plus 4, Flu Shot in Pregnancy Protects Baby - Austin American-Statesman

Flu Shot in Pregnancy Protects Baby - Austin American-Statesman
Hormonal fluctuations make singing during pregnancy a tough task - New Kerala
Anna Nicole Mistakes Pregnancy for Gas - TMZ.com
Pregnancy Chances Boosted by Lying Still After Artificial Insemination - Med India
Heidi Klum: Post-Pregnancy Radiance - The Gossip Girls

Flu Shot in Pregnancy Protects Baby - Austin American-Statesman

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 09:09 PM PDT

Flu Shot in Pregnancy Protects Baby

FRIDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women head the list of people who should get H1N1 swine flu and seasonal flu shots, and four new studies highlight the benefits of vaccination for moms-to-be and their babies.

Bigger, healthier newborns, fewer preterm births and reduced rates of hospitalization top the findings, which are to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America in Philadelphia.

In one study, U.S. researchers analyzed data on 6,410 births in Georgia and found that the risks of premature delivery and having a low birth-weight infant were significantly reduced among the 15 percent of women who received a flu shot during pregnancy.

During the height of the flu season premature births among vaccinated women fell 70 percent, compared with unvaccinated women, Dr. Saad B. Omer, an assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, said during a news conference Thursday at which all four studies were discussed.

And the likelihood of having a small baby was reduced 70 percent, Omer added.

Similar positive results would likely be seen among women getting the H1N1 vaccine for swine flu, Omer said. Studies have found in previous flu pandemics that pregnant women were at risk for giving birth prematurely to underweight babies, he said.

Despite the benefits of seasonal flu vaccine, the rate of vaccination among pregnant women is "dismal," Omer said. Only about 25 percent of pregnant women are getting vaccinated, he said. He and his co-authors cited a need to publicize the benefits of vaccination in pregnancy.

In another report, Yale University School of Medicine researchers, led by Dr. Marietta Vazquez, an assistant professor of pediatrics, looked at the relationship between pregnant women who got flu shots and hospitalization rates for those infants.

The researchers found that the mother's flu shot during pregnancy was 78.9 percent effective in preventing her non-vaccinated infant from being hospitalized during the first year of life and 85.3 percent effective in preventing hospitalization from infancy to 6 months.

"These results will have a positive impact, not only on susceptible infants, but will prove to be cost- effective," Vazquez said. "If you think about this, we are talking about one vaccine protecting two individuals."

In another report, a team led by Dr. Mark C. Steinhoff, director of the Global Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, looked at the relationship between flu shots and birth weight in Bangladesh.

Women who were vaccinated were 30 percent less likely to develop respiratory illness with fever, and those women had substantially heavier infants than unvaccinated women, the researchers found. The study confirmed that pregnant women who get the flu are at risk for giving birth to significantly underweight babies.

In addition, flu among infants whose mothers were vaccinated was reduced 63 percent, Steinhoff said.

"It shows again that when you prevent flu in a pregnant woman, you benefit the mother, you benefit the infant, and we think this also shows that you benefit the fetus and the growth of the fetus," he said.

In yet another study of pregnant women in Bangladesh, Emily Henkle, from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, wanted to determine the rate of flu infection in their infants.

Henkle, part of Steinhoff's team, found high rates of flu among infants younger than 6 months whose mothers had not been vaccinated.

"In the first six months of life, in this setting, in the tropics, 25 percent of the infants had flu infection," Steinhoff said. "It's a higher rate of infection than has been reported anywhere else."

In North America, about 10 percent of infants have flu in the first six months of life, he added.

Another report scheduled for presentation at the meeting examined the response of health-care workers to the call for flu shots. Researchers from Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., surveyed a random group of doctors, nurses and other employees about their knowledge of flu vaccine and their attitudes and beliefs about having themselves and their children vaccinated.

The researchers found high vaccination rates in the hospital, but gaps in flu knowledge and vaccine safety in all groups. Doctors were more comfortable than others with a mandatory vaccine policy, they said.

More information

For more information on flu, visit Flu.gov.

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Hormonal fluctuations make singing during pregnancy a tough task - New Kerala

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 10:42 PM PDT

Washington, Oct 31 : Professional singers find it difficult to strike the right note during pregnancy because of hormonal changes, says a new study.

Until recently, researchers did not know if this effect is due to hormones or to some other cause, such as decreased lung capacity as the baby grows.

And to assess the effect of hormones on a pregnant singer''s voice, Filipa La of Aveiro University in Portugal followed a professionally-trained Portuguese singer through 12 weeks of pregnancy and for 12 weeks after birth.

Once a week, including just two days after the baby was born, La recorded the singer reading and singing into a device that measures the pressure exerted to make each sound.

Collaborating with Johan Sundberg of KTH in Stockholm, Sweden, La reconciled the data with measurements of the singer''s hormone levels.

This was the first longitudinal study of the effect of hormones on a singer''s voice during pregnancy, and the researchers found that the increased levels of hormones correlated with changes to the singer''s vocal folds.

Though temporary, the changes forced the singer to exert more pressure from her lungs to make the same notes.

"It seems that it''s harder work during pregnancy to sing," said La.

However, she added that this is preliminary research based on a single case study and that larger studies would be needed before doctors could give solid advice to professional singers.

The findings of the study will be presented at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) in San Antonio, TX.

--ANI

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Anna Nicole Mistakes Pregnancy for Gas - TMZ.com

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 09:38 PM PDT

Posted Oct 31st 2009 12:35AM by TMZ Staff

Anna Nicole Smith was so whacked out of her mind in 2006 that she mistook the baby growing in her womb for a case of bad gas -- and it's all on a tape that was entered as evidence in court on Friday.

The video was shot by Howard K. Stern at a little girl named Riley's birthday party. Snippets of the video were released two years ago, but now the entire 50-minute tape is being used in the drug case against Stern and Anna's former doctors.

In this particular clip, Smith can't seem to comprehend the fact that she's pregnant -- consistently denying there's a baby in her belly ... despite the fact she's showing.

It just gets weirder from there -- check it out for yourself. Then sadly, at the end of the clip, the little girl looks straight into the camera and says, "She's having brain trouble."

CLIP TWO: After Anna pushes a stroller out of the room where Howard is filming, he asks Riley if Anna has "really lost it." Riley says, "Howard ... in real life, she's gone overboard. If she has the baby today, I wouldn't be surprised."

CLIP THREE: Anna is treating a doll like it's a real baby. Riley runs over to the camera and says "I think we need the hospital. Howard, seriously, please help." Howard then calls Anna over and says, "You're freaking Riley out." Anna doesn't understand what's going on ... and is upset that Riley "poked the baby in the face."

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Tags: anna nicole smith, AnnaNicoleSmith, clown, howard k. stern, HowardK.Stern, makeup, sandeep kapoor, SandeepKapoor, video

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Pregnancy Chances Boosted by Lying Still After Artificial Insemination - Med India

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 07:29 PM PDT

The researchers found that 27% of women who lay still for at least 15 minutes after insemination got pregnant, while just 17% of women who moved around were able to conceive. A total of three cycles of treatment was given to women among whom half were asked to lie still for 15 minutes, while other were asked to move around.

The success rate in the women who lay still was 10%, 10% and 7% respectively, while it was 7%, 5% and 5% in the rest of the women who moved around.

"Although immobilisation takes more time and occupies more space in busy rooms, the intervention will be economic in the long run, as pregnant patients will not return in subsequent cycles," said study leader Dr Inge Custers.

The details appear in the British Medical Journal.

Source-Medindia
RAS

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