'Is Jennifer Hudson pregnant?': Why are you Googling this?

Ask Jeeves probably won't be able to answer with certainty. Nor will anyone on Yahoo Answers or Google, where 'Is Jennifer Hudson pregnant?' currently ranks as the No. 2 search term. But if you're trying to find out whether or not Jennifer Hudson has a bun in the proverbial oven—which you clearly are—your best bet is to simply watch Hudson's performance of "Will You Be There" at Michael Jackson's memorial today. Watch for yourself and make your best guess: Is she pregnant? Or did she stuff a beach ball beneath her dress before stepping on stage? Or did she eat lunch at what I could only imagine was the best restaurant ever? (For the record, the singer herself has to date withheld comment on her pregnancy status, although a family friend spilled the beans about a baby shower held in Hudson's honor at the end of May.)

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Hospitals should offer mothers 'chilled out' maternity rooms and scrap traditional beds

Mothers give birth much more easily and with less pain if hospital beds are removed and maternity rooms are more 'chilled out', new research reveals.

Pregnant women should be encouraged to move about more, traditional hospital beds should be replaced with mattresses on the floor, mood lighting, relaxing music and wall pictures of peaceful scenes.

A study found the changes could reduce the need for powerful labour inducing drugs by 28 per cent.

Two in three of the pregnant women studied in this 'ambient clinical environment' spent less than half their hospital labour in the standard bed.

Professor Ellen Hodnett, of the faculty of nursing at the University of Toronto, said: 'The removal of the standard hospital bed sent a message this was not the only place a woman could labour.'

Prof Hodnett introduced the changes 'to allow the women the ability to move about freely during their labour, to permit close contact with their support people, and to promote feelings of calm and confidence.'

Upright positions are used by women around the world during labour, but western labour rooms are designed so that women are examined lying down.

Research published earlier this year found lying down during the early stages of labour can make childbirth more painful. Women who knelt, stood up, walked around or sat upright had a significantly shorter labour and experienced fewer contractions.

Other studies have also demonstrated women who adopt upright positions for labour have less need of an epidural and have less chance of developing an infection of the womb.

If the woman is upright, the baby's head pushes on the cervix, aiding dilation. It also encourages better blood flow to both the baby and placenta, reducing the risk of foetal distress.

Upright positions are also thought to maximise the space between the pelvic bones and allow the joints to flex slightly so the baby has more space to move.

The latest pilot study, published in the the journal Birth, involved 62 women at two Toronto teaching hospitals. Prof Hodnett devised a set of simple, but radical, modifications to the standard hospital labour room with the intention of surrounding the women and their caregivers with specific types of auditory, visual and tactile stimuli.

Reaction to the ambient room was overwhelmingly positive, as respondents were pleased to have options for mobility and for helping to cope with their labour.

They also indicated they received greater one-on-one attention and support from their nurses.

Added Prof Hodnett: 'The birth environment seems to affect the behaviour of everyone in it - the laboring women as well as those who provide care for her.'

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Pregnancy weight, obese daughters linked

U.S. researchers say a woman's weight during pregnancy may affect her daughter's risk of obesity.

The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, found an average-height mother who weighed 150 pounds before pregnancy was twice as likely to have a daughter who was obese at age 18 as a mother who weighed 125 pounds before pregnancy.

Weight gain during pregnancy mattered too -- both too little and too much weight gain increased a daughter's risk of becoming obese.

Daughters of mothers gaining more than 40 pounds while pregnant were almost twice as likely to be obese at age 18 and later in life than those of mothers gaining 15-19 pounds.

Pregnancy weight gain of less than 10 pounds was associated with a one-point-five-fold increase in the odds of being obese at 18 and a one-point-three-fold increase in odds of being obese in later life.

"If we can help women reach a healthy weight before they start a family, we can make a difference for two generations," study leader Dr. Alison Stuebe of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's School of Medicine said in statement. "Women should aim for a healthy weight before they get pregnant, and then gain a moderate amount."

The study was based on mothers' recalled weights and weight gain for more than 24,000 mother-daughter pairs. The daughters -- all registered nurses -- were enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II since 1989.

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Cesarean section: Local anesthetic reduces need for painkillers post-op

Giving a local anaesthetic during a Caesarean section helps manage pain after the operation and can reduce consumption of painkillers, according to Cochrane Researchers. The researchers recommend local anaesthetics as part of integrated pain management strategies for Caesarean section operations, provided that consideration is given to the cost.

