“Antidepressants Raise Risk of Pre-Term Birth: Study - ABC News” plus 4 more

Antidepressants Raise Risk of Pre-Term Birth: Study - ABC News
Mariah Carey / Nick Cannon baby plans on hold - New Kerala
Jailed Newsweek Reporter Faces Personal Ordeal - CBS News
Padma Lakshmi Is Pregnant! - Celebrity Baby Blog
Depression Is a Dilemma for Women in Pregnancy - New York Times

Antidepressants Raise Risk of Pre-Term Birth: Study - ABC News

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 07:02 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Danish women who took antidepressants during pregnancy had twice the risk of pre-term delivery as other women, and their babies were more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit than those of women who did not take the drugs, researchers reported on Monday.

They said antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, which affect a message-carrying brain chemical called serotonin, may raise the risk of pre-term delivery and affect a baby's health at birth.

Some prior studies have found that drugs in this class can cross the placenta and appear in the umbilical cord blood of babies whose mothers have taken them.

"The study justifies increased awareness to the possible effects of intrauterine exposure to antidepressants," Dr. Najaaraq Lund of the Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau, and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

About one in 10 pregnant women experience depression during pregnancy. Because depression can jeopardize a pregnant woman's health, doctors often prescribe antidepressants, but it is not yet clear how these drugs affect a baby's health.

To study this, Lund and colleagues analyzed data on 57,000 pregnancies and deliveries at Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby, Denmark, between 1989 to 2006.

They identified 329 pregnancies in which the mothers took an SSRI medication, another 4,902 with a history of psychiatric illness not treated with an antidepressant, and 51,700 with no history of psychiatric illness.

Women who took antidepressants while pregnant delivered their babies five days earlier than other women in the study, and had twice the risk of pre-term delivery than women with no history of psychiatric illness.

Babies exposed to antidepressants during pregnancy were far more likely than those in the other two groups to have a five-minute Apgar score -- a measure of a newborn's health -- of seven or below. Seven is typically an indicator of a healthy baby.

Mariah Carey / Nick Cannon baby plans on hold - New Kerala

Posted: 30 Sep 2009 04:59 PM PDT

October 1, 2009: MARIAH CAREY has put her plans to become a mum on hold - because she and husband NICK CANNON can't decide where to raise their kids.

The couple bought a home in Los Angeles earlier this year (09), amid reports Carey was already pregnant - but she has made it clear she's not ready to make Hollywood her permanent base.

In an exclusive new interview with America's In Touch magazine, the R and B star says, 'Definitely, we want a family... but dont think Im moving to L.A.'

Cannon adds, 'We live in both places (Los Angeles and New York). We need to figure out where we are going to raise our kids. Here (New York) or L.A.'

But the couple is in agreement about how many kids they want.

Cannon explains, 'Wed like two.'

Carey adds, 'Of course, wed be happy with one. I want to be able to manage the right amount of attention. We are so busy - if you have six kids running around, no one gets what they need. Kids need a lot of attention.'

And Cannon isn't ruling out adoption if their baby-making doesn't go as scheduled: 'Its never out of the question. I was raised by my grandmother, who was also a foster mom, so I grew up around a lot of kids.'

Carey admits she hopes to be a mother by the end of next year (10), and has no qualms about gaining the baby weight: 'Id be fine with it. Im not one of those people who is usually a size two to start with and gets scared they will end up a size three.'

--IANS-WENN

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Jailed Newsweek Reporter Faces Personal Ordeal - CBS News

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 03:55 PM PDT

Photo
(AP)

(AP) Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than three months, got troubling news: His wife is having a difficult pregnancy and will be delivering their first child without him.

Paola Gourley could hear the shock in her husband's voice when she told him she would be having the baby two weeks early during a rare phone call Sunday from Tehran's Evin Prison.

"'What's wrong with you?' he kept asking," Gourley told The Associated Press on Monday from her home in London. She has been placed on bed rest by her doctor and is scheduled to deliver by cesarean section on Oct. 26.

The call_ only their second since Bahari, 42, was arrested on June 21 _ was short, just a few minutes. And even with the relief of talking to him, it was bittersweet.

The two were to have been together in London for the first glimpse at their child _ by ultrasound _ when Bahari was arrested. On Sunday, she told him the baby's sex, a detail she preferred to keep private.

The couple met in March 2007 in London, where Gourley, 40, who is British, practices law. Bahari was born in Iran and emigrated to Canada, where he attended university and obtained Canadian citizenship.

