Publications by authors named "Fionnuala M Mc Auliffe"

Background & Aims: Childhood adiposity and inflammation impact long-term health. However, associations between dietary inflammation and childhood adiposity are unclear. We investigated if more pro-inflammatory diets are associated with greater adiposity in early-, mid-, and late-childhood.

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Objectives: The associations between individual lifestyle behaviours and well-being are still poorly understood, particularly in the antenatal period when women are exposed to physiological changes and increased psychological distress. A healthy lifestyle score (HLS) comprising protective lifestyle behaviours may be useful for studying links between overall lifestyle and psychosocial outcomes. This study aimed to examine bidirectional associations between a HLS and its components and psychological well-being in pregnant women with overweight/obesity.

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Maternal depression has been linked with increased risk of childhood obesity. Furthermore, maternal negative affectivity in early childhood has been associated with food fussiness. We explored the relationship between longitudinal maternal well-being mid-pregnancy, at 2 years and 5 years postpartum and children's appetitive traits at 5 years of age.

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Background: The warm chain of support is the continuous enabling environment from the mother's first contact with healthcare professionals during early pregnancy, birth and immediate post-partum period, her transition from healthcare facility to home, through to work and the community at large. A breastfeeding-friendly city should be able to support a breastfeeding journey across the warm chain.

Objective: To determine breastfeeding women's perspective of an ideal breastfeeding-friendly city.

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Background: Spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) has a deep immediate impact on patients but also alters their care and experience in subsequent pregnancies. There is an absence of the pregnant patient's voice in the research surrounding pregnancy at risk of sPTB.

Materials/methods: The Preterm Birth Advisory Council was established at the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) in January 2023, to introduce and embed the patient voice in research into sPTB prevention.

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Introduction: Effective spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) prevention is an urgent unmet clinical need. Vaginal depletion of Lactobacillus crispatus is linked to sPTB. This trial will investigate impact of an oral Lactobacillus spp.

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The Valsalva manoeuvre (VM) is a normal physiological event that occurs during the second active phase of labour. In women with medical conditions that may be exacerbated by the Valsalva, caesarean birth may be recommended. This carries with it its own potential for maternal morbidity, and thus it is important that women are appropriately counselled about the mode of delivery most suited to their individual situation.

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Background: Latch On's objective was to achieve improved breastfeeding rates in women with raised body mass indices using a multicomponent breastfeeding support intervention.

Methods: A hybrid type 1 implementation-effectiveness trial with mixed-methods process and health economics analyses were conducted. Data collection included stakeholder questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, fidelity data, participant and health system costs.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how oral sensory hypersensitivity and social-emotional responses in typically developing preteen children relate to their eating behaviors, especially focusing on traits like fussy eating and desire to drink.
  • - Using data from 130 mother-child pairs, researchers employed established sensory profile assessments and a children's eating behavior questionnaire to analyze the connections between child and maternal sensory processing traits.
  • - Results showed that children with higher oral sensory processing sensitivity often exhibited increased food fussiness and a greater desire to drink, while maternal sensory profiles revealed significant correlations with their children's sensory traits, indicating a shared sensory processing influence.
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Article Synopsis
  • * It analyzed data from the ROLO trial involving 514 children and their mothers, comparing outcomes between those receiving low GI dietary advice versus standard care.
  • * Results suggest that a low GI diet may lower asthma risk at 5 years old, especially for children of mothers with lower educational attainment, but results were not significant for children of mothers with higher education levels.
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Endometriosis is a chronic systemic disease, which results in endometrial-type tissue growing outside the uterus, and affects approximately 10% of reproductive-aged women worldwide. Its aetiology is poorly understood, and there is currently no long-term cure. Development and persistence of the disease depend on several coexisting factors including the vaginal microbiome.

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Unlabelled: The vaginal microbiome is a key player in the etiology of spontaneous preterm birth. This study aimed to illustrate maternal environmental factors associated with vaginal microbiota composition and function in pregnancy. Women in healthy pregnancy had vaginal microbial sampling from the posterior vaginal fornix performed at 16 weeks gestation.

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Background: Macrosomia (birthweight ≥4 kg) may alter the associations of physical activity (PA) and screen time (ST) throughout childhood with later cardiometabolic risk.

