Losing a baby, new research shows, often affects women significantly longer than their male companions.

It is well known that mothers begin to develop a bond with their children before they’re even born. Miscarriage can leave a woman devastated. Research has shown that this proves true for men as well, especially in cases of planned pregnancy.

Several researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology recruited 83 heterosexual couples who’d experienced a miscarriage. Researchers followed these couples for a year, assessing the psychological and emotional effects of miscarriage on men versus women.

As many as two in five men experienced significant psychological distress immediately following a miscarriage, compared to just over half of women. This dropped after three months, when about 7 percent of men and 20 percent of women continued to experience grief and depressive symptoms.

Men’s grief leveled after the three-month mark, while women’s symptoms declined more slowly. By the end of the study, men and women experienced similar rates of depressive symptoms, at 5 and 8 percent, respectively.

“Although the psychological impact of miscarriage on men was less enduring when compared with that on women, a significant proportion of men demonstrated psychological distress after miscarriage,” authors of the study concluded.

Creating a solid support network can help couples cope with the pain of a lost pregnancy. Find support in Healia’s Pregnancy Loss Community, or see the study in the British Journal of Obstetrics&Gynecology.

Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and co-chair of the Gates Foundation, has generously pledged $1.5 billion to help stop maternal death, or death after childbirth. Although rates are decreasing, Gates says it's time for the world to come together to save women's and children's lives.

“It’s not that the world doesn’t know how to save the 350,000 mothers and 3 million newborns that die every year,” she told The Seattle Times. “It is that we haven’t tried hard enough.”

These numbers have dropped by about 30 percent since 1980, but according to this year’s Countdown to 2015 report by the World Health Organization nearly 2 million deaths occur each year as a result of childbirth and labor complications alone. For many countries, maternal and infant mortality rates remain unchanged.

Hemorrhage and hypertension top the list of causes for maternal death, followed shortly by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and heart disease. Infection after childbirth also presents a threat to mothers, while pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea pose the greatest threats to newborns.

Women Deliver, the advocacy group that received the donation, has set goals to help increase maternal survival. Methods include greater access to family planning tools, prenatal care and access to better healthcare. They also hope to change attitudes about maternal death.

"In many countries the belief that death is inevitable, and therefore acceptable, hasn't yet changed," Gates told MSNBC. "We don't have to tolerate fatalism.”

Read more from MSNBC and The Seattle Times, or learn how you can help by visiting Women Deliver online.

Nearly one in three pregnant women are also obese, which can lead to serious health problems for both mother and child. Exercise during pregnancy can help cut that risk, and a new study says yoga is a safe and healthy option.

The amount of weight a woman should gain during pregnancy varies. However, excessive weight gain can lead to high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, an increased likelihood of c-section, and other pregnancy complications.

Yoga helps you stay fit by targeting, toning and tightening specific muscle groups. It can help relieve stress, build strength and sculpt muscles. Even recent new moms Halle Berry, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna use yoga to stay slim.

Dr. Rachel Rohde, an orthopaedic surgeon and expecting mother herself, says yoga can be adapted to meet the needs of pregnant women.

“A pregnant woman's body goes through a lot of changes that will alter the way she practices yoga, whether she is a veteran or a beginner,” she said in an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon (AAOS) news release. "Women who are expecting can benefit greatly from exercise, especially yoga -- they just need to be aware of their limitations."

If not done correctly, however, yoga can lead to injuries like neck, shoulder, spine and leg strain, not to mention overstretching. Rohde says these types of injuries can be avoided by changing to a more comfortable position.

“One of the best aspects of yoga is being in control of your body and having the ability to do each movement at your own pace,” she said. ““If you are unable to move into a difficult position, you always have the option to get into a resting pose if experiencing pain.”

There are other safe exercise options for pregnant women, too. The American Pregnancy Association recommends swimming, walking and light aerobics. The best way to find out what’s best for you is to know your capabilities, and consult a doctor to find your safest options.

