Quitting Smoking for Your Baby

In the United States and Europe, cigarette smoking is the single largest preventable cause of stillbirth, birth defects (most commonly, low birth weight), premature delivery, and death of the newborn. In the United States alone, smoking was responsible for more than 40,000 infants with low birth weight in 1993.
Smoking exerts its ill effects on the […]

How accurate are home pregnancy tests?

Home pregnancy tests work by detecting a hormone called beta-HCG, which is an abbreviation for beta-human chorionic gonadotropin. Beta-HCG is only present if a woman is pregnant. Because some of the hormone enters the urine, home pregnancy tests can detect it there.
Manufacturers of home pregnancy tests advertise that their tests as being very accurate in […]

Weekly Patch as Effective as Birth Control Pills

Women who take birth control pills every day may soon be able to end their ongoing worry of: “Did I take my pill today?” New research shows that a weekly contraceptive patch is just as effective as daily oral contraceptive pills in preventing pregnancy.
In the largest trial to date, researchers compared the effectiveness, menstrual cycle […]