Two placenta-related markers could reveal older women's risk of serious pregnancy problems such as stillbirth and premature or very small babies, British researchers say.

They analyzed blood samples and medical data from 527 pregnant U.K. women, including 158 in their 20s; 212 in their 30s; and 157 in their 40s.

The...

So-called "forever chemicals" might increase pregnant women's risk of a dangerous condition known as preeclampsia, researchers say.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used and long-lasting chemicals found in the drinking water of many U.S. communities.

A new study found a link between PFAS exposure and late-onset preeclampsia, a condition characterized by high blood pressur...

The joys of motherhood may be overshadowed in the United States since as many as 50% of new or expectant moms can't pay their bills, including health care bills, new research suggests.

"Financial hardship is highly prevalent among pregnant and postpartum women," said study co-author Dr. Michelle Moniz. She is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michiga...

A two-minute test can accurately detect vaginal bacteria associated with preterm birth, researchers have found, pointing to a possible way to identify pregnant women at increased risk of early delivery.

In the United States, about one in 10 babies are born preterm, according to the nonprofit March of Dimes. Babies born preterm (before the 37th week of pregnancy) are at increased risk of h...

While anxiety and depression in pregnant women have already been linked to low birth weight and preterm birth, they may also contribute to higher rates of cesarean deliveries.

Researchers called the study among the largest to document a link between mood and anxiety disorders and first-time C-sections among low-risk pregnant women.

"Our findings reinforce the importance of better id...

When a pregnant woman is infected with COVID-19, the sex of the fetus may influence immune system activity, researchers say.

The new study included 68 mothers-to-be. Thirty-eight developed COVID-19 during their third trimester, while 30 remained virus-free. In both groups, half of the fetuses were male and half were female.

In the infected women, male placentas had significantly hig...

Women who were born with heart defects may get some reassurance from a new study that finds they face no heightened risk to health during a pregnancy and delivery.

According to the researchers, doctors may often advise these women against getting pregnant due to the potential risks for them and their babies, but until now those risks have been unclear.

"The most important finding fr...

Pregnant women suffering from COVID-19 with symptoms are more likely to experience complications that call for an emergency delivery, a new study suggests.

On top of facing a slightly higher risk for needing an unexpected cesarean section, women with symptomatic COVID-19 were more likely to need oxygen support and their infants were more likely to need care in a neonatal intensive care un...

Since the rise of the Delta variant, one Texas hospital has seen a surge in severe COVID-19 among pregnant women -- nearly all unvaccinated.

Researchers at the Dallas hospital found that in late August and early September, 10% to 15% of pregnant patients who tested positive for COVID-19 needed to be hospitalized for severe illness.

That was more than double the percentage of a year ...

Besides the long-established benefits of breastfeeding for baby and mom, a new study reports one more: Nursing could help chase the blues away.

It is linked to a lower risk for postpartum depression -- the so-called "baby blues" -- and nursing for a longer time may further ease depression symptoms, according to the findings.

"Women suffering from postpartum depression, which occurs ...

The country's leading health agency on Wednesday implored all Americans who are pregnant, breastfeeding or planning to become pregnant to get a coronavirus vaccine.

COVID-19 poses a serious risk to women who are expecting, since they are vulnerable because of pregnancy's dampening effect on their immune system, experts say.

But less than one-third of pregnant women have received cor...

Pregnant women who receive an epidural to ease their pain during labor aren't any more likely than others to have kids with autism, two new studies show.

Earlier research suggested this practice may increase autism risk in offspring, but the pair of studies should put this concern to rest for good, experts say.

"Parents can be reassured that there is no link between using epidurals ...

Marijuana use by mothers-to-be may have increased by as much as one-quarter during the pandemic, a new study suggests.

Researchers found a substantial increase in the number of women in Northern California using pot early in their pregnancies after the pandemic emerged compared to the previous year.

"Our previous research has shown that the prevalence and frequency of prenatal canna...

Air pollution impacts the youngest humans, with new research linking dirty air to almost 6 million premature births and almost 3 million underweight babies worldwide in 2019.

More than 90% of the world's population lives with polluted outdoor air, a new study points out. And its effects continue through the years: Preemies or children with low birth weight have higher rates of major illne...

Pregnant women at risk for a serious high blood pressure disorder called preeclampsia should take low-dose aspirin after their first trimester, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

The recommendation, announced Sept. 28, updates and is consistent with the task force's 2014 sta...

COVID-19 can be bad for anyone. For pregnant women, scientific research shows it can be worse: The disease significantly raises their odds of needing ICU care, giving birth prematurely and of dying.

Vaccines offer protection. But despite reassurances and encouragement from a wide array of health groups, vaccination rates for pregnant women remain stubbornly low. According to the Centers f...

When mothers suffer depression during or after pregnancy, their kids may be at heightened risk, too -- all the way into young adulthood, a new study suggests.

Of more than 5,000 kids researchers followed until age 24, those whose moms had depression during or after pregnancy tended to report more depression symptoms themselves.

