October 30, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:48 am
A new study suggests that women who lie flat on their backs for about 15 minutes after they receive fertility treatment have a 50% greater likelihood of getting pregnant.
The new research points to movement after artificial insemination as the reason why many women fail to conceive.
In the study, 400 couples were looked at, with the results that showed only 18% of women who moved after IVF treatments became pregnant, compared to 27% of women who remained still after the treatment.
Dr. Inge Custers of the Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre said that this is a significant finding and that it has been discovered that even 15 minutes of immobilization can play a large role in confirming the positive results of the study. Custers continued to say that immobilization should become standard after artificial insemination takes place for the best result.
In the past, smaller studies have looked at immobilization and artificial insemination, but this is the largest study to actually show the same result.
As part of the study half of the women were asked to lie down on their backs for fifteen minutes following IVF, while the other half were asked to get up and move around directly after treatment was finished.
Custers stated that moving immediately after IVF may cause some sperm to leak out of the uterus, or the sperm may be delayed from moving up to the fallopian tubes.
October 29, 2009
Filed under: Premature babies — Alan @ 9:32 am
A research team from Newcastle University now believes that Trichostatin A, a drug commonly used to treat cancer, may also be useful in preventing premature labour.
The research team tested the drug on the tissue of 26 women who had a caesarean surgery, and found that the therapy helps to increase the protein in the tissue, which aids muscle relaxation and prevents contractions.
Every year in the UK there are over 50,000 premature babies born, out of which 1,500 babies die. In fact, preterm labour is thought to be one of the leading causes of infant death around the globe, in the developed areas of the world.
Researchers found that when Trichostatin A was tested on the tissue of women who had a caesarean contractions reduced by 46% on average for tissue that was contracting spontaneously, and on average the oxytocin which is a well known labour drug saw its reduction of contractions by 54%.
The reason why the Trichostatin may be helpful in reducing contractions is due to the fact that medically it was previously proven that protein kinase A is helpful in controlling and relaxing the uterus throughout pregnancy.
The use of the Trichostatin helps to increase the amount of protein kinase A found in the cells.
Although the leader of the research team, Professor Nick Europe-Finner, stated that Trichostatin cannot be given to an actual patient since it can kills as much as 10% of genes in a cell, the fact that it isolates agents makes the discovery worth further investigation.
October 27, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 7:58 am
The past 20 years have shown that women who have children later in life are more likely to have a baby born with Down’s syndrome.
According to birth records there was a 71% increase of cases detected while in the womb. However, the amount of infants born with the disease has fallen since women now can properly test for Down’s syndrome, and choose to abort the foetus.
In the last decade the amount of women choosing to have children past the age of 40 increased by one hundred percent, raising in 2005 to 22,200 births compared to 11,300 in 1995.
Doctors say that the chance of having a child with Down’s syndrome increases by 16% when a woman is over the age of 40, which many women are not aware of.
Although the study showed that births of babies with Down’s decreased by 1%, this does not account for the fact that many terminations occurred, and according to doctors if all babies diagnosed with Down’s were born then the number would have increased 48%.
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr. Maggie Blott, stated that women need to be more informed of the risks of having a child in their 40s, and the challenges that a Down’s baby can present.
October 26, 2009
Filed under: Infertility — Alan @ 11:51 am
British doctors claim that they are close to succeeding with the first ever womb transplant, but the question remains how desirable the procedure would actually be.
This is not the first time that a doctor has claimed a womb transplant is possible, but it is the first time that a doctor has announced they have found a solution to securing the blood supply required.
London Hammersmith Hospital doctor Richard Smith is now looking for additional funding so that he can continue his research after failing to receive grants from the largest bodies in Britain.
The womb transplants would mainly benefit woman who are born without a womb and are thus unable to have their own children, and those whose wombs were destroyed at the hands of fibroid or cancer treatment.
At the crux of the medical research is the long standing debate of whether infertility is an actual disease, or if it is a cultural phenomenon from a society that values women by their ability or inability to reproduce.
Those that balk at the definition of infertility as a disease do so because infertility, unlike many other accepted diseases, is not fatal, and the idea of major surgery without medical cause makes many scientists wary.
The only time in the past that a womb transplant was attempted was in Saudi Arabia in 2000, when doctors transplanted a live donor womb to a young woman. Although initially it was thought to be a successful implant, lack of oxygen in the blood resulted in the removal of the womb.
October 22, 2009
Filed under: Babies and the law — Alan @ 7:47 am
Social workers have slowly moved the children of an overweight household to ensure that all the children will receive adequate care in the future.
Two of the children were taken out of the family yesterday, another today, and by the end of the week another two will be taken out of the home. One of the children that were taken was removed within 24 hours of her birth.
The seizure of the children came after the completion of a panel ruling that it was best to take the children from the home.
The father of the family said that the entire family is devastated and that he feels utterly powerless especially after losing the newborn after just 24 hours.
A spokesman for Dundee Council social services who were responsible for removing the children said that obesity is not the only cause of removal, and that while they cannot comment on the reasons for removal, a child would never be taken from their family simply due to weight problems.
Social services councilor Jim Barrie stated additionally that the responsibility of social services is to look after the welfare of the children in the home, and that in this case the action was taken to protect the best interests of the family and the baby.
The lawyer of the family Kathleen Price stated however, that the family was not given a fair hearing, and the question remains if the family was given their rights in full accordance with the law.
Price stated that once social workers make the wrong decision, it is hard for a family to receive a fair hearing, which is what happened in this case.
