EXPLORE THE SCIENCE
TL;DR: In 3 large birth studies covering 5.3 million children, kids whose mothers had type 1 or type 2 diabetes before pregnancy were about a third more likely to develop epilepsy. Diabetes that first appears during pregnancy showed no clear link, and none of…
Read article
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Archives of Women’s Mental Health linked prenatal active tobacco smoking with higher odds of postpartum depression, while secondhand smoke and electronic nicotine-product estimates were not statistically cle…
Read article
TL;DR: Portable electroencephalography (EEG) recordings tracked perinatal anxiety most consistently in a preliminary medRxiv preprint, with delta power carrying the clearest longitudinal marker and alpha power appearing in visit-specific anxiety analyses. Key…
Read article
TL;DR: A 2026 feasibility study in the Journal of Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Behaviors found that pregnant participants could use a research-grade accelerometer plus text-message sleep diaries across much of pregnancy, although third-trimester wear declined…
Read article
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health linked composite inflammatory biomarkers during pregnancy and postpartum with postpartum anxiety symptoms, but the strongest associations ran in the unexpected direction of lower anxiety risk at highe…
Read article
TL;DR: A 2026 cohort study in The British Journal of Psychiatry found that lithium prescribing around pregnancy was rare in UK primary care records, and most pre-pregnancy lithium users did not stay on treatment through all three trimesters. Key Findings 752,1…
Read article
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Science of the Total Environment followed nearly 295,000 Southern California births and linked extreme nighttime heat in early and late pregnancy to higher autism diagnosis by age 5, while daytime heat was not associated. Key Findings A…
Read article
When Depression Threatens Pregnancy: A 34% Elevated Miscarriage Risk TL;DR: Untreated depression increases miscarriage risk by 34% across nearly 9 million women, but antidepressants reduce that risk to 24%—meaning the medication is safer than the disease durin…
Read article
Pregnancy denial, also known as cryptic pregnancy, refers to a lack of awareness of being pregnant, often until late in the pregnancy or even childbirth. It is a more common phenomenon than generally realized, occurring in an estimated 1 in 500 pregnancies. Wo…
Read article
Brain death during pregnancy is extremely rare but presents profound ethical, medical, and legal challenges. Key Facts: Brain death during pregnancy is very rare, with about 35 cases reported worldwide. The most common cause is bleeding in the brain from ruptu…
Read article