On July 1, Virginia will enact standards for midwives who are not nurses, in an effort to better regulate home births.

One of the most common surgical procedures performed in the United States — an incision many pregnant women receive to reduce the risk of tissue tears during delivery — has no benefits and actually causes more complications, according to the most comprehensive analysis to evaluate the practice.

PIERCE ‘EM YOUNG People might be able to avoid earlobe keloids by getting their ears pierced before age 11, finds a study in the May 2 issue of Pediatrics. Keloids — lumps of firm, flesh-colored skin made of fibrous tissue — often form on the front or back of the earlobes at the site of piercings; they can also develop after injuries. They’re most common in African Americans.

Mood Music Couples struggling with infertility have a new — albeit untested — option: a “sound therapy program” that claims to enhance the odds of conception by reducing stress. The $29.95 double CD set, called Conceive, is made by Pharmonics, a New York-based musical therapy production company. The CDs, available online, are being marketed to childless couples trying to get pregnant. But fertility experts said there is no science to support the program’s claim.

Those aren’t daisy petals or spokes on a wheel. Each strip radiating out from the center ring shown above is an electronic sensor, part of Z-Tech’s experimental Breast Cancer Detection System. The sensors are placed over each breast while a patient lies on her back in a doctor’s office, as shown in the inset photo. Low-level electrical currents are then transmitted painlessly through the breasts in a 15-minute procedure.

Among the many benefits of serving as Crew Chief is the opportunity to investigate fitness matters I would never pursue for my own benefit — for instance, the question of exercising during pregnancy, one of the queries we receive most frequently during our online chats. An Internet search on the topic yields pages of information, much of it (I learned) misleading, alarmist or wrong.

The Study About 40 percent of women of childbearing age endure severe menstrual cramps. Treatment is trickier now that Vioxx and other painkillers have been linked to cardiovascular risks. A new study in the British Journal of Gynecology shows that taking 200 IU of vitamin E twice daily for several days a month may dramatically ease menstrual pain. But the treatment is not risk-free.

The joy on people’s faces as they crossed the finish line for a charity walk belied the struggles participants had seen or experienced in battling breast cancer.

The Bush administration issues guidelines advising physicians and hospitals that they are obligated to care for fetuses “born alive” naturally or in the process of an abortion.

It took 15 years to discover the link between oxygen and blindness — 15 years in which a mysterious disease haunted America’s best hospitals.