REPOST: Flu shots during pregnancy lead to 4,250 percent increase in fetal deaths

A new study reveals the huge count of miscarriages and stillbirths that are caused by flu shots. This Natural News.com article has the story.  

Image Source: naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) For years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has maintained that the combined influenza vaccine, which was first administered during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu season, is perfectly safe and actually encouraged for pregnant women. But a new study published in the journal Human and Environmental Toxicology (HET) reveals that, following the mass administration of the untested dual vaccine, which contains the mercury-based preservative Thimerosal, miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women who received it skyrocketed by an astounding 4,250 percent.

Based on information compiled from the official government Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which only accounts for less than 10 percent of all actual vaccine injury cases, the multiple-strain, inactivated flu vaccine containing mercury was directly responsible for triggering the 4,250 percent fetal death increase, which was seen only during the 2009 pandemic flu season. In the years before the vaccine's administration, as well as in the years after, rates of miscarriage and stillbirth were far lower, pointing to the combined vaccine as the culprit.

According to Eileen Dannemann, Director of the National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW), the CDC has continually made a conscious and willful effort to cover up this data, which shows the immense dangers of the combined flu shot, and has repeatedly lied to the public with claims that the vaccine is safe for pregnant women. The agency even went so far as to publish a fraudulent study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG) that intentionally withheld critical data on the fetal death spike.

"Not only did the CDC fail to disclose the spiraling spike in fetal death reports in real time during the 2009 pandemic season as to cut the fetal losses, but also we have documented by transcript Dr. Marie McCormick, chairperson of the Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group (VSRAWG) on September 3, 2010, denying any adverse events in the pregnant population during the 2009 pandemic season," wrote Dannemann in a letter to Dr. Joseph Mercola about her findings.

Hidden presentation slide reveals CDC knew full well about spike in fetal deaths from flu shot, deliberately tried to hide this information

Since the combined flu shot has never actually been tested for safety, especially in pregnant women, the CDC set up a mock advisory group headed by its own Dr. Marie McCormick to track all adverse events from the shot during the 2009 pandemic season. But as reported by investigative journalist Christina England over at Vactruth.com, neither Dr. McCormick nor any other advisory person ever fessed up with the truth about the flu shot's dangers, even after being confronted with incontrovertible evidence.

"The Advisory Committee on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) and CDC were confronted with the VAERS data from NCOW on September 3, 2010, in Washington, D.C., and then again by conference call on September 10, and then again in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 28, 2010," added Dannemann in her letter. "On both September 3 and September 10, Dr. Marie McCormick clearly denied that there were any adverse events for pregnant women from the 2009 flu vaccine."

To make matters worse, the CDC's Dr. Tom Shimabakuru was caught lying about significant adverse reactions to the H1N1 vaccine at the October 28 presentation in Atlanta. According to England, Dr. Shimabakuru had a secret slide in his briefcase that revealed the significant uptick in fetal deaths among pregnant women who received the flu shot, but it was not included in his presentation. It was only after a member of the audience requested information on such adverse events that Dr. Shimabakuru reluctantly and nervously pulled out the slide, further revealing the CDC's extensive efforts to conceal this important information from the public.

Dr. Cristian Andronic specializes in advanced gynecologic and robotic pelvic reconstructive surgery. He has performed over 120 robotic surgeries throughout his career. This Facebook page provides more updates about gynecology, robotic surgeries, and other topics related to Dr. Andronic's expertise.

REPOST: Moderate drinking during pregnancy does not seem to harm baby's neurodevelopment

A new study shows that drinking 3 to 7 glasses of alcohol per week during pregnancy does not affect fetal neurodevelopment. Read this Eureka Alert article.

No impact on 10 year olds' ability to balance; but social advantage could be key

Moderate drinking during pregnancy - 3 to 7 glasses of alcohol a week - does not seem to harm fetal neurodevelopment, as indicated by the child's ability to balance, suggests a large study published in the online only journal BMJ Open.

But social advantage may be a factor, as more affluent and better educated mums-to-be tend to drink more than women who are less well off, say the researchers.

