Background: Breast milk can be a source of toxic material, along with the transfer of nutrients needed for infant growth. This study was conducted to measure the level of lead in maternal and neonatal blood and breast milk in Tehran, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 150 mothers and their infants were studied. Samples of maternal blood, fetal umbilical cord blood, breast milk, ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Recent studies show that maternal obesity is associated with impaired offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. The mechanism underlying the association is unclear. However, there is evidence to suggest a role for intra-uterine exposure to inflammation and insulin resistance (IR). We aimed to determine if maternal IR and inflammation were associated to fetal neurodevelopm...

BACKGROUND Disturbed one-carbon (1-C) metabolism in the mother is associated with poor fetal growth but causality of this relationship has not been established. METHODS We studied the association between maternal total homocysteine and offspring birthweight in the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study (PMNS, Pune, India) and Parthenon Cohort Study (Mysore, India). We tested for evidence of causality ...

BACKGROUND Fetal DNA in maternal urine, if present, would be a valuable source of fetal genetic material for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. However, the existence of fetal DNA in maternal urine has remained controversial. The issue is due to the lack of appropriate technology to robustly detect the potentially highly degraded fetal DNA in maternal urine. METHODOLOGY We have used massively pa...

OBJECTIVE To examine the possible effects of maternal and fetal characteristics on the fetal fraction in maternal plasma cell-free (cf) DNA at 11-13 weeks' gestation and estimate the proportion of pregnancies at high risk of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) failure because the fetal fraction is less than 4%. METHODS In 1949 singleton pregnancies at 11-13 weeks' gestation cf-DNA was extrac...

OBJECTIVES The placental transfer of nutrients is influenced by maternal metabolic state, placenta function and fetal demands. Human in vivo studies of this interplay are scarce and challenging. We aimed to establish a method to study placental nutrient transfer in humans. Focusing on glucose, we tested a hypothesis that maternal glucose concentrations and uteroplacental arterio-venous differen...

The relationship between dip area (DA) of fetal heart rate (FHR) and the acid base status of fetus and mother during the first and second stage of labor were studied on 39 women at term. The observations reveal a significant correlation between the fall in fetal base excess (BE) and the measured DA: deltaBE = 0.01 - 0.143 DA (2alpha less than 0.01). There is no difference in the correlation of ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether some offspring of women with diabetes are intrinsically more active than others in utero and whether those who are active are able to normalize their birth weight despite maternal hyperglycemia. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a three-phase study to view the relationship between fetal movements and subsequent birth weight in women with diabetes. Phase I...

Context: Milk and dairy products consumed by mothers seem to be effective for fetal and neonatal anthropometric measurements, because they contain various nutrients. Objectives: The aim of this study was to systematically review the influence of milk and dairy products consumption by mothers on fetal and neonatal head circumferences. Data Sources: Systematic searches were conducted in electroni...