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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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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Mistakes by medical staff are usually to blame in cases where a baby suffers a lack of oxygen at birth, according to a new study from Norway.
Birth asphyxiation, or hypoxia, happens when a baby does not get enough oxygen before, during or right after birth. Oxygen deprivaton can result in brain damage, mental disabilities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy or even death to the infant.
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Good oral health is an important part of our general health. But researchers have found that an expectant mother’s oral health also has the potential to affect her unborn infant’s health. Bacteria from the mother’s mouth can get into the mother’s blood, from where it reaches the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby, and the baby can then swallow the bacteria.
Studies have shown that these oral bacteria can increase the risk of a premature birth or a low-birth-weight baby, start contractions prematurely, or cause the baby to get an infection — either as a newborn, or while the infant is still inside the uterus.
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