The researchers assessed the ability to balance - an indicator of prenatal neurodevelopment - of almost 7000 ten year olds who were part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

ALSPAC has been tracking the long term health of around 14,000 children born between 1991 and 1992 to women resident in the former Avon region of the UK.

Those children whose mothers' alcohol consumption during (18 weeks) and after pregnancy (47 months) was known, underwent a 20 minute balance assessment when they reached the age of 10.

The assessment included dynamic balance (walking on a beam); and static balance (heel to toe balance on a beam, standing on one leg for 20 seconds) with eyes open and then again with eyes closed. Each child had two attempts at the test.

Their dads were also asked how much alcohol they drank when their partners were three months pregnant. Over half said they drank one or more glasses a week, and one in five said they drank one or more glasses a day.

Most of the children's mums had drunk no alcohol (70%) while pregnant, while one in four drank between 1 and 2 (low consumption) and 3 and 7 glasses a week (moderate consumption).

Some 4.5% drank 7 or more glasses a week. Of these, around one in seven were classified as binge drinkers - 4 or more glasses at any one time.

Four years after the pregnancy, more than 28% of the women were not drinking any alcohol, and over half were drinking between 3 and 7+ glasses of alcohol a week.

In general, the mums who drank more, but who were not binge drinkers, were better off and older; the mums who binge drank were less well off and younger.

Higher total alcohol consumption before and after pregnancy by the mums, as well as higher consumption by the dad during the first three months of pregnancy, were associated with better performance by the children, particularly static balance.

In an additional analysis, the genetic predisposition to low levels of alcohol consumption was assessed in 4335 women by blood test. If the apparently "beneficial" effects of higher parental alcohol consumption on children's balance were true, those whose mums had the "low alcohol" gene would be expected to have poorer balance.

But there was no evidence that the children of these women were less able to balance than those whose mums who did not have this genetic profile. In fact there was a weak suggestion that children of mums with the "low alcohol" gene actually had better balance, although the numbers were too small to show this reliably.

Taken together, the results show that after taking account of influential factors, such as age, smoking, and previous motherhood, low to moderate alcohol consumption did not seem to interfere with a child's ability to balance for any of the three components assessed.

But in general, better static balance was associated with greater levels of affluence and educational attainment. And in this group of mums, moderate alcohol intake was a marker for social advantage, which may itself be the key factor in better balance, possibly overriding subtle harmful effects of moderate alcohol use, say the authors.



With years of experience as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Cristian Andronic is knowledgeable of the specific healthcare needs of women. Visit this Facebook page for more updates on the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

REPOST: Immune regulation of ovarian development: Programming by neonatal immune challenge

This article mentions that immune factors may be major regulators of ovarian development.
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Bacterial infections during early life, such as Chlamydia which is present in 15% of newly born babies, may reduce reproductive success in adult women. For example, exposure to bacteria can lead to a change in the onset of puberty, as well as in ovarian morphology and sexual behavior.

Luba Sominsky and colleagues from the University of Newcastle, Australia, here show that when infant rats are injected with lipopolysaccharide molecules that are normally found on the exterior of bacteria, the expression of genes in their ovaries changes, especially for genes implicated in immune-mediated inflammatory disease.

Sominsky et al. propose that during early development, immune factors are major regulators of ovarian development, so that an immune imbalance during this period may interfere with the formation of ovarian follicles, compromising fertility later in life. This link between adult fertility and infections during critical periods of development may help explain the ongoing trend for declining fertility in young women worldwide.

More articles on gynecology and obstetrics can be found at this Facebook page for Cristian Andronic.

REPOST: Infant brains benefit from breastfeeding

This article says that breastfeeding is really good for the optimal brain development of infants.
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A new study by researchers from Brown University finds more evidence that breastfeeding is good for babies' brains.

The study made use of specialized, baby-friendly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at the brain growth in a sample of children under the age of 4. The research found that by age 2, babies who had been breastfed exclusively for at least three months had enhanced development in key parts of the brain compared to children who were fed formula exclusively or who were fed a combination of formula and breastmilk. The extra growth was most pronounced in parts of the brain associated with language, emotional function, and cognition, the research showed.

