We’ve all heard about the dangers to an unborn child of smoking during pregnancy: asthma, ear infections, respiratory problems… A new study out of Finland has found that children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy are 32% more likely to find themselves on psychiatric medication than those whose mothers did not smoke. In fact, the more …
Continue ReadingDoes your state do what Nebraska does?
What a nice, simple, easily understandable one-pager by the government in Nebraska about cord blood banking. Let’s ask our congresspeople to do the same across the greater 50 states! It offers all the options, lots of choices from private banking to donating cord blood for research. A good cheat sheet for conversation on the topic, …
Continue ReadingAlchohol, Pregnancy and Leukemia – a new study
It’s not news that pregnant women should abstain from alchohol. Evidence of fetal distress syndrome due to extreme alchohol consumption during pregnancy is clear. So the picture of my mom, pregnant with me, holding a cigarette and a martini is sobering when we look at it today (I’m fine. Really.) On a less humorous note …
Continue ReadingMrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign needs a pregnancy component
A recent article in the LA TImes reports that efforts to curb or eliminate obesity smoking during pregnancy would have an impact on the number of school aged children who suffer from obesity and the diseases that often accompany it. There are already guidelines on weight gain and smoking cessation, but the article reports that coordinated …
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