Birth weight is a reliable index of intra-uterine growth and a major factor determining child survival, future physical growth and mental development1. Babies born with low birth weight (LBW) have poorer chance of survival and healthy growth and development than babies born with normal weight2. These babies experience greater mental, physical and neurological handicaps later in life3. The birth...

background: high cesarean section rate is a major health problem in developing countries. this study was established to evaluate the effectiveness of iranian ministry of health and medical education protocols on cesarean section rate trend. methods: through a non-concurrent controlled quasi-experimental study, cesarean section rate in shohada-e-tajrish and taleghani hospitals in tehran was comp...

DNA methylation plays an important role in suppressing retrotransposon activity in mammalian genomes, yet there are stages of mammalian development where global hypomethylation puts the genome at risk of retrotransposition-mediated genetic instability. Hypomethylated primordial germ cells appear to limit this risk by expressing a cohort of retrotransposon-suppressing genome-defence genes whose ...

Back ground Anemia in pregnancy is associated with increased rates of maternal and perinatal mortality, premature delivery, low birth weight, and other adverse outcomes Materials and Methods A prospective study was conducted on 1405 Iranian pregnant women who delivered during 2015. Blood was collected from all the subjects to measure the hemoglobin (Hb) during 16-19 weeks, 22-24 weeks,...

OBJECTIVES Epidemiological evidence in humans suggests that intrauterine growth retardation is associated with an increased risk of hypertension and coronary heart disease in later life. To begin to understand the mechanisms involved, we developed and exploited a rat model of intrauterine growth retardation to assess predisposition to arrhythmias and resting blood pressure levels at defined age...

background: the association between maternal smoking and poor pregnancy outcome, which is well established in medi­cal literature, has also been corroborated by the results of this study conducted in a turkish hospital. our objective was to investi­gate the effects of cigarette smoking during pregnancy on infant head circumference, height, weight, and body mass in­dex (bmi). methods: in this re...