OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in pregnancy on young child development. METHODS A 2-year follow-up of 850 children born to women who participated in a double-blind cluster randomized controlled trial of prenatal micronutrient supplementation in western rural China. These women were randomly assigned to receive either daily folic acid, iron/folic acid (60 mg ...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of prenatal care for improving birth and subsequent child outcomes in low-income countries remains controversial, with much of the evidence to date coming from high-income countries and focused on early-life outcomes. We examined associations between prenatal care visits and birth weight, height-for-age at 24 months and attained schooling in four low- and middle-inc...

OBJECTIVE To analyze trends in screening and invasive prenatal diagnosis of chromosome abnormalities (CA) over a 13-year period and correlate them to changes in the national prenatal screening policy. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed Down syndrome (DS) screening tests and fetal karyotypes obtained by prenatal invasive testing (IT) in our fetal medicine unit between January 1999 and Decembe...

OBJECTIVE To assess costs and consequences of prenatal care on perinatal morbidity and mortality. METHODS Evaluation study using two types of analysis: implementation and efficiency analysis, carried out at 11 Family Health Units in the Recife, Northeastern Brazil, in 2006. The costs were calculated by means of the activity-based costing technique and the cost-effectiveness ratio was calculat...

Chronic psychological stress is a risk factor for osteoporosis. Maternal active mastication during prenatal stress attenuates stress response. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that maternal active mastication influences the effect of prenatal stress on bone mass and bone microstructure in adult offspring. Pregnant ddY mice were randomly divided into control, stress, and stress/ch...

OBJECTIVES Prenatal screening for Down syndrome has become standard practice in many western countries. In the Netherlands, however, prenatal screening tests for congenital defects are not offered routinely. The present study aims to assess test uptake in a large, unselected population of pregnant women, and to give more insight into the decision for or against prenatal screening through nuchal...

This cross-sectional study counted with the participation of 301 pregnant women seen in 2009 at a philanthropic maternity hospital in the city of São Paulo (a prenatal support program named Pré-Natal do Amparo Maternal - PN-AM). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prenatal care according to the initial gestational age, the number of appointments that were held, the continuity of t...

We studied the association between the prenatal diets of 212 mothers assessed by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire and the blood pressure of their infants. Prenatal potassium, calcium, and magnesium intakes were measured and adjusted for total caloric intake. Infant blood pressure was measured at 2-3 days and at 1, 6, and 12 months of age by using an ultrasonic-auscultatory device...

Experimental animal models have demonstrated that one of the primary consequences of prenatal stress is increased fear and anxiety in the offspring. Few prospective human studies have evaluated the consequences of prenatal stress on anxiety during preadolescence. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the consequences of prenatal exposure to both maternal biological stress signals an...

Prenatal stress can cause long-term effects on cognitive functions in offspring. Hippocampal synaptic plasticity, believed to be the mechanism underlying certain types of learning and memory, and known to be sensitive to behavioral stress, can be changed by prenatal stress. Whether enriched environment treatment (EE) in early postnatal periods can cause a recovery from these deficits is unknown...