Chlamydia, Gonorrhea Tied to Higher Risk of Pregnancy Complications

By Robert Preidt

Women with chlamydia or gonorrhea infections before or during pregnancy are at increased risk for pregnancy complications such as stillbirth and premature birth, a new study suggests.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 350,000 Australian women who had their first child between 1999 and 2008. Of those women, 1 percent had at least one chlamydia infection before they gave birth, and 81 percent of those women were diagnosed before they became pregnant.

The study also found that 0.6 percent of the women had a gonorrhea infection before they gave birth, and nearly 85 percent of those women were diagnosed before they became pregnant. Half of the women diagnosed with gonorrhea had also previously been infected with chlamydia, found researchers Dr. Bette Liu, at the University of New South Wales, and colleagues.

Among all the women in the study, 4 percent had an unplanned premature birth, 12 percent had babies who were small for their gestational age, and 0.6 percent had stillborn babies.

After taking into account factors known to increase the risk of birth complications -- including age, poverty, smoking and health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure -- the researchers found that a prior infection with either chlamydia or gonorrhea also increased the risk.

Women who'd had chlamydia were 17 percent more likely to have an unplanned premature birth and 40 percent more likely to have a stillborn baby. There was no increased risk of having a baby that was small for its gestational age.

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How Caffeine During Pregnancy Can Damage Your Baby

Posted by Neill Abayon

A new study published online in The FASEB Journal shows that the equivalent of one dose of caffeine (just two cups of coffee) ingested during pregnancy may be enough to affect fetal heart development and then reduce heart function over the entire lifespan of the child. In addition, the researchers also found that this relatively minimal amount of exposure may lead to higher body fat among males, when compared to those who were not exposed to caffeine. Although the study was in mice, the biological cause and effect described in the research paper is plausible in humans.

According to Scott Rivkees, Yale's Associate Chair of Pediatric Research and a senior researcher on the study, "Our studies raise potential concerns about caffeine exposure during very early pregnancy, but further studies are necessary to evaluate caffeine's safety during pregnancy."

To reach their conclusion researchers studied four groups of pregnant mice under two sets of conditions for 48 hours. The first two groups were studied in "room air," with one group having been injected with caffeine and another injected with saline solution. The second two groups were studied under conditions where ambient oxygen levels were halved, with one group receiving caffeine and the other receiving saline solution. They found that under both circumstances, mice given caffeine produced embryos with a thinner layer of tissue separating some of the heart's chambers than the group that was not given caffeine.

Read the full article here.

Pregnant Women Should Avoid Perfume at All Costs

Posted by Neill Abayon

Pregnant women are being urged to stop using perfumes and scented creams after research suggested the products could cause unborn boys to suffer infertility or cancer later in life.

Research on rats has found the reproductive system of male fetuses could be as early as eight weeks into gestation by chemicals found in those cosmetics.

There appears to be a "time window" of eight to twelve weeks' gestation when certain hormones in the fetus are activated and the male reproductive system comes into being. Future male fertility problems, including undescended testicles, low sperm count and the risk of testicular cancer, could be caused during this period if hormones such as testosterone do not work properly.