Anxious or depressed mothers-to-be are at increased risk of having children who will experience sleep problems in infancy and toddlerhood, finds a study that published this month in Early Human Development.While this finding presents itself as important news to tired new moms and dads — for whom a soundly sleeping child spells out well-deserved respite — it may carry even more value for babies. [click link for full article]

Although fewer women in North Carolina are smoking and dying from heart disease and stroke, more than 16% of women do not have health insurance, including 63% of Hispanic women, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for Women’s Health Research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the [click link for full article]

New research to be published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG) will reveal that some women waiting for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment would prefer to give birth to a child with chronic disability associated with a multiple birth due to double embryo transfer, than opt for safer single embryo transfer because they believe their chances of success are reduced. [click link for full article]

Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) earlier this week introduced legislation (HR 3158) that would provide female federal employees with eight weeks of paid paternal leave, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the measure is similar to a bill ( [click link for full article]

According to a new report published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, farmers fare badly on every measure of health and quality of life, despite the fact that self-employment has been shown to be advantageous for productivity. [click link for full article]

Officials in Connecticut and at least eight other states are concerned that the federal mental health parity legislation (S 558) could result in weaker mental health benefits in some states, the Hartford Courant reports. The bill — introduced by Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass. [click link for full article]

Even relatively low quantities of air pollution increase the risk of premature death, according to an article published in Thorax. Black smoke and sulphur dioxide were found to have the closest associations with raising the risk of early death. Air quality in different British electoral wards were checked over long and varying periods, say the researchers. They also examined national data on causes of death. [click link for full article]

A new US study based on laboratory mice suggests that drinking low to moderate amounts of caffeine and exercising regularly protects the skin from damaging ultraviolet rays known to cause skin cancer. The caffeine and exercise appear to work together to kill off precancerous skin cells whose DNA has been damaged by ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. The discovery is yet to be tested in humans. [click link for full article]

After a debate that has divided officials within the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an advisory committee to the federal agency yesterday voted to keep the diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) made by GlaxoSmithKline on the market. This was just after the same panel had overwhelmingly decided that the drug raised the risk of heart attack and other heart problems. [click link for full article]

How effective and useful VAC Therapy, or Topical Negative Pressure is in the treatment of long-term wounds is questioned in an article in this month’s Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). This treatment has become progressively more popular. Topical Negative Pressure involves placing a foam dressing, cut to shape, into the wound. [click link for full article]