"This review is particularly important in light of the growing number of women giving birth by Caesarean section," says lead researcher, Anthony Bamigboye, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. "Improved pain relief allows mothers to bond with their babies and begin breastfeeding more quickly."

Caesarean sections account for around a quarter of all births in the US, Canada and the UK. Local anaesthetics can be given, in addition to general or regional anaesthetics, to help manage pain during and after operations. The anaesthetic is either injected to block nerves in the abdominal wall or applied directly to the wound as an anaesthetic solution.

The researchers reviewed data from 20 studies that together involved 1,150 women who gave birth by Caesarean section in both developing and developed countries. They found that women treated with local anaesthetic as well as local or regional anaesthesia did not require as much morphine or other opioid drugs for pain relief after their operations. When non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were also given, pain was reduced further.

One concern, however, is the additional cost of giving local anaesthetic. "None of the trials in this review addressed the cost implications of increasing use of local anaesthetic," says Bamigboye. "A cost benefit analysis is needed to find out whether increased expenditure on theatre time and local anaesthetic can be offset by reductions in postoperative painkillers."

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Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation Introduces New Brochure to Address Critical Education Gap

Expectant parents are poorly informed about cord blood banking, according to a study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine. In fact, of the expectant mothers in the study who indicated they have some knowledge of cord blood banking, 74 percent considered themselves minimally informed. Yet, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recommends that all expectant parents should be educated about cord blood stem cells early enough in pregnancy that they can make an informed decision about the options to preserve these medically-beneficial cells.

To help address this significant education gap, Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation, the most comprehensive resource for expectant parents about cord blood medical research and cord blood storage options, today announced the release of a new educational brochure for expectant parents in conjunction with Cord Blood Awareness Month. The brochure has been vetted and endorsed by a scientific and medical advisory board of leading caregivers and researchers and follows the guidance of the Institute of Medicine.

The brochure can be downloaded at no cost from the foundation's home page: ParentsGuideCordBlood.org. It has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, and Hebrew, with more translations in progress.

"Cord blood stem cells are an increasingly important medical resource for saving lives," said Frances Verter, Ph.D., founder of Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation. "This brochure is intended to ensure that more pregnant women have the opportunity to consider saving their newborn's cord blood for family use or donating the cord blood to others who may have a critical medical need. I want all women to understand why cord blood should be preserved and why allowing these cells to be thrown away as medical waste should be a last choice option."

Dr. Verter founded the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood in 1998 after her daughter Shai died of leukemia. What started as a small community service, has grown to become one of the leading parent resources on all aspects of cord blood banking.

The release of the brochure expands the educational mission of the foundation beyond the Internet, into birthing classes and physician's offices. To date, 16 states have passed laws to improve cord blood education during pregnancy, and to encourage physicians to take an active role in educating expectant parents about the options for banking cord blood. A federal bill sponsored by Representative Jackie Speier is currently under consideration in Congress. The brochure from the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation was created to meet the educational requirements of these public policy initiatives and can be distributed by physicians and other healthcare providers.

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Stress during pregnancy can affect your baby

Research carried out by Imperial College London has found that when a mother feels stressed during pregnancy it can increase the baby's heart rate.

Also, although normally the placenta protects the baby from stress and anxiety, if the mother is very stressed the placenta's protection is not as effective - meaning the stress levels can reach and possibly harm the baby.

The new research shows that these changes to the baby could prevent their brain from developing normally and could lead to problems such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning difficulties.

In the past studies have shown that stress during pregnancy can lead to abnormalities such as cleft lip and palate and spina bifida.

The new research into emotional and behavioural problems found that stress in the mother's relationship with her partner can be particularly damaging.

The past research only looked at women who been exposed to 'severe life events' such as death or illness to a close member of the family.

Professor Vivette Glover, lead researcher on this study, says: 'We all know that if a mother smokes or drinks a lot of alcohol while pregnant it can affect her foetus. Our work has shown that other more subtle factors, such as her emotional state, can also have long-term effects on her child.'

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For ways to beat stress during pregnancy check out Breathing Space, hosted by PregnancyWeekly.

Researcher looks for link between stress, postpartum depression

Ilona Yim is an assistant professor at University of California-Irvine's department of psychology and social behavior who is studying the connection between the levels of a stress hormone circulating through the placenta during pregnancy and postpartum depression.

