OBESITY AND PREGNANCY

Women who are overweight or obese before becoming pregnant could be putting themselves or their babies at risk for certain health complications, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One particularly serious potential problem: Infant heart defects, such as obstruction on the right side of the heart or defects in the tissue that separates the two upper chambers of the heart.

In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, CDC researchers found that overweight or obese women -- as defined by body mass index (BMI) -- had an approximately 18 percent increased risk of giving birth to babies with these or other heart defects. Severely obese women had an even greater increase in risk: About 30 percent when compared to women with normal BMI.

For more from the CDC on birth defects, visit www.cdc.gov/ncbddd.

DRIVER SAFETY

When it comes to monitoring teenagers behind the wheel, a strict but supportive parenting style seems to be the most effective at nurturing safe young drivers. In a report published in the October issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, researchers analyzed data from the 2006 National Young Driver Survey and found that kids with authoritative parents were generally safer drivers. Compared to teens with uninvolved parents, they reported half the crash risk, were 71 percent less likely to drive when intoxicated, used seat belts nearly twice as often, and were less likely to speed or talk on a cell phone while driving.

Authoritarian parenting, which the report defined as being strict but with less emotional support than authoritative parenting, encouraged teens to follow rules reinforced by laws, such as seat belt use and speeding. But in some cases, teens construed their parents as being too controlling. Parental monitoring of safe driving behavior was more effective when coupled with warm, active support, the report found. Indifferent or inattentive parenting was least effective at encouraging safe habits in young drivers.

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