The changes in and relationships among stress, maternal role competence, and satisfaction in the perinatal period were examined using a longitudinal design. A convenience sample of 78 first-time Chinese mothers completed assessments of stress and maternal role competence during pregnancy and at 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum. Maternal stress ...

More than 99% of maternal deaths occur in low-resource settings; in parts of the developing world, as many as one in six women die of maternal causes. Currently, seven developing countries-Afghanistan, Angola, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Tanzania-have maternal mortality ratios of at least 1,400 maternal deaths per 100,000 ...

Introduction.  Pregnancy and childbirth is a special period in a woman's life, which involves significant physical, hormonal, psychological, social, and cultural changes that may influence her own sexuality as well as the health of a couple's sexual relationship. Aim.  To comprehensively review the literature on the effects of pregnancy and ...

In non-pregnant individuals, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in the regulation of emotion, and appears to play a role in anxiety. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) detects cortical neural activation without harmful radiation making it safe for use in pregnancy. The aims of this study were to assess neural circuitry involved ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Currently, little is known about physical activity patterns in pregnancy with prior estimates predominantly based on subjective assessment measures that are prone to error. Given the increasing obesity rates and the importance of physical activity in pregnancy, we evaluated the relationship and agreement between subjective and objective physical ...

The mental and physical health benefits of exercise during pregnancy highlight the importance of understanding the determinants of pregnant women's physical activity. This paper presents a review of the existing research on pregnancy and physical activity, in order to (a) summarize the existing body of literature since 1986 examining changes ...

Being born in the winter and spring significantly increases one's risk for developing schizophrenia. This birth seasonality may account for as many as 10% of all cases of schizophrenia. Maternal third trimester infections or vitamin D deficiencies are hypothesized to be the most likely cause and can account for many ...

This study examines physical activity patterns among women, from pre-pregnancy to the second trimester of pregnancy, and the relationship between physical activity status based on physical activity guidelines and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and depression over pregnancy. 56 healthy pregnant women self-reported physical activity, HRQoL and depression at 10-15 ...

BACKGROUND: There are limited studies of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) across pregnancy. METHODS: Women (n=2793) were enrolled in the Yale Pink and Blue study, a cohort enriched with subjects who suffered from major depressive disorder (MDD) within the past five years or used antidepressants in the past year. Subjects were ...

Maternal infection during pregnancy elevates risk for schizophrenia and related disorders in offspring. Converging evidence suggests the maternal inflammatory response mediates the interaction between maternal infection, altered brain development, and behavioral outcome. The extent to which individual differences in the maternal response to immune challenge influence the development of these ...

Plasticity of sensory function has become an object of study because of its proposed role in the recovery of function after central nervous system damage. Normal pregnancy may provide a useful in vivo model to study the effects of progressive reduction in the abdominal skin receptor density. As such changes ...

To examine, in light of vague professional guidelines, current obstetrical recommendations for pregnant women engaging in occupational activities. A survey mailed to obstetricians/gynecologists in Texas ascertained data about occupational activity information collected from patients in the prenatal period and recommended activities to avoid, including activities addressed in the American Medical ...

Nau et al. describe a woman with schizophrenia who remains in denial of her pregnancy. They raise several legal issues including involuntary commitment, capacity to decide treatment, and conservancy. They review potentially pertinent legal decisions that might inform treatment decisions of women who refuse care during pregnancy. They then conclude ...

Maternal infection and/or inflammation during pregnancy has been repeatedly shown to elevate the risk of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders in offspring. However, the relative contribution of such immune-related prenatal insults to specific neuropathological outcomes in schizophrenia remains essentially unknown. The study by Ellman et al. is the first to ...

The erythrocytic parameters during pregnancy and pseudopregnancy in bitches were studied and compared in 8 bitches aged 2 -3 years and weighing 10-12 kg. Blood samples were collected from the bitches before mating, during the three trimesters of pregnancy and the post partum period. The packed cell volume (PCV %), ...

Pregnancy is a time of relative urgency and opportunity for the treatment of substance use disorders in women, yet little is known about modifiable factors that contribute to successful abstinence. We examined self-worth, depression, anxiety, and novelty seeking in the context of substance use cessation during pregnancy in a sample ...

BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents who report psychotic symptoms in non-clinical samples are at an increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Study of such 'high risk' groups may increase our understanding of early risk factors for psychotic illnesses. Maternal infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia in the ...

