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Pregnant women are a priority group for COVID-19 vaccination due to their vulnerability as a high-risk cohort. However, the currentCOVID-19 vaccine uptake rate for COVID-19 vaccination among pregnant women in Western Australia remains largely unknown.
Skin care for very and extremely preterm infant is an important and previously underappreciated topic. Coconut oil skin care for preterm infants is a promising option, but several important questions remain including the theoretical potential for allergic sensitization.
Maternal influenza and pertussis vaccination is an important strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality in infants. Previous vaccine safety studies have mostly focused on the association between maternal vaccination and fetal death.
The risk of congenital anomalies following first-trimester medication exposure is an important indicator of medication safety during pregnancy. Retrospective cohort studies using routinely collected data are commonly used to assess this risk, yet methodological inconsistencies-such as how cohorts, exposures, timings and outcomes are defined-can compromise reproducibility and validity. This scoping review examined the methodologies used in retrospective cohort studies assessing the association between first-trimester prenatal medication exposure and congenital anomalies.
Extreme heat exposure is a major global public health threat that is affecting people across the life course, including the pregnancy period. Studies have linked extreme heat with adverse pregnancy and newborn health outcomes globally.
Ambient heat exposure during pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes, and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes are an emerging concern. This scoping review synthesises human and animal evidence on the association between prenatal ambient heat exposure and poor neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) during pregnancy is a key risk factor for psychopathology in the perinatal period. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying prenatal RNT remain poorly understood. Recent research has suggested that a tendency to volitionally seek negative rather than positive information (i.e., biased information seeking) may contribute to the formation of more negative prenatal expectations, which in turn predict elevated prenatal RNT.
First Nations women often experience harmful, inequitable maternity care, shaped by intergenerational trauma and culturally unsafe care. Historical forced removal of First Nations children has created enduring trauma that influences pregnancy and birthing experiences. In the Australian Capital Territory, maternity care is provided through Western biomedical systems, where increasing child protection interventions and fear of surveillance affect women's engagement with care.
First Nations women in Australia continue to experience disproportionately adverse maternal and infant outcomes. The ongoing legacy of colonisation and systemic racism shapes these outcomes. In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), maternity services remain dominated by Western biomedical approaches that fail to deliver culturally safe and anti-racist care despite national standards that mandate such practices.
Studies reported the prevalence of herbal medicines used for various maternal conditions across regions in Tanzanian communities. However, the lack of a national estimate of herbal medicine use makes it challenging for policymakers, herbal medicine regulators, and healthcare practitioners to make informed decisions on herbal medicine-related policies and practices to optimize their contribution to maternal healthcare.