Swell Pregnancy Guide Blog

This is a little sensationalist, but Thomas Beatie, a man, gave birth to a little girl last week in Oregon. Beatie, 34, was born female and underwent gender reassignment and hormone therapy 10 years ago. While he had his breasts removed, he did not have his ovaries and uterus removed in anticipation of having a family one day. The baby is said to be beautiful and doing well.

Swell Pregnancy Guide now has a Facebook page. All you pregnant women post up your questions and get them answered by experts in the field. The page is called “Swell Pregnancy Guide Readers”. Do a search and let us know how your pregnancy is going.

The rarely-seen pregnant, Nicole Kidman (whose husband of two years is country singer Keith Urban) gave birth to a girl today. They named her Sunday Rose and she weighed in at 6 lbs 7.5 oz. Mother and baby are reportedly doing great.

Low maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy may affect primary tooth calcification, leading to enamel defects, which are a risk factor for early-childhood tooth decay. During the 86th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, investigators from the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg and Victoria) presented the results of a study they conducted to determine the vitamin D status of pregnant women, the incidence of enamel defects and early-childhood tooth decay among their infants, and the relationship with pre-natal vitamin D levels.

Two hundred six pregnant women in their second trimester participated in the study. Only 21 women (10.5%) were found to have adequate vitamin D levels. Vitamin D concentrations were related to the frequency of milk consumption and pre-natal vitamin use. The investigators examined 135 infants (55.6% male) at 16.1 ± 7.4 months of age, and found that 21.6% of them had enamel defects, while 33.6% had early-childhood tooth decay. Mothers of children with enamel defects had lower, but not significantly different, mean vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy than those of children without defects.

However, mothers of children with early-childhood tooth decay had significantly lower vitamin D levels than those whose children were cavity-free. Infants with enamel defects were significantly more likely to have early-childhood tooth decay.

This is the first study to show that maternal vitamin D levels may have an influence on primary teeth and the development of early-childhood tooth decay.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Birth complications and how they are handled generate the greatest quality gaps in maternal care between best- and worst-performing hospitals nationwide, according to an annual study released by HealthGrades, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to the study, there are about 76% fewer complications during caesarean section deliveries at the best-performing hospitals than there are at the worst. In addition, there are about 51% fewer complications at best-performing hospitals for vaginal births (Parnass, CQ HealthBeat, 6/24).

For the study, HealthGrades analyzed 12.5 million hospital delivery and newborn records from 2004 to 2006 in 17 states. Researchers assessed maternity care program performance by studying maternal complication rates and neonatal mortality. Best-performing hospitals were those that had the lowest combined rates of maternal complications and weight-stratified neonatal mortality (HealthGrades release, 6/24).

Scott Shapiro, senior vice president of corporate communications and marketing for HealthGrades, said that the findings reflect a “quality chasm” among hospitals but that there is evidence of an increasing broad range of initiatives among hospitals to address mortality rates and close the gap. Samantha Collier — HealthGrades chief medical officer and lead author of the study — said, “It is imperative, based on the huge differences in the quality identified in our study, that women research their local hospital’s clinical outcomes before choosing where to receive their care.”

The staff at Swell Pregnancy Guide wishes you and your family a happy and safe fourth!

Pregnancy seems to confer some protection against bladder cancer in mice, scientists have found.

Female mice that had never become pregnant had approximately 15 times as much cancer in their bladders as their counterparts that had become pregnant, according to new findings by investigators at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Their work appears online as a rapid communication in the journal Urology.

The researchers led by Jay Reeder, Ph.D., are focusing on a fact that has puzzled doctors and scientists for decades: Why does bladder cancer, the fifth most common malignancy in the nation, affect about three times as many men as women? Scientists long blamed men’s historically higher rates of smoking and greater exposure to dangers in the workplace, but the gap has persisted even as women swelled the workforce and took up smoking in greater numbers.

Female mice that had gotten pregnant repeatedly had far fewer bladder cancers than both their normal male counterparts and their female counterparts that had never gotten pregnant. On average, the total tumor volume was about 15 times greater in female mice that had never gotten pregnant compared to mice that had gotten pregnant.

No big surprise here…

“Nearly one in 10 obstetricians in a new study has considered giving up obstetric practice because of the emotional toll of stillbirths and infant deaths.

Three-quarters of the 804 obstetricians who responded to a survey by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System reported that the experience took a large emotional toll on them personally.

“Our survey reveals that perinatal death has a profound effect on obstetricians, and 8 percent had considered giving up obstetrics because of the emotional difficulty of caring for patients with perinatal death,” says lead author Katherine Gold, M.D., MSW, of U-M’s Department of Family Medicine and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“We know that stillbirth and infant death are traumatic events for families; this study suggests that they are also traumatic for the physician.” “

The study appears in the July issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed major revisions to the physician labeling for prescription drugs (including biological products) to provide better information about the effects of medicines used during pregnancy and breast-feeding.

“With this proposal, FDA’s goal is to help women, their physicians and their pharmacists have better information about the effects of prescription medicines so that pregnant women, nursing mothers, and breast-feeding infants will benefit,” said Rear Admiral Sandra Kweder, M.D., Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA. “This proposal would help make drug labeling a better communication tool, and would potentially have a huge impact on public health and well being for women.”

There are about six million pregnancies in the United States every year, and pregnant women take an average of three to five prescription drugs during pregnancy. Additionally, women with pre-existing medical conditions, such as asthma or high blood pressure, may need to continue to use prescription drugs to treat those conditions during pregnancy.

The proposed rule outlines what important information about the use of medicines during pregnancy and breast-feeding would be required to be added to product labeling for newly approved drugs. Under the proposal, drug labeling would explain, based on available information, the potential benefits and risks for the mother and the fetus, and how these risks may change during the course of pregnancy.

For more information, visit here.

We are looking forward to meeting a bunch of pregnant moms at the Babytime Expo this weekend. The show is being held at the Qwest Field Event Center from 10 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday. Stop by our booth to pick up a guide to pregnancy in Seattle and enter to win our great prize basket. Visit the website to buy tickets.