The couple have made several films together Actress Helena Bonham Carter is expecting her second child with film director Tim Burton. The actress, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Wings of a Dove, has appeared in four of Burton’s movies - including Big Fish and animation The Corpse Bride. The couple are currently working on their fifth joint project, a musical adaptation of Sweeney Todd co-starring Johnny Depp. She scored her first leading role at the age of 17 and shot to fame as a classic English rose in period films such as Howard’s End and A Room With a View. read more

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New study says women obese before pregnancy face higher risk of having babies with birth defects - Pravda. According to a new study women who are obese  before pregnancy have a higher risk of having babies with different birth defects than women with a healthy weight. The findings suggest that about 4 percent of women who are obese before pregnancy will have babies with major birth defects, versus 3 percent for healthy-weight women, Waller said. Obese women faced double the risk of having babies with spina bifida than women of healthy weight. Very heavy women also were 60 percent more likely to have babies born with a rare defect in which abdominal organs protrude through the belly button; 40 percent more likely to have babies with heart defects; 36 percent more likely to have babies with shortened arms or legs; and at least 20 percent more likely to have babies with any of several gastrointestinal deformities. read more

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There's an increased risk of birth defects among babies born to women who are obese before becoming pregnant, according to a new study. National Birth Defects Prevention Study, a multi-site, population-based study of more than 30 different categories of structural birth defects. University of Texas in Houston, and associates pulled data for births between 1997 and 2002 on over 10,000 babies born with birth defects and compared them with some 4000 normal babies. Other increased risks linked to the mother's pre-pregnancy obesity were defects involving the heart, anus, penis, limbs, diaphragm and navel, the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. read more

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