Born Angels

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

The Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) is a set of 14 blood tests that gives your doctor an idea of the status of your liver and kidney health, your electrolyte levels, the base and acid balance in your body, your blood protein and glucose levels. It can also be used to monitor conditions like high blood pressure and to see if any medication you may be taking is having an effect on your liver or kidneys. The basic metabolic panel (BMP) consists of eight tests and does not incorporate the liver and protein tests.

The CMP testing process is done for routine medical check-ups, when being evaluated for a condition or when you are taking medication that could affect your liver or kidneys. You might need to fast for the 10 to 12 hours prior to your sample being drawn.

The CMP is considered a broad screening tool to test for the presence of conditions like liver disease, diabetes or kidney disease. Your doctor will usually order follow-up tests if the CMP indicates abnormal results. Your test will be evaluated for patterns of results. One abnormal result will have different meanings compared to a test that produces several abnormal results. Depending on your condition it might be necessary to perform a series of tests for an accurate diagnosis.

The tests incorporated in the CMP include tests for calcium and glucose, protein tests for albumin and total protein, electrolytes like potassium, sodium, chloride, carbon dioxide and bicarbonate, kidney tests for creatinine and blood urea nitrogen and liver tests for alanine amino transferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and bilirubin. Read the rest of this entry »

The ultrasound is done with a device equipped with a probe that emits sound waves are imperceptible to the ear. This ultrasound travel through the skin and a computer system analyzes the signal sent back by the latter and transmits on screen of the pictures in real time, like a movie screen.

The Wikipedia’s page on 3D ultrasounds is one of the most commonly utilized techniques of diagnostic, because it provides a safe, noninvasive and painless for visualizing of anatomical soft tissue. The device has a 3D probe and software for reconstructing 3D picture. The picture shows the external envelope of the baby such as it is actually. Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, you were in the care of others. Then came adult life and you found yourself on your own, having to take care of yourself and provide for all your needs. Later on, you found someone you wanted to spend as much of the rest of your life as possible, and then, a bit more passed and you find there suddenly were three of you. Now that you have your own family, you and your spouse are in charge of looking after one another, as well as after your very own little bundle of joy. There are many aspects to take into consideration here: education, nutrition, moral values and, of course, physical well-being. No one ever said parenthood was easy, but there are several tools in the modern world which can alleviate at least part of the pressure, by reassuring you that you and all your loved ones are well-provided for and taken care of. One such tool, which an adult with a family in their care should never overlook, is family health insurance . Ask yourself how you feel about taking out this type of insurance. Not sure you want to spend an amount of money per annum? Here are three reasons for which you should probably reconsider.

Most Accidents Happen in the Home

As the famous adage goes, most accidents can, will and do happen in the home. The number of injuries sustained while performing otherwise banal tasks such as home repairs, cleaning or routine maintenance is uncanny. Now that you have one or several children, can you really afford to go on taking such a risk? Remember, it is not just your well-being you are impacting on, but also that of others, whom you are allegedly supposed to nurture, care for and protect. Family health insurance will not entirely do away with these risks, but it will at least soothe your mind to know that, should the worse come to pass, you will not be spending a fortune on medical services. Read the rest of this entry »

Babies are born with some degree of intelligence. Insight, it seems, is one of its innate characteristics. According to a study funded by the European Union, a baby, according to findings issued, is able to penetrate the opinions of those around her. This brings to question the old thesis that confirmed the right of babies to grasp the mental state of others after 3 or 4 years. Nevertheless, this result opens a new avenue to identifying the causes of social hostilities manifested by children.

Furthermore, other researchers have discovered that toddlers also discern the racial aspect of a face. This time, it was Sandy Sangrigoli and Scania de Schonen who have demonstrated the ability of a baby who happens to distinguish a familiar face from a stranger. Read the rest of this entry »

The World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated its call for exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life. This recommendation is based on the benefits of breastfeeding the baby. According Randa Saadeh, WHO Coordinator of the Nutrition Unit, “The increase in breastfeeding rates is a key element of the plan to improve infant and young child”. Remember that exclusive breastfeeding ensures optimal health, better growth and perfect development.

As for Dr. Elizabeth Manson, Director of Health and Child Development and Adolescent WHO, he said: “If all infants and young children were exclusively breastfed during the first six months of their life and then received nutritious foods to supplement breast feeding until the age of two, could be saved each year 1.5 million children’s lives more”. Read the rest of this entry »

A study at the University of Basel and published in “PLoS ONE” concluded that the stress of a pregnant woman had an influence on her placenta. Indeed, pregnancy accompanied stress generates a larger placenta compared to normal.

The fetus derives foods (water, amino acids, minerals, sugars, etc.) needed for its life and growth in the placenta. According to research, if the parent is too stressed, that fact would influence the size of the placenta. Dr. Gunther Meinlschmidt and his team had taken more than 75,000 pregnant women in Denmark to examine. Read the rest of this entry »

Yoga, a type of exercise that also soothing tonic, practiced for so many years, does not only concern workers and celebrities. Because, being good to great people, yoga can also be a good year for babies and parents. This exercise is the last point of the trend set by mom and dad to build relationships with their child.

The presence of both parents is strongly required for that the yoga for baby works in an optimum way, according to Helen Garabedian, the initiator of Itsy Bitsy Yoga. Most movements are generally based on repetition and slow. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and published in the journal Human Reproduction, children from in vitro fertilization are more at risk of premature birth or low birth weight. Between 2002 and 2006, they made follow-up on 13,544 births from IVF and 587,009 births to spontaneous pregnancies in Sweden.

The result: children from IVF are at 67% increased risk of preterm birth (before 28 weeks) and 15% more likely to be born before 37 weeks. Regarding the small weight, the risk rises to 13% for less than 2.5 kg and 25% for less than 1.5 Kg. Read the rest of this entry »

A Canadian study found that the voice of mothers has a positive effect on learning the language of their newborn. It acts on the brain areas and this stimulates the linguistic faculty of the baby. For cons, the voice of a stranger plays a special role in the activation of the brain responsible for speech recognition.

To support their research, scientists at the University of Montreal and Research Center of CHU Sainte-Justine have carried out electrical recordings 24 hours after the birth of 16 babies. Read the rest of this entry »

Before placing in the world, a child is exposed to possible genetic diseases they inherit from his parents. These diseases could be diagnosed by the methods called amniocentesis or the chorionic villus sampling. It goes without saying that these methods are very effective but unfortunately dangerous for the baby: there was a 0.7% increase in the number of miscarriages as a result of the examinations.

Fortunately, medicine is evolving and it can open up new perspectives. Thus, a team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong came to isolate the DNA sequence of a fetus through the mother’s blood. The result is that they were able to identify 94% fetal genome. Read the rest of this entry »