In a survey by the Down Syndrome Association, 35% of parents who chose to have babies with Down's thought that the world had become a better place for children like theirs. Anecdotal evidence from parents seems to bear this out. Carol Boys, CEO of the Down's Syndrome Association, says,

When I and others had our babies it was a very different world – those with Down's syndrome were treated very differently. Now there is much greater inclusion and acceptance, with mainstream education having a huge role. We think this plays a part in the decisions parents make – there's even been a baby with Down's syndrome on EastEnders [a popular British soap].

And there's now a baby with the syndrome in the Details "Power 40" — Trig Palin, who, along with his brothers stands for "two (or three, depending on whom you believe) generations of the American male." (When he grows up, though, Trig may be less than happy with Details's description of him as "pro-life billboard and helpless justification for knowing absolutely nothing about foreign policy.")

However, some imply that it's not just easier to have a child with Down's these days — it's harder not to have one. Dominic Lawson says,

While people might understand a parent saying they are too young to have a child it's becoming much less acceptable for mothers who might be having a baby later in life to say 'I want a child but not this one'.

It's great that public perception and support of people with Down syndrome is improving, and that more people understand that, as parent Frances Dine says, the syndrome "doesn't need to hold you back." Families who choose to raise kids with Down's deserve all the help they need so that their kids can lead full and happy lives. But do those who don't make this choice really deserve censure? It's easier to slap something with the eugenics label, as Lawson does, than to consider all the individual ramifications of raising a special needs child. Not every woman, not every family, has the financial or personal means to care for a kid with Down's. Lawson's words contain a glimmer of prejudice — women who have babies "later in life" still face stigma. But their choices are just as valid as anyone's, and a prenatal diagnosis of Down's isn't some kind of moral test to be passed or failed. It's information that women should use to determine what to do next — information that is hopefully more positive than it once was.

Down's Syndrome: Parents Think Again [Independent]
Are We Really More Accepting Of Down's Syndrome? [Guardian]
Many Keeping Babies With Down's [BBC]
'I Can't Imagine Her Any Other Way' [BBC]
Parents Who Give Up Their Down's Syndrome Children [Times Online]
The Power 40 [Details]

Do Guys Ever Taste Their Own Semen? from Pot Psychology on Vimeo.

1. The asshole dad will agree to grace the delivery room with his presence, but not to help out in any way. He thinks of "videoing the whole thing, assisting the Caesarean (yes, it happens), cleaning the baby, birthing plans, keeping the placenta and that ghastly prospect, cutting the umbilical cord," rather oddly, as "the tasting menu," and he wants no part of it.

2. He does not want to talk to your doctor while you are, potentially, not in the mood for talking. Davis tells the cautionary tale of one poor schmo, "a meek sort" who "had been told by his wife to ensure that the hospital adhered to all her demands." The asshole dad thinks of the plans you have for the birth as unreasonable, harpyish "demands" — don't expect him to help you carry them out.

3. He will forget everything he learns in prenatal classes, if you can even get him to attend them. Because "men do not discuss births with each other," such classes are not manly.

4. His biggest worry about the whole thing is this: "Will I still fancy the mother of my child if I witness the birth?"

The real question is, if your baby-daddy behaved as Davis describes, would you still fancy him?

What Men Really Think About... Being Present At The Birth [Daily Mail]

The Washington Post article focuses (in, it must be said, classic first-world style) on uniquely Sierra Leonean aspects of Marah's plight. The doctor who finally performs her C-section is an ophthalmologist, not an obstetrician, because of the scarcity of doctors in Marah's remote area. The article mentions bugs in the operating room not once, but twice. Marah's husband has to run out and buy her a catheter, and other operations have apparently been delayed while husbands buy rubber gloves for the doctors. Okay, we get it, Sierra Leone is a backward country where hygiene is poor and human life takes a backseat to money. Here in, the U.S., women give birth to healthy babies in nice hospitals full of flowers. Right? Right?

Seriously, the Post article offers a heart-wrenching look at a preventable death, and rightly draws our attention to the country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. But let's not forget that the US ranks worst among industrialized nations in maternal mortality, or that black women in the US die in childbirth at four times the rate of whites. Marah's story is worse than that of many American women, but not all, and it's worth remembering that, when it comes to maternal mortality, our "developed" country may not have come as far as we think.

