Pregnant Women

Average out-of-pocket costs for maternity care increased by $1,500 between 2008 and 2015 among women with employer-based insurance, according to study findings published in Health Affairs.

Published data suggest at least 10% of pregnant women in the United States smoke, even though there is an abundance of data to indicate the risks it poses to unborn children. A new study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research suggests that a low-cost text message program may help some women quit smoking.

A multisite prospective cohort study of more than 1,500 pregnant women with HIV showed that antiretroviral, or ARV, prescribing practices among this population do not align well with national guidelines, with less than 50% of pregnancies associated with appropriate ARV prescriptions.

HOUSTON — Women who are pregnant, and their spouses, or those who have recently become new parents, are likely to have many questions about asthma and food allergy, according to a panel at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting.

Initiating 28-week isoniazid therapy during pregnancy was noninferior to initiating it 12 weeks after delivery to prevent tuberculosis in pregnant women with HIV who are on ART, according to results from a randomized controlled trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine. However, researchers found a greater risk for treatment-related adverse events in mothers who initiated treatment during pregnancy, suggesting that the best time to start isoniazid is after delivery.

Although there have been significant advances in treatment since the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, pregnant women have about half as many treatment options as other adults with HIV, Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, from the University of California, San Francisco, reported at CROI 2019.

Pregnant women are “considered the most important risk group” that needs to get the influenza vaccine, researchers wrote in Vaccine. The CDC reported that pregnant women who are vaccinated lower their risk for influenza-related hospitalization by an average of 40%.

Between 1970 and 2010, the rate of chronic hypertension among pregnant women rose from 0.11% to more than 1.5%, with advanced maternal age and year of delivery among the chief factors.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, issued an advisory to raise awareness — especially among pregnant women and youth — of the harms associated with marijuana use.

A 24-year-old Caucasian female was referred from urgent care with a chief complaint of pain in and around the right eye that had begun 4 days prior. She had also noticed pain on eye movement. The patient’s pain had intensified the night before the examination, with feelings of a pressure sensation inside the eye. This prompted a visit to urgent care the following day, with the patient ranking the pressure sensation as a seven out of 10 on the pain scale. She denied any prior occurrences.