This week at Contemporary OB/GYN®, we covered topics ranging from the harm of opioid use in pregnancy to a rise in gestational diabetes rates. Click the links below to read anything you might have missed from Monday, January 05 to Friday, January 09, 2025.

Jamie Lo, MD, MCR, highlights maternal and infant risks from prenatal opioid use

In an interview with Contemporary OB/GYN, Jamie Lo, MD, MCR, associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University, discussed findings from a large cohort study examining how prenatal opioid use affects both maternal and infant health, expanding on prior research that has often focused primarily on neonatal outcomes.

Opioid use during pregnancy has long been associated with adverse effects for pregnant individuals and their infants, but this study sought to more comprehensively evaluate opioid-related diagnoses and outcomes using a substantially larger population than earlier analyses. The results showed significantly increased risks for both mothers and babies.

Elisabeth McClymont, PhD, discusses reduced severe disease risk from prenatal COVID-19 vaccination

In this interview with Contemporary OB/GYN, Elisabeth McClymont, PhD, assistant professor at The University of British Columbia, discussed findings from a study evaluating the impact of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy on severe maternal disease and preterm birth. The results demonstrate clear and clinically meaningful benefits of vaccination for both pregnant individuals and their infants.

According to McClymont, the study showed that COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a substantial reduction in severe maternal illness. Vaccinated pregnant individuals experienced a 62% lower risk of hospitalization for severe COVID-19 compared with their unvaccinated counterparts. Even more striking, the risk of admission to the intensive care unit was reduced by approximately 90%. These findings highlight the strong protective effect of vaccination against the most serious outcomes of COVID-19 in pregnancy.

US gestational diabetes rates rise 36% since 2016

An increase in the prevalence of gestational diabetes among US patients has been observed every year since 2016, according to researchers at Northwestern University.

The analysis included over 12 million US births and reported a 36% increase in gestational diabetes between 2016 and 2024. These increases were observed across all racial and ethnic groups, updating earlier research from 2011 to 2019 to confirm constant increases across a continuous, 15-year period.

“Gestational diabetes has been persistently increasing for more than 10 years, which means whatever we have been trying to do to address diabetes in pregnancy has not been working,” said Nilay Shah, MD, MPH, senior author and assistant professor of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Click here for the full article.

No evidence links menopause hormone therapy to dementia risk

Researchers from University College London (UCL) have found no evidence linking menopause hormone therapy (MHT) to increased or decreased dementia risk among post-menopausal women, publishing their findings in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.¹

The review was the most comprehensive synthesis of evidence about this topic recorded to date, with over 1 million participants providing data. Investigators concluded the results reinforce current guidelines that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should be guided by perceived risks and benefits, not for dementia prevention.

“Across the globe, dementia disproportionately affects women, even after accounting for women’s longer life spans, so there’s a pressing need to understand what might be driving that risk, and to identify ways to reduce women’s risk of dementia,” said Melissa Melville, a PhD student at UCL Psychology & Language Sciences.

Click here for the full article.

Planned early-term birth reduces preeclampsia risk

Preeclampsia incidence is reduced by planned early-term birth based on risk stratification for preeclampsia, according to a recent study published in The Lancet.

Balanced baseline characteristics were reported between the intervention and usual care groups. Rates of birth with preeclampsia were 3.9% among the intervention group vs 5.6% of the usual care group, with an adjusted risk ratio (RR) of 0.70 in the intervention group. Consistent treatment effects were observed across patient subgroups.

Secondary outcomes did not significantly differ between groups. This included emergency cesarean section with a rate of 22.8% in the intervention group vs 21.6% in the control group and neonatal care unit admission with a rate of 6.5% in the intervention group vs 6.8% in the control group. Adjusted RRs for these outcomes in the intervention group were 1.06 and 0.96, respectively.

Click here for the full article.