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The Kerala High Court has come to the aid of a couple seeking medical termination of their over 31 weeks old foetus, which suffers from congenital abnormalities of the brain and head, by allowing them to go ahead with the procedure. Justice Shoba Annamma Eapen allowed termination of the pregnancy on the basis of a medical board report which opined that if the baby is born, it would suffer from serious physical abnormalities. The board had also opined that continuation of the pregnancy was likely to be associated with risk to her mental health. The court, after considering the facts, materials on record, the settled principles of law on the subject and the recommendations of the medical board, was of the view that denying termination "may only delay the inevitable and extend the suffering of the family". It directed the Kottayam Medical College to terminate the pregnancy. The court directed the medical college to take immediate measures to constitute a medical team to conduct the .
An exposure to high temperatures during pregnancy could be disrupting amino acids and vitamins key to managing stress and energy, thereby increasing the risk of a premature delivery, suggests an analysis of blood samples. Studies have observed a link between warmer ambient temperatures and preterm births, where a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. The analysis, published in the journal Science Advances, looked at small molecules or "molecular fingerprints" in blood samples of 215 pregnant women who were residents of the US metropolitan city of Atlanta, and matched residential addresses with the maximum ambient temperatures experienced throughout their pregnancies. The first-of-its-kind study by researchers at Emory University found a disruption in levels of naturally occurring substances in blood, such as methionine, proline, citrulline and pipecolate, when ambient temperatures were higher. Methionine is an essential amino acid, obtained through diet, while citrulline is a