In Sierra Leone, Every Pregnancy Is A 'Chance of Dying' [Washington Post]

Earlier:
Pregnant Women In Poverty Often Die Needlessly
Midwife Nurses in Mozambique Fight Maternal Mortality

It's very Maude Lebowski. Obviously the men are agreeing to have unprotected sex, but for these women wouldn't it just be easier to go to a sperm bank if they don't want the father involved?

The title of the article is misleading anyway, as many of the women discussed, like Elizabeth Hurley and Scary Spice Mel B. had unplanned pregnancies and it's just public conjecture that their pregnancies were "accidentally on purpose." It also seems like a bit of a sexist urban legend, the idea of aggressive, baby hungry young professionals. But then there are women like Sarah, a 35-year-old editor, who told the Times:

In the past, with other boyfriends, I had been much more careful, but I was in my early thirties and my biological clock was in overdrive. I really, really wanted a baby, and I didn’t have any time to waste. My daughter’s father was clever and good-looking, and I suppose it seemed safer to have an affair with him than a one-night stand. And it was cheaper and a lot more fun than doing it in a clinic…He put pressure on me not to have the baby, but for me, it wasn’t an accident.

Is this morally suspect or is it ok because the men involved agreed to have condom-free sex? I'm leaning towards the former but would like to hear arguments to the contrary.

Women Who Conceive Accidentally On Purpose [Times of London]

• The number of HIV infections in gay and bisexual men in China jumped from 0.4% in 2005 to 3.3% in 2007 and women with HIV in Yunnan increased by 27.9%. • A British nurse at a nursing conference has revealed that she gave a disabled teen boy an artificial vagina to ease his sexual frustration. • Indra Nooyi, the chairman and CEO of Pepsi Co. was ranked the most powerful woman of 2008 by Fortune. • A recent Australian study suggests that women who smoke have a greater chance of developing major depressive disorder over non-smoking women. • A Portuguese woman was arrested in England while still in her wedding dress after police spotted her with a man who wasn't her new husband immediately after the ceremony. • A Happiness Index study suggests that Australian men are the happiest while having sex or using the internet while Australian women enjoy eating a meal with family and playing with pets or children. • The London Zoo will seek $10 million to create a new big cat enclosure after it found that a male and female tiger were fighting rather than mating. • A German choir makes a splash at the Cologne Philharmonie with songs made up of grumblings and moans about everyday things. • A 27-year-old Florida woman punched a 17-year-old boy and threatened him with a baseball bat after he refused to hand over the TV remote. • A Washington state man was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison for forcing or manipulating young women into becoming prostitutes—charges that he denies. • A Michigan woman picked her 92-year-old grandma to be her matron of honor at her wedding because she is her "best friend." • Bankruptcy among senior citizens has increased due to the increased presence of debt, rising prices for ordinary consumer products and a lack of a safety net for fixed-income seniors when a medical emergency hits. • British women spend nearly $53 million a year on corrective surgery as a result of wearing high heels for too long and too often. • A 70-year-old woman from Kentucky who took up fencing less than 20 years ago is preparing to compete at the World Cup in Paris for the senior fencing champion title. •

• A poll of British mothers reveals that 16 percent of respondents have a favorite child and 50 percent love both "equally but in different ways." • A claim that steroids may prevent a third of miscarriages raises questions about how normal early miscarriages are for women who are trying to conceive and if they need to be "cured." • A study of young girls and boys reports that boys with conduct and oppositional defiance disorders had lower heart rates and sweated less than boys without those conditions while playing a money-making computer game but girls showed no physiological differences while playing. • Concita de Gregorio appointment as editor-in-chief of one of Italy's most prestigious newspapers, L'Unita, signals the rise of women in the workplace in Italy. • The soccer players of FC de Rakt, an amateur Dutch women's soccer team, all play in short skirts (over hot-pants) because they feel that the look is both more "elegant" and comfortable. • Residents of San Francisco are split over a new proposition that would make prostitution legal in the city: The city's health department backs the proposal but the Mayor and DA say that it will ruin neighborhoods. • An internet advice site about divorces in the UK says that 10% of divorces happen during the second year of marriage and "online divorces" are contributing to a "throwaway" culture. • The "upscale bums" of Beverly Hills benefit from the neighborhood's rich residents but must "act respectful" and not be turned off by the wealthy in order to not get attention from cops. • A judge in Texas has ordered a woman to stop bearing children as part of her 10-year-probation after the woman admitted to not providing care for her 19-month-old daughter after the child was severely beaten by her father. • Computer models that are commonly used by doctors to determine if a woman would benefit from genetic testing for ovarian and breast cancer have underestimated the probability ofAsian women having a genetic mutation that could lead to cancer. • The various relationships between a Saudi woman and her driver all reveal a deep frustration with the inconvenience of not being able to drive themselves. • Why have Crayola crayons removed their old smell from their products? • A trading website for mothers in Australia called Mum Swap encourages free trading (instead of spending) of goods and services from clothes, babysitting, tips, and vacation homes. • High-class escorts in India are sharing in the country's booming economy but they are also evidence of the rising focus on materialism for women in the globalized economy. •

