Wellbeing of Women Centre

13/10/2025

13/10/2025

12/10/2025

👶 A medical first: treating a genetic disease before birth.

A baby has become the first person to receive successful treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) while still in the womb — and today, nearly three years later, shows no signs of the deadly condition.

SMA is a rare inherited disorder that destroys motor neurons, causing progressive muscle weakness and often death in infancy. In its most severe form (Type 1), babies lack both copies of the SMN1 gene, leading to a dangerous shortage of the SMN protein essential for motor neuron survival — especially during late pregnancy and early infancy.

In this groundbreaking case, doctors detected the missing SMN1 genes before birth and obtained FDA approval to give the mother risdiplam, a gene-modifying drug that boosts SMN2 activity to produce more of the missing protein. Treatment began during the final six weeks of pregnancy — a critical developmental window — and continued orally after birth.

The result: a thriving child who has shown no signs of SMA.
This milestone opens a new era in fetal precision medicine, suggesting that certain genetic diseases might one day be prevented before symptoms even appear.

🧬 It’s a glimpse into the future — where treatment starts before life begins.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)

11/10/2025

Shocker: It takes far more energy to grow life than scientists once believed.

A Duke University study found that pregnancy rivals elite endurance events, making it the most energetically demanding activity the human body can sustain, equivalent to running a 40-week marathon.

Another peer-reviewed study published in Science found that pregnancy requires an additional 50,000 calories over nine months, with 96% of that energy coming directly from the mother. A woman’s resting energy use can rise by up to 30%, meaning her body works harder every single day, even at rest.

To put it in perspective, that’s like eating 50 pints of Ben & Jerry’s or sustaining the daily energy output of a Tour de France cyclist.

The energy it takes to grow life makes pregnancy one of the most extreme athletic feats on Earth. 🫶

04/10/2025

03/10/2025

This picture shows the sacrifice of a mother’s love.Even while she’s sinking in her own battles, she keeps her child above the water. Mothers will give up their own comfort and peace just to protect their children. It’s a powerful reminder of the resilience and unconditional love that defines motherhood.❤️❗️

25/09/2025

Where do I start?

Overnight Donald Trump and his unqualified Secretary of Health and Human Services announced that there was a causal link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and the development of autism. They announced that the medication would now be labelled to warn of this ‘risk’ and that guidance will be updated to discourage women from taking paracetamol in pregnancy.

The problem is that the ‘evidence’ suggesting a tenuous link is riddled with confounders, whereas the most stringent studies which account for familial confounding show that no such link exists.

In April 2024, a landmark study was published in JAMA which set out to address the question: does paracetamol use in pregnancy increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children?

The study was a nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis, which included a population-based sample of 2,480,797 children born in 1995 to 2019 in Sweden, with follow-up through December 31, 2021.

That’s a 24 year cohort study, with the use of paracetamol during pregnancy prospectively recorded from antenatal and prescription records.

In total, 185,909 children (7.49%) were exposed to paracetamol during pregnancy. To address unobserved confounders that may skew the data, matched full sibling pairs were analysed.

Sibling control analyses found that there was no evidence that paracetamol use during pregnancy was associated with autism, ADHD or intellectual disability. Furthermore there was no evidence that increasing doses of paracetamol resulted in a higher risk of autism compared to those who had taken no paracetamol at all.

This nationwide cohort study has addressed important confounders that other studies have not addressed. It makes a compelling and evidence based conclusion: Paracetamol use does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disability.

I never once took paracetamol in my pregnancy with Mariam. She’s still autistic and I love every single inch of her.

Trump and his anti-vax Secretary of Disease continue to cause absolute chaos with their ignorance of science and evidence based medicine.

Because you know what is harmful to babies?

Untreated fevers in pregnant women.

Sustained fever of greater than 38.9 degrees for at least 24 hours has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, an increased risk of malformations including neural tube defects like spina bifida, and an increased risk of stillbirth in later pregnancy.

Paracetamol is a Category A medication which has a wide body of data which has demonstrated it is safe to use in pregnancy. It is the recommended analgesia in pregnancy due to the potential side effects of non steroidal anti-inflammatories.

Please do not listen to those issuing warnings about a medication that they cannot even pronounce.

And shame on this ignorant administration for continuing to demonise autistic people like my daughter as if they are some preventable mistake.

- Sara

📸 my beautiful brown eyed girl who is imperfectly perfect like all of us, doesn’t need ‘fixing’ and is the love of my life ❤️

Link to JAMA study https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2817406

23/09/2025

Wow 😲 amazing!
Image credit unknown

23/09/2025

22/09/2025

Motherhood Reshapes the Brain for Years After Birth

We often hear that it takes six weeks to “recover” from pregnancy, but science now says otherwise. New research shows that pregnancy changes the brain for 2 to 6 years after birth, rewiring memory, hormone regulation, and even how mothers respond to stress.

During pregnancy, a mother’s brain undergoes a massive transformation. Certain areas actually shrink slightly, not as a loss, but as a fine-tuning process that strengthens emotional bonding, improves recognition of the baby’s needs, and makes the brain more efficient for parenting. These changes persist well beyond the newborn stage, suggesting that motherhood is not just a physical journey but a neurological one that continues for years.

Researchers have found that these brain adaptations help mothers stay alert to potential threats, regulate emotions under pressure, and develop stronger empathy. However, this also explains why some mothers experience long-term mood changes, brain fog, or heightened stress, their brains are still recalibrating long after society assumes they’ve “bounced back.”

This discovery could transform how we support new parents. Instead of expecting mothers to return to “normal” within weeks, healthcare systems may start recognising the need for long-term mental and emotional care. It’s not just about recovering from birth, it’s about nurturing a brain that is literally being reshaped by the experience of motherhood.

Imagine a future where mothers are given space, time, and understanding to grow into these new neurological patterns. Science reminds us that motherhood is not a brief chapter, it’s a long, transformative process that reshapes both body and mind.

10/09/2025

A simple step during routine surgeries could be the key to helping prevent hard to detect ovarian cancers – and our amazing researchers are leading the way.

Most ovarian cancers actually start in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries.

That’s a game-changer.

At the Women’s, Associate Professor Orla McNally and her team are pushing for a smart, preventative move: removing the fallopian tubes during other abdominal surgeries – like hysterectomies, gallbladder removal, or even hernia repairs.

It’s called opportunistic salpingectomy, and it’s already being adopted in Canada and Europe.

This approach is especially recommended for:
✅ anyone already having pelvic or abdominal surgery and
✅ women who’ve finished having children or
✅ those considering permanent contraception.

The Women’s is at the forefront of making this routine in Australia – with research underway to understand how women and surgeons feel about it.

What does it mean? Well, if you fit the criteria above and you're having surgery in your lower abdomen, you’d be encouraged to ask your doctor: Can my fallopian tubes be removed too?

It’s a small change. But it could be life-saving.

Learn more about opportunistic salpingectomy: http://bit.ly/4mduyvo

05/09/2025

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