| METRO | Wednesday, January 6, 2021 

Frozen streets?
It’s time to get
your skates on...
ICE-SKATING fan Madison Galt glides like a
Disney star – after her screen dream of a
frozen street came true.
The nine-year-old went for a spin when a
minus 4C chill turned the cul-de-sac where
she lives into a rink in East Kilbride, South
Lanarkshire. Mum Joanna Galt, 36, said
Madison, who has been
learning to skate for
three years, had just
Disney she do well?. seen Disney film Noelle,
in which a character Jump to it: A cold
Madison Galt skates.
opens her front door and snap gives Madison
on the street and. goes out to skate.
(inset) Anna.Kendrick. ‘Madison said, “I wish I Galt the perfect
could do that,”’ said chance to skate
stars as Noelle SWNS.
Joanna. ‘Then she got to outside her home
do the same thing.’

Fat mothers
‘risk having
infertile sons’
BOYS born to overweight women are 40
per cent more likely to be infertile when
they grow up, a new study claims.
Mums with a body mass index of 25 or
more in pregnancy had sons who had a
greater risk of infertility compared with
those having a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9.
Daughters born to overweight mothers
were not affected, the report revealed.
And the results took into account other
factors, including the mother’s age, smok-
ing history and alcohol use.
Author Dr Linn Arendt said one clue
could be changes to the foetus caused by
inflammation from body fat.
She said: ‘Fatty tissue is hormonally
active and foetal exposure to leptin,
androgens and oestrogens has been sug-
gested to interfere with development of
by Mark Waghorn
the reproductive system and induce
changes which might not manifest until
sexual maturity.’
More than half of pregnant women in
Britain are overweight or obese, increas-
ing the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.
Infertility – defined as failing to conceive
for a year or longer – is also rising with
one in eight couples affected.
Dr Arendt said: ‘These findings add to
evidence that weight during pregnancy
may affect male reproductive health.
‘Prevention of overweight during preg-
nancy may be an important tool to pre-
serve fecundity in future generations.’
The Aarhus University study followed
the lives of 9,232 adults in Denmark.

Skin-to-skin contact ‘gives newborns best start in life’

Dads should cuddle newborn Caesarean section babies while mums recover
as skin-to-skin contact boosts the infants’ heart rate, scientists say. A study
of 95 babies born at a Chilean hospital from 2009 to 2010 found cuddling into
their fathers’ bare chests ‘established stable physiological parameters and
wakefulness’. ‘This approach should be supported during mother-infant
separation,’ said study co-author Prof Kyllike Christensson.