Birth & Pregnancy Briefs

US among worst in world for infant death:

The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.

The same report noted the United States had more neonatologists and newborn intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom — but still had a higher rate of infant mortality than any of those nations.

And Memphis fights its infant mortality rate, nearly twice that of the national average.

The risks linked to caesarean births from a study published in the British Medical Journal:

They found that a woman having a caesarean delivery had twice the risk of illness and mortality (including death, hysterectomy, blood transfusion and admission to intensive care) as a woman having a vaginal delivery.

There was a five times higher risk of having to have antibiotic treatment after birth for women who had a caesarean delivery (elective or decided by clinicians) than those who had a vaginal delivery.

Risk of having to stay in a neonatal intensive care unit for newborn babies who were born head-first was doubled after a caesarean delivery compared to a vaginal birth.

The authors also found that the risk of neonatal death was also significantly increased (more than 70% higher) up to hospital discharge for babies who were born head first from both an elective and a clinician chosen caesarean delivery, compared to a vaginal delivery.

However, caesarean delivery had a large protective effect in preventing foetal deaths in cases of breech born babies and reduced overall risks in those cases.

Elective Caesareans put mums and babes at risk of death:

According to a new British study women who opt for non-emergency Caesareans double their risk of dying or developing severe complications following the procedure.

The study by researchers at the University of Oxford has also found that in some cases Caesareans increased the risk of death to newborn babies by as much as 70 per cent.

Common Drug For Stopping Preterm Labor May Be Harmful For Babies

Dozens of studies have been done, but none have had a large sample size or a definitive outcome on the effects of indomethacin. The new analysis of a collection of studies, or a metaanalysis, by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers pulls together enough data to conclude that there is an association between use of indomethacin and babies experiencing periventricular leukomalacia (white matter injury by decreasing blood flow in the brain, which may lead to cerebral palsy).

The analysis also showed an association between indomethacin and necrotizing entercolitis (a condition in which intestinal tissue dies, which can sometimes be successfully treated with antibiotics but can require surgery and even cause death), especially for those babies who were exposed to the drug within days of birth.

And, no surprise, Diet Affects Fertility.