Pregnant muslim women who fast during Ramadan are likely to have smaller babies who will be more prone to learning disabilities in adulthood, according to new research.
Scientists in the United States also found that the women were 10 per cent less likely to give birth to a boy if they had fasted during Ramadan.

The trend was clearest if the fasting was done early in the women’s pregnancy, and during the summer months, when long hours of daylight called for them to go longer without food.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and a time when Muslims across the world fast from dawn until sunset. Three in four Muslim pregnancies overlap with Ramadan and surveys indicate that the majority of pregnant Muslims observe the fast. This year, it falls between 11 August and 9 September.

Although pregnant women may request an exemption from fasting, they are expected to “make up” the fasting days missed during pregnancy after their baby is born.

Previous research has suggested that this requirement may discourage pregnant women from seeking the exemption, since they do not want to be the only member of their household fasting. Some Muslims also interpret Islamic law as requiring pregnant women in good health to fast.

Since fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam and is a central part of Muslim culture, many women may fear a loss of connection with their communities or would feel guilty if they did not observe Ramadan.

The study, which used census data from the US, Iraq and Uganda, also discovered long-term effects on the adult’s health and his or her future economic success.

Douglas Almond, of Columbia University, and Bhashkar Mazumder, of the Federal Research Bank of Chicago, the authors of the research, concluded: “We generally find the largest effects on adults when Ramadan falls early in pregnancy.

“Rates of adult disability are roughly 20 per cent higher, with specific mental disabilities showing substantially larger effects. Importantly, we detect no corresponding outcome differences when the same design is applied to non-Muslims.”

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, an imam from Leicester, said sharia (Islamic law) would never expect a woman to fast if it had an adverse effect on either the mother or child.

“Sharia would not want the mother to unnecessarily burden herself,” he said. “There’s no point being needlessly brave. When Ramadan falls during the winter months, more women will fast. But when it falls during the summer, when you might have to fast for 16 or 17 hours, it is understandable that fewer mothers will be fasting.”

From:
http://www.independent.co.uk/pregnant-women-who-fast-for-ramadan-risk-damage-to-their-babies-study-finds

About one percent of IVF pregnancies are aborted every year, figures collected by the fertility watchdog show.The exact reasons for the terminations – which amount to an average of about 80 a year – are unclear, but will include medical problems with the foetus as well as social grounds, such as a relationship breakdown.

“Selective reduction” abortions, when one foetus is removed to improve the survival chances of another in a multiple pregnancy, are also included.

The figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF clinics in the UK, were obtained as part of a Freedom of Information request.

They show that the proportion of foetuses aborted remained stable between 1991 and 2008, the last year for which data was available. In that year there were 65 terminations in 6,723 pregnancies.

The 18-34 age group saw the highest number of abortions, with 23 terminations, but they also had significantly more pregnancies than older IVF patients.

There was no information on the number of abortions of IVF pregnancies which had originally been funded by the NHS. Public provision of IVF is patchy, and many couples pay thousands of pounds to undergo fertility procedures privately.

Professor Bill Ledger, a member of the HFEA said: “I had no idea that there were so many post-IVF abortions and each one is a tragedy”, while former conservative MP Ann Widdecombe said some were treating babies like “designer goods”.

But Susan Seenan of the Infertility Network UK advised caution.

“Anyone who has undergone IVF knows what a long and difficult experience it can be. To make the decision to then terminate that pregnancy cannot be one that anyone takes lightly. I would imagine there are some pretty good reasons.”

Laura Riley, a spokesperson for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: “Women and couples who have had donor insemination or IVF to become pregnant are unfortunately no more immune from the harsh vagaries of life than others who are lucky enough to be able to conceive naturally.

“Any woman can experience overwhelming life difficulties, such as intense relationship pressures or the diagnosis of a serious or lethal fetal medical problem. These may mean that she feels unable to continue with the pregnancy.”

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10254133.stm

A NHS hospital trust was ordered to pay £100,000 after a mother who had just given birth died due to a mix-up between “identical-looking” drugs.