The premise? "It would make more sense to find out if someone is at risk for developing postpartum depression before it occurs," she says.

Yim was part of a team of researchers who recently studied 100 women. The researchers found that 12 of the 16 who had postpartum depression also had high levels of Corticotropin-releasing hormone, or CRH, in the placenta halfway through pregnancy.

CRH is produced in the brain as a response to stress. But in pregnant women, the placenta produces it in overdrive, circulating more than 100 times the amount normally present in the brain by the time she reaches full term. Yim says it's thought to prepare pregnant women for the strain of childbirth.

After the baby is born, levels of CRH drop. That can cause a hormonal withdrawal that leads to other high-stress responses in the body.

The women Yim studied who had postpartum depression experienced the biggest change in those hormone levels. Those who had high levels of CRH 25 weeks into pregnancy were more likely to suffer from depression after the baby arrived.

The results of the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Development, were published in February in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Yim didn't want to stop there. Interested in learning more, she is starting a new project to monitor hormone levels throughout pregnancy for women who have a higher likelihood of depression. Her latest study is being paid for by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

"I want to know whether stress during pregnancy is something that can drive these hormones and whether that is something that can drive intervention," she says.

Postpartum depression can be treated through counseling, anti-depression medication and sometimes hormone therapy, according to the Mayo Clinic. Yim hopes her research also can help at-risk mothers take a more holistic approach early in their pregnancy, such as practicing yoga to reduce stress.

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C-Section Stress Could Alter Baby's Immune Cells

Babies delivered by cesarean section experience changes to the DNA of white blood cells, which might explain why they're at increased risk for immunological diseases such as diabetes and asthma later in life, Swedish researchers say.

"Delivery by C-section has been associated with increased allergy, diabetes and leukemia risks," Dr. Mikael Norman, a pediatric specialist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in a news release from Wiley-Blackwell publishers. "Although the underlying cause is unknown, our theory is that altered birth conditions could cause a genetic imprint in the immune cells that could play a role later in life."

Norman and his colleagues analyzed blood samples from 37 infants taken just after delivery and samples taken three to five days after birth. The blood was analyzed to assess the degree of DNA-methylation in the white blood cells, which are a key part of the immune system. In DNA-methylation, DNA is chemically modified to activate or turn off genes in response to changes in the external environment.

The 16 infants born by C-section had higher DNA-methylation rates immediately after delivery than the 21 infants born by vaginal delivery, according to the report, in the July issue of Acta Paediatrica. Three to five days after birth, both groups of infants had similar levels of DNA-methylation.

Further research is needed to determine why infants born by C-section have higher DNA-methylation rates after delivery, the researchers said.

"Animal studies have shown that negative stress around birth affects methylation of the genes, and therefore it is reasonable to believe that the differences in DNA-methylation that we found in human infants are linked to differences in birth stress," the researchers wrote.

"We know that the stress of being born is fundamentally different after planned C-section compared to normal vaginal delivery," they explained. "When babies are delivered by C-section, they are unprepared for the birth and can become more stressed after delivery than before. This is different [from] a normal vaginal delivery, where the stress gradually builds up before the actual birth, helping the baby to start breathing and quickly adapt to the new environment outside the womb."

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Maternal diet affects infant's long-term bone health

Women who maintain a healthy, well-balanced diet during pregnancy have children with bigger and stronger bones than women with poorer quality diets, according to the results of a study presented Tuesday at the National Osteoporosis Society Conference in Manchester, UK.

"Our data add to evidence that environmental influences during intrauterine life alter the trajectory of skeletal development in the offspring," study presenter Dr. Zoe Cole of the University of Southampton told Reuters Health.

When the researchers assessed the diets of 198 pregnant women, two general patterns began to emerge. The first was a healthy dietary pattern filled with lots of fruits and vegetables, yogurt, whole wheat bread and breakfast cereals. The second diet pattern was less healthy and included large amounts of foods such as chips and roast potatoes, sugar, white bread, processed meat, tinned vegetables and soft drinks.

Bone assessments of the children made up to age 9 years suggested that consuming a healthy maternal diet was associated with greater bone size and density in the offspring.

"Children born to mothers with the healthiest diets, as identified by in the highest quarter of prudent diet score, during late pregnancy had an 11 percent greater whole body bone mineral content and 8 percent great whole body bone area than those born to mothers with the least healthy diet, the lowest quarter of this distribution," Cole said.

