Pregnant women and their unborn children are a population that is particularly vulnerable to bacterial infection. Physiological changes that occur during pregnancy affect the way women respond to such infections and the options that clinicians have for treatment. Antibiotics are still considered the best option for active infections and a suitable prophylaxis for prevention of potential infecti...

Quality control in perinatal education is imperative, with the purpose to deliver a high quality and appropriate healthcare service to the family in the perinatal period. The purpose of this study was to develop valid standards for perinatal education in South Africa. To reach this goal, the study proceeded as follows: Development phase concepts were developed for perinatal education, the conce...

The testicular torsion which is typically seen in prepuberty is very rare in the early neonatal period; prenatal diagnosis is difficult. Herein, we report a five day-old male neonate with swelling and erythema of the right scrotum.  Following Doppler ultrasound suggestive of testicular torsion, surgical exploration was undertaken. There was gangrene of the right testis with discoloration and ne...

This paper concerns future policy development and programs of research for the prevention of mental disorders based on research emerging from fetal and early life programming. The current review offers an overview of findings on pregnancy exposures such as maternal mental health, lifestyle factors, and potential teratogenic and neurotoxic exposures on child outcomes. Outcomes of interest are co...

The regulation of adrenal activity during the perinatal period raises different experimental problems; studies are often limited and their conclusions vary with the species studied. During the perinatal period, the profile of the ratio of adrenal weight to body weight reaches a minimum earlier the more mature is the species; this minimum occurs before birth in sheep, at birth in guinea-pigs and...

Fetal life evolves in a hypoxic environment. Changes in the oxygen content in utero caused by conditions such as pre-eclampsia or type I diabetes or by oxygen supplementation to the mother lead to increased free radical production and correlate with perinatal outcomes. In the fetal-to-neonatal transition asphyxia is characterized by intermittent periods of hypoxia ischemia that may evolve to hy...

At birth, the distal lung epithelium undergoes a profound phenotypic switch from secretion to absorption in the course of adaptation to air breathing. In this review, we describe the developmental regulation of key membrane transport proteins and the way in which epinephrine, oxygen, glucocorticoids, and thyroid hormones interact to bring about this crucial change in function. Evidence from mol...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to explore the prospective relationship between anxiety symptoms and coping strategies during late pregnancy and early postpartum. METHODS Participants completed the Hospital Anxiety Depression-Anxiety subscale and Carver's Brief COPE at two time points, namely during the last trimester of pregnancy (N = 400) and at two months postpartum (N = 158). ...

Sensori-motor synchronization (SMS) is the coordination of rhythmic movement with an external rhythm. It plays a central role in motor, cognitive, and social behavior. SMS is commonly studied in adults and in children from four years of age onward. Prior to this age, the ability has rarely been investigated due to a lack of available methods. The present paper reviews what is known about SMS in...