Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Higher Temperatures Are A Factor In Early And Preterm Births, Study Finds
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense, posing more of a health risk around the world. High temperatures can be deadly, and are especially dangerous for those with cardiovascular and chronic disease — but they begin affecting human lives even before birth. (Merelli, 5/28)
New data from the RECOVERY trial show that women who contracted COVID-19 during pregnancy had a lower risk of developing long COVID, or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), than other women, according to a study in eClinicalMedicine. The authors said this was the first study to compare long-COVID outcomes through the lens of pregnancy. (Soucheray, 5/28)
Having a baby is energetically much more expensive than commonly thought, according to new research. In fact, over the course of a pregnancy, creating and carrying a little one takes 49,753 dietary calories — the equivalent of 164 Snickers candy bars, said Dr. Dustin Marshall, a coauthor of the study published May 16 in the journal Science. (Holcombe, 5/27)
On the trauma of childbirth —
Mothers’ mistreatment at the hands of the very health care workers meant to help them through pregnancy and childbirth is a rampant — and dangerous — problem in maternity care. One in 5 mothers in the United States report being ignored, threatened, forced to accept treatment they didn’t consent to, physically abused or otherwise mistreated by their providers during pregnancy and delivery, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among Black, Hispanic or multiracial mothers and those who have public insurance or no insurance, the rates are higher still: closer to 1 in 3. (Neklason, 5/28)
When journalist and professor Rachel Somerstein had an emergency C-section with her first child, the anesthesia didn't work. She says she could literally feel the operation as it was happening. Later, after her daughter was born, Somerstein remembers a practitioner blaming her for the ordeal. "[They] came to my room and told me that my body hadn't processed the anesthesia correctly, that there was something wrong with me," Somerstein says. (Mosley, 5/28)
