Oregon Health and Science University scientists have discovered that high doses of vitamin C could counteract some of the harmful effects that smoking during pregnancy can have on unborn babies

The morning after pill gets approved for over-the-counter sales in Canada. The drug levonorgestrel, sold under the brand name Plan B, has been approved for sale directly from pharmacies, Health Canada confirmed earlier this week. Plan B will be kept behind the counter and available without a doctor's prescription. The pill is considered 95 percent effective at preventing unintended pregnancy if taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex, but has no effect on an established pregnancy. It prevents pregnancy by preventing embryos from attaching to the wall of the uterus. Health Canada's move follows British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Quebec, where women can already access the contraceptive without a prescription. Last month, researchers in B.C. found use of the emergency contraception had doubled in the province since the pill became over-the-counter. Under new federal rules, pharmacists will have to offer counseling about side effects such as nausea and vomiting, sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception to women requesting the drug. It is up to the provinces and territories to decide if they wish to move further and remove all restrictions on the drug, allowing women to access it without the help of the pharmacist

The Today Sponge contraceptive, pulled from the market a decade ago, will soon be back in U.S. stores after receiving FDA approval. Friday, the Food and Drug Administration approved U.S. sales of the sponge, which was a popular nonprescription birth control product among women when it was withdrawn from the market in 1995. Now the polyurethane sponges, which manufacturer Allendale Pharmaceuticals has sold in Canada and over the Internet since March 2003, will be available soon in the U.S. through a company Web site. Shortly after that, the product will be available at retail drug chains, followed by supermarkets and mass marketers such as Wal-Mart, Allendale said. Allendale bought rights to sell the Today Sponge several years ago from the prior manufacturer, Wyeth Co. of Madison. Wyeth, then called American Home Products. They stopped making the sponge rather than upgrade its Hammonton manufacturing plant after FDA found deficiencies there, even though the device's effectiveness and safety were never questioned. The Today Sponge, a soft, concave device, prevents pregnancy by covering the cervix and releasing spermicide. Roughly 250 million sponges were sold from 1983 to 1995. While it was less effective than several other methods and does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, the sponge achieved a wide following among women who saw advantages from spontaneity to wide availability. In Canada, where the original Today Sponge was only on the market about 18 months, more than 400,000 sponges have been sold through retail outlets and Internet sites - without any advertising - since they were approved for sale there two years ago. An advertising campaign for the U.S. market is being developed. Sales are expected to jump from 10 million to 15 million sponges in the first 12 months. That's the current production limit of the company's factory in Norwich, N.Y., but the company has plans to double that

Member of The United Nations Population Fund hope the new pope will reconsider the Catholic Church's current stance on contraception in order to prevent the spread of AIDS. Throughout the 26 years that Pope John Paul II held the thrown over the Catholic Church, Western health campaigners often criticized him for his views on contraceptives - believed to be the most preventive measure to the spread of AIDS, not counting abstinence. Pope John Paul II, while a strong supporter of human rights and social justice, condemned contraception as a means of fighting the AIDS epidemic. He offered an alternative: abstinence and marital fidelity in the face of opposition from liberal Catholics. The U.N. Population Fund is the biggest international source of funds for programs to avoid sexually-transmitted infection, improve health care in pregnancy and child birth, and help with family planning and unwanted pregnancies in developing nations. The Fund's director, Thoraya Obaid, is hopeful that the new pope will consider the recent developments in contraception and its effect on the prevention of the deadly HIV virus. "There has been a beginning of an opening, especially on HIV/AIDS and the use of condoms for prevention of infection. We are hoping the new pope will take this message further, because it makes no sense sending people to their death

Geneva (AHN)-On Thursday the World Health Organization said that the situation for pregnant mothers and babies had worsened since the 1990s in dozens of countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite defying global advances in medicine one woman still dies every minute in pregnancy or childbirth, while each 60 seconds 20 young children are victims to easily preventable disease. WHO officials believe that some countries in Africa could take another 150 years to reach U.N. targets for reducing maternal mortality. Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, AIDS and neonatal ailments were the main killers of children under five. The toll includes more than four million newborns who die before they are a month old, but not some 3.3 million stillbirths annually. "The lifetime risk for a woman to lose a newborn baby is now 1 in 5 in Africa, compared with 1 in 125 in more developed countries," the report said. WHO determined that an additional $9 billion is required for each year of the next decade to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters by the target date of 2015