This isn't the first study to suggest that breastfeeding aids babies' brain development. Behavioral studies have previously associated breastfeeding with better cognitive outcomes in older adolescents and adults. But this is the first imaging study that looked for differences associated with breastfeeding in the brains of very young and healthy children, said Sean Deoni, assistant professor of engineering at Brown and the study's lead author.

"We wanted to see how early these changes in brain development actually occur," Deoni said. "We show that they're there almost right off the bat."

The findings are in press in the journal NeuroImage and available now online.

Deoni leads Brown's Advanced Baby Imaging Lab. He and his colleagues use quiet MRI machines that image babies' brains as they sleep. The MRI technique Deoni has developed looks at the microstructure of the brain's white matter, the tissue that contains long nerve fibers and helps different parts of the brain communicate with each other. Specifically, the technique looks for amounts of myelin, the fatty material that insulates nerve fibers and speeds electrical signals as they zip around the brain.

Deoni and his team looked at 133 babies ranging in ages from 10 months to four years. All of the babies had normal gestation times, and all came from families with similar socioeconomic statuses. The researchers split the babies into three groups: those whose mothers reported they exclusively breastfed for at least three months, those fed a combination of breastmilk and formula, and those fed formula alone. The researchers compared the older kids to the younger kids to establish growth trajectories in white matter for each group.

The study showed that the exclusively breastfed group had the fastest growth in myelinated white matter of the three groups, with the increase in white matter volume becoming substantial by age 2. The group fed both breastmilk and formula had more growth than the exclusively formula-fed group, but less than the breastmilk-only group.

"We're finding the difference [in white matter growth] is on the order of 20 to 30 percent, comparing the breastfed and the non-breastfed kids," said Deoni. "I think it's astounding that you could have that much difference so early."

Deoni and his team then backed up their imaging data with a set of basic cognitive tests on the older children. Those tests found increased language performance, visual reception, and motor control performance in the breastfed group.

The study also looked at the effects of the duration of breastfeeding. The researchers compared babies who were breastfed for more than a year with those breastfed less than a year, and found significantly enhanced brain growth in the babies who were breastfed longer - especially in areas of the brain dealing with motor function.

Deoni says the findings add to a substantial body of research that finds positive associations between breastfeeding and children's brain health.

"I think I would argue that combined with all the other evidence, it seems like breastfeeding is absolutely beneficial," he said.

More links to obstetrics and gynecology-related news and updates can be found at this Twitter page for Cristian Andronic.

REPOST: Pregnancy belt' lets dads-to-be feel baby's kicks

One of the most exciting moments in your pregnancy is when you feel those first little flutters of your baby kicking. In this article from Today Moms, dads-to-be also experienced their baby's first kicks.

Image Source: today.com

A new ad featuring fathers-to-be experiencing the kicks of their unborn babies with the help of a “pregnancy belt” is getting lots of buzz online.

The concept is at the center of a video greeting card created by Huggies in Latin America for Father’s Day, said Eric Bruner, a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of the diaper brand.

“We think it’s a new and different way for dads to experience the emotions of pregnancy and it’s certainly worth highlighting in this special time of year,” Bruner told TODAY Moms.

The “pregnancy belt,” which took four months to create and develop, is actually made up of two different bands.

The one worn by the expectant mom contains electronic sensors that detect the baby’s movements in the womb. The signals for those movements are then wirelessly transmitted to band strapped around dad’s belly.

LED lights in the dad’s belt create visual patterns to show where the movement is happening and small motor vibrators, like those in a cell phone, create strong, short impulses to let the father “feel” the baby kick in near-real time.



Video Source: today.com


The video features real couples trying out the belt at a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bruner said. Some of the dads in the clip get teary-eyed when they “experience” their babies wiggle, with one of them observing, “He’s moving a lot,” and another man exclaiming, “I can feel him.”

For now, the pregnancy band is one of a kind and was created just for the video, so there are no plans to sell it, though Huggies is evaluating its options about whether to do so in the future, Bruner said.

