Australia: ‘Magic doll’ programme failing
Studies in Australia, the USA and 88 other countries have given teenagers a ‘magic doll’ to simulate what it would be like to look after a real baby. The dolls cry when they need...
Should we be able to choose the sex of our children?
Since 1992 I have been working on preimplantation genetic diagnosis – a technique developed to help couples at risk of transmitting a genetic disease to their children. The couple go through...
Baby kicks- what is normal movement and when to be worried
Count the kicks is a charity promoting the importance of keeping track of the regular pattern of your baby’s movements. The website provides information on pregnancy for mums and...
Drinking alcohol when pregnant – important information
In the UK a powerful video has been produced by NOFAS-UK (national organisation for fetal alcohol syndrome) called ‘No Alcohol No Risk‘. It has been produced for midwives to explain the...
Madeline Stuart – the worlds first Down’s syndrome model
“Madeline Stuart is changing society’s perceptions of beauty – one photo shoot at a time. Madeline Stuart is an 18 year old aspiring model from Brisbane, Australia with Down Syndrome. As...
Should women have a fertility check before they reach 30?
I have been to a growing number of talks that suggest that we should be offering women a fertility check before they reach 30 or as soon as they are thinking about starting a family. This topic is...
Texas: Maternal mortality almost doubles as funding is cut
A new study has analysed the effect of the cut in funding for Planned Parenthood and women’s health programs in Texas in 2011 and found that there were double the number of pregnancy related deaths...
Should we reduce the number of new mothers having C-sections?
According to an analysis of childbirth published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, a C-section rate of approximately 19% globally is deemed ideal for both the health of women and...
Protecting children from heat exhaustion
Heat can be dangerous, even deadly. It’s important to know about those dangers so that you can keep children safe. Harvard Medical School published helpful tips on protecting children from heat....
Which female Olympians have inspired you?
I admire the time and dedication all the athletes have put in to getting to the Olympics. The women have to fight difficult odds, including dealing with their periods, sexism, comments about their...
Chemotherapy treatment during pregnancy may affect the future fertility of unborn baby girls
A study just published from the University of Edinburgh in the journal BMC Cancer suggests that a chemotherapy drug, etoposide, if given during pregnancy, may affect the future fertility of unborn...
Tonsils, appendix and fertility
A new study has shown that women who have had their tonsils and appendix removed have a higher chance of getting pregnant. A study from the University of Dundee published in the journal Fertility...
High fat diet during pregnancy affects baby’s gut health
A new study published in Genome Medicine today describes how eating a high fat diet during pregnancy influences the gut microbiome of the baby. The ‘microbiome’ refers to the collection...
Not all pregnancy terminations are out of choice
We talk about miscarriage, says Lou Conran, but when she had to terminate her sick baby’s life, why did she feel she couldn’t discuss it? Read the personal story below from Lou, taken from her...
63 year old women and her 78 year old husband deliver baby in Australia
On Monday, an unidentified 63 year old woman and her 78-year-old partner welcomed the arrival of their baby girl at the Frances Perry House Private Hospital in Melbourne. She has become the oldest...
NHS paying for egg freezing for women having gender reassignment
When undergoing male-to-female gender reassignment, sperm can easily be sperm frozen in case they wish to ‘father’ children in the future. And now with the advancements in egg freezing,...
Natural Caesarean video goes viral
Recently we reported on the ‘natural’ Caesarean section. Some colleagues at University College London Hospital have been running a trial on the new procedure. In a natural Caesarean...
Should all pregnant women be offered non invasive prenatal testing?
It has long been the goal of researchers in obstetrics to develop diagnostic prenatal testing that would avoid invasive procedures that carry an associated risk of miscarriage. The use of cell-free...
