An article in Britain's Daily Mail offers an important warning for moms using at-home fetal monitors during pregnancy to monitor their babies' heartbeats. The article describes a recent publication in British Medical Journal that details how a woman suffered a stillbirth after she failed to seek medical attention when her baby wasn't moving as frequently, having been falsely reassured by detecting the baby's heartbeat on an at-home monitor.

Although monitors can be extremely useful to ease anxiety when you're pregnant after a miscarriage, especially those weeks in early pregnancy before you can feel the baby move, it's important to keep in mind that hearing the baby's heartbeat doesn't necessarily guarantee that everything is fine -- especially in later pregnancy. Follow your doctor's guidance on when to call for a checkup. If you're in the late second trimester or in the third trimester and your baby isn't moving as much as normal (or if you have any other suspicion that there could be something wrong), call your doctor right away. Don't check for the heartbeat on a monitor and assume everything is fine when you detect it. It's always better to err on the side of caution, even if you think your concern might turn out to be nothing.

More Information:

• Decreased Fetal Movement

In addition to the other reader story submission opportunities we have just launched on this site, take note that you can now also share any poems you have written for your baby. I have always felt that writing is a good way to work through feelings, and many people find a great deal of solace in poetry in particular. Writing a poem can be a good way to honor your baby's memory, and sharing it may bring comfort to other moms out there who are grieving.

If you're interested in sharing a poem you have written, post it here. You can also share any thoughts you have for parents who are newly grieving a loss, as well as a brief background about your loss.

Not a poet? Consider telling your miscarriage story or your story of finding out you were pregnant after a miscarriage, or if you're a dad, give your perspective on miscarriages too:

• Miscarriage Stories
• My Pregnancy After Miscarriage
• My Partner Had a Miscarriage

Some antibiotics appear to be safer during pregnancy than others, according to new research. Scientists studied moms who gave birth to babies with birth defects and examined the likelihood that those moms took antibiotics in the first trimester compared to controls who gave birth to babies without birth defects. The study found that certain antibiotics appeared to be statistically associated with birth defects more often than other antibiotics, and it revealed evidence that two classes of antibiotics in particular might be tied to birth defects.

For some reason, this has led to some articles claiming "Antibiotics in Pregnancy Don't Cause Birth Defects" and others reading "Antibiotics in Pregnancy Tied to Birth Defects." Funny how different reporters can draw opposite conclusions from the same information, at least as far as headline writing--and a good reminder of the importance of reading more than just the headline.

Anyway, the antibiotics found to be most associated with birth defects were sulfonamides and nitrofurantoins, which are frequently used to treat urinary tract infections--and other antibiotics studied were sometimes associated with birth defects also, but not with as many different types of birth defects as the above two. However, as was pointed out in an article in MedPageToday, the methods used in the research could not determine that the antibiotics actually caused the birth defects, and it was possible that the underlying infection that led to the moms taking antibiotics was the actual cause of the birth defects. In addition, there would be obvious risks to both mom and baby if infections weren't treated, so it's still best to follow your doctor's advice and take antibiotics if you need them.

If you've been trying to conceive, you may have heard the advice to lie still with a pillow under your hips for 15 to 20 minutes after sex in order to boost conception odds. According to a report in BBC, the same may be true for fertility patients receiving insemination. Researchers interviewed fertility clinics offering artificial insemination and found that the pregnancy rates were higher in clinics that advised patients to stay lying down for 15 minutes after the procedure.

About 27% of the women who remained prone after insemination became pregnant compared to 17% of the women who stood up and moved around afterward. Although this finding is specifically limited to patients receiving insemination, one wonders if the same would also apply to couples trying at home without assistance, especially if the reason for the finding was that lying still prevented leakage of sperm (as one of the researchers postulated in the article). I know it's long been common advice to lie still with a pillow under your hips for about 20 minutes afterward to boost your conception odds -- perhaps there's something to the idea.

When a miscarriage happens, it's often forgotten that there are two parents affected by each loss. So if your partner had a miscarriage, you might be feeling a little left out by most of the support resources (possibly even this site) that seem to target only the mother.

If you are a dad who is grieving your partner's miscarriage, you're not weird. Even though many express their feelings differently from their partners, most dads do feel affected when their partners miscarry. After all, it was your baby too. And in fact, if you feel you'd like to tell your side of the story, now's your chance to do that. Along with general miscarriages stories and stories of pregnancy after miscarriage, we're collecting fathers' stories about miscarriage experiences in the hopes of featuring accounts from real people. You can write your feelings about the loss, share your tips on how to deal with a loss, or just tell your story.

Want to submit your story? Visit this form and type away. You don't have to use your real name if you don't want to, but your stories can be helpful not only to dads who want to hear how other guys cope with miscarriage but also to moms who are trying to understand why their partners react differently to the loss.

