maternal health

Don’t gamble with reproductive health

Outdated thinking: Naive women will remain silent

December 3, 2018

Class action lawsuits regarding reproductive health rights were recently filed against Walmart, the U.S.’s largest private employer, in Illinois, New York and Wisconsin. Many other employers such as Amazon, Merck and Novartis face similar lawsuits, too, relating to pregnancy discrimination, failure to provide reasonable accommodations and violations of EEOC rules.

NIH to study pregnant women in areas affected by Zika virus

International effort to enroll approximately 10,000 women

July 8, 2016

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz (Fiocruz), a national scientific research organization linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, have begun a multi-country study to evaluate the magnitude of health risks that Zika virus infection poses to pregnant women and their developing fetuses and infants.

NIH to study pregnant women in areas affected by Zika virus

International effort to enroll approximately 10,000 women

July 1, 2016

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz (Fiocruz), a national scientific research organization linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, have begun a multi-country study to evaluate the magnitude of health risks that Zika virus infection poses to pregnant women and their developing fetuses and infants.

Millions of pregnant women may be exposing developing babies to alcohol

February 3, 2016

An estimated 3.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 years are at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol because they are drinking, sexually active, and not using birth control to prevent pregnancy, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vital Signs report released today. The report also found that 3 in 4 women who want to get pregnant as soon as possible do not stop drinking alcohol when they stop using birth control.

NIOSH research update

Are face masks safe during pregnancy?

October 2, 2015

Worldwide, millions of pregnant women wear face coverings at work, including the widely used N95 respirator with filtering face pieces or masks. The N95 respirator restricts normal airflow, so a woman may have to breathe harder while wearing it.

NIOSH to research chemical exposures and birth defects

September 30, 2015

To learn whether exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals in the workplace increases the risk of birth defects, NIOSH researchers are partnering with the Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (CBDRP) on one of the largest birth-defects prevention research efforts in the nation.