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Obstetricians often see pregnant patients with psychiatric disorders, the most common being depression. Treatment includes both nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic options. This article focuses on use of selective serotonin reputake inhibitors (SSRIs), the drugs most often used to treat depression in pregnancy.

Incidence of gastroschisis among newborns appears to be on the rise, with the proportion of babies born with the rare defect almost doubling since 1995, new research shows.

When it comes to securing and protecting patient health information, physician practices with fewer than 50 providers fared the worst in a recent audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

The common practice of clamping an umbilical cord within a minute of birth to reduce the possibility of maternal hemorrhaging may need to be revised, according to a new paper published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The study authors searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group’s Trials Register to find 15 trials involving a total of 3911 mother and infant pairs. The risk of bias in the trials was considered by the paper’s authors to be moderate in nature.

If women are prediabetic when giving birth, they may find it difficult to make enough breast milk to feed their newborns, according to new research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of California, Davis. The findings show that insulin dysregulation can negatively impact milk supply.

The current treatment of mild gestational diabetes mellitus results in fewer cases of preeclampsia, shoulder dystocia, and macrosomia but seems to have no effect on neonatal hypoglycemia or future poor metabolic outcomes, concluded a systematic review and meta-analysis.

After rising steadily for nearly a decade, the rate of cesarean deliveries appears to have stabilized, according to a new report (www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db124.pdf) from the National Center for Health Statistics. New guidelines and policies encouraging longer gestations have led to a trend of cesarean deliveries occurring more frequently at 39 weeks than at 38 weeks.

Use of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing at 10 weeks’ gestation to routinely screen for trisomies 21, 18, and 13 is achievable and it yields lower false-positive rates compared with combined testing. The downside, however, is that abnormal results must be validated by chorionic villus sampling (CVS), according to new research in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

FDA has approved low-dose paroxetine capsules (Brisdelle, Noven Pharmaceuticals), 7.5 mg/day, for treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (VMS) associated with menopause, also referred to as hot flashes and night sweats.

While long-acting beta2-agonists (LABAs) and low to moderate doses of inhaled corticosteroids for asthma in pregnancy were not associated with an increased prevalence of adverse perinatal outcomes in a recent cohort study, there was a slight trend toward increased prevalence of low birthweight, premature birth, and small for gestational age infants when mothers were exposed to inhaled corticosteroids at high doses.

Pregnancy after bariatric surgery is associated with a reduced risk of having a large-for-gestational-age infant and an increased risk of having a small-for-gestational-age infant, concluded a matched cohort study of singleton deliveries in Denmark.