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Results of a new survey show a dearth of knowledge of basic human biology among America's teens, especially when pants are off and hormones are running high. How bad is it? About half of the teens who got pregnant while not using any form of birth control say they didn't contraceptively arm themselves because they didn't believe that it was possible for them to get pregnant. Another quarter didn't wrap it up because their partner pressured them to go au naturel. Oh, brother. More »
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Here's an interesting example of how to interpret scientific results - and draw policy implications from them - from the world of birth practices and safety. More »
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Less than a month off of their monumental failure in Mississippi, people who want the legal definition of "person" to be changed to include zygotes have decided that their next great battleground is The Badger State. This is a stupid idea that will never work. More »
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New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that America's facing a crisis of unparalleled proportions— no one's having babies anymore. Some experts blame the decline in birth rate on the everlasting economic Dutch oven in which we now live. With an imminent shortage of able bodied youngsters waiting to replace us at our shitty jobs, who's going to pay for our future entitlement costs and feed us thickened coffee when we get old?! Who are we going to call ungrateful slackers in 20 years? More »
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If you need a disturbing example of the world's screwed up attitudes toward rape and reproductive rights, look no further than the story of a 10-year-old Mexican girl who gave birth to a 3.3 pound baby boy after 31 weeks of pregnancy. Officials in the city of Puebla say they're investigating whether the girl could have been raped, though one might argue that a child can't give consent. She came to the hospital with life-threatening complications last month, but under state law abortion would have only been an option if she was able to prove that she'd been sexually assaulted. More »
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Have you noticed that there are tons of pregnant characters on TV right now? And have you noticed that whenever a pregnant character on TV gives birth, complications and carrying on abound? It's enough to make a lady want to knot her tubes up tighter than a Navy knot. More »
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Finally, the Rachel Zoe Project has given us the birth of the most fashionable baby in America, Skyler. It didn't disappoint. More »
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This video of a Pennsylvania woman's natural birth is pretty graphic, and it's definitely going to make you squirm. It's okay though, because it ends with a big plate of fettuccine alfredo. (The baby's cute too.) More »
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Even when there's no medical reason for it, some women prefer to give birth via C-section. But the procedure is riskier than vaginal birth. Should doctors comply with women's wishes, or make them do what's safer? More »
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Here's a tale that's definitely worthy of at least a I Didn't Know I Was In Labor TLC special: Danielle Edward woke up at 2 a.m. to find she'd entirely skipped preliminary labor pains and her baby was already crowning. Edwards couldn't move, but she realized her 12-year-old son Gaelan had snuck out of bed to watch TV and called him into the room. She says: More »
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Truth: If you're pregnant, and if you squeeze that thing out through your vagina, you're probably going to poop while doing so. I know what you're thinking: Does this mean I might lose even more weight in the hospital? The answer is yes, every little bit helps. No one can take that away from you. Now let's all put our heads together here and think this damn thing through. More »
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You may want to wait until after lunch to read about the latest fad in childbirth: placenta-eating. The practice has been around for a while, and many animals do it, but it's now enjoying renewed popularity among humans. More »
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The CDC is telling hospitals to step up their breastfeeding support. Apparently only four percent of hospitals are doing enough, which the CDC says would include allowing "rooming in" (babies can sleep with moms), providing follow-up support, and avoiding formula feeding unless medically necessary. The AAP lists numerous health benefits to both mothers and babies; this is, of course, controversial. More »
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Pregnancy can be a huge pain in the ass — literally and figuratively. The process of growing a tiny person requires an expectant mother to knowingly enter into a parasitic relationship between the woman, the host, and a tiny little jerk who steals your nutrients and kicks you in the spleen for several months and then screams and screams and screams and pinches your boobs and doesn't let you sleep and won't get a job. Babies are jerks, and why we keep inviting them into our homes is beyond me. They don't even send Thank You notes. More »
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A New Zealand study found that if women slept on their left side on the night before they went into labor, they had a lower chance of stillbirth. The risk for those who slept on their left side was 1.96 per 1,000 births, and the rate was 3.93 per 1,000 births for all other positions. One possible explanation is that back or right side sleeping makes the fetus compress the mother's inferior vena cava, which takes blood back to the heart. This means less oxygen gets to the mother and baby's organs. More »
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And the video will make you vomit. Don't say we didn't warn you. [Via] More »
