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The top 5 motherhood myths -
The idea that a “good mom” always feels positively toward her children, no matter how much they test her patience, is just one of the many myths of motherhood The idea that a “good mom” always feels positively toward her children, no matter how much they test her patience, is just one of the ... more
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World's fattest woman to give birth to triplets
Leanne Salt has become the fattest woman in the world to give birth to triplets.
A enormous 68-strong team of medics weighed in to deliver 40-stone Leanne's three healthy babies.
And the total bill to the NHS added up to a hefty £200,000—four times the normal cost of a triplets pregnancy.
Leanne and the babies were at terrible risk throughout the pregnancy. But she defied the odds to deliver two girls—4lb 4oz Deanna and 4lb 1oz Daisy—and a 5lb 10oz boy, Finlee.
Talking exclusively to the News of the World, she added: “I knew it was a risk to myself and the babies because of my weight, but I had faith in the doctors. It’s amazing that all four of us have come through.”
Yet Leanne’s story will undoubtedly spark controversy. Her gross obesity meant the cesarean operation had to be planned with military precision and placed a huge strain on NHS resources.
The staff needed for the birth included FIVE midwives, FOUR surgeons, and TWELVE neonatal consultants, registrars and nurses.
FOUR anesthetists were needed to administer an epidural to numb the lower half of her body because a general anesthetic could have killed her.
TWO gynecology oncologists were on hand for their skills in life-or-death surgery, even though there was no suggestion of cancer.
And the delivery couldn’t take place until SIX workshop specialists had built a special operating table reinforced with steel rods to support Leanne’s enormous body.
A HOIST also had to be made to haul up and support Leanne’s stomach to give the surgeons room to remove the babies.
It was an extraordinary end to an amazing pregnancy which was beset with medical challenges. Leanne Salt has become the fattest woman in the world to give birth to triplets. ... more -
Ohio Inmate Mothers Care for Babies in Prison
At the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a dozen babies are spending time behind bars. Too young to say the word "crime," they are participants in a program that enables inmate mothers to raise their children in their cells.
The program is one of many across the country designed to meet the unique needs of mothers who are locked up. Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population. At the Ohio Reformatory, the warden estimates that 75 percent of the 2,300 inmates housed there are mothers.
Only a handful of U.S. prisons offer an in-house nursery program like the one at the quickly expanding Ohio complex, located about 30 miles from Columbus. Only nonviolent offenders who arrive at the prison pregnant or with infants and are serving relatively short sentences can qualify.
The Achieving Baby Care Success program began in June 2001. The 12 mothers currently participating live in a special wing of the prison. The babies sleep in identical cribs in their mothers' cells. Between prison roll calls, mothers take their children to the in-house nursery for scheduled activities.
The ultimate goal, says warden Sheri Duffey, is to reduce recidivism and keep the next generation out of prison.
The program "maintains that bond that the mother and child has," Duffey says. Although research is limited, a small study in Nebraska several years ago suggested that prison nurseries may make mothers less likely to commit another crime and end up back behind bars.
At the colorful prison nursery, Kristin Kennedy, a 28-year-old inmate from Zanesville, Ohio, awaits the public librarian's arrival for story-time. Kennedy was pregnant with her third child on the day she reported to prison.
"I made some bad decisions," she says, her nearly 10-month-old baby on her lap. "I had some weed in my purse. I got pulled over. They found it and charged me with trafficking."
Kennedy's husband is also in prison on a drug charge, and their two older children live with relatives.
Sheirra Haines, a mother of three, calms her infant in a rocking chair nearby. However chaotic the women's lives may have been outside, the routine at the Ohio Reformatory never changes.
Haines and Kennedy tick off the daily schedule, echoing one another's words: get up, change diaper, dress infant, take walk.
"By 11 o'clock count, they'll be ready for their nap again," Haines says, referring to the hour she must report to her cell.
A firearms charge landed her behind bars, she says, adding that she hopes she and her infant are out by March. At the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a dozen babies are spending time behind bars. Too young to say the word "crime," they are... more -
Efforts mount to improve black breastfeeding rates
This week (1st-7th August) is World Breastfeeding Week and efforts are being made to raise historically low breastfeeding rates in the black community.
An April report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that African American mothers, who are less likely than white or Latina women to breastfeed, are now doing so in record numbers.
Sixty-five percent of black women have nursed their infants at some point, compared to 36 percent 14 years ago. But only 20 percent of black mothers reach the government's target goal of exclusively breastfeeding when their infants are six months old.
Through grassroots, hospital-based and government efforts, advocates are working to raise that number. They say that if more black women breastfed their children, it could address health problems that plague African American mothers and infants alike.
Last year, CDC researchers found black infants are twice as likely as white infants to be premature or underweight, or to die before their first birthdays.
Mother's milk improves those odds. Breastfed infants are seven times more likely to maintain a healthy weight than formula-fed infants, notes a 2003 study in the journal Pediatrics. Breastfeeding also reduces infants' risk of asthma, diabetes, infections and sudden infant death syndrome, all more common among African Americans.
