Cancer Cells Passed From Mom To Baby

BBC reports that a recent study now proves that it is possible for cancer cells to be passed from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. A woman in Japan was found to have passed leukaemic cells to her unborn daughter.

Dr Frederick van Delft is a member of the research team from the British Institute for Cancer Research. He said cases like this were ''very rare''.

Dr van Delft said the placenta and the child's immune system were supposed to be able to prevent the cancer cells from being passed on but they occasionally failed.

Scientists are now saying that for the first time they have proven beyond a doubt that cells can be transmitted this way. You can listen to an excerpt below.

Antioxidants Help To Lower Risk Of Premature Births

Researchers have found that pregnant women who eat a wide variety of antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables have lower risks of giving birth prematurely.

In a study of over 5,300 women who gave birth in Canadian hospitals, those with higher levels of certain carotenoids where less likely to give birth prematurely.

Carotenoids are pigments that give yellow, orange and red hues to a variety of fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes, carrots, red peppers, watermelon, oranges and orange juice. They also act as antioxidants -- meaning they help protect body cells from damage that can lead to disease.
The protective nutrients included alpha- and beta-carotene, lycopene, and alpha- and beta-cryptoxanthin.

In contrast to the case with carotenoids, Kramer's team found that high blood levels of another antioxidant -- vitamin E -- were linked to an increased risk of preterm birth.

Similarly, women with the highest blood levels of certain dietary fats, including unsaturated fats, showed a somewhat higher risk of preterm birth. Omega-3 fats, found largely in fish, were unrelated to preterm delivery.

The reasons for those connections are also unclear, and the findings could have been due to chance, the researchers note. Kramer said the results are too preliminary to make any recommendations.

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Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day October 15th

On October 15 of every year, at 7 p.m. your time, light a candle for one hour in memory of our babies who were lost far too soon. As each time zone extinguishes their candles and the next one lights theirs, we create a continuous wave of light around the world to remember our angels.



Did You Know?

* 983,000 babies died in 1996, from miscarriage and stillbirth.
* In 1995, 15.7% of pregnancies ended in fetal demise, miscarriage or stillbirth.
* Those figures don't include neonatal loss, SIDS, or other causes.*

*According to The Center for Disease Control Trends in Pregnancies and Pregnancy Rates by Outcome Vital Health Stat (21)56 done in January 2000

For more about Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day, founded by Robyn Bear, visit http://www.october15th.com

Exercising During Pregnancy Reduces Risk Of Heavy Babies

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A new study published in the October issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology has proven that not only does regular exercise keep moms healthy during pregnancy but it also helps to prevent excessive newborn weight.

HealthDay News reports that the Norwegian researchers found that the chances of delivering a heavy baby dropped by 28 percent in women who regularly exercised during their second and third trimesters.

The study also reported that the number of larger babies being born is on the rise while the number of women exercising during pregnancy is on the decline.

The effects of exercise didn't appear to be as consistently beneficial in women who'd already had children. When these women danced or participated in low-impact aerobics, they also reduced the likelihood of delivering a large baby, but when they swam or trained in fitness centers, the benefit disappeared.

Allen said that while exercise during pregnancy is definitely a good idea, these findings might be different if done with a different population. For example, American women are likely more ethnically diverse and have different average body-mass index levels.

But, in any case, Allen said, "Exercise should be encouraged for everyone who's healthy enough to do it. Exercise shouldn't be discontinued just because you're pregnant."

Allen added that research in the United States has also shown that women who exercise are less likely to have preterm deliveries.

Welch cautioned that as women progress in pregnancy, they should avoid any exercise that has them lay flat on their back, because this can restrict blood flow to both baby and mom. Also, contact sports are out, as is anything where falling might be likely, such as horseback riding.

He said he tells his patients to keep their heart rate to no more than 120 beats per minute during exercise. This allows you to get an aerobic workout, but isn't so much that it might shunt blood away from the baby, Welch explained.

