BACKGROUND Animal experiments have convincingly demonstrated that prenatal maternal stress affects pregnancy outcome and results in early programming of brain functions with permanent changes in neuroendocrine regulation and behaviour in offspring. AIM To evaluate the existing evidence of comparable effects of prenatal stress on human pregnancy and child development. STUDY DESIGN Data sourc...

March-April 2006 Aquarter century after the “International Year of the Child,” we now seem to be in the era of the “Unborn Child.” Partly this is because of medical advances: highly refined imaging techniques have made the fetus more visually accessible to parents. In good measure, however, the new era is a product of political shifts. In 2004, President Bush signed into law the Unborn Victims ...

For many years, every week without fail, this magazine used to contain an advertisement close to the front cover, drawing attention to the right to life in Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and claiming that the rights of the unborn child were being habitually disregarded by Britain’s liberal abortion laws. When the Human Rights Act came into force in 2000, it was widely exp...

severe gastro-intestinal disturbances with vomiting, diarrhoea and fever who failed to respond to ordinary treatment. When it was discovered that the mother was still suckling the child and was herself pregnant again, instniction to cease this practice brought about a rapid cure of the child's illness. A further point of importance is that, in addition to upsetting the baby, the extra drain on ...

Q: How do people get infected with West Nile Virus (WNV)? A: The most likely way a human would become infected with WNV is through the bite of an infected mosquito. Some people have also become infected with WNV following receipt of contaminated blood or blood products, or transplanted organs from an infected donor. Mothers who are recently infected with WNV may also transmit the virus to their...