That was true in their teens, but particularly in young...

Metformin, a commonly prescribed diabetes drug, may help stave off preterm birth among women who develop pregnancy-related high blood pressure.

Preeclampsia is marked by a sudden spike in blood pressure, protein in urine, or other problems during pregnancy. Preterm preeclampsia occurs between 26 and 32 weeks of pregnancy and often leads to early delivery, putting babies at risk. Preemies ...

Treating polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) -- the most common hormone disorder in women of child-bearing age -- is costly.

In 2020, diagnosing and treating this disorder cost an estimated $8 billion in the United States, according to a new economic ana...

One way to help protect newborns from COVID-19 is for women to get their COVID vaccine while pregnant.

A new study found that mothers-to-be who had either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine passed high levels of antibodies to their infants.

Researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine discovered that 100% of 36 newborns tested at the time of birth had protective antibodi...

Pregnant women infected with certain strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) may have a heightened risk of preterm birth, a new study suggests.

HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause genital warts. Most of the time, the immune system clears the infection. But some strains of HPV become persistent in a minority of people -- and, over time, may lead to certain cancers.

In ...

Physically removing a blood clot in the brain is a safe and effective treatment for pregnant women having a stroke, a new study suggests.

Stroke during pregnancy remains rare, but the risk increases during pregnancy and for up to 12 weeks after giving birth, or postpartum.

The most common type is ischemic stroke, where a clot blocks blood flow in the brain. Mechanical thrombectomy ...

The number of U.S. infants born with syphilis is climbing at an alarming pace, reaching a high not seen since the 1990s, according to new government figures.

Newborn syphilis, a potentially fatal condition, was at one time nearly eliminated in the United States. But the disease has seen a resurgence in recent years -- and 2020 was no exception, say researchers with the U.S. Centers for Di...

The COVID-19 pandemic has many women thinking twice about having more kids.

In a survey of close to 1,200 New York City women with young children, one-third of respondents who had been thinking about having another baby before the pandemic but hadn't started trying said they were no longer considering it.

For women who stopped trying to become pregnant when the pandemic began, fewer...

COVID-19 is surging in U.S. states with low vaccination rates, and these places may also be seeing a higher-than-usual number of stillbirths linked to the virus.

While the number of stillbirths is still very low nationally, doctors in the Deep South have noticed increases in stillbirths, NBC News reported.

One of those states is Alabama. But the numbers are too low overall ...

Leaky heart valves can put pregnant women at serious risk, according to a large study that runs counter to established practice.

The condition used to be considered relatively harmless during pregnancy. But this analysis by Johns Hopkins University researchers of more than 20,000 individual medical records reveals that heart valve disease puts women at risk for bleeding, high blood pressu...

Mothers are known for drying their little ones' tears, sometimes with a hug, a song or a kiss on a scraped knee.

So, perhaps it isn't a surprise that new research shows the sounds of mom's voice provide comfort and even pain relief to the tiniest ones, premature babies.

Researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland found that not only did the sound of a mother talking o...

If you're pregnant and worried that getting a COVID-19 vaccine might trigger severe side effects, you can relax.

New research shows that pregnant women and new mothers don't suffer more reactions after a shot than other women do.

"Pregnant people do well with the vaccine," said lead study author Dr. Alisa Kachikis, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the ...

Growing numbers of pregnant women are developing gestational diabetes, putting them and their babies at risk for complications later on.

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy in women who weren't already diabetic.

Between 2011 and 2019, rates of gestational diabetes in the United States jumped 30%, according to a large nationwide study of first-ti...

Since COVID-19 and three vaccines to help prevent it arrived in the United States, questions have swirled about their impact on pregnant women, new moms and infants.

How would the virus affect them and their health risks? Should women get the vaccine while pregnant or breastfeeding?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered an emphatic answer to those questions on ...

Pregnant women should not hesitate to get coronavirus vaccines, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in updated guidance issued Wednesday.

The latest recommendation comes after new data collected by the agency showed no raised risk for miscarriage in mothers-to-be who get the shots during the first 20 weeks of their pregnancy. Previous research has shown similar safety...

In a sign that the pandemic may have spared pregnant women and their newborns, a new Canadian study suggests there was no increase in preterm births or stillbirths during the first year of the pandemic.

Some studies found preterm birth rates in countries such as the Netherlands, Ireland and the United States fell during the pandemic, while there were increases in stillbirths and variabili...

All pregnant women should be vaccinated "without delay" against COVID-19, two leading groups of U.S. obstetric specialists recommend.

That advice -- from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) -- is based on tens of thousands of cases over the past several months showing that vaccination during pregnancy is safe.

Weight-loss surgery can be a double-edged sword for obese women who want to shed pounds before becoming pregnant: New research shows it lowers the risk of some complications, but it may increase the risk of others.

Investigators followed more than 20,000 women in California who became pregnant between 2007 and 2018. Of those, 9.3% had weight-loss (bariatric) surgery before their pregnanc...