According to a BBC report, a mom in Scotland is suing the country's health board after she was detained in a psychiatric ward when she called for help when having a miscarriage.

In the article, Claire Muir describes how she sought help with her miscarriage and then was referred to a psychiatrist after a midwife said Muir sounded "psychotic" on the phone. Muir was then confined for two weeks, without anyone consulting her husband, and forcibly medicated with drugs that Muir claims caused disturbing side effects and hallucinations.

Muir won her release after an independent expert concluded Muir might be suffering from postnatal depression. Muir is now seeking damages for the distress her family faced during the experience.

Naturally it is hard to know exactly how everything played out and whether there were other factors in play, but if everything happened as Muir said, this is certainly a disturbing story. As she points out, it's hard enough to go through a miscarriage without worrying that you will end up locked up in a psychiatric facility.

According to an article in Britain's Telegraph, researchers have uncovered a possible link between air pollution and miscarriages.

In the study, Brazilian researchers exposed fertilized eggs from mice to diesel exhaust particles in a laboratory setting and then monitored the embryos' growth. The embryos were still able to implant in the uterus, but the miscarriage risk was two and a half times higher and development appeared stunted. The effect was apparent even with low levels of exposure, reports The Press Association in an article about the same study. In addition, observational studies found that the miscarriage rates were higher in women who had been exposed to high levels of air pollution.

Researchers hope to conduct further study on the effects of air pollution exposure in pregnancy. Although there isn't much you can do to affect your own exposure to air pollution, one would hope that if further research supports this finding that legislators would take notice.

In searching Google News for pregnancy loss related headlines, I came across an op-ed from Philadelphia's The Bulletin entitled When Pregnancy Goes Awry. In it, a Catholic priest and bioethicist weighs in on the morality surrounding treatment of ectopic pregnancy, arguing that the only morally justified treatment of ectopic pregnancy is the surgical removal of the afflicted fallopian tube because the other treatment options (methotrexate or surgical removal of the pregnancy without removing the tube) involve the doctor directly causing the death of the baby. Although tubal removal also leads to the death of the unborn baby, it's an unfortunate side effect rather than the direct intent of the surgery

I was intrigued that anyone would question the morality of tubal pregnancy treatment, given that these pregnancies are not viable in any circumstance--and was somewhat disturbed that there are likely doctors out there who would agree with this way of thinking. I can see that it might be a complex moral question for people based on religious background, and I imagine it could be the subject of many a heated debate, but I would hope that doctors who had a moral problem with less drastic means of treating ectopic pregnancies would seek another field of specialty. Moms afflicted by tubal pregnancies are usually devastated by having to seek a medically necessary termination, and their babies were often very much wanted. These women should have access to treatments that leave them with good chances of being able to be pregnant again in the future if they so choose and should not be subject to doctors refusing to treat them as such.

On the flip side, upon further reflection, I would also hope that doctors would respect women's own preferences in these matters. If there are women out there who feel they can't live with the idea of having treatment to directly end their pregnancies because of religious or moral concerns, I could see how these women might need outright tubal removal as an option. I can't say I would make that choice myself, but it is the woman herself who is the most affected by whatever happens and thus I suppose the ultimate choice should be in her hands as long as she is fully informed of the risks and benefits of each option.

More Info:

• Can Ectopic Pregnancies Be Saved?
• Methotrexate for Ectopic Pregnancies

According to an article in BBC News, a new study has found evidence that treating fibroids with uterine artery embolization may lead to higher miscarriage rates in women who become pregnant after the treatment.

British researchers followed 215 women who became pregnant after having uterine artery embolization treatment, and compared to baselines, the women had higher rates of Caesarian sections and post-delivery bleeding in addition to miscarriage rates of 35% (compared to about 15% in women who have not had fibroid treatment).

Although the uterine artery embolization procedure requires further study, the researchers have concluded that women need to be aware of potential ramifications when choosing a fibroid treatment. Although fibroids can also be linked to miscarriage, in light of the possible risks, it may be wise to consider other options before proceeding with uterine artery embolization.

According to a press release in Science Daily, Oxford University researchers have predicted that increased efforts to cut smoking during pregnancy could potentially reduce socioeconomic inequalities in stillbirth and infant death rates by 30 to 40%.

Stillbirths have always been more common in less advantaged socioeconomic groups for a number of reasons, but researchers looked at statistics on likelihood of smoking during pregnancy in various groups and found that those who were most likely to smoke in pregnancy had higher risks of stillbirth, and the groups least likely to smoke had the lowest stillbirth and infant loss risks. Naturally, smoking is not the sole reason for social inequality in stillbirth rates, but the researchers have concluded that increased measures to help moms quit smoking could be a definite help.

Smoking during pregnancy carries numerous risks for unborn babies, and it's possible that smoking may even be linked to miscarriage. Remember that if you are trying to quit smoking, About.com's Guide to Smoking Cessation has numerous helpful resources.