Women consuming high-fat diet during pregnancy may increase the risk of affecting bacteria living in her baby's gut thus impacting proper development of the immune system, says a study.The results showed that expecting mothers' diets can lead to distinct changes in their babies' microbiome, which could affect energy extraction from food as well as early immunity development. "Diet is very amenable to change and women are highly motivated to make healthy changes during pregnancy. Traditionally, dietary interventions during pregnancy have focused on micronutrients, such as iron and folic acid," said Kjersti Aagaard, Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the US.

Further, a high-fat diet in the mothers was also significantly associated with fewer numbers of bacteroides microbes in the infants' microbiome both in samples taken shortly after birth and at four to six weeks of age. Bacteroides are involved in breaking down and extracting energy from certain carbohydrates. As a consequence of depletion of bacteroides, these carbohydrates could become unusable to the infant or other microbes. A persistent reduction of bacteroides species in the infant gut could thus have significant consequences on energy extraction from food and developing immunity, the researchers said. "The study speculates that there may be a sound argument to also discuss and estimate fat intake," Aagaard added, suggesting an increase in the need for dietary recommendations during pregnancy.

For the study, examined stool samples from 157 newborn babies that were taken 24 to 48 hours post-delivery, a subset of 75 babies was further sampled at four to six weeks of age.

The researchers found that the mothers' dietary intake of calories from fat per day ranged from 14.0 per cent to 55.2 per cent. The average daily intake of calories from fat was 33.1 per cent.
The results were published in the open access journal Genome Medicine.

A high-fat, high-sugar diet of processed food and confectionery during pregnancy may be linked to symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children who show conduct problems early in life, a study says."These results suggest that promoting a healthy prenatal diet may ultimately lower ADHD symptoms and conduct problems in children," said one of the researchers Edward Barker from King's College London.

Early onset conduct problems (for example, lying, fighting) and ADHD tend to occur in tandem and can also be traced back to very similar prenatal experiences such as maternal distress or poor nutrition.In this new study of participants from the Bristol-based 'Children of the 90s' cohort, 83 children with early-onset conduct problems were compared with 81 children who had low levels of conduct problems.

The researchers assessed how the mothers' nutrition affected epigenetic changes (or DNA methylation) of IGF2, a gene involved in fetal development and the brain development of areas implicated in ADHD - the cerebellum and hippocampus. Notably, DNA methylation of IGF2 had previously been found in children of mothers who were exposed to famine in the Netherlands during World War II.
The researchers from found that poor prenatal nutrition, comprising high fat and sugar diets of processed food and confectionery, was associated with higher IGF2 methylation in children with early onset conduct problems. The epigenetic change was also associated with higher ADHD symptoms between the ages of seven and 13, but only for children who showed an early onset of conduct problems, showed the study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

"Our finding that poor prenatal nutrition was associated with higher IGF2 methylation highlights the critical importance of a healthy diet during pregnancy," Barker said.

Abnormalities in interval between pregnancies, mother's body mass index (BMI) prior to pregnancy and the amount of weight gain in pregnancy can lead to preterm birth, a new study has found.The study, published in the journal Maternal and Child Health Journal, showed that if these factors were modified, it could reduce the risk of premature births.

"The highest risks for premature birth were in women who were underweight, had poor weight gain during pregnancy, or short periods of time between pregnancies. Excessive weight gain in obese women also increased the risk," said Emily DeFranco, Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati.

DeFranco and her colleagues conducted the study from birth records of nearly 4,00,000 people. Potentially modifiable risk factors for preterm birth were present in more than 90 per cent of women in the study.

Fewer than half of women begin pregnancy with a normal weight, and only 32 per cent achieve the recommended pregnancy weight gain.

"Attention should be paid to educational interventions on the importance of birth spacing, achieving an optimal pre-pregnancy weight, and ensuring adequate nutrition and weight gain during pregnancy. Improvements in these modifiable risk factors could have significant influence on premature birth and infant mortality worldwide," DeFranco added.

The proportion of anaemic, pregnant women dropped 12 percentage points over a decade to 2015, government health data show, but India still has more anaemic women than any other country and a prevalence rate above the global average.

All 14 states surveyed for the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4) showed a decline in anaemic, pregnant women, the proportion dropping to 45 per cent from 57 per cent a decade ago.

The decline in anaemia among pregnant women (15 to 49 years) is correlated with improved sanitation and female education, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of NFHS-4 data. An anaemic, pregnant woman is more likely to die or deliver a baby lighter than normal, increasing chances of the infant's death.

In 2011, 54 per cent of pregnant women in India were anaemic, worse than Pakistan (50 per cent), Bangladesh (48 per cent), Nepal (44 per cent), Thailand (30 per cent), Iran (26 per cent), Sri Lanka (25 per cent), and Vietnam (23 per cent), according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data. The trends suggest that, in 2015, India was still doing worse than neighbouring countries, even relatively poorer ones.

Mainly caused by blood loss, anaemia results from the lack of healthy, red blood cells or haemoglobin, a protein that binds oxygen. Common symptoms include light-headedness and fatigue.

