That Crucial First Year of School: Research out of the UK looking at the records of over 70,000 children finds that the quality of a child’s first year teacher has lasting implications for the entire primary school experience. This study questions the wisdom of the current practice in the UK of putting the best teachers in later primary grades in order to boost standardized test scores.

Pre-Eclampsia and Vitamin D: According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, early pregnancy vitamin D deficiency is linked with a five-fold increase in the risk of pre-eclampsia. “Our results showed that maternal vitamin D deficiency early in pregnancy is a strong, independent risk factor for preeclampsia,” said Lisa M. Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and lead author of the study. “Women who developed preeclampsia had vitamin D concentrations that were significantly lower early in pregnancy compared to women whose pregnancies were normal. And even though vitamin D deficiency was common in both groups, the deficiency was more prevalent among those who went on to develop preeclampsia.”

Sorry, Moms: Researchers out of the University of Warwick report that their research finds that women’s health suffers from sleep deprivation more than men’s. Women who slept five or fewer hours per night were twice as likely to suffer from hypertension than women who slept seven or more hours. Among the male participants, no such association was found.