For the Week Ending February 28, 2021.
More than 12,000 pregnant and recently pregnant women are already participating. Help us understand the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy and babies. Be a part of it!
Click here to Register.
Push it
Ashley Audrain, a former publicity director at Penguin Books Canada and mother of two, just published The Push. She said that her aim in writing the book was to “explore the expectation society puts on women to have a certain experience of motherhood, for it to look and feel a certain way.” Read more here.
This is important for you because if it sounds good, also check out The Changeling by Victor LaValle (not for the faint of heart!).
The mysterious placenta
The placenta is really hard to study, possibly because it is temporary. Maybe that’s why so many myths about it abound. This podcast explores how scientists are examining the placenta and what they have found. Listen and see a great placenta pic here.
This is important for you because the placenta is vital to that embryo you’re growing.
Remdesivir and pregnancy
The NIH is funding a new study of pregnant women who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 and get treated with remdesivir. It will test if the drug is safe and effective and see what its side effects are. It’s activity in pregnant participants will be compared to that in women of childbearing age who are not pregnant. Read more here.
Heavy metals
A Congressional committee recently found higher than recommended levels of arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium in some mainstream, best-selling brands of baby food including Beech-Nut, Happy Baby, Earth’s Best Organic, and Gerber. These metals can be dangerous for a baby’s developing brain, but at these levels there shouldn’t really be a problem. Read more here.
This is important for you because the most alarming news here was about arsenic in rice products, like all of those puffs. But all rice products always contain some arsenic because of how rice is grown, so you can cut back on those if you want. Just don’t panic.
The most popular article on The Pulse this week was Is Hot Yoga Safe During Pregnancy? Read it here.
