Tag • #pregnancy

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The sweeping reorganisation of the brain in pregnancy, and why it matters – podcast

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 19 September - 04:00

Ian Sample talks to Dr Laura Pritschet, a postdoctoral fellow of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, about her research using precision scans to capture the profound changes that sweep across the brain during pregnancy. She explains what this new work reveals about how the brain is reorganised in this period, whether it could it help us better understand conditions like pre-eclampsia and postnatal depression, and why women’s brains have often been overlooked by neuroscience

Scans capture sweeping reorganisation of brain in pregnancy

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Babes review – Pamela Adlon’s caustically funny pregnancy comedy

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 11 August - 07:00 · 1 minute

Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau fizz in the Better Things creator’s directorial debut, a rapid-fire riff on pregnancy, motherhood and female friendship

Motherhood changes everything. Or that’s the received wisdom anyway. However, Eden – Ilana Glazer, who also co-wrote the film and rattles out her lines with a flip, crackling energy that veers between the scatological and the screwball – didn’t get that particular memo. A freewheeling, terminally single yoga teacher from Astoria, Queens, she is not about to let an unplanned baby derail her life. Her personality (large, loud, tirelessly hedonistic) is stamped on to every aspect of her pregnancy. Her birth plan features helium balloons and tiaras; she has already compiled a Spotify playlist of party bangers for the delivery room. And holding her hand through it all, Eden assumes, will be her best friend since childhood, Dawn (Michelle Buteau).

But Dawn has a demanding career and family of her own: a newborn whose birth provides the extended comic set piece that opens the film (and sets its forthright tone), and a three-year-old who is dabbling in satanism after Eden’s unorthodox babysitting (she lets him watch The Omen ). Dawn is one exploding nappy away from a meltdown. She has, to put it bluntly, more than enough shit to deal with without Eden’s contribution.

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UK anti-abortion campaigners running against MPs who back decriminalisation

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Saturday, 15 June - 11:00

Seat of Labour’s Stella Creasy among those challenged by activists running as independents in the general election

Anti-abortion campaigners are running as independent candidates in the general election against prominent MPs seeking re-election who supported decriminalisation.

The seats of Labour’s Diana Johnson and Stella Creasy and Conservative Caroline Nokes are all being targeted by anti-abortion activists. The three proposed or supported recent amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill which would have stopped prosecutions for anyone ending a pregnancy in England and Wales.

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‘Headaches, organ damage and even death’: how salty water is putting Bangladesh’s pregnant women at risk

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 2 April, 2024 - 04:00

As rising sea levels and extreme weather contaminate drinking water sources, doctors are seeing alarming numbers of women with serious health problems including pre-eclampsia

Photographs by Farzana Hossen

In the small, crowded ward of the Upazila Health Complex in Dacope, new and expecting mothers lie exhausted beneath fans that spin noisily above their heads. There are no dividers in the maternity room shared by more than 20 women, so visiting husbands are ushered out by nurses when someone needs attending to.

Sapriya Rai, 23, has pre-eclampsia and is being monitored at the Upazila Health Complex

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Amid US’s shameful maternal death rate, survey finds widespread mistreatment

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 22 August, 2023 - 23:16

Amid US’s shameful maternal death rate, survey finds widespread mistreatment

Enlarge (credit: SIBAS_minich | iStock / Getty Images Plus )

With the US maternal death rate already the highest among affluent countries and still rising, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests pregnant people experience high levels of mistreatment and discrimination during maternity care.

The survey of 2,402 mothers from around the country found that one in five experienced some type of mistreatment by health care providers during their maternity care. The most common forms included having health concerns ignored or dismissed (10 percent), being shouted at or scolded (7 percent), having their physical privacy violated (5 percent), and having a provider threaten to withhold treatment or force them to accept unwanted treatment (5 percent). Additionally, nearly 30 percent of survey takers reported experiencing discrimination during their maternity care, including their race, age, weight, and income.

Black, Hispanic, and multi-racial mothers reported the highest rates of mistreatment and discrimination. These racial disparities mirror disparities seen in pregnancy outcomes; mothers in these groups face the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. Black mothers, for instance, are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white mothers.

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FDA issues safety alert on pregnancy tests after bust on illegal medical lab

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 15 August, 2023 - 22:42 · 1 minute

Enlarge / A picture of containers taken from the illegal UMI lab in Reedley, California. (credit: FCDPH )

The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use any at-home tests made by Universal Meditech, Inc. (UMI), the company behind an illegal medical lab hidden in a warehouse in the small city of Reedley, California. The lab was shut down earlier this year by local, state, and federal agencies, which are still working to clear the site, properly dispose of all its hazardous contents, and investigate those responsible.

"UMI has notified the FDA that it has stopped all operations and is no longer providing support for its tests," the FDA said in a safety communication Friday . "The FDA is not able to confirm the performance of UMI’s tests, raising concerns that the tests may not be safe and effective."

UMI manufactured a variety of strip-based tests, mostly pregnancy tests, but also tests for ovulation, ketones, and alcohol in breast milk. The tests were sold under several names—including DiagnosUS, HealthyWiser, DeTec, and PrestiBio. They were available online from at least four distributors, which may not have identified UMI as the manufacturer. The known distributors are: AC&C Distribution, LLC; HealthyWiser; Home Health US Inc.; and Prestige Biotech Inc. The FDA cautions that there may be other distributors that it doesn't know about.

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FDA advisers vote unanimously in favor of OTC birth control pills

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 10 May, 2023 - 20:00

FDA advisers vote unanimously in favor of OTC birth control pills

Enlarge (credit: Perrigo)

A panel of independent medical experts for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of allowing the hormonal birth control pill Opill (norgestrel) to be sold over the counter rather than by prescription.

The 17-0 vote by the panel came after a two-day meeting in which they reviewed data and analysis from the pill's maker, Laboratoire HRA Pharma, and FDA scientists, as well as public comments on the potential switch.

Opill is a once-a-day pill containing only progestin. It was first approved in 1973 and has proven remarkably safe in the five decades since then, proving safer than combination hormone pills that have risks of blood clots. Experts estimate Opill is about 93 percent effective at preventing pregnancy in real-life use, higher than the real-life efficacy of other easily accessible birth-control methods, such as condoms (around 87 percent).

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