BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese technical college for boarders has defended compulsory pregnancy tests for students as a responsibility to them and their families, local media reported Friday. The college in Urumqi, capital of the far western region of Xinjiang, had tested new students for several years and would ask those who tested positive to leave, the Beijing News said, citing students. The school, where girls aged 17 and 18 comprise 70 to 80 percent of new spring semester students, gathered "whole classes" of girls into a hall to pass urine samples on to doctors, the paper said. Economic reforms have loosened state control over people's personal lives in China, where, as little as 20 years ago, paternal "work units" would commonly approve marriages and child birth. read more

Technorati Tags: students, reuters, tests, news, paper, school, pregnancy news

The review, of 31 studies involving more than 32,000 women, found that taking aspirin had a 10 percent reduced rate of complications. And while doctors find the results of the review encouraging, they insist that women need to be cautious, especially as aspirin appears to slightly increase the risk of haemorrhage following delivery. Based on this, Lisa Askie at the University of Sydney in Australia and colleagues now think that aspirin might benefit only a small subset of women, such as those who suffered pre-eclampsia during previous pregnancies. Pre-eclampsia is characterised by an increase in blood pressure and excessive amounts of protein in the mother’s urine, and can prove fatal to mother and baby. Askie believes anti-clotting drugs protect pregnant women by reducing inflammation or preventing blood clots from forming. read more

Technorati Tags: women, , aspirin, review, askie, blood, pregnancy news

LONDON (AP) — A new test dubbed “Pink or Blue” promises to tell parents the sex of their fetus just six weeks into pregnancy, but critics question its reliability and say it could open a Pandora’s box of ethical issues. Parents who order the Pink or Blue test receive a packet where the mother provides a spot of blood on a special card. Even if DNA Worldwide’s test is accurate, experts recommend that parents get professional advice. Other experts worried about ethical implications if parents use the information to select the gender of their babies, by getting an abortion if the test indicates the “wrong” sex. read more

Technorati Tags: test, dna, parents, |, experts, weeks, pregnancy news