Skenazy writes:

Who'd ever heard the cute-as-morning-sickness phrase "baby bump" until about 10 years ago? I hadn't, even when my own bump looked like Rachel Ray. Now the bump's right up there with the Birkin bag — an accessory every tabloid feels compelled to comment on. "Is that a baby bump?" "Proudly displaying her baby bump ... " Or sometimes it's just an arrow excitedly pointing, "The bump," — as if they've found Osama.

Skenazy thinks that we, the public, dwell on babies — not just celeb kids but our own — because "they're our hobby, our status, our conversational calling cards, our Second Lives." Well guess what, lady? Some of us do not give a shit. Sure, the Jolie-Pitt kids are cute — the adopted and biological ones — but so are so are puppies and platypi.

But there are no platypi on the cover of Us Weekly because all women are supposed to have BABY FEVER. I hate, HATE the predisposed notion that the lack of a Y chromosome means I must involuntarily drool at the sight of an infant. Cute babies are cute, but some of them look like undone suckling pigs that need to go back in the oven. This is coming from a woman with no pets and no plants, who finds it emotionally draining to be responsible for herself and is not, at this juncture of her life, in the mindset to care for another human, animal or snippet of flora. But the tabloids seem to think we all have BABY FEVER, that no woman is immune, that if you have ovaries then you're gonna want to hear about someone else's. I'm not into babies! Hopefully I would be, if they were mine, but they're not! They belong to rich people I have never met. And the only thing worse than being expected to give a crap about a random kid is giving a crap about a random maybe-possibly pregnant woman! Is it a requirement of femininity to care about celebrity children? Am I destroying the sisterhood if I don't give a fuck about Jen Garner's uterus? Why is it suddenly mandatory to be on "bump watch"? Am I the only one who just doesn't give a shit?

Our Baby Bump Obsession [NY Sun]

• Check out the GoateeSaver, a device that one bites onto while shaving to create the perfect goatee every time. • Mothers are launching their own businesses in the UK after they become fed up with the lack of flexibility to spend time with their family in their old jobs. • Gamma-butyrolactone and 1,4 butanedoil may be banned in the UK where they convert into the date-rape drug GHB when ingested rapidly. • Working-age singles in Australia report having "low life satisfaction," and are only happier on average than marginalized groups like the unemployed and single parents. Is this another study trying to scare single people into getting married? • A new law may be forming in Kuwait that will require that all gyms become gender-segregated. • A 90 year-old woman had her biggest wish come true when a male staffer at her assisted living facility volunteered to serve her fish and chips in a thong. Some staffers complained that it wouldn't have happened if the genders had been reversed.

(Image via B12 Solipsism.)

[Lots of spoilers follow.] First there's heroine Bella's willingness to marry her vampire lover Edward, even though it means becoming a vampire, leaving behind her family, and sacrificing any hope of a normal life. Then there's her pregnancy. She conceives during the honeymoon, and although she's never wanted a child before, she immediately falls totally in love with the green-eyed baby boy she's sure she's carrying. "I wanted him like I wanted air to breathe," Meyer writes, "Not a choice — a necessity."

This creepy antiabortion allegory quickly gets literal, as the half-vampire fetus (actually an interesting metaphor for any pregnancy) starts killing Bella from the inside out. Even as it breaks her ribs and sucked the life from her, she proclaims, "I won't kill him." But does she have to face the consequences of this choice? No, because vampire magic suddenly allows mother and father to hear the fetus's thoughts, and to discover that it already loves them!

Edward telepathically tells it not to hurt its mommy, and while he does end up having to bite it out of Bella's body with his teeth, everything is again fine because he uses more vampire magic to heal her wounds. Because she is now a vampire, Bella is even hotter than she was before pregnancy, and after a short recovery period she's able to have all-night sex sessions with her husband while the extended family takes care of the perfectly behaved, telepathic baby. In the Breaking Dawn universe, teen motherhood just makes your life rad.

