0 Prenatal DHA reduces early preterm birth low birth weight

University of Kansas researchers have found that the infants of mothers who were given 600 milligrams of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA during pregnancy weighed more at birth and were less likely to be very low birth weight and born before 34 weeks gestation than infants of mothers who were given a placebo. This result greatly strengthens the case for using the dietary supplement during pregnancy.

The results are from the first five years of a 10-year, double-blind randomized controlled trial to be published in the April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It is also available online. A followup of this sample of infants is ongoing to determine whether prenatal DHA nutritional supplementation will benefit children’s intelligence and school readiness.

“A reduction in early preterm and very low birth weight delivery could have clear clinical and public health significance,” said Susan Carlson, A.J. Rice Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition at the KU Medical Center, who directed the study with John Colombo, KU professor of psychology and director of the Life Span Institute.

“We believe that supplementing U.S. women with DHA could safely increase mean birth weight and gestational age to numbers that are closer to other developed countries such as Norway and Australia,” she said.

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) occurs naturally in cell membranes with the highest levels in brain cells, but levels can be increased by diet or supplements. An infant obtains DHA from his or her mother in utero and postnatally from human milk, but the amount received depends upon the mother’s DHA status.

“U.S. women typically consume less DHA than women in most of the developed world,” said Carlson.

During the first five years of the study, children of women enrolled in the study received multiple developmental assessments at regular intervals throughout infancy and at 18 months of age. In the next phase of the study, the children will receive twice-yearly assessments until they are 6 years old. The researchers will measure developmental milestones that occur in later childhood and are linked to lifelong health and welfare.

Previous research has established the effects of postnatal feeding of DHA on infant cognitive and intellectual development, but DHA is accumulated most rapidly in the fetal brain during pregnancy, said Colombo. “That’s why we are so interested in the effects of DHA taken prenatally, because we will really be able to see how this nutrient affects development over the long term.”

0 Pregnant Women Have Ability to Determine Time of Birth

Pregnant Women | New Haven, Connecticut, For children born on a nice date or certain days that are considered good, pregnant women usually opt for caesarean. But according to research, most expectant mothers have the ability to delay or accelerate the normal birth.

The ability to control the time of birth as shown by the data on mothers giving birth in the United States. Although without the aid of a cesarean section, birth rates on certain dates that are considered either likely to remain elevated.

Research conducted by scientists from Yale University revealed, the number of vaginal birth on Valentines Day (February 14) increased 3.6 percent from an average weekday. Conversely on Halloween Day (October 31), the number of normal births fell 5.3 percent.

During this time, vaginal birth is considered as a process that is spontaneous and can not be planned, so if you want his son was born on a certain date then the solution is a cesarean section. However, these data suggest that vaginal birth is not really spontaneous.

"It seems that pregnant women can accelerate or delay the spontaneous birth, with a very limited time span of course, in response to cultural representation,"

For comparison, the increase in births by caesarean section rate is always increasing, on Valentines Day rose 12.1 percent. Similarly, on Halloween Day, the number of births by caesarean section are also down about 16.9 percent.

The study, published in the Journal of Social Science and Medicine, conducted through long-term observation for 11 years. Number of birth certificates that were observed in this study quite a lot, approximately 1.8 mill

0 Eating Food During Birth

Women should be able to eat and what YOU want to drink during labor YOU: Support is a study door a group of researchers from the East London Hospital Complex, East London `(South Africa), directed by Mandisa Singata and published Cochrane Systematic Review, after which the traditional practice of banning the recruitment of women die giving birth fluids and food during labor has no scientific basis, if pregnant women do not need anesthesia and has no effect on the risk of complications.

 
The last century has been eating and drinking during labor ALS as dangerous because of the damage - death - IF because of "the syndrome of Mendelson" pneumonia tag advocates `inhalation of regurgitated food because of stomach juices have day a toxic effect of the lung (event day, can during "general anesthesia for caesarean occur). Recently, however, attitudes began to change yOU and many maternity units in the TRAF Names UK, women are now allowed, yOU eat and drink what they want.

 
While researchers have analyzed are from 3130 pregnant women who eat die die between them and drink at will, die alone drunk water, and those who die on specific products are abundantly compensated fluids and carbohydrates divided. Large suggested that "there is no salvation, the Full fasting pregnant YOU AS justify at a low risk of complications and anesthesia - Mandisa explains Singata -. Parturients be able to drink for themselves the food during the work of select not. "
Pregnant women at risk for anesthesia, the researchers explain IS no assurance, however, that eating and drinking are not dangerous.