Visit the American Pregnancy Association to learn more about top recommended exercises for pregnant women, or see Rohde’s interview in The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Researchers from Stanford University may have discovered a way to boost fertility by stimulating dormant ovarian follicles. This could benefit women whose reproductive systems have been affected by ovarian cancer or ovarian failure.

The technique involves stimulating dormant ovarian follicles, also known as Graafian follicles. These follicles are small spherical cavities that fill with fluid to develop eggs. Once the egg is developed, the woman ovulates and prepares for fertilization.

If these follicles are damaged, however, a woman may not produce eggs and may experience infertility. Only a small portion of ovarian follicles are used each month, and some remain dormant over the course of a woman’s life. Researchers hoped that by stimulating these follicles, they could boost fertility.

Researchers first tested the technique on mice and were successfully able to produce mature eggs and then pups. They were also able to produce eggs in humans, but did not investigate the technique’s effects on conception.

Experiments are still in the early stages, but these results do provide hope for couples struggling with fertility. Lead author of the study, postdoctoral fellow Jing Li of Stanford University Medical School, says it will be a while before they know whether this method will be as successful in humans as it is in mice.

“We hope that aging women, women who have frozen ovarian tissues prior to undergoing cancer treatments, or women with premature ovarian failure could benefit from our research," Li told Health Day.

Read the original article in Health Day, or visit The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to view the study’s abstract.

Parents-to-be everywhere may have another reason to jump for joy. A new, highly accurate blood test may be able to tell you the sex of your baby earlier in your pregnancy.

Most couples have to wait until the second trimester of pregnancy (4-6 months), but the simple test could cut that time in half—as early as seven weeks. The test is highly accurate, too. Of the 201 women who were tested between 2003 and 2009, researchers were able to obtain sufficient samples from 189 and produce 100 percent accurate results.

When a woman is pregnant, her body will circulate her blood with blood from the fetus. For this test, a sample of the mother’s blood is screened for genes unique to the Y-chromosome of males. If these genes were present, researchers predicted a boy.

Early testing can also help doctors detect conditions such as Down’s syndrome and Rhesus-D disease (RhD). This method of testing has several advantages over invasive methods, such as fetal blood sampling (FBS), that can cause amniotic fluid leaking or miscarriage.

RhD sometimes results from a blood incompatibility between, for example, an Rh-positive mother and an Rh-negative child. If the mother’s body detects this difference, it may send antibodies against the baby. If it goes untreated, it can lead to jaundice, anemia, brain damage or stillbirth.

 “Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal Rhesus D genotype is sensitive and accurate and has been widely validated in Europe,” authors noted. “The United States should begin to undertake clinical trials to bring this technology to patient care as soon as possible.”

This test is currently not available to the general public, but continued success could mean it’s on the horizon. Its adoption into general health practices could help cut the risk of fetal complications of RhD.

The study was published in Obstetrics&Gynecology.

Your vitamin regimen may be boosting more than your immunity/metabolism. Certain herbal supplements can also increase blood lead levels.

A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. investigates the effects different herbal supplements on blood lead levels. Supplements with high heavy metals levels included Ayurvedic herbs, echinacea, ginseng, St. John’s wort, bee pollen, ginko, and nettle.

Lead exposure can result in medical complications, including high blood pressure, kidney disease, cancer, heart disease and peripheral artery disease. High blood lead levels also pose a risk for women planning to become pregnant. Lead can lead to pregnancy complications for both the mother and the developing child.

“Among adults, the potential implications of low-level lead exposure are most relevant to women of child-bearing age,” study authors write. “As lead is especially harmful to developing nervous systems of fetuses and children and passes through the placenta and breast milk.”

Researchers recruited 6,712 Unites States women in good health who were of reproductive age—20 or more years old. Participants self-reported their vitamin regimen for 30 days, and were divided into groups based on the type of supplements they used.

