View clinical trials related to Pregnancy.
Filter by:Overweight and obesity causes low-grade systemic inflammation, which sharply increases risk for iron deficiency. Studies in our laboratory have shown that this is mainly the result of reduced dietary iron absorption because of increased hepcidin concentrations. During pregnancy, women have a large increase in iron needs because of the expansion of maternal blood volume and fetal needs. Iron deficiency anemia in infancy can impair cognitive development. Whether maternal adiposity impairs absorption and transfer of iron to the fetus, and thereby increases risk of iron deficiency in the mother and the infant is unclear.
The investigators believe that ultrasound guided CSE technique will help junior resident rotating for the first time on the labor and delivery floor to place more accurately the epidural needle in the midline position as compared to placing the epidural needle via palpation of anatomical landmarks. This will result in increased ability to place the spinal component with positive cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) in the spinal needle, correct midline placement of the epidural catheter, and increase the likelihood of adequate symmetrical labor analgesia/anesthesia.
This study set out to investigate whether antenatal ultrasound evaluation of the Fetal Head Circumference (FHC) could potentially possess a predictive role in determining women at increased risk for operative delivery or cesarean section.
This prospective non-intervention cohort study will enroll women in the first or early second trimester of pregnancy and follow them through delivery (or end of pregnancy) and 1 year postpartum. Infants will also be followed until 1 year postpartum. Detailed medical and obstetrical information will be collected, as well as biological samples, in order to better elucidate the biological mechanisms leading to preterm delivery among Zambian women, in an effort to identify new strategies for prevention.
This NICHD-funded RCT will enroll up to 178 depressed pregnant women, randomly assigning them to one of 2 intervention conditions: (1) a gentle prenatal yoga program (PYP), or (2) a series of educational workshops focused on perinatal health, the Mom and Baby Wellness Workshop (MBWW), each condition lasting 9 weeks. The investigators will clinically monitor all participants in the study for safety and clinical deterioration, and measure a variety of symptom outcomes over the course of the intervention period during pregnancy, as well as at a postpartum follow-up.
Many women and men in fertile age are at risk for sexual transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, and have insufficient knowledge of health promoting lifestyle prior to conception. There is a need to increase awareness among people in fertile age about how sexual risk-taking and unhealthy lifestyle can negatively affect fertility and pregnancy outcomes. Previous studies on preconception health and care have mainly focused on women. The aim of our study was to investigate if Reproductive Life Plan-based counseling with a midwife could increase men's reproductive knowledge. The second aim was to evaluate men's experiences of the intervention.
Investigators hypothesized that the impact of surgery in terms of inducing a hypercoagulable state is more evident in morbidly obese pregnant women as opposed to their non-obese counterparts. The aim of this study is to investigate the change in coagulation status of morbidly obese and non-obese pregnant women following cesarean section delivery using thromboelastometry. This observational study would also make it possible to calculate the sample size for a future prospective controlled clinical trial to compare the incidence of Hypercoagulability in morbidly obese parturients as opposed to their non-obese counterparts. To the best of our knowledge, no other work has been done any in this area.
Individuals undergoing In Vitro Fertilization must undergo controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) to produce enough quality eggs for fertility treatment. Ovarian follicular responsiveness to COH with gonadotropins is extremely variable between patients and even from cycle to cycle for the same patient. Achieving an ideal follicular response is critical to the success of assisted reproduction treatment (ART). Patients have been classified as 'poor', 'normal' or 'high' responders, which dictate the amount of gonadotropins that they receive. It is still important to develop treatments with high efficacy, lower multiple birth rates, and a lower complication rate for each of these groups. In an era of evidence-based medicine and with special emphasis on reducing IVF risks (mainly OHSS and pregnancies with multiples), it is very important to find optimal and safe ovulation induction and triggering regimens for each patient population. The use of GnRH agonist (GnRHa) triggering among high responders in order to reduce or eliminate OHSS is an example of an important breakthrough in the clinical management of IVF patients. Although GnRHa triggering was shown to be as effective as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) at inducing oocyte maturation more than 20 years ago, its use to trigger ovulation was not possible until the introduction of GnRH antagonists for pituitary suppression. Another prominent trend in ART in recent years has been the introduction of dual triggering, which involves a combination of GnRHa plus hCG for triggering. This regimen creates simultaneous lutenizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) surges by the GnRHa, which resembles physiologic ovulation triggering, together with sustained LH-like activity from the hCG, which stimulates the corpus luteum to excrete sufficient hormonal endometrial support. Since its introduction, dual triggering has been gaining popularity due to outstanding results in retrospective studies among both normal and high responders. Moreover, in spite of the encouraging retrospective reports, prospective randomized controlled trials (RCT) on dual triggering have not been reported to date. The aim of the current proposed study is to compare the efficacy of dual triggering and conventional triggering among the three IVF populations (high, normal and poor responders).
Pregnancy is associated with physiological changes affecting the cardiorespiratory system as a consequence of an increase in both cardiac output and intra-abdominal pressure. The aim of this prospective observational study is to examine the perioperative changes in ventilation inhomogeneity and respiratory function measured by the non-invasive nitrogen multiple breath washout and forced oscillation techniques.
Research has shown that a woman's lifestyle during pregnancy can predict the future health of a mother and her child. Improving the health of a mother during pregnancy can lead to the best health outcomes for mother and child in the short and long-term period. Currently there is a lack of understanding about how best to support women to achieve healthy weights during pregnancy. The aim of this study is to understand if additional lifestyle support, such as discussions about healthy eating and physical activity provided by a healthcare provider throughout pregnancy can help women achieve weights concordant with gestational recommendations. The healthcare providers in this study will be Registered Dietitians (RD). The intervention RD will be trained in Healthy Conversations, a supportive method of communication that utilizes open-ended questions to support patient-centered behaviour change. This allows women to explore health issues, identify barriers and discover solutions for improving their own health. This supportive prenatal counselling will occur with the intervention group concurrently while completing lifestyle questionnaires with the study RD. During these conversations, health goals will be made and will be followed up at future visits. The control group will complete the lifestyle questionnaires with the control RD; they will not receive additional lifestyle support at these visits. Women will be randomized into one of the two study groups and will be blinded to their study allocation. All participants will complete two in person visits and two follow-up telephone calls. Data will be collected on diet, physical activity, gestational weight gain, delivery, and infant outcomes. After this research is complete, the investigators hope to better understand the quantity and quality of additional support that may help women in Alberta achieve guideline concordant weight gain during pregnancy. If interventions can help women gain weight within the guidelines, pregnancy-related complications can be reduced. This information is also aimed at providing a better understanding of healthcare system requirements (i.e., type of providers and care model) in supporting women achieve healthy weights in pregnancy. The findings from this project have the potential to improve prenatal healthcare delivery across the province.