There’s been an “overwhelmingly positive” reaction to the clip, which the company posted on social media channels on Monday, he added.

“We’re very pleased with the response on this video and the emphasis that it puts on dad’s experience during pregnancy,” Bruner said.


Follow this Twitter page for Dr. Cristian Andronic for more information about the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

REPOST: Pregnancy nausea drug won't harm fetus, study finds

A new study on the effects of a nausea drug to pregnant women has been released in Denmark. Marilynn Marchione shares the details in this NBCNews.com article.

There's reassuring news for pregnant women miserable with morning sickness: A very large study in Denmark finds no evidence that using a popular anti-nausea drug will harm their babies. 

One in 10 pregnant women has nausea and vomiting bad enough to need medicine but many forgo it out of fear of side effects. No drugs are currently approved for morning sickness in the United States although doctors are free to prescribe whatever they believe is best.

Zofran, sold by GlaxoSmithKline and in generic form for treating nausea from cancer treatments and other causes, has been the top choice. Yet women and doctors have been leery of it because a small study previously suggested it might raise the risk of a birth defect — cleft palate.

The new study of more than 600,000 pregnancies in Denmark found no evidence of major birth-related problems, so women should not be afraid to use Zofran if they need it, said Dr. Iffath Hoskins, a high-risk pregnancy specialist at NYU Langone Medical Center and a spokeswoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

"It's effective and it's safe," she said. "Nobody is giving you a gold star for suffering through this."

Poor nutrition because of excessive vomiting can harm the woman and the fetus, she said.

Hoskins had no role in the study, which was led by Dr. Bjorn Pasternak of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen. Results appear in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers used nationwide health registries to compare rates of miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects, preterm delivery and having a baby that weighed too little among women who used Zofran during pregnancy and others who did not. They also looked separately at use during the first trimester of pregnancy, when risks to the developing fetus are highest.

No harms were seen from Zofran use, which occurred in 1,970 of the 608,385 pregnancies. The study looked at birth defects collectively, and cannot rule out a higher risk of specific ones, although the incidence of those is very small, researchers noted. The Danish Medical Research Council paid for the study.

As a first step, women should try treating morning sickness with crackers, ginger ale and certain B vitamins and use Zofran or one of the other prescription anti-nausea medicines as a last resort, Hoskins said. 

"Whenever possible, nothing or simple is better" than a drug, especially in the first three months of pregnancy, she said.

More news and articles on pregnancy can be read in this Cristian Andronic blog site.

REPOST: Preeclampsia And Eclampsia

This Prevention.com article shares the things that women should know about preeclampsia and eclampsia.

What Is It?

Preeclampsia is a condition that occurs only during pregnancy, and usually only after the 20th week. A woman with preeclampsia develops high blood pressure and protein in her urine, and she often has swelling (edema) of the legs, hands, face, or entire body. When preeclampsia becomes severe, it can cause dangerous complications for the mother and the fetus. One of these complications is eclampsia, the name for seizures that are associated with severe preeclampsia.

Experts are still not entirely sure what causes preeclampsia, but recent research has provided some good clues. The best hypothesis is that preeclampsia occurs when the placenta does not anchor itself as deeply as expected within the wall of the uterus during the first trimester. What causes this abnormal anchoring is unclear, but it may be influenced by the mother's or father's genes or the mother's immune system, and medical conditions the mother may have, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Regardless of its cause, early abnormalities in placental formation lead to changes that later affect blood vessels and other organs. Arteries throughout the body can tighten (become narrower), raising blood pressure. They can also become "leaky," allowing protein or fluid to seep through their walls, which causes tissues to swell. In preeclampsia, changes in arteries decrease the blood supply to the fetus and placenta, and to the woman's kidneys, liver, eyes, brain, and other organs.

In parts of the world with more limited medical care, preeclampsia and eclampsia cause many women to die during pregnancy. Fortunately, with appropriate prenatal care and monitoring, most women with preeclampsia and eclampsia and their babies survive just fine.