The largest decline in the 14 states surveyed was reported in the north-eastern state of Sikkim -- a decline of 39 percentage points over a decade; 24 per cent of pregnant women are now anaemic in Sikkim. The state was the third in the use of improved sanitation in 2014-15 and reported the second-largest increase in female literacy over 10 years from 2005-06 to 2014-15.

The eastern state of Bihar had the largest proportion of pregnant, anaemic women (58 per cent); it also had the lowest literacy rate and improvement in sanitation, according to NFHS-4 data. In 2005, five states had a greater proportion of pregnant, anaemic women than Bihar, which has now displaced Assam to occupy the top spot after improvements in other states. The decline in Bihar was two percentage points over the decade to 2015.

Bihar is followed by Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, both with 55 per cent of pregnant women anaemic.

At the other end, Sikkim is followed by Manipur (26 per cent) and Goa (27 per cent).

"The government should implement the universal Rs 6,000 cash transfer to pregnant women that was legislated by the 2013 National Food Security Act," Diane Coffey, visiting researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, told IndiaSpend. The money was supposed to allow pregnant women to access an "adequate quantity of quality food", as stated in the Act, hopefully leading to more nutrition in the diet.

The 14 states surveyed also witnessed a 20 percentage-point increase in households using improved sanitation facilities, according to NFHS-4 data -- toilets connected to a sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine, ventilated improved pit/biogas latrine, pit latrine with slab, or twin pit/composting toilet not shared with other households. These facilities are now used in 57 per cent of homes, up from 37 per cent a decade ago.

Only 25 per cent households feature these improvements in Bihar, a 10 percentage-point increase since they were surveyed in 2005-06, but lowest among all states.

Madhya Pradesh, with 34 per cent households using improved facilities, is the next worst state for sanitation improvements, as it is with anaemia. Assam is the third worst, with only 48 per cent households using improved sanitation facilities.

Poor sanitation can lead to environmental enteropathy, an intestinal disease preventing people from absorbing nutrition in their food, a cause of anaemia, according to this 2014 study. The intestinal disease is caused by exposure to faecal pathogens that result from poor sanitation.

Up to 88 per cent of households now use improved sanitation in Sikkim. Haryana saw the largest increase (39 percentage points) of households with improved sanitation.

Despite the increased usage of improved sanitation facilities, open defecation is still relatively high. As many as 54 per cent Indians defecate in the open, according to Census 2011. The open-defecation rate was 35.5 per cent in Nepal and 4.6 per cent in Bangladesh, poorer developing countries, the same year.

Open defecation, argued Coffey, can lead to both environmental enteropathy and worms, closely linked to anaemia.

"The government should invest in teaching rural people about how affordable latrines work, and convincing people to use them, rather than simply building the kinds of latrines that rural people don't want because they are concerned about pit emptying, a task they believe only untouchables can do," Coffey said.

As many as 76 per cent of Indian women are now literate, and the 14 states surveyed witnessed a 12 percentage-point average increase in female literacy.

Half of Bihar's women can now read and write, a 13 percentage-point increase over a decade. No more than 59 per cent of women are literate in Madhya Pradesh, making it the state with the second-worst female literacy rate. This is in spite of a 15 percentage-point increase in female literacy, the largest increase reported, alongside Haryana.

As many as 89 per cent of women are now literate in Goa, followed by Sikkim (87 per cent) and Manipur (85 per cent).

On average, the 14 states surveyed saw a 12 percentage-point rise in women studying for at least a decade; 38 per cent women now do so. The largest increase was 19 percentage points in Tamil Nadu, followed by 18 in Sikkim and Karnataka.

Education may help women stand up for themselves within their families and ask for better food during pregnancy, which would reduce anaemia, Coffey suggested.

Depression in early pregnancy more than doubles the risk of gestational diabetes, which, in turn, increases risk of postpartum depression six weeks after giving birth, says a study.Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes occurring only in pregnancy and, if untreated, may cause serious health problems for mother and infant.

"Our data suggest that depression and gestational diabetes may occur together," said study first author Stefanie Hinkle from US National Institutes of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

"Until we learn more, physicians may want to consider observing pregnant women with depressive symptoms for signs of gestational diabetes. They also may want to monitor women who have had gestational diabetes for signs of postpartum depression," Hinkle noted.

Although obesity is known to increase the risk for gestational diabetes, the likelihood of gestational diabetes was higher for non-obese women reporting depression than for obese women with depression, the study found.
The researchers analysed pregnancy records from the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies-Singleton Cohort, which tracked the progress of thousands of pregnancies, to understand the patterns of fetal growth.

The study enrolled 2,334 non-obese and 468 obese women in weeks eight to 13 of pregnancy.

The women responded to questionnaires on symptoms of depression when they enrolled in the study, again between the 16th and 22nd week of pregnancy, and then six weeks after giving birth.

The researchers found that women who had the highest scores for depression in the first and second trimesters -- about 17 percent -- had nearly triple the risk for gestational diabetes when compared to women who had lower depression scores.

Of the women who developed gestational diabetes, nearly 15 percent experienced depressive symptoms after birth, which was more than four times that of women who had not had gestational diabetes, showed the study published online in the journal Diabetologia.

The researchers believe that high blood sugar levels may lead to inflammation, hormonal, and other changes that could lead to symptoms of depression.