Just as breastfeeding can help black infants, so too can it help their mothers. Research shows African American women are 70 percent more likely than other women to die of breast cancer and doubly likely to be overweight or have diabetes.
A woman's risk of developing breast cancer decreases by 4 percent for each year that she breastfeeds, according to a 2002 study in the journal Lancet. Breastfeeding burns up to 500 calories a day and can help women shed weight after pregnancy. It can also help ward off obesity and diabetes, for which African American women are at higher risk.
For women of all races, breastfeeding can lower the risk of osteoporosis and ovarian and uterine cancers. The health benefits continue through the next generation: Studies show breastfed daughters have lower rates of breast cancer when they grow up.
Though breastfeeding could help improve black women's health outcomes, they are 20 percent less likely to try it--and doubly likely to give it up before the six-month target--than their white and Latina peers.
What do you think are the reasons for lower breastfeeding rates in the black community? Is breast really best? This week (1st-7th August) is World Breastfeeding Week and efforts are being made to raise historically low breastfeeding rates in the... more -
Women with business sense are staying at home
Women who earned Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degrees were more likely to become stay-at-home mums than those with medical or law degrees, according to a business school study, Reuters reports today.
The University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business study of nearly 1,000 Harvard undergraduates found that 15 years after graduation, business school graduates were more likely than doctors or lawyers to leave the workforce.
"Within a field, we find that women who are in family-friendly environments are more likely to stay working," Associate Professor Catherine Wolfram said in a statement.
Wolfram and her colleague Jane Leber Herr of UC Berkeley's economics department speculated that the business world was less female-friendly than the fields of medicine and law.
The workplace environment played a significant role in determining career longevity, said Wolfram.
Doctors, for example, often work in private practices and may be able to work part-time more easily than women in other fields. On the other hand, businesswomen more commonly adhere to the corporate dictate of long hours and heavy travel.
Should business fields be more responsive to women's needs to take career breaks to have children? In this day and age should women really be relegated to professions that are so-called 'woman-friendly'? Or in the modern digital age, should all employers offer flexible working for all their staff, men and women, to improve everyone's lives? Women who earned Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degrees were more likely to become stay-at-home mums than those with medical... more -
Jolie + Pitt TWINSSS!
Million dollar babies is an understatement
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World's oldest mother gives birth to twins at 70
Grandmother Omkari Panwar has given birth to twins at the age of 70
She was utterly determined to have a son.
The fact that to do so would make 70-year-old Omkari Panwar the world's oldest mother didn't even cross her mind.
Her resolve was matched by her husband Charan Singh Panwar, 77.
To pay for the IVF treatment vital to producing a male heir to the family's smallholdings, the retired farmer sold his buffalos, mortgaged his land, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan.
And it all paid off when Mrs Panwar gave birth to twins - a boy and girl - by emergency Caesarean section in hospital in Muzaffarnagar, seven hours drive north of the Indian capital New Delhi.
The twins, born a month premature and weighing 2lb each, are healthy, according to doctors.
The Panwars already have two adult daughters, and five grandchildren, but the latest arrivals are what they have been waiting for - not least because a son will benefit from a dowry when he marries and will be able to work their land.
Mrs Panwar said: 'For eight months the pregnancy was hectic and painful. But I have given birth before, so I knew what to expect. Sometimes, you have to face the pain if you want something good.' Grandmother Omkari Panwar has given birth to twins at the age of 70 She was utterly determined to have a son. ... more -
World's oldest mum: Indian woman, 72, has twins to fulfill desire for male ch...
Omkari Panwar, 72, already a mother of two and grandmother of four, gave birth to twins making her the world's oldest mother. It emerged that the reason for her decision to try for another child was the overwhelming desire for a son, which was finally fulfilled with the help of in vitro fertilization.
The twins, a boy and a girl, were delivered by an emergency Caesarean section in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday. The father of the twins, 75-year-old Charam Singh, told ABC News he was very happy, but was reluctant to give more information as he feared a negative public reaction to his wife's decision to give birth despite her age.
The couple used their life savings and took out an additional loan to pay for the expensive medical procedures. Panwar had such great difficulties during her pregnancy that her husband was concerned for her life. When she arrived in hospital, she was in serious condition and needed a blood transfusion. Although the babies were born a month too early and had a low birth weight, they are doing well.
Male children are of extreme importance in Indian society, especially in rural areas. It is common to abort female children, often because of the expenses associated with the dowry system, which is still practised across India despite it being officially banned. In some Indian states, parents are even eligible for financial support if they are willing to raise a daughter. Omkari Panwar, 72, already a mother of two and grandmother of four, gave birth to twins making her the world's oldest mother. It ... more -
Pregnant women get morning sickness to protect fetus
Morning sickness. It's the bane of many of a pregnancy. And many a future mother wonders at the apparently unnecessary suffering. But, it turns out, there's meaning to the misery. Two evolutionary biologists report that morning sickness protects both the pregnant woman and the developing embryo just when the fetus is most vulnerable.