Eclampsia and, especially, death from preeclampsia are very rare in well-resourced countries like the United States. However, even with the best care, preeclampsia is a leading cause of illness for mothers and newborns. The following conditions increase the chance that a woman will develop preeclampsia:

• Chronic (long-lasting) high blood pressure 
• Obesity 
• Diabetes 
• Kidney disease 
• Being under 15 years old or over 35 years old 
• It being the woman's first pregnancy 
• Having had preeclampsia in a previous pregnancy
• Multiple gestations: twins, triplets, or a greater number of multiples (These pregnancies have more placental tissue. This suggests that the placenta or things it produces may play a role.) 
• Certain autoimmune conditions, including antiphospholipid antibody syndrome and some autoimmune arthritis conditions 
• African-American or Hispanic ethnicity 
• Having a sister, mother, or daughter who had preeclampsia or high blood pressure during pregnancy
• Having a male partner whose previous partner had preeclampsia (this suggests that the father's genetic material, passed to the fetus and its placenta, may play a role) 
• Having a male partner with whom you were sexually active for only a short length of time prior to becoming pregnant (this may be due to a change in the way a woman's immune system reacts to genes from the father after repeated exposure to his semen)

Symptoms

A woman with mild preeclampsia may not notice any symptoms, or she may have only mild swelling of the hands or feet. However, most pregnant women have some degree of swelling of the feet. So not all swelling indicates preeclampsia.

Symptoms of severe preeclampsia can include:

• Headache 
• Visual changes 
• Nausea and abdominal pain, usually in the upper abdomen 
• Difficulty breathing 

Eclampsia causes seizures, which are jerking movements of the arms and legs. During a seizure, a woman is likely to lose consciousness, and she may lose control of her bladder or bowels.

Diagnosis

Because preeclampsia doesn't always cause noticeable symptoms, it is crucial that all pregnant women see a health care professional regularly during pregnancy for prenatal care. This gives you the best chance of having preeclampsia diagnosed and managed before it becomes severe. Your doctor or midwife will measure your blood pressure and test your urine for protein at each prenatal visit because abnormal results are the earliest, most common signs of preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia can be especially difficult to detect in women who have a history of high blood pressure (hypertension) before pregnancy. One in four women with high blood pressure develops preeclampsia during pregnancy, so it is essential that these women be monitored closely for changes in blood pressure and for protein in the urine.

Your doctor or midwife will diagnose preeclampsia depending on your symptoms and the results of certain tests. There is no one blood test currently available to determine if someone does or does not have preeclampsia. Since a simple blood test is not available, here is how the diagnosis is determined:

• Mild preeclampsia is characterized by the following: Blood pressure of 140/90 or above Swelling, particularly of the arms, hands, or face that is reflected in greater than expected weight gain, which is a result of retaining fluid. (Swelling in the ankle area is considered normal during pregnancy.)Protein in the urine 
• Severe preeclampsia is characterized by: Blood pressure of 160/110 or higher in more than one reading separated by at least six hours A 24 hour urine collection that has more than 5 grams of protein Symptoms such as severe headache, changes in vision, reduced urine output, abdominal pain, fluid in the lungs and pelvic painSigns of the "HELLP" syndrome, which means the liver and blood-clotting systems are not functioning properly. HELLP stands for Hemolysis (damaged red blood cells), Elevated Liver enzymes (indicating ongoing liver cell damage) and Low Platelets (cells that help the blood to clot). It occurs in about 10% of patients with severe preeclampsia. 
• Eclampsia is diagnosed when a woman with preeclampsia has seizures. These seizures usually happen in women who have severe preeclampsia, though they can occur with preeclampsia. Eclampsia also can happen soon after a woman gives birth. Approximately 30% to 50% of patients with eclampsia also have the HELLP syndrome.

Expected Duration

Preeclampsia can begin as early as the 20th week of pregnancy, or very rarely even earlier. But it is more likely to develop during the last three months of pregnancy. In fact, the majority of cases are diagnosed in the last weeks of pregnancy. When a diagnosis of preeclampsia is made long before delivery, the pregnancy usually can be managed with a combination of bedrest and careful observation. Because preeclampsia can quickly worsen, doctors will often recommend that women with preeclampsia be admitted to the hospital for such rest and observation. If the condition worsens and threatens the health of the mother, delivery is usually recommended. Delivery will also be recommended as a pregnancy approaches its due date, to prevent worsening preeclampsia. In most cases preeclampsia goes away after delivery, although, as noted above, for reasons that are poorly understood, some cases of preeclampsia occur after delivery.

