Caffeine improves lungs of premature babies

Caffeine acts as a respiratory stimulant that improves short-term breathing rates and the lungs' ability to stretch and expand.

Giving premature babies caffeine improves their lung function in later life, it also aids exhaling during a forced breath.

Researchers discovered that the children who were treated with caffeine performed significantly better in tests that measured their ability to breathe out.

Caffeine belongs to a group of methylxanthines drugs, it reduces apnea of prematurity, a condition that makes baby stops breathing for seconds.
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Links between antibiotics and miscarriage

Treatment of urinary tract infections in early pregnancy with these antibiotics: macrolide, quinolones, tetracycline, sulfonamide and metronidazole may increase risk of miscarriage.

"Infections are prevalent during pregnancy," says Dr. Anick Bérard, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec.

 "Although, using antibiotic to treat infections has decreased risk of prematurity and low birth weight. But some antibiotics are increasing the risk of spontaneous abortion, infection severity may also contribute to the abortion.

Bérard and her team looked at data from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort between 1998 and 2009. For this study, 8702 cases, defined as clinically detected spontaneous abortions, were matched with 87 020 controls; mean gestational age at the time of miscarriage was 14 weeks of pregnancy

A total of 1428 (16.4%) cases were
exposed to antibiotics during early pregnancy compared to 11 018 (12.6%) in controls. Participants were between
the ages of 15 and 45 years and covered under Quebec's drug insurance plan.

Miscarriage is common in order women with many health issues and infections. These are considered in this study.