Harvard Health Content API

Childbirth options have been in the news often in the last few weeks. CBS News reported this week on a Lancet editorial that called home births riskier for babies. The editorial quoted a recent study on neonatal death rates. Though low, deaths were two to three times as high at home as in the hospital. An August 2 Time magazine article also discussed childbirth issues. It quoted new guidelines from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The guidelines say women who had a prior cesarean section should get the chance to have a vaginal birth next time. Induction of labor may be another cause of C-sections. Time quotes a new study that found C-section rates in first-time births doubled when labor was induced. Guidelines support induction after 41 weeks of pregnancy. But the study found that about 4 out of 10 women who did not meet guidelines had labor induced anyway.

Schools shouldn’t force kids to stay home because they have head lice, a group of children’s doctors says. The new guidelines on head lice are the first from the American Academy of Pediatrics since 2002. They take aim at schools that do not allow children who have head lice or nits to remain in school. Nits are the empty egg casings that get stuck to kids’ hair at the roots. It makes no medical sense to keep kids at home if they have lice or nits, the doctors said. The risk of spreading lice in school is very small. The doctors also offered advice on treatment. Over-the-counter shampoos containing permethrin or pyrethrin are usually the first choice. But some lice can resist them. The guidelines explain other steps parents can take. These include washing bedding in hot water, putting stuffed animals in a sealed bag for a couple of weeks and using a fine-tooth comb to remove nits.

Two forms of CPR are equally likely to save a life, two new studies conclude. And bystanders usually will help when they get firm, clear instructions, they found. One form of CPR uses a cycle of either 15 or 30 firm chest pushes and two quick breaths into the person’s mouth. The newer form is “hands-only.” It skips the breaths and uses 100 pushes per minute. The larger study included 1,900 people who saw someone in cardiac arrest and called 911. Dispatchers told them how to do a form of CPR. Half were randomly chosen to do each type. About 8 out of 10 were willing to try the hands-only form. About 7 out of 10 agreed to do the other form. Previous research has found that no more than one-third of bystanders will try CPR. Survival rates were about 12% for those who got either form of CPR. This is double the average survival for cardiac arrest outside a hospital.

Several tiny genetic differences can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer, a study has found. Researchers tested the blood of 20,700 women. Half had breast cancer when the study began. The others did not. Researchers focused on the building blocks that form DNA. Sometimes one block is replaced by another. This is called a single-nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP. These often occur in the DNA between genes. Researchers found seven SNPs that had the biggest effect on breast cancer risk. Women were given a score based on how many of these they had. Women with the highest scores were twice as likely to have breast cancer as women with the lowest scores. The increase in risk was greatest for the most common type of breast cancer. This type grows in response to estrogen. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay News wrote about it July 27.