The study conducted by the research team at the University of Aberdeen also stressed that some of the prescribed drugs, including some to treat obesity, could also have detrimental effects in the womb. Focusing on the importance of molecules produced naturally in the brain and how certain nerve cells recognise and connect with each other, the research claimed that anything that disrupts this process, like cannabis smoking, could affect brain function. The researchers said that the brain molecules called endocannabinoids behave in the same way as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from cannabis, and affect the same receptors and signalling systems in the brain. However, they stressed that this signalling process should occur unhindered, so that the brain can develop normally. Cannabis is considered to be one of the most widely used drugs by women at reproductive age, and earlier studies have pointed out that babies born to mothers who took cannabis while they were pregnant, experienced problems with physical activity. The new study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). read more

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This risk increases when pregnant women undergo surgery, which is why Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York instituted a same-day pregnancy testing protocol. Like many hospitals, Hospital for Special Surgery had been conducting some tests a week before the scheduled surgery, but it wasn’t a consistent protocol. Doctors at Hospital for Special Surgery always explain the risks to patients who are pregnant, but if the patient herself doesn’t know she is pregnant she may not spend much time weighing the risks. However, if a woman who didn’t know she was pregnant went on to either lose the pregnancy or have a child with a birth defect, the unknown role that anesthesia and surgery may have played in this can be devastating to patient and physician. A member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS provides orthopedic and rheumatologic patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. All Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are on the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College. read more

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The aquarium’s sea dragon has about 70 fertilized eggs _ which look like small red grapes _ attached to his tail. Sea dragons, sea horses and pipe fish are the only species where the male carries the eggs, Gladish said. The aquarium recently changed the lighting and thinned out the plants in the sea dragons’ tank to give them room to court each other. In the wild, the survival rate for sea dragon babies is low, but in captivity it’s about 60 percent, Gladish said. read more

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