Cesarean Delivery May Increase Risk of Developing Asthma “There are 2 biological plausible hypotheses to explain a positive association between cesarean delivery and the risk for childhood asthma: (1) failure of colonization with maternal birth canal bacterial flora contributes to atopic diseases and (2) the increased risk for respiratory distress and transient tachypnea in newborns is the mechanism for increased asthma risk. This is a longitudinal study conducted for almost 30 years, linking 4 national registers in Norway, to examine the association between cesarean delivery birth and the development of later asthma. “

Cesarean section and risk of severe childhood asthma: a population-based cohort study. (J Pediatr. 2008) “CONCLUSION: We found a moderately increased risk of asthma in the children delivered by CS. The possibly stronger association with emergency CS compared with planned CS could be worth pursuing to investigate possible causal mechanisms.”

Surgical Techniques for Cesarean Delivery Reviewed “No consensus has been reached regarding the best surgical techniques to use for cesarean delivery, according to a Cochrane systematic review highlighting available techniques for uterine incision and uterine closure at the time of cesarean delivery. The review is published in the July 16 Online First issue of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. "Caesarean section is a common operation," write Jodie M. Dodd, from the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues. "Techniques vary depending on both the clinical situation and the preferences of the operator." “

Mother's junk food 'harms child' “ "We always say: 'You are what you eat', but in fact it may also be true that you are what your mother ate." Of particular concern was fat gathering around the major organs, which has been implicated in the development of type II diabetes. The rats with unhealthy mothers were more likely to have this, even if they were weaned off the junk food diet. … Dr Iain Frame, of the charity Diabetes UK, warned against drawing firm conclusions from animal studies. However, he said: "This study does lend some weight to the established argument that children of mothers who have poor diets during pregnancy have a higher risk of developing diabetes and heart disease later in life." “

Preterm Babies Have Increased Rates of Medical, Social Disabilities as Adults

Mother's Vitamin D Status During Pregnancy Will Affect Her Baby's Dental Health

Dietary Fiber Intake in Early Pregnancy and Risk of Subsequent Preeclampsia (American Journal of Hypertension 2008) “Conclusions These findings of reduced preeclampsia risk with higher total fiber intake corroborate an earlier report; and expand the literature by providing evidence, which suggests that dietary fiber may attenuate pregnancy-associated dyslipidemia, an important clinical characteristic of preeclampsia.”

High Fiber in Pregnancy Cuts Risk of Preeclampsia

Fish oil intake compared with olive oil intake in late pregnancy and asthma in the offspring: 16 y of registry-based follow-up from a randomized controlled trial1 (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008) “Conclusion: Under the assumption that intake of olive oil in the dose provided here was inert, our results support that increasing n–3 PUFAs in late pregnancy may carry an important prophylactic potential in relation to offspring asthma.”

Maternal Food Consumption during Pregnancy and the Longitudinal Development of Childhood Asthma (Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 2008) ”What This Study Adds to the Field: This study provides evidence on the relationship between maternal diet during pregnancy and longitudinal development of childhood asthma. Daily consumption of nut products increased the risk of asthma outcomes during the first 8 years of life.”

Perinatal Factors and the Risk of Asthma in Childhood--A Population-based Register Study in Finland (Am. J. Epidemiol. 2008) “In the final multivariate model, maternal asthma, young age, smoking, previous miscarriages, and a high number of previous deliveries, as well as cesarean section, low gestational age, and low ponderal index, were associated with an increased risk of asthma in children diagnosed before the age of 3 years. Among children diagnosed at the age of 3 years or later, maternal asthma, low gestational age, and low ponderal index were associated with an increased risk, and a high number of previous deliveries was associated with a decreased risk of asthma. In conclusion, perinatal factors play a role in the development of asthma in childhood, but the etiology may differ in early and late-onset asthma.”

Diabetes mellitus and birth defects (Am J Obstet Gynecol 2008;)

In utero Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls Linked to Sex of Infant

Is birthweight associated with risk of rheumatoid arthritis? Data from a large prospective Cohort Study. (Ann Rheum Dis. 2008) “CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective cohort, birthweight > 4.54 kg was associated with a two-fold increased risk of adult onset RA, compared with those of average birthweight.”

Maternal infection during pregnancy and schizophrenia.

Mothers from affluent neighborhoods near highways increase odds of low weight babies by 81 percent“"We found a disproportionately high association between living close to a highway and birth complications among affluent mothers," said the study's lead author, Dr. Mélissa Généreux, who completed the research at the Université de Montréal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. "Among affluent mothers who live within 200 metres of a highway, the odds of delivering an infant with low birth weight increase by 81 percent, while their odds of delivering a preterm baby increase by 58 percent compared to mothers who don't live anywhere close to expressways."”

Pregnancy Boosts Heart Attack Risk “Although heart attacks are rare among young women, becoming pregnant does double or triple a woman's risk, a new study finds. … Women who had a heart attack in the 24 hours before or after delivery were twice as likely to die from heart attack compared with women who had a heart attack before labor or in the first day to three months after delivery, the team found. Elkayam's group also found that older pregnant women were at greater risk for having a heart attack. In fact, 72 percent of the women who had heart attacks were older than 30, and one in four were older than 35. One of the most common causes of heart attacks among pregnant women was coronary dissection, where the wall of the coronary arteries is weakened and separates. "This is a rare type of heart attack," Elkayam said. Most women in this group did not have atherosclerosis or blocked arteries, the usual causes of heart attack, he noted. “

Treating Fetal Alcohol Syndrome “Results of a new study reveal the prenatal damage to peptides in the fetal brain may endure into adulthood despite environmental enrichment provided in a child's early years.”