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Old health advice often dies hard. This is particularly true — perhaps dangerously so — of historic advice for pregnant women, according to a new Viewpoint published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Most adults remember the traditional guidelines for expectant mothers. Get as much rest as possible during your pregnancy, even prolonged bed rest if complications arise. At the same time, “eat for two” — you and your developing child. According to the new report, however, “these misguided recommendations” have “evolved into a major contributor to the worldwide obesity epidemic.” (Burfoot, 3/21)

A group of researchers want women to know that when it comes to exercise, there is a strong consensus of benefit for both the mother and developing fetus. "Within reason, with adequate cautions, it's important for [everyone] to get over this fear," says Alejandro Lucia, a professor of exercise physiology at the European University of Madrid, an author of the viewpoint published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. (Hobson, 3/21)

Researchers have some bad news for moms who used DHA supplements while they were pregnant in hopes of boosting their baby’s brains: It didn’t work. At age 7, kids whose mothers took DHA scored no higher on an IQ test than kids whose moms swallowed capsules that were DHA-free. (Kaplan, 3/21)

Procrastination can be so common with the “Big V” that it takes a panel of sports jocks offering a free procedure for some guys to finally let a doctor take a scalpel to their nether regions. That may be one reason vasectomy rates are low: Five percent of women rely on their partner’s vasectomy for contraception, unchanged from a decade ago. The CDC’s National Survey of Family Growth compares that to 20 percent of women who have had a sterilization procedure, even though women’s surgery is more invasive and more expensive. (Dembosky, 3/21)