According to the World Health Organization, 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and child birth. One of those causes is inadequate lighting. This is the 21st century. How is this happening? And what can be done to stop it?
In "time to stop being jealous of your coworker's idyllic beach vacation photos and appreciate your life even though your mom just broke the coffee maker" news: a maternity hospital in Kenya detains and beats new mothers who can't pay their bills.
Scientists have explained the fact that humans, unlike wildebeests, for instance, are born as helpless and vulnerable as shell-less mussels by pointing to the relatively small size of the female pelvis and collectively hissing, "It's all your fault!" New research, however, suggests that the apparently insufficient baking …
In the past, parents-to-be concerned with the genetic state of their gestating offspring had to test both the mother's and father's blood in order to determine what traits the child would likely inherit. But this method of genetic testing often leads to some socially awkward situations, as it's estimated that the…
An unmarried woman who was fired by her Christian school employer after discovering she was pregnant would like to set the record straight about herself. She's a good, Christian woman. Unlike those other, wild partying slutty single mothers.
As if being a woman wasn't difficult enough—what with all the not having control over important decisions about our own bodies, making less money than our male colleagues, and, yes, let's play the childbirth card—we are also routinely hit with financial penalties just for having the balls to be born with a vagina.…
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…
Spectacularly weird, anyhow.
The UK's NHS has overhauled its policies to allow new fathers to spend the first night of their child's life with their family in the maternity ward, part of an ambitious reform program. Don Draper politely declines, smokes. [Guardian]
Alex Kuczynski's had a controversial career, veering between legit (if oft-infuriating) journalist and the time-honored path of professional self-absorbed person. We've talked plastic surgery, we've talked surrogacy. But now she's tackling a new Issue: should she cut her hair?!
"A growing number of employers are facing boomlets in office fertility...61% of expectant or new mothers were in the labor force in 2008, up from 56%-57% in the preceding three years, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey." [WSJ]
Canadian feminist magazine Herizons has created the Museum of Motherhood. For now it's purely online, but the founders hope to ultimately bring their tribute to mothers, their stories (and their herstories) to stone-and-mortar life. [Utne]
The next generation of maternity jeans: Denim Therapy will transform your favorites into expectant with the use of some artful elastic paneling. Of course, they're then permanently maternity, but whatevs. [Inventor-Spot]
Quoth the Daily Mail, "for some, the best way to commemorate the experience of pregnancy is with a painted belly." Just for you, a gallery of this new art form - with analysis.
"I could handle boys, with their cut-and-dried needs, but girls were so much more complicated. Girls have elaborate hairstyling requirements. They whine and mope, manipulate and triangulate. How was I going to deal with that?"
Is it normal for new moms to fantasize about other men?
These glam moms make having a baby look misleadingly easy!
