The New York Times reports that a recent study of 66,000 births by researchers at Tel Aviv University found that male babies had a greater chance of problems like premature birth and the need to be delivered by Cesarean. The results are similar to a 2002 study that examined 90,000 births in 1988 and 1999 and found that women pregnant with boys were 1.5 times more likely than women pregnant with girls to experience arrest of descent, in which the fetus stops descending during the pushing stage of labor.

Scientists believe the larger head size of males or their higher levels of androgens may play a role, but they add that the risks are so small that we shouldn't start worrying that male births are "high risk." Nor should the new findings give credence to the old myth about determining a baby's gender.

But, we've seen new research used to back up ridiculous urban legends in the past. Last year, two studies found that women with a high sodium intake and high potassium intake were more likely to conceive boys, and women who skip breakfast and have a lower calorie intake in general were more likely to conceive girls. Some interpreted this as proof that the old advice to eat bananas for breakfast if you want boys is true.

Though newspapers ran with headlines saying women who wanted boys should load up on Cheerios and French fries, "The F-Word" blog pointed out that there were several problems with the research. Only 56% of the women with high-calorie diets had boys. Often research on how a woman's habits increase her chances of having a boy or girl seems less significant when you consider that there is a 50/50 chance the baby will have the desired gender anyway. Pregnancy-info.net has a rundown of the many old wives tales believed to reveal whether a woman is carrying a boy or girl, from mixing urine with Drano to checking which breast is bigger. Most have been debunked by researchers and even in those with some medical credibility, the differences are so slight that they won't really help determine the child's sex. Aside from an ultrasound or genetic testing, they only way to be 100% sure of the baby's gender is to wait until it's born or adopt.

[Image via stock.xchng.]

The Claim: Birth Complications Are More Likely With Boy [The New York Times]
Boy Or Girl? Fact Or Fiction? [Pregnancy-Info.net]

Earlier: Want A Baby Boy? Eat A Burger For Breakfast

When one gets yeast infections easily — at the first whiff of an antibiotic or the slightest weakening of the immunities — you know the early warning signs, a slight burning itch that predates the proverbial "cottage-cheese-like discharge" (ew) by a few days. When I felt it the other night, I cursed my bad luck: I didn't feel like the hassle of calling the doctor and dreaded the chemical burn of the Monistat egg. (I like the little egg.) In any event, the pharmacy was closed for the night.

I took to the internet, hoping to find a useful home remedy. And, as is generally the case with homeopathic remedies, the answer was garlic — which, if you believe some of these sites, is prevented from conquering penicillin only due to sinister medical conspiracies involving drug companies. Having, on the internet's advice, attempted placing a garlic clove in my ear (ear infection) and eating raw cloves (a cold) in the past with no great rate of success, I was dubious. But I was eager to stop the infection in its tracks, and lord knows I had a full braid of garlic in the kitchen. What did I have to lose? Besides, I liked the idea of brewing my own cures and outwitting the medical industry with ancient female know-how.

According to the various sites I consulted, the treatment was no more complicated than slipping in a peeled clove and going to bed. Said Midwifery Today, with authority, "the reason that the treatment is done at bedtime is that there is a connection between the mouth and the vagina. The moment the garlic is placed in the vagina, the taste of the garlic travels up to the mouth. Most people will find this strong flavor annoying during the day, so the treatment is recommended for nighttime. " As someone who's never fully understood why lead can't be turned into gold, this explanation made complete sense to me. Although a few sites recommended wrapping the garlic in a bit of cheesecloth, I deemed this a frill. Besides, I didn't have any cheesecloth handy and was sick of bringing cheese into the conversation.

Luckily my boyfriend was working a night shift; I can think of few things less erotic than slipping into bed with intimate love on your mind and coming into contact with a garlic clove in someone's vaginal canal, like a secret vampire deterrent or something. I tossed and turned. I fancied I could feel the garlic moving through my body to my mouth. I could smell it. I had a garlic clove up my vagina.

At three a.m. I leapt up, furious. The garlic was not working! I decided to up the dosage, which apparently meant chopping a clove in half so the antioxidant juices could better make contact. First I had to get the old one out, which was no easy matter; the garlic clove had migrated. I had a moment of panic when I was convinced I'd never be able to retrieve it. I managed to do so only by means of complicated muscle exercises which do not bear getting into but will doubtless come in handy should I ever need to birth a baby, After this narrow escape, I decided to wrap the new, higher dosage in — well, I didn't have any cheesecloth, so I used a clean scrap of vintage handkerchief. I went back to bed. And, then, the garlic hit. It was agony — far, far worse burning than anything I'd ever experienced from Monistat — which hurts. I stuck it out for three minutes or so, then could bear it no longer. Luckily the tail of cloth I had made facilitated things this time around.

