According to the March of Dimes, a woman can take important steps to improve her chances of carrying her unborn baby to full term.
Pre-term birth is defined as a baby who is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Even at just a few weeks short of 40 weeks — a true full-term pregnancy — a baby could still face much higher odds of being born with serious health problems. These are some key points for an expectant mother to keep in mind, to help insure that her baby is not born prematurely:
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In most hospitals, a newborn’s umbilical cord is clamped within 15-20 seconds after birth. Doctors do this to lessen the possibility of hemorrhaging for the mother. But a review of studies has found that delaying clamping of the cord just a little longer is very beneficial for the baby, and does not appear to increase the risk of severe bleeding (or other complications) for the mother.
The review, published online recently in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, found that delaying cord-clamping for at least one minute after birth greatly improves iron and hemoglobin levels in newborns (hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to all the tissues and organs; more iron means more hemoglobin will be made). Delaying clamping of the cord allows more blood and its iron to pulsate from the placenta and umbilical cord into the baby.
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You may have heard that some foods are not safe to eat during pregnancy. That’s because your developing baby is much more sensitive to germs and other toxins that a fully grown person is generally better able to fight off.
As a mom-to-be who wants to do what she can to help insure the health and comfort of her unborn baby, your diet should consist of natural, whole foods: lean meats, lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and dairy products.
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Many American adults and teens have turned to e-cigarettes in the last few years, as a way to avoid the harmful smoke that conventional cigarettes produce, while still getting the nicotine they want. E-cigarettes are also allowed in some places where people can’t smoke regular cigarettes.
But as more e-cigarette liquids, with their nicotine, make it into American homes, increasing numbers of small children are being inadvertently poisoned by the liquids and their vapors.
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A study by researchers from four top universities has found that forty percent of American babies are failing to develop what psychologists call “secure attachment” — strong emotional bonds with their parents — which puts them at higher risk for dropping out of school and having social problems as adults.
Researchers found that children under age three who fail to develop strong emotional bonds to their parents or caregivers are more likely to be aggressive, defiant and hyperactive in later years. For children growing up in poverty, poor parental care and weak emotional attachment were strongly linked to failure to finish school.
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With autism rates soaring at an alarming rate in the United States, medical researchers are looking for answers as to what causes this mysterious condition, both on an anatomical and physiologic level.
A study published online in late March, 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine is adding weight to scientific belief that autism may start in the fetal or even the embryonic stage of child development.
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A new study shows that noise machines, used to help babies fall asleep, can harm infants when played at loud volumes and used too frequently.
Researchers at the University of Toronto tested 14 popular machines that make either ‘white noise’ or nature sounds and are marketed for babies, to lull infants to sleep or drown out noises while babies sleep.
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Ear infections are the most common condition why children see a doctor in their first years of life. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently revised its recommendations to pediatricians, asking doctors not to be so quick to prescribe antibiotics, the usual cure, because of the long-term harm that excessive antibiotic use can cause to a person’s immune system.
About 80 percent of ear infections will go away on their own after a few days. And because of what we know now about how harmful heavy antibiotic use can be, many parents are looking for natural ways to cure their babies’ ear infections when a cure is needed.
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The controversy over Bisphenol A, or BPA, continues, as heated as it was in 2008, when reports about possible health consequences to humans from long-term exposure followed reviews of many scientific studies.
What Is BPA?
BPA is a solid, colorless chemical used to make many kinds of plastics, and to make the sealant or liner on the inside of food and beverage cans. BPA is used to harden plastics, though it’s also found in some plastic sandwich bags and plastic cling wrap.
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The composition of human milk has been understood in great detail only in the last few decades. And even today, scientists continue to discover new components in breast milk. It has many: a handful of proteins, a handful of fats, and hundreds of carbohydrates or sugars — most of which are not digested by the infant but serve to feed the hundreds of beneficial bacteria species in the mother’s milk that are colonizing the newborn’s gut.
Breast milk also has minerals, vitamins, hormones and enzymes; these nourish the baby and regulate thousands of metabolic processes, including digestion.
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