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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How to Know if Your Newborn Is Eating Enough
As a new mom, it’s very natural to worry about all aspects of your newborn’s health, and feedings are no exception.
How can you tell if your baby is getting enough milk? There are a number of clues that can answer this question, beginning with the cues that your little one gives you.
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A recent study from Canada found that full-term babies who spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit had a considerably higher risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD); most of the babies who became autistic also developed other health complications.
Researchers from McGill University in Montreal reviewed the charts of 180 full-term babies born between 1992 and 2007, who had been in the NICU at Montreal Children’s Hospital. All the babies had a gestational age of 37 weeks or longer.
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Recently published results of a global study examining pre-term births reveal that male babies face greater risks while growing inside the womb, at birth and after birth.
The study, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, examined more than 15 million babies born prematurely worldwide. It found that boys have a 14 percent greater chance of being born prematurely than girls; preterm boys also have a higher risk of disability and death than preterm girls.
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A new study found that babies who were bottle-fed were more than twice as likely to develop hypertrophic pyloric stenosis than babies who were breastfed. This condition involves a narrowing (stenosis) of the place where the bottom part of the stomach ends and the first part of the small intestine, the duodenum, begins. It is caused by an enlargement (hypertrophy) of the smooth muscle that surrounds this passageway, the pylorus (from the Greek pyloros or gatekeeper).
As the pylorus gets thicker, food has increasing difficulty emptying from the stomach into the small intestine. This results in babies experiencing what is referred to as “projectile vomiting,” where vomit comes out forcefully and often, sometimes at an arch.
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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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Using 4-D scans, psychologists have uncovered that a baby learns to open its mouth in preparation for putting a hand in the mouth several weeks before full gestation.
Researchers from Durham and Lancaster universities in England performed 60 scans of 15 healthy fetuses at monthly intervals, between 24 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. The youngest fetuses were more likely to touch the upper part and sides of their heads. But as the fetuses got older, they began to more often touch the lower part of their faces, including the mouth; the lower part of the face is the more sensitive part. By 36 weeks, a greater number of the babies began opening their mouths before touching them, suggesting that they were able to anticipate that they were about to touch their mouths. Younger fetuses tended to open their mouths after having placed their hand on it, meaning that they were responding to the touch.
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The wonders of modern science afford us conveniences that we humans never before had. But sometimes, things can get carried away. Take, for example “elective deliveries” — the term used when mothers-to-be pick the date when their babies will be born, as the actual due date draws near.
Studies indicate that the number of elective deliveries in the United States rose significantly between 1994 and the mid 2000’s. Many moms feel that they’re ready to birth their babies once they’ve gone past the 36th week of pregnancy. This may be partly due to the common error of thinking that four weeks equals a month, so that nine months, the proper time of gestation, should be at about 36 weeks. But that calculation overlooks the fact that a month is not 28 days long, but either 30 or 31 (unless it’s February) — which means that the proper gestation time is actually about 40 weeks.
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Many moms-to-be who are planning to give birth in a conventional maternity hospital may not be aware that they have the option to keep their newborns by their side from birth, until mother and baby leave the hospital together a couple of days later.
Giving birth is no small feat, and every detail should be planned beforehand as much as possible. One of the choices a mom should give thought to before the big day arrives, is whether she will want her baby “rooming in” with her. Rooming in is the term used to describe when a baby is not kept in the nursery, but on mom’s bed or beside her bed, for the customary two days before they go home together. A new mom can also opt to have a partial rooming in: keeping her baby beside her during the day and asking the nurses to care for the newborn in the nursery at night.
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It breaks a parent’s heart to see their infant’s skin go from smooth and petal-soft, to developing patches of reddish or whitish dry, rough, itchy skin. And the constant itching is an affliction to both baby and parent. Yet, eczema, also called atopic dermatitis or simply dermatitis, is relatively common among babies. Ten to fifteen percent of all infants will develop this chronic autoimmune condition; some babies are as young as one or two months when symptoms start, but more often, the condition will develop in the first six months of life. Sixty-five percent of babies who will develop eczema show their first symptoms by the time they turn one year of age. Ninety percent of all children who will have eczema show symptoms within the first five years of life.
The propensity for eczema can be inherited from a close relative, or it can be indicative of allergies to certain foods, pet dander or potentially irritating substances like soaps and fragrances.
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