Childbirth

How Pregnancy Changes the BrainA study of more than 100 birthing parents showed that pregnancy and birth cause changes in brain circuits that may be involved in empathy and bonding with the childBy Gina Jiménez Credit: Cavan Images/Getty ImagesBeing pregnant and giving birth changes a person’s brain, but the brain looks different depending on whether it’s examined during pregnancy or after a person gives birth, a recent study found. The research is helping disentangle some of the mysteries in the long-ignored field of…

Colorado workers who need to take time off from work to care for a new baby or family member — or to deal with their own serious health condition — can now receive pay for that time away from their job. But there are limitations on both the length of paid time available and how much is paid under the state’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program, known as FAMLI. Colorado voters created the program in 2020 when Proposition 118 passed with nearly 58% support. Employers and employees began paying into the program last…

A groundbreaking study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Birmingham introduces E-MOTIVE, a novel solution that could significantly reduce deaths from childbirth-related bleeding, or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). PPH, the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, affects 14 million women annually and results in approximately 70,000 deaths.A trial of a set of interventions to manage postpartum hemorrhage, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found a 60% reduction in heavy…

A study by psychologists at the University of Bonn reveals that pregnant women’s mindsets can influence childbirth outcomes, with those viewing it as a natural process requiring less medical intervention and experiencing more positive birth experiences. This research highlights the importance of psychological factors in childbirth and the need to support expectant mothers in their differing mindsets to enable positive, self-determined birthing experiences.A University of Bonn study found that if birth is perceived as a…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeTaron Egerton has expressed his strong disdain for wearing fake moustaches, going so far as to compare the “horrendous” experience to childbirth. The 33-year-old Welsh actor stars as real-life videogame designer Henk Rogers in Apple TV Plus’ new movie Tetris – released on Friday (31 March) – which tells the story of how the Russian video game made its way to the West.To accurately…

Childbirth is a vulnerable experience, both emotionally and physically. Giving birth, whether vaginally or through a cesarean section, creates opportunities for bacteria to infect both the parent and newborn, and sometimes these infections can cause the parent’s immune response to spiral out of control. That extreme response to infection, called sepsis, is the third most common global cause of death during or after childbirth. Millions of cases of maternal sepsis occur each year, mostly in low- and middle-income…

Intricate tattoos found on the neck of a mummy at Deir el-Medina. Credit: Anne Austin/University of Missouri-St. Louis, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (2022). DOI: 10.1177/03075133221130089 A pair of researchers, one with the University of Missouri at Saint Louis, the other at Johns Hopkins University, has found evidence of tattoos on the bodies of women who lived in Egypt thousands of years ago. In their paper published in…

Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s documentary is about two midwives – one Buddhist, one Muslim – in Rakhine state in western Myanmar, on the border with Bangladesh; it is home to thousands of Rohingya Muslims who for decades have suffered paranoid bigotry from the country’s Buddhist theocracy. And like Barbet Schroeder’s film The Venerable W, this film is a reminder that, in this part of the world, being of the Buddhist persuasion doesn’t necessarily make you a kind and gentle saint.Hla is the Buddhist midwife, notably imperious and…

| In stores next week from Dark Horse Comics, The Ward #2 continues the supernatural medical drama by Scott Cavan and Andre Ponce billed as "ER meets Hellboy," and Dark Horse has provided Bleeding Cool with an EX-X-XCLUSIVE preview. The series description: From the writer of Star Wars: The High Republic comes an intense medical drama brimming with fairies, trolls, and real human pathos. St. Lilith's is a secret hospital for supernatural creatures. The personnel are overworked and the facility is underfunded. It's a…

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 300,000 people die every year due to pregnancy-related causes.A study finds that complex human childbirth and cognitive abilities are a result of walking upright.Childbirth in humans is much more complex and painful than in great apes. It was long believed that this was a result of humans’ larger brains and the narrow dimensions of the mother’s pelvis. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now used 3D simulations to show that childbirth was also a highly complex…