Health News
Does Dad's Job Matter to Baby's Health?
The world is filled with various chemicals and substances that don't occur naturally in the environment. Scientists are continually trying to understand how these affect human health.
Birth Defects May Be Linked to Solvents
Some jobs expose employees to a class of chemicals called chlorinated solvents, which are in many degreasers, cleaning products, paint thinners, pesticides, glues and similar products.
Are You Passing HIV on to Your Baby
One key to preventing the spread of any infectious disease is teaching people how to avoid giving it to others. But when it comes to HIV, there is often confusion about this.
Pregnant? What Meds Can You Take?
It's hard enough to adequately weigh the risks and benefits of taking certain medications while pregnant. But the bigger problem is when women and doctors simply don't know the risks.
A review article that considered much of the research available and published in April says just that: too little is known about the ways prescription drugs taken by a pregnant mother may affect the developing baby.
This is true even for the drugs used to treat chronic conditions, such as asthma, high blood pressure and mental health disorders.
Avoid any unnecessary medication during pregnancy.
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Born Into a Smoke-Free World
The effect of tobacco smoke on pregnant women and their developing babies is well-documented, but what if a baby were born into a community where no public smoking was allowed at all?
The first study conducted in the U.S. to compare a city with a smoking ban to a city without one found that fewer pregnant women were smoking and fewer babies were being born early.
Avoid cigarette smoke while pregnant.
Robert Lee Page, II, a pharmacist in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Colorado's Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, led the study to inve...
Pacifiers for Breastfeeding Ok
Breast is best… but what about pacifiers? It's commonly been thought that giving a baby a pacifier might cause problems with breastfeeding.
Risk of Blood Clots Associated With Birth Control
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its review of recent observational ( epidemiologic ) studies regarding the risk of blood clots in women taking drospirenone-containing birth control pills.
A Closer Look at Breastfeeding Habits
Official medical recommendations are to breastfeed babies exclusively for a baby's first six months, but is this too lofty a goal for some women? What happens when reality meets idealism?
Doctors and Moms Need to Chat
Giving birth between 22 and 26 weeks can involve painful decisions, given the various risks to the baby, which has about a 50 percent chance of survival.
Birth Control Shots And Dental Health
The convenience of a hormone birth control injection like Depo-Provera may be offset by increasing your risk of red, swollen or diseased gums.