Mayra Cabrera, 30, died hours after giving birth to son Zac, who survived, at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, on May 11 2004.

A nurse wrongly attached the epidural anaesthetic Bupivacaine to an intravenous drip attached to her arm instead of saline solution which she needed to help bring her blood pressure back up.

Mrs Cabrera – who was a nurse at the same hospital – died within minutes from a heart attack caused by the toxic effects of Bupivacaine.

The two drugs had “almost identical packaging” and her life could have been saved if the bags were kept in separate cupboards, the Health and Safety Executive found.

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was ordered to pay £75,000 in fines and £25,000 in costs by a judge at Bristol Crown Court. The Trust had pleaded guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Clarke said: “No one could be unmoved by this tragedy. No one who knew what lay behind it could be untroubled at the systematic and individual fault which this inquiry revealed.”

The midwife, who was suspended and is now retired, “could not have read the label carefully or possibly at all”, he added, also citing the inadequate drugs storage as a factor in Mrs Cabrera’s 2004 death.

An inquest at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, two years ago ruled that Mrs Cabrera was unlawfully killed, also citing the “chaotic” drug storage.

Mrs Cabrera gave birth to son Zac at 8.14am on May 11 2004. She began to suffer a fit and at 10.27am she was certified dead.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said after the fine that the “heartbreaking case” showed there was no proper system for the storage of the drugs at the time.

A similar mistake in 2001, which did not result in death, had not served as a sufficient warning to prevent the tragedy.

Her widower Arnel Cabrera has now returned to their native Philippines and was raising their son Zac with the help of relatives.

He said in a statement today: “It has been six years since my wife Mayra died and two years since the inquest into her death was concluded. I would like to thank the HSE for bringing this prosecution and I am pleased with its outcome.

“It reinforced the importance of the heath and safety of patients attending hospital and in particular the safe storage of dangerous drugs. Now this case has concluded, I am hoping my young son and I can have some closure and put this terrible tragedy behind us.”

Drugs were stored in the same racking system despite having “almost identical packaging”, the HSE explained.

Mrs Cabrera’s month-long inquest in 2008 was told how the hospital’s storage methods failed to meet NHS requirements stating that drugs like Bupivacaine should be stored in locked cupboards separately from intravenous fluids.

There had been two other deaths at hospitals in the UK in the past decade caused by Bupivacaine being administered intravenously, coroner David Masters heard.

Soon after one – that of 74-year-old Philip Silsbury in 2001 at Royal Sussex County Hospital – a memo was sent round Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust advising that Bupivacaine be kept separately from intravenous drugs to lessen the chance of a mix-up.

At the time the hospital was at its old Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) site in Swindon, prior to its December 2002 move to GWH.

Stephen Holmes, the now-retired chief pharmacist at GWH, sent the memo on correct Bupivacaine storage around the PMH in 2001. He was told at the time by staff that this had in fact been the hospital’s practice since 1995.

However, these storage standards were not carried over to the new GWH site, with epidural drugs stored alongside intravenous ones.

It was not until after Mrs Cabrera’s death that drug storage was brought up to standard.

David Masters, the coroner for Wiltshire, describing the situation as “chaotic”, said: “It seems no-one really grasped the aspect of storage at GWH.”

He said the move to the new site was “all the more reason why someone should have grasped the issue of storing drugs”.

The inquest heard there had been three previous non-fatal drug mix-ups involving epidural drugs being attached to intravenous drips at the PMH before the one that caused Mrs Cabrera’s death.

One involving Bupivacaine was in 1994, while in 2001 there were two others, one of which involved Bupivacaine.

Alfred Tinwell, 84, died in 2000 at Royal University Hospital, Liverpool, after he was mistakenly given Bupivacaine intravenously.

After the case Lyn Hill-Tout, chief executive of Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust said: “First of all, I want to apologise again to Mr Cabrera, his son, family and friends for the mistakes that happened which led to Mrs Cabrera’s death.

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/new-mothers-death-costs-great-western-hospital-pound100000