February’s Prenatal Ed Update is up. Here are the headlines. Links now take
you direct to the story you want.

Literacy and health then and now
US adults who are illiterate ~ unable to read or write.
In 1900: 10%  In 2000   go to the article

JAMA’s Patient Page fails readability test
JAMA--Journal of the American Medical Association-- recently introduced The
Patient Page to increase doctor-patient communication on topics important to
health. JAMA says its weekly feature is “designed specifically for America's
patients”. We wondered if it would be a good resource for prenatal care
providers … go to the article

Alcohol advice critical for pregnant women
Researchers working with rats in St Louis report that brain nerve cells of
baby rats die by the millions when exposed once to enough alcohol to be
intoxicated for a few hours. Human and rat brains both develop in spurts …
go to the article

Prenatal Ed Poll
What is the best time to inform women about hospital birth procedures?
… discussion of pain management, episiotomy, EFM and such can too easily
fall through the crack between prenatal care and hospital obstetric care. We
asked health professionals… go to the article

Epidural can be hard on the baby
Researchers in Boston found that 16.6% of women who had an epidural for
labor pain relief developed a fever of 100.5 degrees F. or higher, compared
to 0.6% who did not…. go to the article

Lifelong effects of low birth weight
Researcher Richard Strauss followed into adulthood over 14,000 British
babies born in 1970. He discovered that at age 10, children born small for
gestational age… go to the article

When health professionals offer free formula…
Women who receive a formula sample during prenatal care are just as likely
as others to start breastfeeding, researcher Cynthia Howard says. But they
are much more likely to quit early… go to the article

Latest birth statistics
You can now view January 1999 data… go to the article

Pregnancy Trends 1976-96
A new report from NCHS--National Center for Health Statistics-- tracks the
effects of changes in sexual activity, marriage patterns, contraceptive use,
attitudes and economic and educational opportunities on pregnancy in the US
over 20 years from 1976 to 1996 … go to the article

Book Review
Baby Love: A Tradition of Calm Parenting
By Maud Bryt, Dell Publishing New York 1998… go to the review

Lisa Nixon
206-441-7046
www.prenataled.com