Maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) seems associated with reduced birthweight in the offspring. This observation, however, is based on conventional epidemiological analyses, and it might be confounded by unobserved maternal characteristics related to both smoking habits and offspring birth weight. Therefore, we apply a quasi-experimental sibling analysis to revisit previous findings. Using ...

Introduction: Doppler analysis of the feto-placental and fetal circulation give dynamic information on the condition of the bloodstream during pregnancy, and early detection of fetal hypoxia. The objectives of the study were: testing whether there is influence of smoking on feto-placental circulation; determining whether there is a link to a number of smoked cigarettes during the day; assessing...

Twin pregnancy consisting of one fetus and one complete mole (CMCF, complete hydatidiform mole and a coexistent fetus) is an obstetric rarity with an incidence of 1/22 000 to 1/100 000 pregnancies. Associated risks include prematurity, intrauterine death, vaginal bleeding, preeclampsia, hyperthyroidism, theca lutein cysts, uterine rupture and the development of malignant neoplasia in the form o...

Abnormal uterine bleeding is any bleeding from the uterus other than normal monthly period. Having extremely heavy bleeding during period can also be considered abnormal uterine bleeding. Dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) is heavy or irregular menstrual bleeding that is not caused by an underlying anatomical abnormality, such as a fibroid, lesion, or tumor. DUB is the most common type of abn...

A 40-year old woman, gravida 4, para 4, presented with sudden lower abdominal pain and severe vaginal bleeding at 17 weeks of gestation. Clinical symptoms and ultrasonographic finding revealed placental abruption. The volume of bleeding was heavy and led to disseminated intravascular coagulation and hypovolemic shock. We performed blood transfusion and therapy to treat the critical condition. H...

OBJECTIVE The purposes of this investigation were (1) to describe postpartum drinking patterns among women who were frequent drinkers before pregnancy and (2) to identify factors correlated with postpartum "risky" drinking among women who were frequent drinkers before pregnancy. METHOD Information was gathered through a self-administered questionnaire completed at the postpartum visit and a s...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to study the relationship between the level of alcohol consumption in pregnancy and craniofacial characteristics of the neonate. DESIGN This was a prospective survey of a sample of pregnant women, stratified on prepregnancy level of alcohol consumption. SETTING The study was carried out at the public antenatal clinic of Roubaix maternity hospital. PARTICIPANTS ...

Placenta percreta in early pregnancy is rare and has been documented in only a few cases. We report on a patient with abdominal pain in week 10 of pregnancy. Sonography revealed a defective embryonic development and the absence of a border line between trophoblast and myometrium, as well as invasive growth in the region of isthmocervical transition, so curettage was performed. Heavy bleeding at...

A single case is described of congenital leukaemia with 11q23/MLL rearrangement in a preterm female newborn. Because of arachnophobia, the mother had heavily abused aerosolised permethrin, a widely used household insecticide. Permethrin is considered comparatively safe, but, in view of the mother's history, its potential to induce cleavage of the MLL gene in cell culture was tested. Incubation ...