Objective: To investigate associations of PA and ST over a 4-6-year follow-up period with cardiometabolic outcomes in preteens (9-11-year-olds) who were born to mothers with previous macrosomic delivery.

Methods: This is an analysis of 402 preteens from the ROLO study, who were born to mothers that previously delivered an infant with macrosomia.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluates a proposed ultrasound checklist for detecting placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) in patients with a high likelihood of the condition, aiming to see how effective it is in identifying confirmed PAS cases.
  • Conducted over five years, the research included patients who had ultrasound assessments for PAS suspicion, with diagnoses confirmed through surgical and histopathological findings.
  • Results showed an 80.7% PAS diagnosis among participants, with the third-trimester ultrasound displaying a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 73%, highlighting key ultrasound features—abnormal placental lacunae and myometrial thinning—as strongly associated with PAS.
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Article Synopsis
  • Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are not digested by infants but help promote beneficial bacteria like bifidobacteria in their gut.
  • The study explored how 23 newly isolated bifidobacterial strains grow on specific HMOs, identifying key genes connected to their metabolism, especially through a strain named MM0196.
  • The research enhances our understanding of HMOs' role in gut health for infants, suggesting potential benefits for probiotic applications and improved infant nutrition, possibly extending to adults.
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The role of genetic testing within maternal medicine is expanding. Advancing technology and the increasing availability of genetic testing have seen more patients receiving a genetic diagnosis than ever before. Improved healthcare and understanding of these rare diseases means that many patients are living well into their reproductive years and starting families.

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Background: Breastfeeding self-efficacy is a woman's self-belief and confidence in her perceived ability to breastfeed. This modifiable determinant is strongly associated with breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and duration. It is unclear how important the timing of breastfeeding self-efficacy measurement and interventions are.

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Preventing childhood obesity from early life is considered essential. However, evidence from recent systematic reviews has highlighted inconsistent results and limited effectiveness of preconception and pregnancy lifestyle interventions regarding offspring weight outcomes and adiposity. Therefore, to improve our understanding regarding the mixed success of these early life interventions, we conducted a scoping review examining intervention complexity, process evaluation components, and authors' statements.

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Objective: To predict birth weight at various potential gestational ages of delivery based on data routinely available at the first antenatal visit.

Design: Individual participant data meta-analysis.

Data Sources: Individual participant data of four cohorts (237 228 pregnancies) from the International Prediction of Pregnancy Complications (IPPIC) network dataset.

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Article Synopsis
  • Bacteriocins, like Pseudocin 196, are antimicrobial compounds that show promise in addressing antibiotic-resistant infections.
  • The genome of MM0196, sourced from a healthy pregnant woman, reveals a gene cluster for Pseudocin 196, a novel lantibiotic, along with proteins for its processing and immunity.
  • Pseudocin 196 demonstrated the ability to inhibit harmful pathogens, suggesting its potential use as a probiotic for treating bacterial infections.
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Bifidobacteria are commonly encountered members of the human gut microbiota that possess the enzymatic machinery necessary for the metabolism of certain plant-derived, complex carbohydrates. In the current study we describe differential growth profiles elicited by a panel of 21 newly isolated strains on various plant-derived glycans. Using a combination of gene-trait matching and comparative genome analysis, we identified two distinct xylanases responsible for the degradation of xylan.

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Background: Childhood represents a critical period of nutritional risk in the programming of later chronic disease. Few longitudinal studies have explored repeated measures of nutrition throughout the first decade of life in relation to preteen cardiometabolic outcomes.

Objectives: This research aimed to explore associations of early feeding practices (human milk exposure and duration and timing of introduction to solids) and childhood dietary quality and inflammatory scores (at 5 and 9-11 y and change during childhood) on preteen cardiometabolic outcomes.

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Immunological adaptions during pregnancy play a crucial role in healthy fetal development. Aberrant immune modifications however contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes, which may be driven by maternal factors such as previous pregnancies and BMI. This secondary analysis of the MicrobeMom2 RCT investigates the changes to maternal inflammatory biomarkers derived from serum and stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) during pregnancy, and the effects of previous pregnancies (parity) and BMI on maternal immune responses.

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Members of the genus are commonly found in the human gut and are known to utilize complex carbohydrates that are indigestible by the human host. Members of the subsp. taxon can metabolize various plant-derived carbohydrates common to the human diet.

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