Australian women continue to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol during pregnancy, a new study reveals. Research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found 18 per cent of women smoked and 38 per cent of women drank alcohol while pregnant, with younger mothers more likely to smoke and older mothers more likely to drink while pregnant. The study, based on data from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, ... Jump to full article >>

Among the changes: expanding Medicaid’s reach, preventive screenings, support services and insurance coverage requirements By the time women reach 44 years old, roughly 85% have given birth. Yet even though pregnancy and childbirth are so commonplace, health insurance coverage and support services to keep mothers and babies healthy are often seriously deficient. Some private insurers, for example, treat pregnancy as a preexisting conditio ... Jump to full article >>

We’ve all been shocked by the photos of Ardi Rizal, the smoking 2-year-old from Indonesia. His 30-year-old father started his son on cigarette smoking at just 18 months old because the baby had a hernia. The 2-year-old now smokes 40 cigarettes a day! Ardi’s mother who is 26-years-old told CNN that she was smoking when she was pregnant, but after she gave birth she quit. She said her baby would just smell smoke and be happy. According to an a ... Jump to full article >>

Living near a busy road cuts the chances of fertility treatment being successful by almost a quarter, researchers have warned. A study of thousands of IVF patients found those who regularly breathed in traffic fumes were up to 24 per cent less likely to conceive than those who lived in less polluted areas. Nitrogen dioxide – a toxin pumped out by car and lorry exhaust pipes, power stations and gas cookers – has as big an impact on a ... Jump to full article >>

Although pregnant women make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population at any given time, during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak they made up 5 percent of deaths, a new study has found. Researchers also found that pregnant women who waited four days before seeking treatment were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) nearly 57 percent of the time, compared to only about 9 percent for pregnant women who didn’t delay seeking treatment. The H ... Jump to full article >>

A man’s fertility depends more on his mother’s lifestyle than his own, research suggests. A large-scale review of factors affecting sperm production found that how a woman looks after herself in pregnancy could have a major effect on her unborn baby’s ability to father a child in adulthood. Smoking and exposure to pesticides and traffic pollution all do more harm in the first weeks of life than in the adult body, according to R ... Jump to full article >>

Tobacco and alcohol harm men, women and children physically, mentally, socially and economically. In Sri Lanka the bulk of the social harm traceable to tobacco and alcohol is inflicted on and borne by women. On International Women’s Day, it is salutary to focus attention on the load of silent suffering women have to endure because of addictive substance abuse by men. Much can be done and should be done to reduce this avoidable suffering. C ... Jump to full article >>

There may be something about raising children that helps shield women from suicide, a study involving over a million Taiwanese mothers suggests. In fact, women’s suicide rates declined as the number of children they cared for rose, the team reported March 22 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “People have always known this clinically, although it’s never been statistically or empirically verified,” said Dr. Jon Shaw, director a ... Jump to full article >>

When Tim Loughton, the shadow children’s minister, swapped his comfortable life in his Sussex constituency for the rougher charms of tower blocks on Birmingham’s gang-divided Newtown estate for Channel 4, few might have thought that the plummy former banker would win over viewers. Yet there can be little doubt that for the viewers of Tower Block of Commons, Loughton was the star of the show. While other MPs chided their hosts for smo ... Jump to full article >>

WALES has the highest rates of women who smoke during their pregnancy in the UK, shocking figures reveal today. Despite the social taboo, the figures from anti-smoking charity ASH Wales show one-in-five women continue to smoke throughout pregnancy. Midwives said many young women are smoking while pregnant because they believe they will have smaller “doll-like” babies. Helen Rogers, the Royal College of Midwives’ board secretary for Wales, ... Jump to full article >>