Mama's Little Baby
Pregnancy News
For Some, Assisted Reproduction is Like a New Kind of Adoption
VOA News September 19,2005
A growing number of people fulfill their dreams of starting a family using egg donors, sperm donors and surrogate mothers. But they often struggle with a set of non-traditional questions. How will we bond with a child that's not totally ours? How will grandparents and other family members react to this unorthodox genesis? Will society treat these children differently? Experts say finding answers to such questions is key to raising happy and healthy children.
Babies Were Born to be Breastfed
VOA News September 26, 2005
For feeding babies, health experts agree that nothing is better than breast milk. It contains anti-bodies that reduce rates of childhood illnesses. Breastfeeding also protects mothers from certain ovarian and breast cancers. While more American women are nursing their babies now than anytime in the last 50 years, the United States still has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the developed world. A national awareness campaign designed to change that.
World Health Day: Mother And Infant Mortality
VOA News March 30, 2005
In an era of high technology and medical advances, the yearly death of 11 million children and over half a million mothers around the world seems particularly senseless. Most deaths are caused by a lack of access to health care, malnutrition, or simple infections.
Dr. Elizabeth Lule, adviser for Maternal and Child Health at the World Bank
Study: Fetuses of Pregnant Smokers at Higher Risk of Genetic Mutations Linked to Leukemia
VOA News March 8, 2005
Spanish researchers have discovered the first direct evidence that smoking by
pregnant women can damage the genes of their unborn fetuses. They say that some of the genetic mutations they observed raise the newborn's risk of developing leukemia.
In a study of 50 pregnant women, scientists in Barcelona found more abnormalities in fetal cells taken from the 25 women who smoked than in the other 25 who had never used tobacco. In a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they say the smoking mothers had about three times more fetal genetic alterations than the non-smoking women. More...
