background and objectives: several investigations have been done to evaluate the effect of ramadan fasting on fetal and maternal health, which have all led to controversial results. the role of ramadan fasting time in birth weight is still unclear. this study evaluated the effect of fasting at different periods of pregnancy on birth weight. methods: 250 pregnant women fasting at least one day d...

OBJECTIVE To identify reporting biases and to determine the influence of inconsistent reporting on observed trends in the timing of age at first sex and age at marriage. METHODS Longitudinal data from three rounds of a population-based cohort in eastern Zimbabwe were analysed. Reports of age at first sex and age at marriage from 6837 individuals attending multiple rounds were classified accor...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the impact of timing of clamping and obstetric, biological and socioeconomic factors on the iron stores of full-term newborns. METHODS Cross-sectional study between October 2011 and July 2012 in which hematological parameters were evaluated for newborns in Viçosa, MG, Southeastern Brazil. It involved collecting 7 mL of umbilical cord blood from 144 full-term not underweig...

The effects of prenatal exposure to pollutants from the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster on fetal growth and subsequent health and development of exposed children remain a source of concern. We assessed the impact of gestational timing of the disaster and distance from the WTC in the 4 weeks after 11 September on the birth outcomes of 300 nonsmoking women who were pregnant at the time of the e...

BACKGROUND In the 1980s there was substantial interest in early pregnancy and pre-pregnancy interventions to increase birth weight and reduce preterm birth. We developed an inter-pregnancy intervention, implemented in a randomised controlled trial, to be provided by midwives at home soon after women's first birth. METHODS MCH nurses invited women to take part during their home visit to new mo...

Marsupials are a lineage of mammals noted for giving birth to highly altricial young, which complete much of their "fetal" development externally attached to a teat. Postnatal B cell ontogeny and diversity was investigated in a model marsupial species, the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica. The results support the initiation of B cell development late in gestation and progressing...

We recruited 1217 middle and lower-class pregnant women in Mumbai over June-November 2002, to study the effect of smokeless tobacco use on reproductive outcomes. These women were recruited on a house-to-house basis from eight health administrative areas in Mumbai. Detailed interviews and abstraction of medical records were undertaken at recruitment and at follow up after delivery (November 2002...

Background Recruitment to trials when birth is imminent requires offering consent at a difficult and stressful time, often with limited time. The Cord Pilot Trial assessed timing of cord clamping at very preterm birth. To ensure high risk women were not excluded we developed a two stage oral assent pathway, for use when birth was imminent. A third of women were recruited using this pathway. The...

To evaluate the accuracy of computerized algorithms for pinpointing periods of exposure to medications during pregnancy in the absence of data on timing of conception, the authors used data from a population-based sample of nonmalformed infants in the Slone Epidemiology Center Birth Defects Study in 1998-2006 (United States and Canada; N = 3,177). The standard was defined as any antiinfective u...

BACKGROUND In many gregarious mammals, mothers and offspring have developed the abilities to recognise each other using acoustic signals. Such capacity may develop at different rates after birth/parturition, varying between species and between the participants, i.e., mothers and young. Differences in selective pressures between species, and between mothers and offspring, are likely to drive the...