A journalist and documentary filmmaker, he has worked for Newsweek for 10 years and has always been fully accredited with the Iranian authorities, said Newsweek's foreign editor, Nisid Hajari.

The magazine has appealed for Bahari's release on humanitarian grounds.

"There's a very strong humanitarian reason for him to be released so he can be with his partner when she gives birth," Hajari said in a telephone interview Monday from New York. "If they (the Iranians) want to engage with the rest of the world and build trust, freeing people like Maziar is a good way to start."

Iran entered direct negotiations last week with the U.S. and other world powers over its nuclear program, a significant step in reducing tensions with the outside world _ and some hope the thaw could lead to the release of Bahari and other detained foreigners.

Gourley had not wanted to burden Bahari with news of her pregnancy's complications.

So when he called the first time, on Sept. 13, "I said I'm fine, I'm strong, not to worry about me ... I just wanted him to feel as strong as possible."

She was emotional, but tried not to break down. "I knew I didn't have time to cry."

"It was wonderful to hear his voice, but at the same time it made me so heartbroken to know that he was just going to leave the call and then go and get locked up in solitary confinement again," she said, adding that he told her that he was permitted to leave his cell only twice a day for 30 minutes.

Before the arrest, "we bought furniture, decorated the baby's room together.," Gourley recalled. "He was really excited. He bought cupboards for the baby's room; he wanted to get involved, he was looking forward to spending time with me during the pregnancy."

Last week, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon made a joint call for the freeing of Bahari and Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American academic also arrested in the crackdown, as well as three American hikers. Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were detained in late July.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been noncommittal when asked about the cases in recent interviews.

About Bahari, he told Newsweek, "I would like all prisoners to be released, but I am not the judge. The judge has to decide on this."

About the hikers, Ahmadinejad told the AP late last month that he hopes "the judiciary expedites the process and gives it its full attention, and to basically take a look at the case with maximum leniency."

Officials at the presidency, contacted by AP on Monday, refused further comment.

Bahari is among more than 100 prisoners put on mass trial in August, accused of being part of n opposition plot to foment a "velvet revolution" to topple Iran's clerical leaders on orders from its foreign enemies.

Many defendants delivered courtroom confessions admitting to their roles, which the opposition says were coerced. In his turn at the stand, Bahari said Western media had attempted to guide events in Iran following the election and he sought mercy from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Bahari's family and colleagues said his comments likely came under duress. Like other defendants, he has had no access to a lawyer and no specific charges have been announced against him.

Images from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Bahari.

"He had lost so much weight," said Gourley. "He didn't look himself at all. You could see anguish in his eyes. You just can't take any confession from someone in that condition at face value."

"I hope they will realize that Maziar is not a threat to national security," she said. "He was simply doing his job. And they know that."

Bahari's 83-year-old mother watched as he was taken into custody from her home in Tehran at dawn on June 21.

"Family values are very strong for him and now I'm sure he's quite devastated not to be near me now, when I'm pregnant," Gourley said.

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Padma Lakshmi Is Pregnant! - Celebrity Baby Blog

Posted: 01 Oct 2009 10:45 AM PDT

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Depression Is a Dilemma for Women in Pregnancy - New York Times

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 09:39 PM PDT

When Sherean Malekzadeh Allen of Marietta, Ga., learned she was pregnant, she was 43, had been married for two years, had gone through two miscarriages and had all but given up hope of having a baby.

But instead of being overjoyed, Ms. Allen was immobilized: panic-ridden, nauseated, listless and thoroughly depressed. She could not rouse herself to go to work in the marketing business she founded and ran, or even get through the newspaper.

And she faced the pregnant woman's quintessential dilemma: take drugs that might pose a risk to the developing baby, or struggle through an anguishing pregnancy that could harm the baby in other ways?

"Every single thing you put in your body when you're pregnant, you wonder, 'Oh, my God, am I growing my baby an extra finger?' " Ms. Allen said. "I was worried that I would hurt the baby if I took the pills, and I was worried I would hurt the baby if I didn't."

As many as a quarter of all pregnant women suffer from depression, and about an eighth use an antidepressant at some time during pregnancy, according to 2003 figures. Although many antidepressants appear to be fairly safe, studies have reported links between maternal use and a small increased risk of some fetal malformations. Other potential problems for the newborn include drug withdrawal and persistent pulmonary hypertension, which can impair blood flow to the lungs.

