Hot climate produces baby girls
People who live in the tropics have more baby girls compared with those living in other parts of the world, work reveals.
It may be down to the hotter weather or the longer days, says US researcher Dr Kristen Navara in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
She says this climate may change miscarriage rates and sperm quality.
Or there may be some evolutionary advantage to having more girls than boys if you live by the equator.
Experts already know that the birth rates of boys and girls vary across the globe.
While some of this can be explained by society - in countries like China baby boys are favoured and many unborn girls are electively aborted - there are natural processes at work.
Research suggests the female foetus is less fragile than the male foetus, which is more prone to the effects of the environment on pregnant women.
At times of extreme environmental stress, including war, the birth rate of girls outstrips that of boys.
Source: BBC.co.uk
Showing posts with label Pregnancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pregnancy. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2009
MUST Sleep well if you are pregnant
If you are pregnant then you really need to sleep else it can affect your baby.
Babies born to women who suffer from anxiety or depression prior to pregnancy are more likely to wake up at nights when they are six and 12 months old.
Results indicate that anxiety or depression was a strong predictor of infant night waking, independent of the effects of postnatal depression, bedroom sharing and other confounding factors.
Significant psychological distress prior to conception was associated with a 23 per cent increased risk of infant night wakings at six months and a 22-per cent increased risk at 12 months.
Frequent, disruptive night wakings in the latter period of the first year are clinically relevant because they predict sleep problems at three years of age, which in turn are associated with behavioural problems, according to a release of SLEEP, a journal.
During early childhood development, poor sleep quality also may affect learning abilities. Infant night wakings also disrupt a mother's sleep, which predicts maternal mood, stress and fatigue.
The study involved 874 women between 20 and 34 years of age in Southampton. Before becoming pregnant the women completed the general health questionnaire, a 12-question screening instrument that detects depression and anxiety disorders.
Twenty-nine per cent of the women were classified as having significant psychological distress.
When their baby was six and 12 months of age, the women reported how often their child had awakened on average between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. each night during the last two weeks.
These findings were published in the Wednesday issue of SLEEP.
Source: HINDU.com
Babies born to women who suffer from anxiety or depression prior to pregnancy are more likely to wake up at nights when they are six and 12 months old.
Results indicate that anxiety or depression was a strong predictor of infant night waking, independent of the effects of postnatal depression, bedroom sharing and other confounding factors.
Significant psychological distress prior to conception was associated with a 23 per cent increased risk of infant night wakings at six months and a 22-per cent increased risk at 12 months.
Frequent, disruptive night wakings in the latter period of the first year are clinically relevant because they predict sleep problems at three years of age, which in turn are associated with behavioural problems, according to a release of SLEEP, a journal.
During early childhood development, poor sleep quality also may affect learning abilities. Infant night wakings also disrupt a mother's sleep, which predicts maternal mood, stress and fatigue.
The study involved 874 women between 20 and 34 years of age in Southampton. Before becoming pregnant the women completed the general health questionnaire, a 12-question screening instrument that detects depression and anxiety disorders.
Twenty-nine per cent of the women were classified as having significant psychological distress.
When their baby was six and 12 months of age, the women reported how often their child had awakened on average between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. each night during the last two weeks.
These findings were published in the Wednesday issue of SLEEP.
Source: HINDU.com
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