Other evidence that the theory that morning sickness is protective and beneficial, he said, includes:
The nausea and vomiting declines after 18 weeks of pregnancy, as the fetus becomes less vulnerable to the effects of chemical disruptions.
Women with the most severe morning sickness have lower rates of spontaneous abortion than other pregnant women.
Historically, meat and strong-tasting vegetables were likely to contain parasites, pathogens and plant toxins; these foods tend to reliably trigger morning sickness symptoms across cultures. Alcohol and cigarette smoke, which also can harm the fetus while organs are forming, also trigger the nausea.
Societies that consume more meats, strong-tasting vegetables and alcohol have higher rates of morning sickness than societies whose staples are bland plant products.
Only humans experience morning sickness, as far as is known, because, the researchers suggest, of their "extraordinary broad diet," compared with other primates and mammals.
If the alternative theory that morning sickness is a non-adaptive outcome of an evolutionary tug-of-war between the mother and fetus for resources were correct, then the nausea should peak in the final trimester, when the fetus requires more nutrients and blood than at any other time. But it doesn't. Neither does it occur with every pregnancy. If morning sickness were the result of the fetus signaling its viability to the mother, then all humans and other mammals should experience it.
"All this leads us to suggest that morning sickness is a misnomer," Sherman said. "It doesn't occur just in the morning, and it's not an illness. It can occur any time of day and it appears to be beneficial -- we could call it a form of evolutionary wellness insurance."
The current study builds on a 2000 paper published in the Quarterly Review of Biology in which Sherman and Flaxman studied the outcomes of thousands of pregnancies. In that study, they noted, for example, that in the seven traditional societies that had virtually no morning sickness, the diets were based on bland, plant-based foods rather than meats and strong-tasting vegetables.
Source: Cornell University Morning sickness. It's the bane of many of a pregnancy. And many a future mother wonders at the apparently unnecessary suffering.... more -
Pip Squeak A-Go-Go
A wave of rock 'n' roll toddlers are being raised by a new generation of parents.The Devil-Ettes, San Francisco's premier 60s style go-go dance group, Host "Pip Squeak A-Go-Go," a kiddie go-go party with entertainment for the kids and cocktails for the parents. A wave of rock 'n' roll toddlers are being raised by a new generation of parents.The Devil-Ettes, San Francisco's premi... more
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Are you a Yummy Mommy?
Jennifer Lopez, Heidi Klum and Halle Berry, with these examples of new motherhood, what's a pregnant woman to do?
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Food For Thought: At What Age Is A Kid Too Old To Breastfeed?
Extraordinary Breastfeeding is a documentary that aired in England a few years ago and focused on the country's discomfort with breastfeeding. Issues raised in the film included the right to breastfeed in public, breastfeeding adopted children, and at what age children should be weaned off breast milk. Extraordinary Breastfeeding is a documentary that aired in England a few years ago and focused on the country's discomfort with b... more
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NICARAGUA: A DYING GENERATION
Nicaragua's decision to ban all types of abortion including those medically necessary to save a woman's life, has had deep ramifications according to human rights groups in the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Since the ban was implemented in 2006, 82 women have died because they did not receive a life saving abortion. Some doctors have even denied medical services to pregnant women for fear that the possibility of an aborted pregnancy could lead to their incarceration. Nicaragua's decision to ban all types of abortion including those medically necessary to save a woman's life, has had deep r... more
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The Mommy Wars
The response to my interview with Meg Wolitzer proves that the Mommy Wars are still raging.
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Liz Hurley to quit acting
This story might have broke earlier this month, but I've been in a state of shock since then. I've only just recovered basic motor skills.
"Liz Hurley has decided to retire from acting so she can concentrate on her son Damian. Liz thinks filming movies all the time would disrupt her son too much." This story might have broke earlier this month, but I've been in a state of shock since then. I've only just recovered basic... more -
Oregon Man is Pregnant
A tale of gender-blurring proportions.
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Bee Queens at White House Ruins
Handpainted mixed media/rag paper 2008
American Artist Charleen Touchette combines painting, photographs, and mixed media to create evocative paintings honoring women as maiden, mother and crone calling the bees back to pollinate and heal the earth. Handpainted mixed media/rag paper 2008 ... more -
This is War
American Artist Charleen Touchette personalizes the horrors of war to inspire people to work for peace.
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Orangutan Mama
The orangutan is on the verge of extinction due to poaching and habitat loss. Now deep in the heart of Borneo orangutans and Dayaks, the local aboriginal people, have come together in a unique program. Dayak women have become surrogate mothers to hundreds of orphaned orangutans.
This is a story of sacrifice and salvation, tragedy and hope as mothers from simple backgrounds join together with international scientists to save the vanishing orangutan. The orangutan is on the verge of extinction due to poaching and habitat loss. Now deep in the heart of Borneo orangutans and Dayaks, t... more
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