Recently, a Danish study in the British medical journal BMJ reported a link between pregnant women's use of several antidepressants in the S.S.R.I. class, including Celexa and Zoloft, and an increased risk for a common heart defect in babies.

And a paper that appears Tuesday in The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that babies born to mothers who use S.S.R.I. drugs were more likely to have low scores on the five-minute Apgar test, an overall measure of newborn health, and to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.

To put such findings in perspective, experts from the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists joined forces to review existing data and make recommendations for managing depression during pregnancy.

Their report, published in the September-October issue of General Hospital Psychiatry, finds that talk therapy should be the first-line treatment for mild to moderate depression, but it says that for severe cases the risks of antidepressants and even shock therapy are relatively low. Its main message, however, is that no generalizations apply: treatment decisions should be made case by case.

"There's not a one-size-fits-all answer," said Dr. Kimberly Yonkers, a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology at Yale School of Medicine who was the report's lead author, and who acknowledged receiving research support from antidepressant manufacturers. "You can't say, 'Stop medication for all women because it's harmful,' and you can't put all women on medication either."

The tone of the report is generally reassuring but is filled with caveats. Because pregnant women are rarely recruited for clinical trials, research on drug effects during pregnancy is limited; there is no data from the kind of randomized controlled trials that scientists trust most. Much of the information comes from large epidemiological studies, many in Europe, that link patient databases; the analyses often cannot weed out or control for characteristics other than drugs that may be affecting the pregnancies.

The new report — whose nine authors included four experts who acknowledged some financial, research or other ties to drug companies — goes to great lengths to point out the inconsistencies in the findings about some of the more alarming drug associations.

It is also hard to weigh the risks of medication against those of an untreated depression. Studies have linked depression during pregnancy to premature births, growth changes, and irritability and inattention in the baby after birth. (Prenatal use of antidepressants has also been linked with premature birth, low birth weight and miscarriages.)

"Women have been having babies and taking these medications now for decades, and so far nothing striking has shown up," said Dr. Nada Stotland, a recent president of the American Psychiatric Association.

Still, Dr. Stotland and other experts suggested that women who had a history of depression or were taking medication might want to consult a doctor before becoming pregnant rather than quit the drug on their own, which would put them at risk of a relapse.

In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration classified paroxetine, sold as Paxil, as a drug to be avoided during pregnancy after studies linked its use in the first trimester to an increased risk of heart defects in babies. The new paper says the agency based its action on data that were "not strong," but a number of studies have since found similar associations.

The Danish study reported that babies born to mothers who took Celexa (citalopram) and Zoloft (sertraline) were at double the risk of having septal heart defects, so-called holes in the heart. The absolute risk is still small, less than 1 percent, and the holes often close on their own. But the study noted that the risk was even higher if the mother took more than one kind of S.S.R.I. during her pregnancy.

Use of the same class of drugs late in pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk for persistent pulmonary hypertension, which can cause respiratory problems and serious complications in newborns. One recent study reported a sixfold increase in risk for the condition among babies born to mothers who used S.S.R.I.'s during the second half of pregnancy. But even with the use of drugs, the condition affects no more than 1.2 percent of babies, the report said.

A greater number of babies are affected by symptoms of drug withdrawal after birth: 15 to 30 percent of babies whose mothers used S.S.R.I.'s in late pregnancy experience effects like irritability, weak crying or no crying, abnormally fast breathing, hypoglycemia, unstable temperature and seizure. The symptoms usually resolve within two weeks.

Some critics said the paper gave short shrift to nondrug approaches like homeopathic remedies and nutritional supplements, while other experts said the paper's endorsement of psychotherapy was "politically correct" but ultimately unrealistic.

Dr. Shari I. Lusskin, director of reproductive psychiatry at N.Y.U. Langone Medical Center, said the real danger was undertreatment. "By the time I get to hear about somebody's perinatal depression," Dr. Lusskin said, "it's usually worse than what can be treated with psychotherapy alone, because women go out of their way not to complain; they don't want to be put on medication, and they feel guilty.

"We should use a low threshold for treating women aggressively."

Ms. Allen, of Marietta, said she needed aggressive treatment, so she decided to take medication — but was anxious about every pill. "I would wait six or seven hours before taking the pill, and just work myself up into more of a state," she recalled. "My husband would say, 'That's not good for the baby; don't do that.' "

Her son, Hunter Jamison Allen, was born at 9:05 p.m. on Election Day 2008, weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces, and scoring perfect Apgars. "He's happy, healthy and adorable," Ms. Allen said. "He's my puddin' pop."