Neonatal medicine

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines recommending that pregnant women be asked to take breath tests to prove if they smoke have been backed by the Royal College of Midwives.

The RCM had previously criticised the idea because they could make women feel guilty, and argued that GPs should encourage women to quit instead.

Medical bodies, senior doctors and the National Childbirth Trust have called on the NHS to reverse the policy it has pursued since the 1960s of clamping and cutting a baby’s umbilical cord as soon as it is born.

They cited increasing evidence that the practice may leave newborn babies deprived of vital blood from the placenta.

Amniotic fluid may hold the key to healing a fatal gut disease which affects premature babies, doctors say.

Severe inflammation, called necrotizing enterocolitis, can destroy the gut's tissues and lead to major organ failure.

Early animal tests, published in the journal Gut, showed that stem cells inside amniotic fluid could heal some of the damage and increase survival. Further tests are still needed before it is tried in premature babies.

Levels of vitamin D in pregnant women may not affect the baby’s bone health - contrary to official advice, say scientists.

They found no link between a mother’s levels of the vitamin while carrying the child, and the latter’s bone health at the age of 10.

Current NHS guidance says all pregnant and breastfeeding women should take a 10 microgram vitamin D supplement every day, because it is believed to help build stronger bones in their offspring.