Women who took these supplements had significantly higher lead levels than women who took other herbal medicines. Blood lead levels of women who took Ayurvedic supplements were 24 percent higher than non-users. St. John’s wort wasn’t far behind with 23 percent higher levels.

Greater lead levels were not seen in individuals who used other supplements, such as garlic. Researchers acknowledge that these supplements can have some beneficial effects on personal health, but recommend firmer regulations.

“Our data suggest testing guidelines for herbal supplements,” they write, “and regulations limiting lead in supplements are needed.”

Early obesity in women may be linked with difficulty in becoming pregnant. Women who became obese by age 18 and participated in a weight-loss surgery study showed higher rates of infertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

Forty-two percent of the women in the study trying to conceive experienced infertility, but pregnancy was more likely for women who became obese after age 18. The good news is, surgical weight loss may increase fertility.

The study, the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS), provided information on the fertility of obese women considering surgical weight loss procedures.

Obesity can interfere with a woman’s hormone levels, making it difficult to become pregnant. This also makes vitro procedures less likely to work. Even in the event of conception, there are major health risks to both mother and child. Not only are miscarriage rates higher, but there are also a higher rates of premature and still-births.

Weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric or metabolic surgery, which includes gastric bypass surgery and lap banding, may help obese women trying to conceive. Many women don't know that having such a procedure is an option.

Research shows that bariatric surgery can reduce pregnancy complications for obese women, and LABS participants were no exception. Roughly 62 percent of LABS participants who underwent surgery who hoped to conceive experienced at least one live birth after infertility.

After weight loss surgery, doctors advise women to wait at least 18 months after surgery (6 months after banding) before trying to become pregnant. They also suggest using contraceptives while waiting for the body to become more stable.

“As the incidence of obesity increases in the United States, women’s health care practitioners are likely to care for a substantial number of patients who will undergo bariatric surgery,” says Dr. William Gibbons of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. “Studies like this one are extremely useful to help us determine how to advise these patients and best meet their needs.”

Find more information about pregnancy after bariatric surgery, or test your knowledge with Healia’s Pregnancy Quiz.

Glucose intolerance during pregnancy may put women at greater risk for heart disease. According to Baiju Shah, MD, PhD, FRCP, of the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, co-author of a recent study on women with gestational diabetes, even mild glucose intolerance—below the threshold for gestational diabetes—increases the chances of later cardiovascular disease. 
Gestational diabetes had been connected to cardiovascular disease prior to this study, but little was known of the links between minor glucose intolerance and heart disease. Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease share several characteristics including obesity, insulin resistance and cholesterol problems. Oftentimes, individuals with one condition will develop the other. Women with gestational diabetes may experience similar metabolic complications as soon as 3 months after giving birth.

Researchers analyzed the medical records of all Ontario women between the ages of 20 and 49 who had given birth between April 1994 and March 1998.  Participants were divided into three groups: those who were diagnosed with gestational diabetes, those who received an oral glucose tolerance test, and those who were not screened using oral glucose testing. One birth was selected at random for women with multiple deliveries; the median ages were between 29.2 and 31.1.

Women are tested for gestational diabetes (a type of diabetes that develops when women experience unusually high glucose levels during pregnancy) during the second trimester of pregnancy (13-27 weeks). The first step is a glucose challenge test, taken by measuring glucose levels one hour after ingesting a sugary substance such as glucola. If results are abnormal (≥7.8 mmol/L), a second oral glucose tolerance test (OGGT) is taken.

Participants in the study were followed up until March 31, 2008, providing information reflecting cardiovascular disease development for a median of 12.3 years after childbirth. “If you followed 10,000 people for one year, 4.2 of them would have an event,” Dr. Shah explains. “If you followed those 10,000 people for 10 years, 42 of them would have an event…In other words, these are extremely rare events.”

