Latest Pregnancy and childbirth News
Feds rarely punish hospitals for turning away pregnant patients
As the pregnant woman's contractions rolled in every two minutes, staff at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, dispatched an ambulance to send her elsewhere. Just two minutes later, she gave birth to a 6-pound baby girl in the cab of the ambulance...
Sepsis and malnutrition stalk the new mothers and babies of South Darfur
CAIRO (AP) — Mothers and children in the Sudanese region of South Darfur are experiencing one of the “worst” health emergencies in the world, humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday, one of the consequences of the violence that has engulfed the country since April 2023....
Senate chairman demands answers from emergency rooms that denied care to pregnant patients
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospitals are facing questions about why they denied care to pregnant patients and whether state abortion bans have influenced how they treat those patients. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent inquiries to nine hospitals ahead of...
More women are charged with pregnancy-related crimes since Roe's end, study finds
It became more common for authorities to charge women with crimes related to their pregnancies after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a new study found — even if they're almost never accused of violating abortion bans. In the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide...
'She should be alive today' — Harris spotlights woman's death to blast abortion bans and Trump
ATLANTA (AP) — Kamala Harris blasted Donald Trump as a threat to women's freedoms and their very lives, warning in a speech in the battleground state of Georgia on Friday that Republicans would continue to choke off access to abortion if he returns to the White House. The...
Federal judge temporarily blocks Tennessee's 'abortion trafficking' law
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked Tennessee from enforcing a law banning adults from helping minors get an abortion without parental permission. In a 49-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger argued that the Republican-controlled state...
Maternal deaths surged in Texas in 2020, 2021
The rate of Texas women who died because of pregnancy or childbirth rose sharply in 2020 and 2021 to the highest since the state started tracking maternal deaths in 2013. Even excluding deaths related to COVID-19, the numbers were worse than usual, reversing two years of progress in driving the...
Vermont caps emergency motel housing for homeless, forcing many to leave this month
BERLIN, Vt. (AP) — This fall, hundreds of the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness in Vermont must leave state-funded motel rooms where they’ve been living as the state winds down its pandemic-era motel voucher program. The move is prompting outcry from municipal leaders and...
Most maternal deaths can be prevented. Here’s how California aims to cut them in half
After a rise in the rate of maternal deaths, California health officials have a new plan to keep new mothers healthy before and after birth. Their goal: cut pregnancy-related deaths in half by 2026. Between 2019 and 2021, more than 200 Californians died during pregnancy, at...
Scientists show how pregnancy changes the brain in innumerable ways
Neuroscientist Liz Chrastil got the unique chance to see how her brain changed while she was pregnant and share what she learned in a new study that offers the first detailed map of a woman's brain throughout gestation. The transition to motherhood, researchers discovered, affects...
