[Parenting stress in women who concieved using assisted reproductive technology].

Infertile women suffer chronic stress, which may negatively impact their parenting relationships if they later succeed in bearing children. The purpose of this study was to explore the parenting stress of mothers attending assisted an reproductive program and to compare it with the parenting stress of mothers with natural pregnancies. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit 54 mothers attending an In Vitro Fertilization/Embryo Transfer and Tubal Embryo Transfer program at an infertility center in central Taiwan. Three instruments were used to collect data: the Demographic Data Form, Parenting Stress Index-Short Form and Family Adaptation Partnership Growth Affective Relation Index. The data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods. (1) The results indicated that the highest average score in parenting stress for mothers receiving reproductive technology was for "parental distress". These results revealed that the main source of parenting stress was their parental role. (2) Family function varied significantly with parenting stress. (3) Parenting stress was significantly greater in mothers with natural pregnancy than in mothers attending the assisted reproductive program. Recommendations for clinical application and future research are also made. The implications of the study may be used to assist infertile women in coping with parenting roles. Furthermore, a qualitative study is suggested to understand the factors which cause parenting stress.

Maternal age-specific risk of Down syndrome in an Asian population: a report of the Taiwan Down Syndrome Screening Group.

This study is a novel approach in establishing the maternal age-specific risk for Down syndrome screening in an Asian population. The relative frequency by one-year maternal age interval in women who had live births in the Taiwan area between 1975 and 1995 was used as the age-specific distribution of women who had unaffected pregnancies. Data about Down syndrome live births were obtained from the Taiwan Down Syndrome Association to establish the age distribution of women who had Down syndrome live births. The relative frequencies and the likelihood ratio by one-year maternal age interval was calculated and smoothed by running median and moving average smoothing methods. The age-specific risk was established by multiplying the total population risk by the likelihood ratio of the specific maternal age. The total live births in the Taiwan area between 1975 and 1995 were 7,232,689. A total of 527 cases of Down syndrome live births were registered in the Taiwan Down Syndrome Association. A total of 466 cases (88.43 per cent) of Down syndrome live births occurred before age 35, which was higher than occidental reports. This study established the first sizeable database of maternal age-specific risk for Down syndrome in an Asian population.

Plasma vitamins A and E and red blood cell fatty acid profile in newborns and their mothers.

OBJECTIVE: In this work, we have measured the plasma vitamins A and E and red blood cell fatty acid profile in newborns and their mothers and have determined whether there are any relationships between maternal blood and cord blood for the nutrients measured. SETTING: The study was performed at the Chung Shan Memorial Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. SUBJECTS: Twenty-nine pairs of mothers and their term infants. INTERVENTIONS: Maternal venous blood was collected in the first trimester and at delivery, and cord blood was collected at delivery. Plasma vitamin A and E levels were determined by high performance liquid chromatography and red blood cell fatty acid profile was estimated by gas chromatography. RESULTS: Mothers had significantly greater plasma vitamin A and E levels and vitamin E/total lipid than their term neonates did (P < 0.05). Maternal plasma vitamin E and vitamin E/total lipid were significantly greater in the first trimester than at delivery (P < 0.05). Red blood cell phospholipid oleate and linoleate were significantly greater in maternal red blood cell than in cord blood (P < 0.05), however, stearate and arachidonate were significantly greater in the cord blood than in the maternal blood (P < 0.05). Maternal vitamin E, vitamin E/total lipid, palmitate, linoleate, arachidonate and docosahexaenoate were found positively correlated to those in their neonates (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that there is a relationship between maternal blood and cord blood for some nutrients. Therefore, the nutritional status of mothers may affect the nutritional outcome of their neonates.