Panel: Women need chance to avoid repeat C-section

2010-03-10T13:15:28Z

<div id="subtitle">Govt panel finds too many women denied chance to avoid repeat C-section, urges policy change</div><div><p>A government panel says too many women who want to avoid a second Cesarean-section for child birth are being denied the chance.</p><p>About 15 years ago, nearly 30 percent of women who'd had one C-section were delivering their next baby vaginally, a trend called VBAC (VEE-back) for "vaginal birth after cesarean."</p><p>But sp...

Hoped-for drop in childbirth deaths not happening

2010-03-09T00:15:30Z

<div id="subtitle">HEALTHBEAT: Jump in obesity, C-sections may be playing role in childbirth-related deaths</div><div><p>Eleven days after her son Benjamin's birth by C-section, Linda Coale awoke in the middle of the night in pain, one leg badly swollen. Just as her doctor returned her phone call asking what to do, she dropped dead from a blood clot.</p><p>Pregnancy-related deaths like Coale's appear to hav...

IVF stillbirth risk four times higher, study finds

2010-02-24T00:30:20Z

<div><p>LONDON (Reuters) - Women who get pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) have a higher risk of stillbirth, scientists have found, although the overall risk is still low.</p><p>Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark stud...

Vaginal birth can be OK after multiple C-sections

2010-02-22T08:41:01Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who attempt vaginal childbirth after having several babies by cesarean section may not have a greater risk of complications than women who've had only one prior C-section, a new study suggests.</p><p>At one time, doctors believed that once a woman had a C-section, she would have to have one for all subsequent pregnancies -- mainly out...

Migraine drugs don't up birth defect risk: study

2010-02-22T09:46:50Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A study in nearly 70,000 pregnant women has found no link between migraine drugs called triptans and the risk of birth defects.</p><p>However, the researchers did find a "slight increase" in the risk of excessive bleeding during labor, and the failure of the uterus to contract normally after delivery, for women who used the drugs while preg...

Excess weight raises pregnancy risks: study

2010-02-22T10:01:48Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Being overweight or obese increases a woman's chances of having an extra-big baby, even after the effects of pregnancy-related, or "gestational," diabetes are taken into account, new research shows.</p><p>Excess weight in and of itself also sharply increased a woman's risk of pre-eclampsia, a potentially deadly pregnancy complication,

Genes in mother, baby raise risk of preterm birth

2010-02-22T12:02:14Z

<div><p>CHICAGO (Reuters) - Genes in the mother and the fetus play a role in the risk of preterm labor, a leading cause of infant death and disability, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday.</p><p>They said gene variants in the mother and fetus can make them susceptible to an inflammatory response to infections inside the u...

Study links infections in womb to asthma

2010-02-22T12:52:03Z

<div><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have linked mothers' infection during pregnancy to asthma, the most common chronic disease among American children, in their offspring.</p><p>A 16-year study following nearly 400,000 births in California found that when ...

Delivery mode not altered by pregnancy exercise

2010-02-22T13:46:42Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women benefit from light-intensity resistance exercise during pregnancy and this type of physical activity is not apt to alter the way they deliver their baby, study findings hint.</p><p>Regular exercise during pregnancy offers overall health benefits, Dr. Ruben Barakat, at Universid...

Ultrasound may cut deaths in high-risk pregnancies

2010-02-22T14:11:09Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Monitoring high-risk pregnancies with ultrasound tests may help prevent some fetal and newborn deaths, a new research review finds.</p><p>The review assessed a technology called Doppler ultrasound, which measures blood flow through the umbilical cord. Abnormal findings indicate that the fetus may be under stress.</p><p&...

Amnesty says Burkina maternal care can be "lethal"

2010-02-22T14:29:29Z

<div><p>LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of women are dying every year during pregnancy and childbirth in the African state of Burkina Faso because discrimination stops them from accessing sexual health services, Amnesty International said Wednesday.</p><p&am...

Hard labor for Haiti's mothers

2010-02-22T14:32:04Z

<div><p>When the screams of women giving birth die down, you can hear the subdued cries of those babies who made it alive into the chaotic post-quake suffering of Port-au-Prince's general hospital.</p><p>The women lie atop mattresses on gravel in the sweltering heat of tents erected in the hospital courtyard. Some have limbs amputated, others pelvic fractures. In

Gates Foundation says to raise Malawi health aid

2010-02-22T14:36:25Z

<div><p>LILONGWE (Reuters) - The Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation plans to raise its health funding aimed to reduce maternal mortality in Malawi, Mel...

Fla. woman fights ruling that kept her in hospital

2010-02-22T14:51:40Z

<div id="subtitle">Months after she delivered stillborn, Fla. woman fights court order that kept her in hospital</div><div><p>Samantha Burton wanted to leave the hospital. Her doctor strongly disagreed, enough to go to court to keep her there.</p><p>She smoked cigarettes during the first six months of her pregnancy and was a...

C SECTIONS

2010-01-12T14:46:19Z

Graphic shows results of two regional studies about the prevalence of C-sections

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WHO survey: Half of China's births are C-sections

2010-02-22T21:37:03Z

<div id="subtitle">Nearly half of Chinese births are C-sections; WHO warns unnecessary surgeries pose risk</div><div><p>Nearly half of all births in China are delivered by cesarean section, the world's highest rate, according to a survey by the World Health Organization — a shift toward modernization that isn't necessa...

Risky C-sections

2010-01-12T10:00:58Z

Mai My Binh, 32, lies beside her newborn Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010, three days after giving birth by cesarean section at the Central Maternity Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. Rates of C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries worldwide, the WHO said in a report sur...

Risky C Sections

2010-01-12T10:00:56Z

In this photo taken June 27, 2007, a nurse examines Deng Qin, who was scheduled to deliver her quadruplets by caesarean section, at a hospital in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province. Rates of C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries worldwide, the WHO said in a report surveying nine Asian nations. (AP Photo) Reuters Health) - Pregnant women tempted to induce labor for convenience rather than medical necessity may want to wait for nature to take its course.</p><p>Dr. J. Christopher Glantz at the University of Rocheste...

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