I propose a simple, evidence-based, eight-item checklist that, if followed, should reduce the frequency of many of the most serious complications associated with cesarean delivery: endometritis, wound infection, wound disruption, thrombophlebitis, and uterine scar dehiscence in a subsequent pregnancy. The frequency of abdominal wound infections can be reduced significantly by ...

Fetal wound healing occurs rapidly and without scar formation early in gestation. Studying the mechanisms of scarless repair can lead to novel scar-preventive approaches. In fetal wounds, collagen is deposited early and is fine and reticular with less cross-linking. Several important differences of fetal vs. postgestational wound-healing response have been ...

To systematically evaluate the effects of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) supplementation of pregnant and/or lactating women on the neurodevelopment and visual function of their children. Systematic review. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing n-3 LCPUFA maternal supplementation were identified through electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library) and ...

SUMMARY: Scar formation is a major medical problem that can have devastating consequences for patients. The adverse physiological and psychological effects of scars are broad, and there are currently no reliable treatments to prevent scarring. In contrast to adult wounds, early gestation fetal skin wounds repair rapidly and in the ...

In order to study the daily Pb absorption in fetus and to monitor the main Pb sources in prenatal fetus, we have investigated several cases of Pb distribution along the longitudinal axis of fetal hair. The changes of Pb levels in the pregnancy period, even the daily changes of Pb ...

The study was conducted to assess socio-behavioral and biological factors associated with unplanned pregnancy in the US cohort of a microbicide trial. We conducted a mixed-method, nested case-control study of risk factors for pregnancy within the US cohort of the microbicide trial HPTN 035. We developed an instrument to assess ...

We use second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy to assess changes in collagen structure of murine cervix during cervical remodeling of normal pregnancy and in a preterm birth model. Visual inspection of SHG images revealed substantial changes in collagen morphology throughout normal gestation. SHG images collected in both the forward and ...

In spina bifida the neural tube fails to close during the embryonic period and it is thought that prolonged exposure of the unprotected spinal cord to the amniotic fluid during pregnancy causes additional neural damage. Intra-uterine repair might protect the neural tissue from exposure to amniotic fluid and might reduce ...

BACKGROUND: Depression and other psychiatric illnesses are common during pregnancy and are often treated with antidepressants. Physiological changes of pregnancy may alter the pharmacokinetics of medications and ultimately affect the dose required to maintain effective therapy. Human hair offers a safe, non-invasive way to monitor long term systemic exposures to ...

Conjoined twinning is a very rare occurrence with no genetic predisposition. Twisting of conjoined twins around the axis of their connecting tissue bridge, close to the third trimester, has not been previously reported. We describe a unique case of in utero twisting of conjoined omphalopagus twins who survived without any ...

Although maternal smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of offspring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Western countries, there is no empirical evidence in non-Caucasian. Purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring ADHD in Japanese ...

OBJECTIVE: To describe a case of conjoined twins after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and transfer of a single day 2 embryo. DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENT(S): A 30-year-old woman underwent ICSI with a transfer of a single day 2 embryo. INTERVENTION(S): Vaginal ultrasound examination was performed during early ...

A novel method is described to investigate changes in the drug metabolizing capacity of CYP2D6 during pregnancy using hair analysis.

Healing of early-gestation fetal wounds results in scarless healing. Since the capacity for regeneration is probably inherent to the fetal skin itself, knowledge of the fetal skin composition may contribute to the understanding of fetal wound healing. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression profiles of different ...

The aim of this work is to investigate the dynamics of reepithelialisation and the penetration rate of a propolis ointment formulation during cutaneous wounds healing. The experiments were performed as a function of the treatment time in a well controlled group of rats. We observed that the propolis ointment influenced ...

The evaluation of vaginal bleeding and pelvic pain in the first trimester of pregnancy is an important component of emergency physician training. The increased use of bedside sonography by emergency physicians in the evaluation of these patients requires knowledge about the normal anatomy, variants, abnormal findings and their appearance on ...

Conjoined twins are a rare complication of monochorionic twinning. Although most conjoined twins are stillborn or die in the newborn period, surgical advances are such that many parents will continue a pregnancy in the hopes that live born infants can be separated. Well-described types of conjoined twins account for most ...

Hair has long been used in toxicology, forensic science, doping control and other fields as a biological specimen for the detection of environmental agents, drugs, or toxins. Most recent evidence suggests that also hormones are incorporated and trapped inside the growing hair. This has led to the hypothesis that cortisol ...

For any particular Karle-Hauptman matrix, a bijective mapping exists between the eigenvalue spectrum of the matrix and the set of structure-factor phases, given enough phase constraints. For a matrix of order n + 1 with no symmetry-equivalent reflections, n + 1 phases need to be fixed. Only a small subset ...

