The timing of folic acid-containing prescription filling during pregnancy was associated with childhood asthma, according to a new Vanderbilt study.

The enzyme alkaline phosphatase may provide a new therapeutic option for women at high risk of pregnancy complications due to bacterial toxin exposure.

Alkaline phosphatase enzymes appear to play roles in promoting pregnancy and in protecting the uterus from bacterial infection.

Robert and Michele McClellan expected the experience of their infant son’s birth via cesarean section to be like that of other women who had had the procedure — unable to witness their son’s exit from the womb and for him to be immediately whisked away.

Pregnant women who have had prior preterm births may avoid a subsequent early birth if given progestogens, which are natural or synthetic forms of progesterone, a female hormone that naturally increases during pregnancy, a Vanderbilt analysis shows.

Vanderbilt pediatric infectious disease researchers studying antibiotic-resistant staph say fears that mothers carrying the germ may set their newborns up for infection are unfounded.