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Preventable Pregnancy-Related Deaths Report Released

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a recent summary of pregnancy-related deaths from 2008-2017 (1). The data summarized was voluntarily given to the CDC by 14 Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) across the country.  In an effort to understand the incidence of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S., these committees reported a vast amount…

Research on Sildenafil (Viagra) and Fetal Distress Halted

Sildenafil citrate is the phosphodiesterase-V inhibitor more commonly known as the erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra (1). A recent trial study of sildenafil was performed by Saleish Kumar of the Mater Research Institute at the University of Queensland, Australia. The aim of the study was to reduce the instance of fetal distress during labor. Fetal distress…

Study Shows Parents of Children with Disabilities Experience Three Times More Childcare Challenges

  A recent study by the Center for American Progress found that parents of children with disabilities are experiencing “meaningful obstacles to accessing child care” (1). This conclusion came from several data sources, including the 2016-2018 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), the 2016 Early Childhood Program Participation Survey (ECPP), and interviews conducted in 2019…

Calls to Nurses’ Phones May Increase Risk of Medication Errors

Recent research suggests that nurses may be more likely to make medication errors around the time they receive phone calls.  Christopher P. Bonafide and colleagues recently published a study (1) in JAMA Pediatrics, focused on mobile telephone interruptions in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). This study included 257 nurses and 3308 patients, and considered…

John Hopkins Researchers Propose New Strategy for Protecting NICU Babies from Parental Bacteria

For babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), contact with parents can be calming and promote good health. However, a parent’s touch can also increase their risk of contracting a potentially dangerous neonatal infection, such as Staphylococcus aureus. Researchers from John Hopkins Medicine (headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland) recently conducted a preliminary clinical trial on…

What Are “Serious Games,” and How Could They Improve Neonatal Resuscitation?

Medical professionals who care for newborns must know a great deal about managing neonatal breathing complications. They should be skilled at providing resuscitation, intubation, and other forms of respiratory assistance to infants that require it. Mismanagement of neonatal breathing complications can result in a variety of serious birth injuries, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia, pneumothorax, hypocarbia,…

Jesse Reiter Contributes Additional $5,000 to Reiter HIE Research Fund

In 2018, ABC Law Centers owner Jesse Reiter established the Reiter HIE Research Fund with the goal of supporting research into treatments for infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). He recently contributed an additional $5,000 to this important cause. The Reiter HIE Research Fund supports the work of Dr. John Barks and colleagues at Michigan Medicine,…