Is This Thing On?

"Researchers found that a major lipid in the brain - the omega-3 fatty acid known as Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) - is not developed sufficiently in babies born before 33 weeks' gestation, leading to possible impaired mental development." There was a study done that gave breastfeeding mothers DHA supplements, and also provided DHA-fortified formula, which showed significant decrease (40-50%) in cognitive problems--for girls but not so much for boys.

I never thought I'd say this, but go GE. They have developed new light therapy for newborn jaundice, including a pad that can be tucked into a baby's blanket while the baby is being held--without the need for eye shades!

Apparently, one of the major breakthroughs in reducing natal deaths was hand-washing.

An article about Canadian midwives (their government health program covers midwifery care.)

Science Starts Catching Up to Births

The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry - This is the abstract of a (small) preliminary study on how the areas of a mother's brain that respond to her baby's cry are more active (shown by MRI) when she's had a vaginal birth than when she's had a cesarean. "First this suggests that VD mothers are more sensitive to own baby-cry than CSD mothers in the early postpartum in sensory processing, empathy, arousal, motivation, reward and habit-regulation circuits. Second, independent of mode of delivery, parental worries and mood are related to specific brain activations in response to own baby-cry."

The University of Melbourne is developing a computer program predicting premature labor based on the mother's hormones. The knowledge can lead to interventions that may prolong gestation.

A woman in New Zealand who had to have a planned cesarean talked her doctors and hospital into letting her pull the baby out of the incision and have the baby skin-to-skin on her chest immediately after birth. (She had her doctors talk to a doctor in the UK who had done several such procedures.)