Children exposed to Zika virus in the womb might suffer long-term damage to their immune system, a new study warns.
Zika virus is known to cause microcephaly, brain disabilities and other birth defects in about 5% of children whose mothers contract Zika virus while pregn...
An experimental blood test could help detect pregnant women at increased risk for preeclampsia, a serious high blood pressure condition that can har...
Women who've undergone stem cell treatments for blood cancers, or for illnesses such as sickle cell disease, can successfully bring a pregnancy to term, new research shows.
The German findings run counter to the perceived wisdom on this issue: Many such patients...
Roughly a month after having her second child, Nicole Gerardi-Lukens suddenly felt pressure in her pelvis that was so intense it sent her to the hospital.
When doctors told her bladder had prolapsed -- meaning that it had slipped from its normal position and was bulging ...
Expectant mothers who get vaccinated to protect their newborns against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are not putting themselves or their babies at risk, new research affirms.
It found that getting the shot during late pregnancy was not associated with increased odds ...
Researchers have identified a gene that can trigger obesity, behavior problems and postpartum depression when missing or damaged.
The finding could lead to new treatments fo...
Pregnant women enrolled in a federal aid program have better outcomes than those who are struggling to put food on the table, new research shows.
More than 1 in 10 households nationwide lack access to adequate and nutritious food, U.S. government data show.
T...
Following state legislation passed in 2021 that essentially banned abortion in Texas, the rate of infant deaths rose by almost 13%, compared to a much smaller 1.8% rise nationwide, a new study finds.
The number of Texan babies whose deaths were specifically linked to bir...
Women don't need an ultrasound to have a safe medication abortion, a new study says.
Women who received abortion pills by mail without getting an ultrasound first did just as well as those who were examined and given the drugs in person, researchers found.
"This st...
Depression during or after a pregnancy could be tied to a heightened risk for heart trouble in women decades later, new research warns.
This so-called "perinatal" depression was linked to a 36% higher odds of developing heart disease within the next 20 years, reported a ...
Two new studies offer reassurance that using the diabetes drug metformin before and during pregnancy is not linked to birth defects.
The latest findings, which apply to men planning to conceive with their partners or women in early pregnancy, contradict a 2022
Eating fish while pregnant doesn't appear to increase a child's later risk of juvenile arthritis, particularly if the fish is oily like salmon, trout or sardines, new research shows.
"We cannot caution pregnant women against consuming fish solely based on this study in r...
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a case that aimed to curb access to the controversial abortion drug mifepristone, saying the plaintiffs who brought the case to the court had no legal standing to do so.
In...
Many women are unhappy with the state of U.S. maternal health care, but a major new poll finds most Americans don't understand how badly the nation lags behind other wealthy countries in this area.
Only about 2 in 5 (42%) women currently pregnant or ever pregnant strongl...
Maternal mortality rates in the United States continue to exceed those in other wealthy nations, with most women dying during pregnancy and childbirth in ways that were preventable, a new report shows.
In 2022, U.S. women had a death rate from complications of pregnancy ...
Newer epilepsy drugs taken while pregnant won't affect the creative thinking of children, an effect that had been observed in older medications, a new study reports...
Women who get an epidural during delivery appear to have a marked reduction in serious complications the first few weeks after giving birt...
Louisiana has become the first state to pass a law that designates abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances.
Once Gov. Jeff Landry signs the bill into law, as he is expected to do, possession of the drugs
Most young breast cancer survivors can go on to have children despite the effects of their lifesaving treatment, a new study shows.
About 73% of breast cancer surviv...
Fetal exposure to fluoride from a mom-to-be's drinking water might raise the odds for physical and mental health issues in toddlers, new research suggests.
The study, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wasn't designed to prove cause-and-effect. ...
The nation's top pediatrics group has reversed its decades-old position on HIV-positive mothers breastfeeding their infants.
The American Academy of Pediatrics now says it's generally safe for moms with
Fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other methods don't boost the odds for tumor recurrence in young women who've survived breast cancer and carry the BRCA cancer genes, a reassuring, new report finds.
The issue had been in question because br...
Women treated for infertility were twice as likely as those who conceived naturally to be hospitalized with heart disease within a year of deliv...
