You & Your Family

A new study suggests several reasons for the nation's rising Caesarean section rate, including the increased use of drugs to induce labor, the tendency to give up on labor too soon and deliver babies surgically instead of waiting for nature to take its course, and the failure to allow women with previous Caesareans to try to give birth vaginally. (nytimes.com)

Mothers who smoke while pregnant increase the risk that their child will develop psychological problems, a new study finds. Also, a related study found that babies exposed to secondhand smoke from fathers or other people may be at increased risk of developing weight problems, even if mothers are nonsmokers. (cbsnews.com)

Researchers found that the risk of attention disorders rose with increasing levels of metabolites--substances created when pesticides break down--measured in a pregnant woman's urine. For each tenfold increase in pesticide metabolites in a mom's system, the risk of an attention disorder rose fivefold in her child, according to the report published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.(msnbc.com)