For the Week Ending April 10, 2022.
COVID-19 Vaccines International Pregnancy Exposure Registry (C-VIPER)
More than 8,000 pregnant vaccinated women are already participating in our survey.
Help us understand the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on pregnancy and babies. Be a part of it!
Click here to Register
Predators are not great for parenting
A study of songbirds indicates that “fear of predators can impact the reproductive success of prey animals.” When the birds thought a predator was around, they did not forage for food to feed their young. They also laid fewer eggs, and the birds that hatched from those eggs were sickly. The authors saw similar results in racoons, badgers, and cougars. Read more here.
This is important for you because fear is the mind killer.
Eating and nursing
It is most likely fine to have dairy and alcohol while breastfeeding. There is a lot less information on THC and CBD, though; because these substances were only recently legalized, not many studies have been done on their effects. Read more here.
This is important for you because “There is no good evidence of any long-term developmental effects of alcohol in breastfeeding.”
The Science of Mom
Alice Callahan has a Ph.D. in nutrition. In her book and blog, The Science of Mom, she writes about evidence-based approaches to your baby’s first year. Read more here.
This is important for you because the first year isn’t only about eating, but it is mainly about eating.
A model pregnancy
An embryo must implant into the uterine tissue if it is to grow and thrive, but how that implantation actually happens is not really well understood. New work has made a model of the process so scientists can study it in three dimensions, just like it occurs in real life. Already, the model has revealed a previously unrecognized role for maternal immune cells. Read more here.
This is important for you because this “implantation-on-a-chip” is the most physiologically relevant system we have of studying implantation to date.
The most popular article on The Pulse this week was Should I Use a Baby Sleep Aid? Read it here.