While some states have moved to severely curb women's access to abortion, including abortion pills, over 8,000 women living in those states are getting the pills by mail each month from states without such restrictions.
Women who smoke during pregnancy run a higher risk of their kids becoming overweight or obese, and researchers now think they know one reason why.
Children born of moms who smoked while expecting tend to have gut bacteria that is significantly different from that of kids...
Smoking cigarettes while pregnant has long been known to harm the fetus, but new research shows things get even worse when marijuana is in the mix.
New mothers who like to smoke marijuana might wind up exposing their babies to THC through their own breast milk, a new study says.
THC, the intoxicating compound in cannabis, dissolves in the fats contained in human milk, researchers found.
Mother's milk produced ...
The number of American women who died at or soon after childbirth declined significantly in 2022, the latest government data shows, but the rate is still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The report from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics found that, in 2022, ...
As the battle over abortion continues to rage in the courts and American politics, a new report estimates that one in every four U.S. women will undergo the procedure during their lifetime.
The study was issued by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy org...
The short post-pandemic uptick in U.S. births may be over, with 2023 numbers showing a decline in births.
According to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just under 3.6 million babies were born in America in 2023, about 76,000 fewe...
Prescription opioids taken during pregnancy are not associated with a substantial increase in risk of developmental disorders like ADHD in children, a new study has found.
"A slightly inc...
The percentage of married American women under the age of 50 who are infertile rose between 2011 and 2019, new government statistics show.
Data from the National Survey of Family Growth show that "the percentage of married women ages 15-49 who were infertile rose from 20...
Active military service appears to increase a woman's risk of having a low birthweight baby, a new review finds.
Nearly two-thirds of studies (63%) conclude that women on active service could be at higher risk of having a baby with low birth weight, researchers reported ...
All expecting mothers should get a blood test for syphilis three times during pregnancy, new guidance issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends.
Women who smoke and become pregnant may worry that the weight gain that comes with quitting might bring its own harms to themselves or their baby.
The placenta could be one reason why some women develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy, a new study finds.
A deficit in the way the placenta expresses the gene for a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) appears linked to insulin resistance during p...
Women who experience common complications during a pregnancy could face heightened odds for early death for decades to come, new research shows.
In the largest such study to date, "women who experienced any of five major adverse pregnancy outcomes had increased mortalit...
There's no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy increases the risk of childhood autism, ADHD or intellectual disability, the largest study to date on the subject has concluded.
<...Pregnancy transforms women's bodies in many obvious ways, but new research suggests it may also accelerate aging.
Women who had been pregnant appeared to be biologically older than women who had never carried a child, the genetic analysis revealed.
Further, more pr...
Childbirth is a harrowing ordeal, and it's being made worse by mistreatment from health care providers during labor, a new study says.
More than one in every eight women are mistreated during childbirth, researchers found.
Most commonly, women's requests for help d...
Massive racial disparities exist in the treatment of pregnancy-related mood disorders in the United States, a new study shows.
White women suffering from ...
Expecting or new mothers are much more likely these days to be diagnosed with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, new research shows.
Following oral arguments presented on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court looked poised to rebuff a legal challenge to women's access to the abortion pill.
Mifepristone is part of a two-drug regimen now used for the&n...
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments Tuesday in a case that could determine nationwide access to the abortion pill, a new study finds requests for the medication made outside the traditional health care system surged after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Ther...
A common antiseizure drug used to treat epilepsy, migraines and bipolar disorder does not appear to increase the risk of autism for kids exposed to it in the womb, ...
People with autoimmune disorders such as lupus, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis tend to have fewer children, and women with this class of illnesses often have higher risks for complications of pregnancy, new research shows.
Researchers in Finland compared pregna...
Following the historic reversal of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, the number of abortions in the United States has risen to more than a million per year, with medication abortions representing nearly two-thirds of those cases.
Teen pregnancy can change the trajectory of one's life, but now a new study suggests it could also shorten that life.
Canadian researchers report that women who were pregnant as teenagers were more likely to die before they reached the age of 31.
"The younge...
For years, U.S. health officials have been sounding the alarm over a steady rise in pregnancy-related deaths among American women, with numbers that appeared to far outstrip those of other wealthy nations.
However, the statistics behind those trends could be flawed, rese...