QUESTION: Several of my pregnant patients who are hairdressers have asked me if exposure to products they use is harmful to their unborn babies. They also want to know if their pregnant clients' personal use of hair products should be of concern. ANSWER: There is no evidence of teratogenic effects ...

Fracture efficacy of PTH and alendronate (ALN) is only partly explained by changes in BMD, and bone collagen properties have been suggested to play a role. We analyzed the effects of PTH(1-84) and ALN on urinary alphaalpha/betabeta CTX ratio, a marker of type I collagen isomerization and maturation in postmenopausal ...

PURPOSE: Collagen fibrils and proteoglycans are the main components of the corneal extracellular matrix and corneal transparency depends crucially on their proper arrangement. In the present study, we investigated the formation of collagen fibrils and proteoglycans in the developing cornea of the zebrafish, a model organism used to study vertebrate ...

Poly(lactide-co-glycotide) (PLGA) microspheres integrated into gelatin/chitosan/hyaluronan scaffolds were fabricated by freeze-drying and crosslinking with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl)carbodiimide. The effects of the microspheres on porosity, density, compressive modulus, phosphate-buffered saline uptake ratio and weight loss of the scaffolds were evaluated. Generally, a scaffold with a higher PLGA content had a lower porosity ...

Elastic chitosan-gelatin cryogels of varying concentration of polymer precursors have been synthesized using glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent. The optimum co-polymer ratio of chitosan to gelatin was found to be 1:4 at the temperature of -12 degrees C for synthesis of chitosan-gelatin hybrid cryogels. chitosan-gelatin cryogels synthesized with low viscosity ...

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the early host tissue incorporation of several polypropylene lightweight (PP-LW) meshes used to repair abdominal wall defects and to correlate collagen deposition with the biomechanical response shown by PP-LW versus polypropylene heavyweight (PP-HW) meshes. METHODS: Ventral hernial defects (7 x 5 cm) were ...

Iatrogenic keratectasia after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) represents a serious complication of refractive laser surgery. We describe a woman who developed bilateral iatrogenic keratectasia during her first pregnancy 26 months after LASIK. Corneal collagen crosslinking (CCL) with riboflavin and ultraviolet-A was performed in March 2005 (right eye) and April ...

One proposed mechanism of tendon lengthening is the "sliding fibril" hypothesis, in which tendons lengthen through the sliding of discontinuous fibrils after release of decorin-fibronectin interfibrillar bonds. The pentapeptide NKISK has been reported to inhibit the binding of decorin, a proteoglycan on the surface of collagen fibrils, to fibronectin, a ...

Heparanase is a heparan sulphate endo-glycosidase which was previously detected in the outer root sheath of murine hair follicles. Heparanase overexpression was reported to improve mouse hair (re)growth. In this study, we investigated its involvement in human hair biology. Immunofluorescence detection was used to explore heparanase distribution in both anagen ...

During early gestation, fetal wounds heal with paucity of inflammation and absent scar formation. P-selectin is an adhesion molecule that is important for leukocyte recruitment to injury sites. We used a murine fetal wound healing model to study the specific contribution of P-selectin to scarless wound repair. Linear excisional wounds ...

BACKGROUND: Cell signaling pathways underlying wound repair are under extensive investigation; however, there is still a poor understanding of the mechanisms orchestrating these processes. Hox genes, which are a subgroup of homeobox genes, encode for a family of transcription factors that play a critical role in tissue migration and cell ...

We report the successful caesarean delivery of craniopagus conjoined twins in a 21-year-old using a neuraxial technique. Early diagnosis at 19(+5) weeks of gestation enabled thorough multidisciplinary antepartum planning. The multidisciplinary approach aimed to reduce maternal and fetal morbidity. Teams involved in the delivery included the specialities of obstetrics, neonatology, ...

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) permits non-invasive visualization of dermal birefringence, mainly due to collagenous structures. The purpose of this study is to use PS-OCT to assess intrinsic-age-related and photo-age-related differences in three-dimensional dermal birefringence. We measured dermal birefringence of the cheek skin and photo-protected interior upper arm skin from ...

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the presence and distribution of collagen fibers and versican in human vocal fold lamina propria of fetal larynges. STUDY DESIGN: Cross sectional analysis of cadaveric vocal folds of human fetuses. METHODS: Seven fetal larynges obtained from 28- to 36-week-old fetuses were analyzed with the Picrosirius-polarization method, immunohistochemistry, ...