Prenatal care

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to estimate the rural-urban differences in the receipt of prepregnancy, prenatal, and postpartum services. METHODS: The authors conducted a cross-sectional data analysis using data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System from 2016 to 2018 to analyze rural-urban differences in the receipt of medical visits and care content delivery during the prepregnancy year, as well as the prenatal and postpartum periods among birthing people in the US, using survey-weighted multivariable logistic regression models...

BACKGROUND: Cesarean hysterectomy is a dominant and effective approach during delivery in patients with placenta accreta spectrum (PAS). However, as hysterectomy results in a loss of fertility, conservative management is an alternative approach. However, management selection may be affected by a country's overall economic level. Thus the preferred treatment for PAS generates controversy in middle-income countries. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to compare conservative management and cesarean hysterectomy for managing PAS in middle-income countries...

BACKGROUND: There are large racial inequities in pregnancy and early childhood health within state Medicaid programs in the United States. To date, few Medicaid policy interventions have explicitly focused on improving health in Black populations. Pennsylvania Medicaid has adopted two policy interventions to incentivize racial health equity in managed care (equity payment program) and obstetric service delivery (equity focused obstetric bundle). Our research team will conduct a mixed-methods study to investigate the implementation and early effects of these two policy interventions on pregnancy and infant health equity...

Despite success in achieving viral suppression during pregnancy in people living with HIV (PLWH), postpartum adherence remains a challenge. We aimed to describe rates of adherence at a Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT) Center before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted from a cohort of PLWH who received prenatal care and were virally suppressed near delivery. We tracked combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) pickups for 12 months and HIV viral load (VL) from 2 to 12 months after delivery...

OBJECTIVE: To establish a haplotype-based noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) workflow for single-gene recessive disorders that adapt to dizygotic (DZ) twin pregnancies. METHOD: Twin pregnancies at risk of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Becker muscular dystrophy, hemophilia B, spinal muscular atrophy, phenylketonuria, and nonsyndromic hearing loss were recruited. For subsequent analysis, capture sequencing targeting highly heterozygotic single nucleotide polymorphism sites was conducted...

Aim: To investigate whether the youth with prenatal substance exposure (PSE) (aged 15-24 years, n  = 615) had been in hospital care more often due to injuries and poisoning in comparison with unexposed matched controls ( n  = 1787). Methods: Data from medical records (exposure) and national health and social welfare registers (outcome and confounders) were combined and youths were monitored from birth until either outpatient or inpatient hospital care for injury or poisoning, death or the end of the study period (December 2016)...

BACKGROUND: There is no accessible information on countries with oral health policies. The purpose of this study was to identify World Dental Federation (FDI) member countries with oral health policies and their scope and extent of coverage of oral health care for young children. METHODS: This international survey recruited chief dental officers, oral health advisors to national ministries of health, and other key informants of the 158 FDI member countries between December 2020 and December 2021...

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency (PDCD) is a disorder of mitochondrial metabolism that is caused by pathogenic variants in multiple genes, including PDHA1 . Typical neonatal brain imaging findings in PDCD have been described, with a focus on malformative features and chronic encephaloclastic changes. However, fetal brain MRI imaging in confirmed PDCD has not been comprehensively described. We sought to demonstrate the prenatal neurological and systemic manifestations of PDCD determined by comprehensive fetal imaging and genomic sequencing...

The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and the mental health of pregnant women from the South of Brazil. This is a cross-sectional study carried out in Criciúma, Brazil, through face-to-face interviews, from April to December 2022. Pregnant women aged 18 or older who underwent prenatal care in the 48 Basic Health Units of the municipality and who were in their third trimester of pregnancy were included. High consumption of UPF was considered as 6 or more items or subgroups of UPF consumed on the day before the interview, using the Nova-UPF screener...

INTRODUCTION: A cross-sectional study retrospectively evaluating the perceived usefulness of attending a multi-disciplinary, roundtable, educational prenatal clinic for mothers expecting children with myelomeningocele is presented. METHODS: Mothers who currently have children with SB completed a survey which evaluated their overall preparedness, spina bifida education, delivery plans, surgical expectations, and expectations in terms of quality of life and development...

