Loud snoring with breathing pauses is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and increased health care utilization, according to a study published in the March 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

Pregnant women who perceive having had a well-balanced relationship with their parents during their childhood will experience fewer difficulties in the transition to motherhood, as opposed to women whose relationship with their parents was characterized by unresolved anger or rejection – reveals a new study conducted at the University of Haifa.

About one in four women who have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) expect pregnancy and motherhood to be a part of their future, recent research suggests.

Pregnant women who suffer from the high risk condition pre-eclampsia — which leads to the death of hundreds of babies every year — are putting the lives of their unborn children at significantly increased risk if they continue to smoke during pregnancy.

A study published in PLoS Medicine this week suggests that of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy.

Young women aged 20 or younger are more susceptible to genital Chlamydia infection which is highly detrimental to both mother and child in pregnancy. A study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology published by Wiley-Blackwell finds age to be the most important risk factor of the Chlamydia infection and recommends that all women under 25 be screened for the disease in pregnancy.

New research from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and Center for Children’s Environmental Health has found that antibodies in the blood of mothers of children with autism bind to fetal brain cells, potentially interrupting healthy brain development.

A new study on monkeys has found that moderate exposure to alcohol and stress during pregnancy can lead to sensitivity to touch in the monkeys’ babies. In human children, sensitivity to touch is one of a number of characteristics of the approximately 5 percent of children who over-respond to sensory information.

Moms could reduce the risk of cerebral palsy by eating magnesium sulfate just before they give birth, a new research showed.

Sequences of DNA in the human genome that originated from ancient viral infections have some surprising effects on our bodies and are even essential for a healthy pregnancy, according to an article in the February issue of Microbiology Today.

Babies conceived during a period of famine are at risk of developing addictions later in life, according to new research published in the international journal Addiction. Researchers from the Dutch mental health care organisation, Bouman GGZ, and Erasmus University Rotterdam studied men and women born in Rotterdam between 1944 and 1947, the time of the Dutch ‘hunger winter’.

Taking vitamins C or E during pregnancy will not reduce a woman’s risk of experiencing pre-eclampsia, a Cochrane Systematic Review has concluded.