The shock of birth is a transient depression of muscle tone and deep tendon reflexes seen in newborn babies shortly after birth. We evaluated the shock of birth in a sample of 313 consecutive term newborns at 4, 24 and 48 hours of life. We correlated neurologic findings on examination with maternal, obstetric and perinatal data. Special attention was given to the relationship between the mode o...

BACKGROUND Soy formula containing estrogenic isoflavones is widely used in the United States. Infants consuming soy formula exclusively have high isoflavone exposures. We wanted to study whether soy formula prolonged the physiologic estrogenization of newborns, but available quantitative descriptions of the natural history of breast and genital development are inadequate for study design. OBJ...

OBJECTIVES Bifidobacterium species are one of the major components of the infant's intestine microbiota. Colonization with bifidobacteria in early infancy is suggested to be important for health in later life. However, information remains limited regarding the source of these microbes. Here, we investigated whether specific strains of bifidobacteria in the maternal intestinal flora are transmit...

OBJECTIVE To compare the duration and outcome of the first labour in women who have been subjected to childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and women who have been raped in adulthood (RA). DESIGN Case-control study in a clinical cohort. SETTING University Hospital of North Norway. SAMPLE In all, 373 primiparas: 185 subjected to CSA, 47 to RA and 141 controls without a history of abuse. METHODS D...

Preterm birth is a major health problem for the neonate, family, country, and society in general. Despite many risk factors being identified for women destined to deliver preterm, short cervical length detected on transvaginal ultrasound is the most plausible, practical and sensitive risk factor for prediction of spontaneous preterm birth. The definition of short cervix has varied in various st...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the use of vaginal progesterone in asymptomatic women with a sonographic short cervix (≤ 25 mm) in the midtrimester reduces the risk of preterm birth and improves neonatal morbidity and mortality. STUDY DESIGN Individual patient data metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials. RESULTS Five trials of high quality were included with a total of 775 women and 82...