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pregnancy damages the unborn brain |
| Reuters Health news service ran an article dated Feb 10, 2000, that stated that researchers now know how drinking alcohol during pregnancy can affect the brain of a fetus. This study also published in the February 11, 2000 issue of the Journal of Science, was conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Missouri. One of the authors, Dr. John Olney, stated that "Its a mechanism that involves interfering with basic transmitter of the systems in the brain, which literally drives the brains nerve cells to commit suicide." The shocking part of the report was that it was reported that just one episode of getting drunk during the third trimester of pregnancy would be enough to damage the brain of a fetus. |
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| The above headline comes from the May 2, 2000 Reuters Health Information service. The article goes on to say, "morning sickness may be natures way of ensuring that the developing fetus gets the proper nutrition." This information was published in a report in the May issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The report suggests that the nausea and vomiting so many women experience during the first months of pregnancy may nourish their babies by keeping certain hormone levels in balance. One of the chief researchers, Rachel R. Huxleya, from the Institute of Health Sciences in Oxford, UK, noted that, "women with morning sickness are less likely to suffer miscarriages or have premature or low birth weight babies." She also noted that, "Several studies have shown that women with no morning sickness symptoms have higher rates of miscarriage and underweight babies," Bruce Hensel, M.D. a Medical Correspondent may have summed it up best when he said, "This is another example of how what appears to be an adverse bodily reaction to a condition might actually be a protective reaction instead." |
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| From an article in the December 2nd, 1999 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine some interesting statistics were revealed. These statistics were based on studies conducted by a researcher named Towner, of 600,000 average weight infants born from 1992 to 1994 in California. In this study 66.5 % were delivered by spontaneous vaginal delivery, 20.1 % by cesarean delivery, 10.2% by vacuum extraction, 2.7 % by forceps and 0.5% delivered by both vacuum and forceps. According to the Towner study, deaths at birth due to these procedures were as follows. Vaginal delivery death rate was 1 per 5000, the vacuum extraction delivery death rate was 1 per 3333, and the forceps delivery death rate was 1 per 2000 births. Also studied was the rate of intracranial hemorrhage caused by these same procedures. Those statistics were, for vaginal birth 1 per 1900, for vacuum delivery 1 per 860, and for forceps birth 1 per 664 births. Relative to chiropractic, these statistics highlight the extent of obvious damage possible within the birth process. Chiropractors have maintained that birth damage to the nervous system far less obvious than this occurs at an alarming rate with effects on nerve system function that may not be seen for years. |
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From Reuters Health, February 2, 2001 comes a report of a study frm Denmark that shows a link between painkillers called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) during pregnancy and a rise in a woman's risk of miscarriage. In this study, nearly 53,000 women who were pregnant between 1991 and 1998, were studied. Investigators found that the results suggested a strong link between miscarriage risk and the use of prescription NSAIDs. The research team found no link between NSAID use and premature birth, birth defects or low birth weight, but the drugs were clearly connected to miscarriage risk. The results of the study were published in the British Medical Journal in January 2001.
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