Prevention

Currently there are few recommendations that can be made to prevent preeclampsia. Because certain health problems (diabetes, high blood pressure, lupus) are associated with preeclampsia, women should be in the best health possible before becoming pregnant. This includes not being overweight and gaining the appropriate weight once pregnant. Some experts suspect that low-dose aspirin may provide slight protection to women who are at especially high risk of preeclampsia (for example, women who have had severe or early preeclampsia with a previous pregnancy. However, any benefit of aspirin treatment is small, and it has not been shown to work for women at average risk.

Getting prenatal care is one of the most important things you can do to keep yourself health during pregnancy. Preeclampsia is one of the many things your doctor or midwife will be on the lookout for.

In women whose preeclampsia is getting markedly worse, magnesium sulfate is given to prevent eclamptic seizures. Magnesium sulfate may be given either through an intravenous line or as an injection.

Treatment

The only cure for preeclampsia and eclampsia is to deliver the baby. (Actually, the cure is the delivery of the placenta, but one can't deliver the placenta without delivering the baby.) How you proceed depends on the severity of your preeclampsia.

• Mild preeclampsia. The goal of treating mild preeclampsia is to delay delivery until the fetus is mature enough to live outside the womb. You most likely will be put on bedrest and your doctor or midwife will monitor your blood pressure, weight, urine protein, liver enzymes, kidney function, and the clotting factors in your blood. Your provider also will monitor the well-being and growth of your fetus. Some women need to be hospitalized for adequate treatment and monitoring, while others can remain in bed at home. If you are not hospitalized, you will need to be seen by your health care professional frequently.
• Severe preeclampsia. The overall goal is to prevent serious consequences to the mother's and fetus' health, including eclampsia, stillbirth, and liver and kidney failure. Women with severe preeclampsia are carefully monitored, and high blood pressure is treated with medication. If the condition of the mother or baby gets worse, the baby may need to be delivered early. If the pregnancy reaches a gestational age at which the consequences of premature delivery are outweighed by the risks of continuing the pregnancy (generally about 32 to 34 weeks of gestation), an obstetrician may also recommend delivery. Your physical health and well-being will begin returning to normal after the baby is delivered.
• Eclampsia. Magnesium sulfate is used to prevent eclamptic seizures in women with preeclampsia at highest risk for them. When eclamptic seizures occur, magnesium sulfate will be started (for those not on it already) or given again (for those in whom seizures have occurred in spite of initial treatment) in an effort to prevent recurrent seizures. Other medications, such as lorazepam (Ativan), may be used to stop ("break") a seizure in progress.

When To Call a Professional 

You should schedule your first prenatal care visit with a health care professional as soon as you know you are pregnant. If you have swelling, severe headache, changes in vision, or other symptoms of preeclampsia, contact your doctor or midwife immediately.

Prognosis

The outlook for full recovery from preeclampsia is very good. Most women begin to improve within one to two days after delivery, and blood pressure returns to their normal pre-pregnancy range within the next one to six weeks in almost all cases.

About one of every five women with preeclampsia during a first pregnancy will have preeclampsia during a second pregnancy. Those with early or severe preeclampsia, or who have other medical conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes, are at greatest risk for recurrence.

Women who have had preeclampsia are at risk for developing high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases later in life. You should let your primary care provider know if you have had preeclampsia. Although at present no specific treatments are recommended for women who have had preeclampsia to prevent later problems, it is prudent to adopt a healthy lifestyle. This includes:

• Maintaining a healthy weight 
• Exercising regularly and being physically active 
• Eating a well-balanced diet 
• Not smoking 
• Using alcohol in moderation

High-risk pregnancies is one of the expertise of Dr. Cristian Andronic. Follow this Twitter page for more updates.