Reuters reports that vitamin D from the mother's body typically helps in the development of a baby's bones and teeth before birth. However, most pregnant women do not need to be tested for vitamin D levels or take supplements, according to Dr. George Macones, the chair of the college's obstetric practice committee.

Macones and his fellow researchers decided that such screening is not necessary after scanning evidence about the screening for all pregnant women and finding that the benefits to the mother and baby were minimal at best, the news source said.

In fact, Macones went so far as to suggest that such screening could ultimately be a waste of hospital resources and time, according to the news source.

According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, vitamin D helps promote calcium absorption, which can be important for bone growth.
 

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Reuters reports that the authors of the new study, including researchers from the University of Naples in Italy, found that the lack of nutrients and lower hormone levels in women with the disease could account for the earlier menopause.

"When a woman has early menopause, she should think of celiac disease," said lead author Dr. Carolina Ciacci. "It's probably too late to gain anything about fertility but it's probably important for her quality of life. This is the same for people experiencing multiple (spontaneous) abortions or preterm birth – it's just a blood test."

The authors found that the number of premature births and miscarriages increased in women suffering from celiac disease as opposed to those who did not have the condition.

According to the March of Dimes, premature babies have a higher risk of developing complications such as breathing problems.
 

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HealthDay reports that while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began to require folic acid to be added to grains such as breads and pastas, the rate of neural tube defects such as spina bifida remains 20 percent higher in Hispanic women than others.

"Fortification of cereal grains with folic acid in 1998 is a public health success story," said Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, medical director for the March of Dimes. "Adding this B vitamin to corn masa flour will build on that initiative and begin to address the disparities in these birth defects."

The news source reports that a number of countries in Latin America, including Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica, already supplement food products with folic acid. In order for this to be done for corn masa flour in the U.S., the FDA would have to approve of it, according to HealthDay.

Spina bifida occurs when part of the neural tube does not fully develop or close properly, according to the Mayo Clinic.
 

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HealthDay reports that the researchers in the study found that pregnant women who did not sleep on their left side were twice as likely to deliver a stillborn baby.

Lead author Tomasina Stacey, a University of Auckland graduate student, explained that while the research could be a positive step forward in helping prevent stillbirths, more studies need to be conducted in order to help confirm the results.

"This is a new and potentially exciting hypothesis, but further research is required before all women are advised to sleep on their left side in late pregnancy," she said.

The study, which was published online in the June 14 edition of the British Medical Journal, examined 155 women who delivered stillborn at 28 weeks' gestation and another 310 women during routine pregnancy.

According to the National Library of Medicine, a stillbirth occurs when a fetus unexpectedly dies during birth or during the latter half of pregnancy.
 

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The news source reports that the new procedure could prove to be a beneficial substitute to the blood test that is traditionally used. If the blood test suggests an increased risk of Down syndrome, DNA from the fetus is then taken in order to confirm the diagnosis.

Such a procedure, which typically involves a needle, is generally done more than four months into the pregnancy and carries a very small risk of miscarriage, the news provider said.

As a result, a number of companies are attempting to market the new blood test to allow women to avoid these more invasive procedures by obtaining DNA from the mother's bloodstream, identifying the condition early on.

According to the National Down Syndrome Society, the chromosomal condition occurs once in every 691 babies born.  

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According to the news provider, the tests will be conducted in order to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood of the newborns, in addition to how well the baby's heart and lungs are functioning.

"Before they leave the hospital, the 102,000 babies born in our state each year will now have a simple, painless screening test to ensure that any hidden, but potentially life-threatening heart defects will be detected," Health and Senior Services Commissioner Mary O’Dowd explained.

Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell, a Democrat from Hudson, was one of the main sponsors of the bill, as his son was born with a congenital heart defect.

According to the National Library of Medicine, congenital heart defects are the most common types of major birth defects and typically involve the walls of the heart or the valves or arteries near it.
 

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According to WebMD, the evidence of the link was maintained even in women who were at a normal weight prior to becoming pregnant.

Still, study researcher Dr. Jami Josefson from Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago said that the weight gain during pregnancy was just one reason behind the increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity.

"Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is certainly a factor that contributes to the childhood obesity epidemic, but it's just one factor," she said.

The study also suggested that the increasing risk of obesity in children was evident even when the actual birth weight was considered normal, according to the news source.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, other potential problems of excessive weight gain during pregnancy can include increased risks of gestational diabetes and high blood pressure.  

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According to the news source, pediatric neurologist Jennifer Armstrong-Wells is in the process of leading the first newborn brain injury study to initially focus on high-risk mothers prior to the birth of their babies.

Armstrong-Wells and her colleagues are reportedly taking blood samples from the mother before and after birth, examining the blood cord and placenta, and following the babies for a significant period of time after birth, the news source said.

The neurologist told the news source that the goal of the research is to help prevent conditions that ultimately cause brain injured babies.

"It may change the way we counsel parents. It may also change the way we think about delivering children," Armstrong-Wells explained. "Eventually, we may be able to develop medicine that could prevent the injuries in the first place."

According to the Mayo Clinic, brain abnormalities and injuries can lead to cerebral palsy, a movement disorder most often caused before birth.
 

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According to HealthDay, the new test could give doctors a better opportunity to prevent or treat deafness in the babies caused by the virus, referred to as cytomegalovirus.

The saliva test could ultimately replace the traditional "heel stick" blood test conducted on newborns that generally misses between 60 and 70 percent of cases, reports the news provider.

"The challenge is, unlike the dried blood spot [heel stick], which is already used for newborn screening in hospitals across the country, we don't have a system in place for the collection of saliva," said study co-leader Dr. Suresh Boppana, in a release. "But we've shown that if you wanted to test a lot of babies for congenital CMV infection, it can be done."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of the infection can include lung issues and vision loss in addition to deafness.  

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HealthDay reports that the drugs that appeared to raise the risk of birth defects included carbamazepine, lamotrigine, valproic acid and phenbobarbital. The researchers noted that the risks increased with higher doses, but added that the majority of the women examined ultimately delivered healthy babies.

"It is easy to recommend against use of a specific drug (valproic acid, for instance) because of a higher risk of malformations, but if seizure control is not possible with alternative therapeutic regimens, such recommendations are difficult to implement," said Dr. W. Allen Hauser, a Columbia University professor, in an editorial with the study.

The study, which lasted 11 years, utilized data on nearly 4,000 pregnancies in 33 different countries, according to the news provider.

The use of valproic acid – which is marketed under the name Depakote – during pregnancy has previously been linked to a negative impact on the child's academic abilities.
 

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