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of copy number variation sequencing (CNV-seq) to detect the deletion or duplication of DMD gene in prenatal diagnosis. Methods: A retrospective analysis was carried out on the CNV-seq results of 34 544 fetuses diagnosed in the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province from January 2018 to July 2023. A total of 156 cases of fetuses were collected, including Group 1:125 cases with family history of Duchenne muscular dystrophy or Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD), and Group 2:31 cases with no family history but a DMD gene deletion or duplication was detected unexpectedly by CNV-seq...

Objective: To analyze serum bile acid profiles in pregnant women with normal pregnancy, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) and asymptomatic hypercholanemia of pregnancy (AHP), and to evaluate the application value of serum bile acid profiles in the diagnosis of ICP and AHP. Methods: The clinical data of 122 pregnant women who underwent prenatal examination in Xuzhou Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital from June 2022 to May 2023 were collected, including 54 cases of normal pregnancy group, 28 cases of ICP group and 40 cases of AHP group...

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: OEIS complex is a rare and complex anomaly of the genitourinary and intestinal tract. It includes Omphalocele, Exstrophy of cloaca, Imperforate anus and Spinal defects. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We are reporting a case of OEIS complex. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Cloacal exstrophy is considered the most severe ventral abdominal wall defect. Diagnosis is primarily antenatal based on the presenting features on ultrasonography...

BACKGROUND: Midwives provide counselling for birth plans (BPs) to women during prenatal care; however, the impact of individualised BP counselling interventions based on shared decision-making (SDM) regarding women's preferences is unknown. METHODS: This randomised cluster trial included four primary healthcare units. Midwives provided BP counselling based on SDM to women in the intervention group (IG) during prenatal care along with a handout about evidence-based recommendations...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the time to initiation of antenatal care (ANC) and its predictors among pregnant women in Ethiopia. DESIGN: Retrospective follow-up study using secondary data from the 2019 Ethiopian Mini-Demographic and Health Survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 2933 women aged 15-49 years who had ANC visits during their current or most recent pregnancy within the 5 years prior to the survey were included in this study. Women who attended prenatal appointments but whose gestational age was unknown at the first prenatal visit were excluded from the study...

BACKGROUND: Maternal deaths resulting from opioid use disorder (OUD) have been rising across the United States​. OUD among pregnant persons is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth along with racial disparities in optimal OUD care. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate whether the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative's (ILPQC) implementation of the Mothers and Newborns affected by Opioids - Obstetric quality improvement initiative was associated with improvement of OUD identification, provision of optimal OUD care for birthing patients, and reduction in racial gaps of optimal OUD care...

Advancements in genomic technologies have shown remarkable promise for improving health trajectories. The Human Genome Project has catalyzed the integration of genomic tools into clinical practice, such as disease risk assessment, prenatal testing and reproductive genomics, cancer diagnostics and prognostication, and therapeutic decision making. Despite the promise of genomic technologies, their full potential remains untapped without including individuals of diverse ancestries and integrating social determinants of health (SDOHs)...

OBJECTIVE: Twin pregnancies are at an increased risk of stillbirth compared to singletons. Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a leading cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity, in both singleton and multiple pregnancies. Whether the contribution of FGR to stillbirth in twin pregnancies differs from that in singletons is yet to be determined. The main aim of this study was to determine the association between FGR and stillbirth in twin compared to singleton pregnancies. The secondary objectives include an assessment of the contribution of FGR to stillbirths, stratified by gestational age at delivery...

INTRODUCTION: Prenatal exposure to substance use is associated with long-term deficits in the neurodevelopment of children. The objective was to investigate the association between cognitive, motor, and language neurodevelopment at three years of age in infants prenatally exposed to substance use. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective matched case-control study was conducted. Biomarkers of fetal exposure were measured in meconium samples. The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III) were used to calculate neurodevelopment scores...

Although fetal cardiac programs are well established in developed countries, establishing an efficient program in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is still considered a significant challenge. Substantial obstacles usually face the initiation of fetal cardiac service from scratch in LMICs. The primary structural frame of a successful fetal cardiac program is described in detail, emphasizing the required team members. The potential challenges for starting fetal cardiac services in LMICs include financial, awareness-related, prenatal obstetric screening, sociocultural, psychosocial, and social support factors...