The experiment was over; it had been an abject failure —or I had. The next day, two showers, a bath and a dose of Monistat later, I was on the mend. But when I went to my mom's house for dinner and she produced chicken with forty cloves of garlic...my appetite was diminished.

Reuters reports that there has been a small but notable decline in the number of male births in developed nations in the past forty years, and Mathews and the other researchers believe that there is an evolutionary reason for their results. "If a mother has plentiful resources then it can make sense to invest in producing a son because he is likely to produce more grandchildren than would a daughter. However, in leaner times having a daughter is a safer bet," she says. ("The F-Word" blog points out that, among other things, the study "ignores the fact that worldwide girl children are more likely to suffer abuse, neglect and to die before reaching the age of 5 years because boy children are more highly valued. The notion that the research is 'benign' is entirely misplaced and quite dangerous.")

Of course, eating salt-laden chips for breakfast while trying to conceive isn't a sure way to give birth to a baby boy (look at Victoria Beckham: she has three boys, and I highly doubt that's because of her high caloric intake!). The Exeter/Oxford study looked at 740 first-time pregnant mothers, and 56% of the moms who had the highest energy (aka calorie) intake had boys, whereas only 45% of the low-cal moms had sons. (The study also reports that mums who the tried and true pregnancy combo of pickles and ice cream gave birth to a golden retriever puppy. Aw!)

What Are Little Boys Made Of? Scientists Pinpoint Bananas [Guardian]
Skipping Breakfast May Mean Your Baby Is A Girl [Reuters]
More Nonsense Research... [The F-Word]

I missed having a life companion. I missed the emotional and physical closeness. I missed the sharing and the caring. But, as time went on and I watched my contemporaries struggling with the ill health of their spouses or partners, I realized that I was actually in a relatively good position. Maybe the last thing I needed at this age was commitment.

The Turning Point

And that became the magical turning point. The less I genuinely wanted a committed relationship, and sent out those signals, the more offers I began to receive from men who wanted to date me.

Appearing needy — at any age — is known to be a turnoff.

Playing the Field [WSJ]

Barack was separated from his mother for all of high school, and according to the Times, this was when his racial identity fomented. Meanwhile, Stanley Ann was finishing her doctoral thesis on village industries in Indonesia, after which she became a "consultant for the United States Agency for International Development on setting up a village credit program, then a Ford Foundation program officer in Jakarta specializing in women's work," says the Times.

The Times posits that her legacy is apparent in Obama's "self-assurance and drive, his boundary bridging, even his apparent comfort with strong women." I think her legacy has other ramifications as well. If Barack wins the presidency, the specter of Stanley Ann could put the nail in the coffin on the right-wing love affair with the "nuclear family." It's obvious that in this country, and in much of the world, the shiny, suburban two-parent household is mostly a Dick Van Dyke-ian fantasy. If a boundary breaking, unapologetic single mother could raise a son who becomes President, the notion that being raised in a traditional household is ideal would take a real hit.

On the other hand, Obama seems to have embraced all that his mother eschewed: he married into a tightly knit, Christian family. He's never moved his kids around — he and Michelle have (smartly) created a very stable world for their daughters, Malia and Natasha (nicknamed "Sasha"). The other conclusion to draw from Stanley Ann and Barack is that children will almost always rebel. Barack's mom was an independent international wanderer, so Barack becomes a steady family man. One can only conclude that Malia and Natasha are going to be the biggest bohemians of all. The second coming of Amy Carter!

A Free-Spirited Wanderer Who Set Obama's Path [NYT]

It is a semi-comic routine as old as marriage itself: Sure, my husband can slaughter a mammoth with his bare hands, but can he put his club away? Can he pick his loin cloth up off the floor? And God forbid I ask him to supervise the kids' birthday down at the tar pits. No one would make it home alive.

A: Yes.

So anyway, breaking news! Michelle Obama is a smart black woman with traditional values who is not particularly highbrow. Guess what? Life isn't particularly highbrow. Maybe understanding that is Hillary Clinton's problem. Oh, fuck, not that the world needs another conversation on Hillary Clinton's nebulous "problem," whatever it is.

Wife Lessons