Expectant mom Julie Madayag first learned of her daughter’s auspicious potential birth date from an online due-date calculator: 11/11/11, the computer predicted.
Family MattersParenting
Pregnancy
Family MattersParenting
Is Nicotine a ‘Gateway’ to Cocaine Addiction (and Cancer)?
Some have claimed that tobacco and alcohol are “gateway” drugs that people use before turning to illicit substances. While causal conclusions are hard to draw, at least one new study in mice shows that smoking may indeed increase …
The Healthland Podcast: Super Broccoli, Yo-Yo Dieting, and Why Toddlers Are Terrible
Welcome back! This week on the podcast: why dieters can’t seem to keep the weight off, a new breed of super broccoli that promises to lower your cholesterol, and research suggesting that kids’ aggression can be traced back to …
Family MattersSex
Using Beads to Get Pregnant — or Prevent It
Women who want to get pregnant, as well as those who just as desperately desire the opposite outcome, care a lot about their fertility. But figuring out exactly when to have sex — or when to avoid it — can be tricky.
Family MattersMarriage
Ultrasound Guidelines May Wrongly Diagnose Miscarriage
As if the worry over potential miscarriage weren’t stressful enough for newly pregnant women, research released Friday shows that current guidelines for using ultrasound to determine that a pregnancy has ended may not always be accurate.
Family MattersPregnancy
Pregnancy: Eating Well Cuts the Risk of Birth Defects
Need more of a reason to eat a healthy diet? Pregnant women who load up on fruits, veggies and whole grains have a reduced risk of having babies with neural tube defects, such as spina bifida or cleft lip, according to one of the …
Family MattersPregnancy
DES Daughters: Banned Pregnancy Drug Linked to Infertility, Prematurity and Cancer
In the late 1960s, a cluster of teen girls and young women showed up at Massachusetts General Hospital and were diagnosed with a rare vaginal cancer, clear cell adenocarcinoma. It’s unusual even when it’s diagnosed in elderly …
Family MattersParenting
‘Baby Fever’ Is a Real Emotion, and Men Get It Too
If at some point you’ve had an irrepressible, inexplicable urge to make a baby, you may be interested to know there’s a term for that — baby fever — and that it’s a bona fide physical and emotional phenomenon, according to …
The Healthland Podcast: Customizing Your Baby, Masturbation, and the Vaccine Wars
Welcome back! This week we debate the ethics of a blood test that can reveal your baby’s sex at just seven weeks of pregnancy. Also: a big new study on how masturbation affects sexual development. Finally, science editor Jeffrey …
Why Pregnant Women in California Have High Levels of Toxic Chemicals
Unintended consequences are a pain. California has long had some of the strictest flammability regulations in the country for furniture and other household items. As a result, in the 1970s flame retardant chemicals called …
Review: Aspirin Doesn’t Increase Chances of Pregnancy With IVF
Taking aspirin during fertility treatment does not increase women’s chances of conceiving, according to a new review of the research.
Family MattersPediatric Genetics
A Blood Test Determines a Baby’s Sex Earlier than Ever. But at What Cost?
Boy or girl? New research finds that a simple blood test can answer that question for expectant parents at just seven weeks, significantly earlier than results from procedures like ultrasound and with less risk than invasive …
Family MattersPregnancy
‘Expected: Child’: Facebook Welcomes Fetuses to Social Media
It’s probably long overdue, but Facebook has just made it easier for expectant parents to announce their burgeoning bellies via their social network.