October 21, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:42 am
New research shows that the chances of successful IVF treatments is lower in women that consume even just a handful of glasses of white wine during a week.
Men who consume beer on a daily basis also reduce their chances of being able to father a child.
Even worse, couples in which both of the partners drink over six units per week; which is the same as splitting one bottle of wine between two people, reduces their chance of conceiving and carrying a child to full term birth by 26%.
The research comes from a study by the Boston, US Harvard Medical Study that asked 2.574 couples to report their regular drinking habits before they tried IVF treatments.
Out of the group surveyed, 34% of men and 56% of the women reported that they drink less than one drink a week while 5% of the men and 4% of the woman reported they had an alcoholic drink at least once every day.
The study leader, Dr. Brooke Rossi, said that the results of the study showed that couples in which both partners drank over six units of alcoholic a week had a much less likelihood of becoming pregnant. Six units are the same as two large glasses of wine or two pints of strong beer.
Men who drink this amount reduce their chances by 14% and women by 18%.
October 20, 2009
Filed under: IVF — Alan @ 8:03 am
Women battling infertility may have new hope after British scientists had a breakthrough with IVF treatment.
The new technique involves embryo screening that makes it much more likely that a woman using IVF will not only get pregnant, but also have a full term birth.
The trial of the new technique showed that the treatment doubles the likelihood of conception, even for women who are well into their late thirties.
In over two thirds of the cases the embryo was successfully implanted, and over 80% of those women were able to follow the implantation through into a live birth.
The results make the treatment three times as effective as standard IVF in the UK, in which only a quarter of treatments result in conception, and a third of those follow through into live births.
At the moment, 20 babies have been born using the new programme.
Dr. Dagan Wells from Oxford University who developed the embryo screening technique called it ‘astonishing’ and expressed hope that private and NHS clinics will make it standard practice.
Susan Seenan from the Infertility Network in the UK said that any improvements in the success rates of IVF are always important, and even more so when patients are only able to receive one cycle on the NHS.
Last year alone over 37,000 British women underwent IVF treatment, however in standard treatment many of the cycles do not make it through into a live birth, because the foetus miscarries or the embryo does not properly implant itself.
October 19, 2009
Filed under: Celebrity babies — Alan @ 7:53 am
Samia Smith, the Coronation Street star, has given birth to her first child, with husband Matthew Smith. The couple welcomed young baby girl Freya into the world this morning.
According to a spokeswoman for the ITV show, the birth went well and 
Freya weighed in at seven pounds, two ounces. She also added that the couple is thrilled and the production is happy for to hear of their joyous new reason to celebrate.
The birth of Freya follows the television birth of Smith’s character, Maria Conner’s baby, who gave birth in typical unpredictable soap fashion out on the beach.
In order to keep her pregnant tummy from interfering with the show after the onstage birth, Smith wore baggy clothes and hid behind cupboard doors and cushions.
Smith has already completed a host of scenes in advance of the birth, and is expected to return to filming in the spring of 2010. For Smith, the occasion is probably double as joyous, given that she has been carrying a faux and real baby bump for the last two years and is finally now officially free.
Everything seems to be going by the plan for Smith, who announced after her wedding that she would like to be a young mum as well as a young bride.
October 16, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 3:57 am
A US family from Philadelphia have won £1.6m in damages from a jury, after it was ruled that the antidepressant Seroxat, which is manufactured in Britain, was responsible for heart defects in their three year old son.
The drug is called Paxil in the United States, and its makers, GlaxoSmithKline, said that they would be appealing the decision.
Both the US and UK drug regulators have warned the public that Seroxat could be potentially linked to heart defects, the manufacturers do not accept responsibility for the heart defects in the young boy.
Seroxat is a popular anti-depressant drug among pregnant women, because doctors and manufacturers often claim that the drug is not harmful to a baby.
However, the Philadelphia case is just one out of a number of US cases, in which people have attacked the drug as the cause of other pregnancy problems.
Studies performed on the drug have found suggestions and trace evidence that Paxil may increase the rate of babies born with congenital heart defects, when compared to pregnant women who not use the drugs, or other SSRI depression medications.
Additionally, in a study conducted by a Welch professor, 16% of women taking Seroxat miscarry, compared to the national average of 8%.
October 14, 2009
Filed under: Baby health — Alan @ 8:57 am
Scientists have proved that there are a few rare cases in which a mother may be able to pass her cancer cells onto her unborn child. Although in most cases a child’s immune system should block the cancer cells from spreading, in certain circumstances it is possible.
A new study by a British team was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which points to the case of a child that acquired leukaemia from its mother.
Scientists have struggled to answer the question of if cancer is spreadable for the last 100 years, due to the fact that it was believed that any cancer cells that could make it past the placenta would be destroyed by the child’s immune system.
However, there are 17 cases in which it appears that a mother passed the cancer cells of either melanoma, or leukaemia, to their children.
The study focused primarily on a Japanese woman and her baby with leukaemia, and researchers utilized a genetic fingerprinting technology to prove that the cancer cells had in fact come from the mother.
The result showed that the cancer cells had the same mutated cancer gene that was not an inherited trait, proving in isolation from the womb the child would not have been exposed to leukaemia.
Mel Graves, the lead researcher of the Institute of Cancer Research said the centre was glad to finally find an answer to the scientific question, but stressed that the situation was rare and that for the most part woman with cancer do not have to worry about passing it on to a foetus.
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