Since October 19, the PM2.5 levels, which is one of the key pollutants, in Delhi has hovered well above 120 micrograms, while even crossing 200 a couple of times. While the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend the average PM2.5 levels to be at 15 micrograms per day, reported Healthy Policy Watch. In June 2023, when New York hit PM2.5 levels of 117 micrograms, advisories were issued to shut down schools, for people to remain indoors, and to wear masks. However, there have been no such advisory in Delhi so far.

The data on Delhi pollution has been unreliable, several media outlets have reported the discrepancy between the official data and the on ground data. Many videos online have also shown the gap between these data where people are using their private AQI machines to measure the air quality. Furthermore, a video from opposition legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj that showed water being sprinkled around a government-run air monitoring station in the city on Diwali night have also raised questions on whether the data was tampered.

Amid all this, while doctors have time and again have asked everyone to stay safe, wear mask, and avoid going out during peak hours, studies too have shown fatal links with worsening air pollution. Now, there is an increased risk for infants too. Dr Anjana Singh, director and head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Fortis, Noida, as told to the Indian Express said, "Nowadays each newborn is spending a longer time in the nursery before they can be discharged because they are born with respiratory problems and their lung function needs to be stabilised. Some of them have delayed lung development and congenital asthma later. More and more babies are being born with jaundice."

Pollution And Infant Health

The doctor points out that pollution has a deep impact on fetal development than one may think. "It is the reason why we are seeing many more cases of miscarriage, pre-term births, stillbirths, birth defects, congenital heart disease and neural tube defects (the brain and spine do not develop properly)," the doctor explains.

Toxic particles can cross the placenta, the temporary organ that links a baby to the mother through the umbilical cord, and disrupt normal development. They trigger inflammation in the placenta, which creates resistance to blood flow. Over time, the blood vessels become damaged, reducing the amount of blood reaching the fetus.

Air pollution can mess with how nutrients reach the baby, which often leads to low birth weight. Research also shows that when a pregnant woman is exposed to polluted air, the risk of stillbirth goes up, especially in the third trimester.

High levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are linked to low birth weight and premature birth, both of which can cause other health problems. Tiny sooty particles can move through the mother’s bloodstream to the placenta and affect the baby’s lung development, raising the risk of lifelong breathing issues like asthma.

Pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and PAHs which come from things like burning food, coal, oil or gas can disrupt how organs form. This can increase the chances of conditions like congenital heart defects, neural tube problems or cleft palate. Some studies also suggest that heavy exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may raise the risk of autism spectrum disorder.

Air pollution can also push the mother’s blood pressure up, increasing the risk of preeclampsia, which is dangerous for both mom and baby.

Microplastics in the air come from synthetic clothes, car tires and broken down plastic waste. They act as endocrine disruptors, meaning they can interfere with hormones during key stages of development. They’ve been linked to gestational diabetes, inflammation and gut microbiome imbalance. Microplastics have even been found in the placenta, umbilical cord and cord blood, showing they can reach the baby and interfere with organ and nervous system development.

Maternal vaccination with the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy can be effective against severe disease and hospitalization from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in babies, according to a large study.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, revealed that COVID vaccination during pregnancy can protect the children against hospitalization for COVID during the first six months of life.

Amid continuing COVID cases, babies under six months old continue to have one of the highest rates of hospitalization — one in five — due to the COVID virus in the US, as per a 2024 study.

As currently no vaccines against COVID are available for neonates and babies, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends maternal vaccination during pregnancy.

Maternal COVID Vaccination Prevented Other Infections

The retrospective study included 146,031 infants born in Norway between March 2021 and December 2023. Of these, 37, 013 (25 percent) were exposed to COVID-19 vaccination in utero.

The findings showed that babies exposed to the vaccine before birth were no more likely to visit the hospital for overall infections (of any kind) than those whose mothers did not get vaccinated in pregnancy.

However, infants whose mothers were vaccinated were about half as likely to visit the hospital specifically for COVID in their first two months of life compared to babies not exposed to the vaccine in utero.

Among 3 to 5-month-old babies, the risk of a hospital visit for COVID was 24 percent lower in those exposed to the vaccine, but the vaccine's protection against COVID wore off by the time infants were older than 6 months.

Importantly, the mothers' vaccine also prevented the risk of other infections in children.

"There is often an increased risk for a subsequent infection after a viral infection, such as an increased risk of pneumonia after influenza infection, so we wanted to study whether protection against COVID-19 could influence the risk of other infections as well," said lead author Dr. Helena Niemi Eide, from the University of Oslo in Norway, the NPR reported.

"But we found that COVID vaccination in pregnancy protected the infant against COVID and had no apparent effect on other infections," Eide added.

Maternal Vaccine Recommendation in the US

Last week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reiterated its recommendation for COVID vaccination during pregnancy.

Despite changes in federal vaccine recommendations due to the US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine stance, the ACOG urged COVID vaccination for

• people who are pregnant,
• recently pregnant,
• considering pregnancy,
• lactating.

Also read: US Judge Blocks RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Schedule, Says Government Ignored Science

"Accumulated safety data from millions of administered doses show no increased risk of adverse maternal, fetal, or neonatal outcomes associated with COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy,” the ACOG said.