Exercise has always been hugely beneficial to the health of mama and baby. Yoga, Pilates, swimming and walking are low impact, gentle ways to stay fit and keep healthy both during and after pregnancy.

Abortions Can Cause Complications In Future Births

Canadian researchers have found that having an abortion increases the risks of premature births or to children with a low birthweight in later pregnancies.

The review of 37 case studies found that women who had undergone more than one abortion had a 72 per cent increased risk of having children with low birthweight and a 93 per cent increased risk of having a premature baby.
It also found that women who had an abortion in the first or second trimester had a 35 per cent increased risk of giving birth to a low-weight baby and a 36 per cent increased risk of having a premature baby.
The authors of the study, published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, stress that further studies are needed to assess the impact of new ways of carrying out an abortion, such as non-invasive treatments where women take a combination of pills to trigger a miscarriage.
Commenting on the study, Professor Philip Steer, editor-in-chief of BJOG, said: “This study highlights the need to assess and improve techniques in order to make termination of pregnancy safer for women.
“There is no question that ToP remains an essential part of women’s healthcare. However, it is important to evaluate the risks and benefits of different techniques in order to ensure safe procedures and healthy future pregnancies for women.”

Pregnant in America: A look at the exploitation of pregnancy and birth

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Pregnant in America examines the betrayal of humanity's greatest gift--birth--by the greed of U.S. corporations. Hospitals, insurance companies and other members of the healthcare industry have all pushed aside the best care of our infants and mothers to play the power game of raking in huge profits.

His wife pregnant, first-time filmmaker Steve Buonaugurio sets out to create a film that will expose the underside of the U.S. childbirth industry and help end its neglectful exploitation of pregnancy and birth.

Pregnant in America is the controversial story of life's greatest miracle in the hands of a nation's most powerful interests.

Pollution exposure during pregnancy linked to lower IQs

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A study of 249 pregnant mothers was performed in New York City. Air monitors were worn on backpacks during the last few months of their pregnancy. Most of the pollution they were exposed to was mostly from cars, buses and truck exhaust.

At age 5, before starting school, the children were given IQ tests. Those exposed to the most pollution before birth scored on average four to five points lower than children with less exposure.

That's a big enough difference that it could affect children's performance in school, said Frederica Perera, the study's lead author and director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

Dr. Michael Msall, a University of Chicago pediatrician not involved in the research, said the study doesn't mean that children living in congested cities "aren't going to learn to read and write and spell."

But it does suggest that you don't have to live right next door to a belching factory to face pollution health risks, and that there may be more dangers from typical urban air pollution than previously thought, he said.

"We are learning more and more about low-dose exposure and how things we take for granted may not be a free ride," he said.

While future research is needed to confirm the new results, the findings suggest exposure to air pollution before birth could have the same harmful effects on the developing brain as exposure to lead, said Patrick Breysse, an environmental health specialist at Johns Hopkins' school of public health.

"It's a profound observation," he said. "This paper is going to open a lot of eyes."

The study in the August edition of Pediatrics was released Monday.

In earlier research, involving some of the same children and others, Perera linked prenatal exposure to air pollution with genetic abnormalities at birth that could increase risks for cancer; smaller newborn head size and reduced birth weight. Her research team also has linked it with developmental delays at age 3 and with children's asthma.

The researchers studied pollutants that can cross the placenta and are known scientifically as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Main sources include vehicle exhaust and factory emissions. Tobacco smoke is another source, but mothers in the study were nonsmokers.

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Pregnancy diet can change your babies genetics

Expecting mothers should be paying more attention to what they eat. New studies show that diet is a big contributer to your child's future health.

Specifically, rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition, the researchers figure; they were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. The poorly nourished rats were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and neurodevelopmental delays.

"Our study emphasizes that maternal-fetal health influences multiple healthcare issues across generations," said Robert Lane, professor of pediatric neonatology at the University of Utah. "To reduce adult diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, we need to understand how the maternal–fetal environment influences the health of offspring."



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