Mediterranean Diet Linked to Lower Preeclampsia Risk

In a new study evaluating the Mediterranean diet and adverse pregnancy outcomes, investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai found that women who conceived while adhering to the anti-inflammatory diet had a significantly lower risk of developing preeclampsia during pregnancy.

New research indicates maternal adult characteristics do not predict stillbirth, early neonatal death 

University of Illinois Chicago researchers studying birth outcomes in marmoset monkeys found there were no adult maternal characteristics like age or weight gain during pregnancy to predict stillbirth or early neonatal death, but that a mother’s birth weight or litter size were associated with early neonatal death. “Our findings of early life contributions to adult pregnancy outcomes in the common marmoset disrupt mother-blaming narratives of pregnancy outcomes in humans,” the paper states.

Study Finds No Change in Preterm Birth or Stillbirth in Philadelphia During Pandemic Period

Despite early reports suggesting a decline in preterm births during the COVID-19 pandemic period, an analysis by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has found no change in preterm births or stillbirths at two Philadelphia hospitals in the first four months of the pandemic. The findings, published today in JAMA, resulted from the examination of an ongoing, racially-diverse pregnancy cohort that assesses both spontaneous and medically-indicated preterm birth.