When 36-year-old mom Angela Sanford, from Fort Mill, SC, went for an appointment for a Pap smear five years after she had her first child in 2008, her nurse midwife, who she has never seen before asked her a question she did not expect. "Who stitched you up after your first birth?"

Speaking to Healthline, Sanford shared that she just started crying when the nurse said, "This is not right." Sanford said that this was the first time she ever heard the term 'husband stitch'. Sanford was told that her stich was "too tight" by the hospitalist who managed her after her first delivery.

Also Read: US CDC Warns Of New Immune-Evasive COVID Variant In 23 Countries

“He gave you what some people call a husband stitch,” Sanford recalled the midwife telling her.

“I couldn’t connect in my mind why it would be called that. My midwife said, ‘They think that some men find it more pleasurable,’” she recalled. “My husband has been worried about me and fearful of hurting me. He would never have asked for this.”

A 'Husband Stich' - What Is It?

During vaginal delivery, a woman undergoes perineal tears or vaginal lacerations which means tears between the vaginal opening and anus. This causes pain, and requires stitches for grades two and higher. It also takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal. Women can experience from first to fourth degree tears.

Sometimes, a surgical incision is made in the perineum during childbirth to enlarge the vaginal opening, this is called an episiotomy. However, it is not medically necessary or a routine procedure, unless it is a case of emergency.

Stiches are required in such cases that dissolves on its own. However, a 'husband stitch', also known as "daddy stitch" is an unethical practice where an extra stitch is given during the repair process that 'tightens the vagina' to increase sexual pleasure for a male partner. While it is considered a medical malpractice, it is still done to women after vaginal delivery.

Many women face difficulty after the extra stich is given to them. In Sanford's case, she felt "excruciating" pain during sex afterwards.

Read: Romanticization And The Silent Dismissal Of Women’s Pain

When Objectifying Women's Bodies Is Made A Medical Practice

Stephanie Tillman, CNM, a certified nurse midwife at the University of Illinois at Chicago and blogger at The Feminist Midwife told Healthline: “The fact that there is even a practice called the husband stitch is a perfect example of the intersection of the objectification of women’s bodies and healthcare. As much as we try to remove the sexualization of women from appropriate obstetric care, of course the patriarchy is going to find its way in there."

Harkins, 37, said that she "kind of" laughed it off when an "old, crusty Army doctor" overstitched her so she could give her husband more pleasure. In many cases, doctors do it as a routine practice without even being told by anyone. “I couldn’t even process [it], but I kind of laughed, like what else do you do when someone says that? I had just had a baby. I didn’t think much about it because the whole birth experience was so traumatizing, but now that I think about it differently, the implications of that are just crazy.”

Episiotomy Is An Excuse For 'Husband Stitch'

Dr Robert Barbieri, chair of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the Huffington Post that doctors were taught in the 50s and 60s that "routine episiotomy was good for women".

“What they thought is that if they did a routine episiotomy, they’d have a chance to repair it and that during the repair, they could actually create a better perineum than if they hadn’t done it. The idea [was] that we could ‘tighten things up,’” explains doctor.

However, a 2005 systematic review in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no benefit to routine episiotomy use. A 2017 Cochrane review “could not identify any benefits of routine episiotomy for the baby or the mother.” In 2016, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended that clinicians “prevent and manage” delivery lacerations through strategies like massage and warm compresses rather than making cuts on the perineum. Yet, this practice still continues inside the labor rooms.

While you may be buying fast-fashion clothes that are easy on your pocket and also give your children trendy looks, a new study highlights the risk of being laced with a highly toxic ingredient: lead.

The preliminary research, based on lab tests of several shirts from different retailers in the US, found that all the samples exceeded the country’s federal regulatory lead limits.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission currently has a 100 parts per million (ppm) lead limit for children's products like toys and clothing.

"I started to see many articles about lead in clothing from fast fashion, and I realized not too many parents knew about the issue," said Kamila Deavers, principal investigator of the study, at Marian University in the US.

Deavers began the study after her young daughter’s lab reports showed elevated levels of lead in her blood from toy coatings.

How was study conducted?

The team tested 11 shirts that spanned the rainbow—red, pink, orange, yellow, gray, and blue. All brightly colored fabrics, particularly reds and yellows, showed higher levels of lead compared to more muted tones.

"We saw that the shirts we tested were all over the allowed limit for lead of 100 ppm," said Priscila Espinoza, from Marina.

The researchers explained that some manufacturers use lead (II) acetate as an inexpensive way to help dyes stick to the materials and produce bright, long-lasting color.

Children At Greater Risk

The researchers found the risk is particularly higher among younger kids as they tend to playfully suck or chew their clothes during play.

"Even briefly chewing these fabrics could expose children to dangerous lead levels,” they found in the study, to be presented at the forthcoming meeting of the American Chemical Society.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead exposure can lead to behavior problems, brain and central nervous system damage, as well as other negative health effects in children.

The agency considers children under six years old to be most at risk from exposure. Even low levels of lead in the blood of children can result in:

• Behavior and learning problems
• Lower IQ and Hyperactivity
• Slowed growth
• Hearing Problems
• Anemia

The researchers also pointed out safer alternatives to lead-based dyeing agents that already exist. These include natural and less harmful substances such as:

• Plant-based tannins (e.g., oak bark, pomegranate peel)
• Rosemary
• Alum.