Fertility, Pregnancy & Birth, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 31, 2015

New Oregon Law Allows Pharmacists to Prescribe Birth Control Pills

Women in Oregon no longer need a doctor's prescription to get birth control pills, according to a new state law. Instead, they can fill out a health questionnaire and receive oral contraceptives from a licensed pharmacist. The law removes barriers to birth control — typically, women get a prescription during...

Oct 31, 2017

Breast vs. Bottle: Weighing Infant-Feeding Options

Deciding the best way to feed a new baby is a very personal choice for a woman. Whether she chooses to breast-feed or use formula, feeding time is an important opportunity for a mother and baby to form a close bond with one another. Health professionals consider breast-feeding to be...

Sep 30, 2017

Did a Baby Really 'Kick Through' Her Mother's Uterus?

A pregnant woman in China experienced a life-threatening complication when her unborn baby seemingly kicked through her uterus, according to news reports. The woman, known by the pseudonym Zhang, was 35 weeks pregnant when she went to the emergency room because of extreme stomach pain, according to the New York...

Jun 30, 2017

Pregnant Women Can Do These 2 Things to Lower Odds of a C-Section

Women may have another reason to eat healthy and exercise during pregnancy: These behaviors may lower their odds of having a cesarean section, a new meta-analysis finds. Gaining some weight during pregnancy is healthy and indeed expected, but gaining too much weight can have negative effects on both mom and...

Apr 30, 2017

How can you get pregnant using an IUD?

A woman's photo of her newborn baby — just delivered, and with the intrauterine device (IUD) that failed to prevent her pregnancy clenched in his tiny fist — has gone viral. But how does a woman get pregnant while using an IUD? The woman, Lucy Hellein of Fort Mitchell, Alabama,...

Apr 30, 2017

Jessica Simpson Has an IUD: 7 Things to Know About This Form of Birth Control

Jessica Simpson isn't planning to have more children anytime soon — the singer and mother of two recently revealed that she has an intrauterine device (IUD). While appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show today (May 22), Simpson — who was on the show twice previously while pregnant — announced that...

Apr 30, 2017

Woman Has Sextuplets: The Science of Multiple Births

A woman in Virginia recently gave birth to sextuplets, after she and her husband had tried to conceive for nearly two decades. But how does such a high-order pregnancy happen? The six babies — three boys and three girls — were born on May 11 at VCU Medical Center in...

Jan 31, 2017

Beyoncé Cancels Gig: What Work Is Safe in Pregnancy?

Singer Beyoncé has cancelled her performance at the upcoming Coachella festival in April because she is pregnant. But how much work is safe during pregnancy, and what kind of work is risky? In early January, Coachella organizers announced that Beyoncé would be one of the festival's headline performers. But several...

Jan 31, 2017

Unusually Hot or Cold Weather Could Affect Babies' Weight

Unusually hot or cold weather may affect the birth weight of babies, a new study suggests. Researchers found that women who experienced unusually hot or cold weather during pregnancy were at increased risk for having babies with a low birth weight, even when the baby was not born prematurely. Given...

Oct 31, 2018

Ancient Skeletons of Woman and Fetus Hint at Childbirth Death 3,700 Years Ago

Archaeologists in Egypt recently unearthed a grim discovery: the skeleton of a young woman dating to about 3,700 years ago who was in the final weeks of her pregnancy when she died. And she was buried with the unborn fetus still inside her body. The tiny skeleton was head-down within...

Sep 30, 2018

How Did Two Mothers Both Carry the Same Child?

For what is likely the first time ever, two mothers each got to carry the same child for part of the fetus's development, according to news reports. The married women, Ashleigh and Bliss Coulter, were each able to carry the developing embryo (and eventually, for one woman, the fetus) thanks...

Jul 31, 2018

App for Preventing Pregnancy Gets FDA Marketing Approval. Is It Reliable?

A smartphone app for preventing pregnancy has just become the first of its kind to receive marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but some experts are wary. The app, called Natural Cycles, is essentially a high-tech version of the so-called rhythm method, also known as fertility...

Jun 30, 2018

Are Hot Summer Days Risky for Pregnant Women?

Hot, sticky weather can be uncomfortable for anyone. But for pregnant women, the summer heat may be particularly risky. That's because getting too hot or dehydrated can pose a risk of pregnancy complications, experts say. Dehydration can create a lot of potential problems for pregnant women, said Dr. Saima Aftab,...

Apr 30, 2018

Why This Man's Blood Helped Save Millions of Babies

A man in Australia helped save the lives of more than 2 million babies by donating his special blood, which was used to make a medication that can prevent life-threatening problems in newborns. But why exactly is this man's blood special, and how does the medication work to save babies?...

Oct 31, 2019

'Designer Baby' Technology to Make Smarter, Taller Kids Doesn’t Work Yet

Will parents soon have the power to decide how tall or intelligent their children will be? Probably not, new research suggests. Ethical debate surrounds the concept of so-called designer babies — offspring whose embryos are either selected for certain traits or genetically engineered to boast chosen genetic traits. Once the...