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A "birthing tourism" center in Southern California has been shut down, drawing new attention to the phenomenon of affluent Chinese and Taiwanese mothers traveling to the U.S. to give birth. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5785668&view=rss&microfeed=true Women who are concerned that they may be carrying a child with Down's Syndrome currently have to undergo a risky, invasive procedure that results in miscarriage 1% of the time. Scientists now say that a new blood test, which could be available in about two years, will eliminate the risk of miscarriage while still delivering reliable results. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5777917&view=rss&microfeed=true Most US hospitals stopped administering nitrous oxide to women in labor decades ago, but the best thing about the dentist's office may be making a leap back into the maternity ward. A prominent hospital has decided to offer mothers to be the option to laugh their labor pains away, and new equipment designed to deliver the goofy gas to women during labor is about to hit the market this summer. If given the choice, mothers, would you have chosen to use laughing gas during the birth of your children? More »
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Last night's premiere of Lifetime's One Born Every Minute—filmed at a busy maternity ward in Ohio—focused on mothers' decisions for pain management. It's edited in a way that made those who opt to go natural look like morons. More »
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A female student had to miss class at UC Davis's veterinary school in order to give birth. So her professor allowed the class to vote on her grade. More »
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The rate of home births is dropping in England. Cue finger-pointing. More »
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For the first time ever, a woman gave birth inside an MRI scanner, allowing doctors to watch the movement through the birth canal from beginning to end. Here's a video with images throughout the process. More »
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Some women apparently suffer from "tocophobia" or an "unrelenting fear of childbirth." But is this really that irrational? More »
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You guys are completely disgusting. Seriously. More »
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Madeline Holler thought watching their brother's birth would be a great learning opportunity for her two daughters. It was more like an opportunity for sobbing. More »
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Of all the complex factors that go into having a cesarean birth, one California report finds evidence that one influences than the rest: whether the hospital is non-profit and for profit. C-sections bring in up to twice the revenue. More »
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If debates about childbirth weren't already incendiary enough, here's a phrase that's being debated online lately: "birth rape." It refers not to forced sexual contact, but to violations experienced during childbearing. More »
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Celebrity midwife Cara Muhlhahn—made famous by Ricki Lake's documentary The Business Of Being Born—is suing New York magazine for $1 million for libel, we've learned. This comes as Muhlhahn fields her own malpractice lawsuit, after a stillborn birth. More »
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New research suggests that one of the better times to get pregnant is right after a miscarriage. Women who conceive in the six months following a miscarriage lessen their chances of suffering another by one third. More »
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It is estimated that around 100 British women are emotionally involved with men on death row. Many of these relationships began after sentencing. According to the author of Women Who Love Men Who Kill, these relationships share some common traits: More »
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The Church of Scientology is rife with both celebrity members and high-profile scandals. In the latter category, there's a new crisis: Former members of the religious order Sea Organization are claiming they were coerced and pressured into having unwanted abortions. More »
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A Barcelona ad agency took the whole rebirth idea incredibly literally in this ad for the Magali Workout System. The entire thing is a bit much, but we're especially icked out by the umbilical cord. [Copyranter] More »
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•  Even though the video game RapeLay (which allows you to stalk and assault multiple women and girls) was removed from Amazon and other outlets, the game remains a viral sensation, and is commonly available for download online. More »
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Amnesty International reports that the ratio of American women dying in childbirth has doubled since 1987. The U.S. mortality rate is several times higher than in other industrialized countries, due to lack of healthcare and overuse of risky interventions. [Time] More »
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• New research suggests that children as young as three are capable of understanding advertising and feeling the social pressure to consume certain brands. Brand visibility can even determine whether children consider others desirable playmates. More »
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• Even beauty queens are feeling the pinch of the recession: CBS reports that many pageant contestants have been forced to wear their dresses more than once or, worst case scenario, sell their costumes. • More »
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On last night's season finale, Kourtney gave birth to her son Mason, and the cameras were there to capture it all: Her water breaking, her pre-labor makeup application, and finally, pulling a newborn baby out of her own vagina. More »
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• Smith's graduating class of 2010 are a lucky bunch: Rachel Maddow will be coming to the Massachusetts school to receive an honorary degree and give the commencement address. • More »
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• Cameras and recording devices have been banned from all of Sarah Palin's book tour appearances, but a spokesman announced people can pose with her and buy a copy later online for $15 and up. • More »
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