Even when mothers were grouped by smoking status, vitamin D status and social class, the differences in diet still had a significant impact on their children's bones, the researchers found. The relationship between a healthy maternal diet and healthier bones in offspring remained even after the child's height, weight, arm circumference and birth weight were considered.

"A healthy diet during pregnancy has long lasting effects on the development of the child's bones," Cole said, and this may lower their future risk of osteoporosis, a potentially disabling bone-thinning disease.

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Women with endometriosis need special care during pregnancy

The largest study to date of endometriosis in pregnant women has found that the condition is a major risk factor for premature birth, the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard today (Wednesday July 1). Dr. Henrik Falconer, of the Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, said that his team had found that women with endometriosis also had a higher risk of other pregnancy complications, as well as being more likely to give birth through Caesarean section. The research is published on-line in the journal Human Reproduction today*.

The researchers investigated the association between adverse pregnancy outcome, assisted reproduction technology (ART), and a previous diagnosis of endometriosis in 1,442,675 single births to Swedish women. They found 13,090 births among 8922 women diagnosed with endometriosis. Compared with women without endometriosis, they had a 1.33% greater risk of preterm birth. Women with endometriosis were also more likely to have difficulty in conceiving and need to receive ART, which is itself a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcome.

"Endometriosis appears to be a risk factor for preterm birth, irrespective of ART," said Dr. Falconer. "Our findings indicate that women with endometriosis may be considered a high risk group and have special care during pregnancy."

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, affecting up to 15% of all women of reproductive age, in which the endometrial cells that line the uterus are deposited in other areas. Symptoms of endometriosis include severe pelvic pain, heavy menstrual periods, and nausea.

In addition to an increased risk of preterm birth, the researchers also found other differences in the pregnancies of women with endometriosis. "Nearly twice as many women in this group were delivered by Caesarean section," said Dr. Falconer. "We observed that among these women the risk of induced preterm birth was higher than for spontaneous preterm birth. We believe that women with endometriosis are more frequently scheduled for preterm Caesarean section, possibly due to placental complications."

Women with endometriosis were also more likely to suffer from pre-eclampsia, a condition that develops in the second or third trimester of pregnancy and involves the development of high blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine. Antepartal bleeding was also found to be more common among women with endometriosis, the researchers say.

"Because endometriosis is so strongly associated with infertility," said Dr. Falconer, "we were not surprised to find that women suffering from it were of higher maternal age and had fewer children. However, after adjusting for maternal age and other confounding factors, the strong association between endometriosis and risky pregnancies still remained.

"Our research provides clinicians with important information in the search for the factors associated with premature birth. Given that endometriosis is relatively common in women of childbearing age, we hope that our results will lead to pregnant women with this condition receiving extra attention, thus enabling them to have normal pregnancies and give birth to healthy babies."

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Cancer Survivors At Greater Risk Of Birth Complications

Survivors of childhood cancer run particular risks when pregnant and should be closely monitored, the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard on July 1. Dr. Sharon Lie Fong, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, said that, although such women may have conceived spontaneously and considered themselves to be perfectly healthy, their deliveries should always take place in a hospital.

Dr. Lie Fong and colleagues studied data on the pregnancies of 40 women who had been treated for cancer during their childhood, the majority of them for leukaemia, but also for solid tumours. Six had had radiation treatment directly to the abdomen. The data were compared with those from a control group of more than 9,000 women who had not had cancer treatment. All data were obtained from The Netherlands Perinatal Register, a nationwide database of pregnancy outcomes. Data were matched for age at pregnancy, year and month of delivery, and the number of times the woman had given birth.

"This is the first such study on pregnancy outcome in childhood cancer survivors as compared with normal, healthy women," said Dr. Lie Fong. "Although we found no differences between most of the survivors and the control group, the women treated with abdominal radiotherapy delivered more prematurely. These women also had more postpartum haemorrhages – the loss of more than one litre of blood after delivery."

In addition to the deleterious effects of abdominal radiotherapy on reproductive function, radiotherapy to the head can also cause problems by causing the hypothalamus to reduce the production of follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, both important in promoting ovulation. "We believe that it is particularly important for all female children who are treated for cancer, and their parents, to be made aware of this risk. Our research has also shown how important it is that, if they do become pregnant, childhood cancer survivors should be closely monitored throughout their pregnancy and that they are delivered in a clinical setting, rather than at home."

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