants.

    A new study published March 27 in Frontiers in Pediatrics assessed the sounds in the neonatal intensive care unit, evaluating the impact on newborns.

    “The motivation of our multidisciplinary research team concerns the question: why many more premat...

    Jennifer Canvasser had never heard of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) before she gave birth to twins three months prematurely in 2011, but she has since devoted her life to raising awareness about this potentially fatal intestinal disease.

    Her son Micah developed NEC when he was 6 weeks old and died of complications in December 2012.

    He got sick quickly, and there were many ups and ...

    Pregnant women will no longer have any drug to prevent preterm birth after the maker of the only available treatment announced Tuesday that it will withdraw its product, Makena, from the market.

    Covis Pharma Group's decision follows a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel vote last October that concluded the drug does not actually benefit newborns.

    “While we stand by M...

    Premature births dropped during lockdowns in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    A groundbreaking study, which included a group of mostly high-income countries — including the United States, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark and Switzerland — found there were about 4% fewer preterm births than would...

    Pregnant girls who are especially young, those only 10 to 15 years old, face increased risks for complications that include preeclampsia and C-section, according to new research.

    Investigators from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas also found that these young patients are more likely to have problems during pregnancy that are made worse by obesity.

    Exposure to wildfire smoke can increase the risk of premature birth, new research suggests.

    For the study, the researchers reviewed birth certificates and hospital delivery data for more than 2.5 million pregnant women in California from 2007 to 2012, and used satellite images and ZIP codes to compare daily estimates of wildfire smoke intensity.

    The study found that from the four we...

    Major pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and preterm birth, should be recognized as lifelong risk factors for women's heart disease, new research suggests.

    Women who experience any of the five major pregnancy complications have an increased risk of ischemic heart disease up to 46 years after delivery, says the study published Feb. 1 in the BMJ.

    The five compl...

    By the time they're teenagers, babies born prematurely may be getting poorer school grades than their non-preemie peers.

    Researchers found that babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy had lower scores on math and language tests during their teen years compared to kids born at 40 weeks.

    However, the study did not find a significant difference in later brain function in babies born b...

    Kids who are the youngest in their grade may be overmedicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a Norwegian researcher who studied prescribing data.

    Those who were also born preterm were at particular risk of being overmedicated, said Dr. Christine Strand...

    In U.S. states with more restrictive abortion policies, rates of pregnant women, new mothers and infants dying were higher, a new report finds.

    The analysis, conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, found that states with heavily restricted...

    Babies born prematurely who are fed formula may need iron supplementation like their breastfed counterparts, new research suggests.

    “Just because a baby is on iron-rich formula, we should not assume all of their iron needs are being met, since iron from the formula may not have the same absorption as iron from breast milk,” said researcher Grace Power. She is a third-year medical stu...

    More than 1 in every 10 births in the United States now occur prematurely, and the number of these more dangerous deliveries jumped by 4% during 2021, a new report from the March of Dimes shows.

    The premature birth rate has now reached 10.5% of all births — the highest level since 2007, according to the organization focused on maternal and infant health.

    In fact, rates of prematu...

    A hormone therapy commonly used to prevent preterm births probably isn't effective, a new study reports.

    Doctors have been prescribing vaginal progesterone treatments to help at-risk pregnant women delay delivery for as long as possible, researchers said.

    But a new study involving more than 1,600 pregnant women with a history of early delivery revealed that vaginal progesterone had ...

    Protecting pregnant women from air pollution may improve the birth weight of their babies, a new study suggests.

    This is especially important for stressed-out mothers who live in neighborhoods burdened by poor air quality.

    A mother-to-be's exposure to both

    A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Wednesday voted to recommend that a controversial drug meant to prevent premature births be pulled from the market.

    FDA officials have said they want to withdraw...

    In a three-day hearing that began Monday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will give the maker of a drug meant to prevent premature births a chance to show why its drug should not be pulled off the market.

    FDA officials have

  • Cara Murez
  • |
  • October 17, 2022
  • |
  • Full Page
  • Too much anxiety isn't good for anyone, but a new study suggests it is particularly perilous for pregnant women because it can raise the chances of their child being born early.

    Given that finding, the researchers recommended that doctors screen for anxiety during the...

    While babies born prematurely may lag behind their elementary school peers, they eventually catch up, British researchers report.

    By the end of high school, only the kids born before 32 weeks of gestation were continuing to struggle, according to a new study published online Aug. 17 in the journal

  • By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
  • |
  • August 18, 2022
  • |
  • Full Page
  • Children born a little early -- before 39 weeks of pregnancy -- are more likely to have symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new research suggests.

    While birth before 37 weeks' gestation has known links to hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention, this study inve...

    Numerous studies have found discrimination can hurt aspects of human health.

    Now, new research adds to that the impact of discrimination on the youngest humans by linking discrimination with a heightened risk of underweight and premature infants.

    Maternal death rates amo...

    A COVID-19 infection might put pregnant women at risk of premature birth, but only if they're in their last trimester, Israeli researchers report.

    "The results are encouraging and reassuring that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is not associated with any type of pregnancy loss," said Dr. Tal Patalon, head of the Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi Research and Innovation Center in Tel Aviv.

    Her ...

    Decades of research have shown the power of skin-to-skin contact between preemies and their moms, but would the same technique, dubbed "kangaroo care," work with fathers?

    Yes, claims a new Australian study that found when dads held their premature babies close to their bare chest, they reported feeling a "s...

    Phthalates, chemicals that are typically used to strengthen plastics, are in millions of products people use every day, but a new analysis confirms their link to a higher risk for preterm births.

    The largest study to date o...

    Preterm infants who are breastfed do better in school and are less likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says a new study.

    Preemies have a higher risk of doing poorly in math, reading and other academic skills, previous studies have shown. They're also at greater risk for ADHD.

    But starting them off with lots of breast milk appears to blunt this risk an...

    A small preliminary study suggests that the health of an expectant mother's gums may affect her likelihood of a preterm birth.

    The study compared oral inflammation and microbes in 33 women whose babies were born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, considered

  • By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
  • |
  • June 22, 2022
  • |
  • Full Page
  • Rates of dangerous high blood pressure problems during pregnancy more than doubled in the United States between 2007 and 2019, a new study finds.

    "The increase in pregnancy complications is alarming because these adverse pregnancy outcomes - including hypertension [high blood pressure] in pregnancy, preterm birth and a low birth weight infant - not only adversely influence both mom and ch...

    Gum disease has been linked to an increased risk for preterm birth, and now new research suggests that chewing sugar-free gum with xylitol during pregnancy may lower this risk.

    The study took place in Malawi, Africa, which has one of the world's highest rates of preterm delivery. Experts are quick t...

    So, you're pregnant and battling nausea every day. What harm could come from smoking a joint to settle your stomach?

    Plenty, according to a new study that suggests women who use pot while expecting put their infants at risk for some serious health problems.

    The problems included

  • Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
  • |
  • February 1, 2022
  • |
  • Full Page