This summer has brought dangerous, record-breaking heat to parts of the United States and Canada. The hot weather poses an extra challenge for pregnant women.

Mothers-to-be need to stay cool to avoid heat exhaustion and its complications, according to an expert at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston.

"The summer is tough on pregnant women because the body struggles to cool down w...

Thinking of starting a family? Start getting your heart in shape. New research suggests that how healthy a woman's heart is before conception affects outcomes in her pregnancy.

Study author Dr. Sadiya Khan said the findings make a case for more comprehensive heart assessments prior to pregnancy rather than focusing on isolated individual risk factors, such as high blood pressure ("hyperte...

Women who use electronic cigarettes during pregnancy may be at heightened risk of having an underweight or preterm baby, a new study suggests.

The study of more than 79,000 U.S. mothers found that when women regularly used e-cigarettes late in pregnancy, their babies' risk of low birth weight rose.

Of women who "vaped" but did not smoke standard cigarettes, just under 11% had an und...

Women who suffer from migraines may be more vulnerable to pregnancy complications, new research finds.

"Our study confirms that women who suffer from migraine are at a greater risk of a host of medical and obstetric complications. As such, we are [recommending] that these women should be classed as 'high-risk' pregnancies and should therefore be treated according to a high-risk protocol,"...

Postpartum depression strikes fathers of premature babies more often than previously thought, and it can linger longer in fathers than in mothers, a new study finds.

The researchers screened for depression in 431 parents of premature infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and identified depression symptoms in 33% of mothers and 17% of fathers.

After the babies were brough...

Children may have an increased risk of obesity if their mothers were exposed to high levels of air pollution during pregnancy, researchers say.

In a new study, 123 Hispanic mother-infant pairs were enrolled in an ongoing trial in the Los Angeles region. Before pregnancy, about one-third of the mothers were normal weight, one-third were overweight and one-third were obese.

The resear...

If you're planning to get pregnant or already "eating for two," sticking to a healthy diet may reduce the risk of several common pregnancy complications, researchers say.

The new study included nearly 1,900 women who completed diet questionnaires at eight to 13 weeks of pregnancy, along with estimates of what they ate in the previous three months.

At 16 to 22 weeks and 24 to 29 week...

Expectant mothers' high blood pressure heightens kids' risk of stroke later in life, a Swedish study finds.

"Our findings indicate that hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are associated with increased risks of stroke and potentially heart disease in offspring up to the age of 41 years," said study author Fen Yang, a doctoral student at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The stu...

In a finding that demonstrates the power of a mother's touch, new research shows that immediate and continuous skin-to-skin contact with mom reduces the risk of death for low-weight newborns in poorer nations.

"The idea of giving skin-to-skin contact immediately after delivery to very small, unstable babies has encountered quite strong resistance, but about 75% of deaths occur before the ...

Rising temperatures caused by climate change could trigger a worldwide increase in stillbirths, researchers warn.

The team at the University of Queensland in Australia analyzed 12 studies on the subject. They found that exposure to extremely high temperatures throughout pregnancy appeared to increase risk of stillbirth, particularly late in pregnancy.

"Overall, risk of stillbirth ap...

Exposure to a certain type of air pollution while pregnant may up the odds that your child will develop asthma, a new study says.

Children born to mothers exposed to high levels of ultra-fine particle air pollution during pregnancy have a significantly increased risk of asthma, researchers found.

Ultra-fine particle pollution is smaller than the width of an average human hair and ca...

Women who develop diabetes in pregnancy don't tend to make healthy diet or exercise changes to help fight it, a new study finds.

That could have dire consequences: Gestational (pregnancy-related) diabetes raises the risks of high blood pressure in mothers, larger babies, cesarean delivery, low blood sugar in newborns, and development of chronic diabetes later in life.

Moms-to-be who...

Women who get pregnant within a year of having weight-loss surgery are more likely to have preterm and smaller-than-normal babies, a new study suggests.

Dutch researchers said their findings support current recommendations to avoid pregnancy for 12 to 24 months after weight-loss (bariatric) surgery.

"We should encourage women who wish to conceive after bariatric surgery to avoid pre...

The baby "boom" that some expected during last year's pandemic lockdowns has turned into a baby "bust."

The U.S. birth rate continued to drop in 2020, marking the sixth consecutive year with fewer babies born in America and raising concerns about the economic effects of declining population levels.

There were about 3.6 million babies born in the United States last year, down 4% from...

Giving birth during the coronavirus pandemic presents its own challenges, but the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) wants to reassure pregnant women that they need not panic.

Instead, they "should be comforted to know that the hospital is a very safe place to have a baby now," said Dr. Beverly Philip, president of the ASA.

"The obstetricians, midwives, physician anesthesio...

Certain blood types may increase a person's risk of different health problems, a new study suggests.

The research confirms some previous findings and reveals new links between blood types and diseases, according to the authors of the study published April 27 in the journal eLife.

"There is still very little information available about whether people with RhD-positive or RhD...