Although the differences were minor—absolute risk was 0.16% and 0.05% for women with gestational diabetes and women who received an OGGT, respectively—the results indicate a need for further research. "We shouldn't be ignoring these mild abnormalities during pregnancy,” Dr. Shah says. “(They) may benefit from extra surveillance and/or cardiovascular disease screening.”

More information is needed to establish the exact relationship between glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease. In the meantime, proper nutrition and exercise may reduce your risk for both gestational diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Read more about gestational diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

 The air quality in and around your home may have negative effects on your child’s intelligence, according to a study by Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH).

The study, released a week ago by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), found that children exposed to chemical pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in the air, water, and soil scored lower on IQ tests than children with lower exposure.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, are chemical pollutants that can be found in the air, water, and soil. PAHs are typically released from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, diesel, oil, gas, etc.), tobacco and other natural substances. Auto emissions are a major source of PAHs in the United States, especially in heavily trafficked urban areas.

Doctor Frederica Perera, lead author and professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, compares the exposure to such pollutants to low-level lead exposure. “These findings are of concern because these decreases in IQ could be educationally meaningful in terms of school performance,” she says. “IQ is an important predictor of future academic performance.”

A child’s developing fetal and nervous system is more vulnerable than an adult’s, and PAHs have been associated with higher cancer risk, asthma, allergies, low birth weight, and a reduced head circumference. Reduced head circumference, according to CCCEH, is connected with lower cognitive functioning and academic performance. In this study, the first of its kind, researchers hoped to study the relationship of in utero PAH exposure on a child’s intelligence.
 
Participants were non-smoking black and Dominican-American women, aged 18-35, residing in Washington Heights, Harlem and South Bronx, N.Y.—areas with higher pollutant exposure. During pregnancy participants regularly completed questionnaires and were asked to wear monitors that measured PAH levels.

Researchers followed the children, measuring IQ levels at age three and again at age five using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of the Intelligence. Of the 249 children, 140 had higher than the average 2.26 n/m3 level of exposure. The mean score for all children was 98.72, with a mean score of 96.6 for children whose exposure was classified as “high” and 101.6 for children with lower exposure. Scores differed by 4.67 on the verbal and 4.31 points on the full-scale test.

Researchers will continue to follow children to age 11 to learn more about the effects of PAHs on intelligence and child development. “It should serve as a warning bell to us all,” says Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., director of NIEHS. “We need to do more to prevent environmental exposures from harming our children.”

Want more information about health during pregnancy? Visit Healia's Pregnancy Community or take the Healia Pregnancy Quiz!

Obese women should limit weight gain to between 11 and 20 pounds during gestation, according to an updated set of pregnancy weight gain guidelines released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine. Previously, the Institute did not recommend a specific gestational weight gain range for obese women, but the section was added in response to increasing obesity rates and high weight gain trends in pregnant women. This is the first time the Institute has issued new pregnancy weight gain guidelines in nearly 20 years.

The Institute of Medicine also reevaluated the weight gain recommendations for overweight, normal weight, and underweight women, though the alterations in these weight groups were minute. The Institute now suggests overweight women gain between 15 and 25 pounds, normal weight women gain 25 to 35 pounds, and underweight women gain 28 to 40 pounds during gestation.

These guidelines are based on multiple factors affecting the health of the mother and embryo. Most central to the Institute’s recommendations is the body mass index (BMI) of the expectant mother, a measurement based on acceptable weight to height ratios. Women with a BMI of 30 or greater are considered obese, while a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight. Normal weight women have BMIs between 18.5 and 24.9 and a BMI below 18.5 falls in the underweight range.

To measure your BMI, visit the National Institute of Health’s body mass index calculator.

Test your pregnancy knowledge on the Healia Pregnancy Quiz and challenge yourself on the Weight Management Quiz. After taking the quizzes, visit the Healia Pregnancy Health Guide for more pregnancy information and check out the Healia Obesity and Overweight Health Guide to learn more about weight gain.

^{Photo: Crystal_1979, Flickr, Creative Commons}