All this radness is made possible in part by the idealized relationships all the vampires and werewolves have. Gone for the most part is the sexy rapacity of Dracula; gone is the fine long tradition of gay vampires. These vampires mate for life, and they mate straight. Werewolf love, meanwhile, involves imprinting, which can happen at any age. The werewolf Jacob imprints on Bella's baby — who turns out to be a girl — giving her a "promise ring" when she's only a few months old. Basically these mythical creatures live in a very safe, heteronormative world — and a boring one.

This is actually the book's biggest problem. It's 754 pages long, its heroine's dominant personality trait is low self-esteem, and, as Amazon reviewer Eventide points out, nobody really has to give up anything. Even the tedium of immortality is glossed over — these vampires just keep busy with their hobbies. If I had an eternity to read, I still might never pick up this book again.

Breaking Dawn does seem to be promoting a fundamentally conservative ideology. But then so does The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and they will pry that book from my cold, dead, godless fingers. I think ultimately we shouldn't worry too much about what ideas young adult books promulgate. We should worry about whether the books themselves are awesome. Because awesomeness promotes thinking, and thinking promotes becoming the kind of adult we all want more of in the world: the kind who can understand the message of a book — or a movie, or a blog post, or a presidential candidate — and decide for herself whether she agrees.

Breaking Dawn [Amazon]
Big Week For (And Big Reactions To) 'Breaking Dawn' [Publishers Weekly]
All Fangs, No Bite [Guardian]

Jamie didn't want surgery, but when she heard about the less invasive Essure, a metal coil that creates scar tissue in the fallopian tubes, she was intrigued. She did a lot of research, especially on post-sterilization regret, which for young women seems to be greatest if you've already had children. Then she met with a doctor who she feared would turn her away because of her age. He did ask her a lot of questions (including the rather offensive, "What if you met a billionaire who wanted to have kids with you?"), but he eventually approved her for the procedure.

I drove her to the appointment and waited at the clinic while she had the device inserted. I won't say it wasn't a weird experience — the clinic also did cosmetic surgery, so it was kind of a palace, and I sat there reading Vogue while my friend got screws shoved up her reproductive organs. For her part, she says it didn't hurt at all. They did have to dilate her cervix and pump her uterus full of water, so she came out a little nauseous and tired, but in good spirits.

The real fallout came when she told her parents. Her mom cried, and asked why she couldn't "just let her life unfold" the way other people did. Up to that point I'd been totally on board with Jamie's decision, but her mom's tears gave me a twinge of doubt. I wondered if I'd helped her carry out a choice she'd later regret.

But Jamie tells me she doesn't even think of it as a choice. When a gay friend of hers found out about her parents' reaction, he told her it sounded a lot like coming out. She was revealing "an important fact about who she was, that couldn't be changed, and her parents didn't want to accept it." She believes the desire not to have children can be something innate, as basic as the urge to procreate. On the question of kids, she says, "sometimes the answer is just no."

Her parents aren't the only ones who disapprove. Even the nurse at the clinic assumed Jamie was "done having kids," and was taken aback when Jamie explained that zero was enough for her. Jamie says most people see not wanting kids as a function of youth, not a deeply held conviction. When I asked how she felt about explaining her sterilization to people, she told me this: "Does it need to be defended? No. But people will feel entitled to an explanation, and you can get mad about that, or you can think of something to say." Which seems pretty good way to think about any big decision in your life, especially if it sets you apart from what people think of as normal.

*Not her real name.

Saving Mothers, One At A Time [NY Times]

Birth Of A Surgeon [PBS]

"For fertilization to take place, sperm must be able to reach the egg and then penetrate its outer layer," the L.A. Times notes. "Sperm that don't move well...may be unable to do so." As "lifestyle"
can be a a factor when "sperm that don't move well," I'm forced to surmise that too much weed renders one's junk unable to do anything but lie on the proverbial couch of one's innards.

Anyway! When couples are having fertility problems, 67% of women seek treatment before their male partners do, and almost half of women surveyed by the IntegraMed company reported that their partners only sought help when pressured. "Both the male and female partner should be worked up simultaneously," Dr. Walsh says. "Men are just as deserving of a comprehensive evaluation." Walsh adds that part of the issue is that women can just go to their gynecologist when facing reproductive problems, whereas men don't have the same kind of go-to doctor with whom they feel comfortable. All the same: if you're having issues with babymaking, make sure to get everyone involved a full medical workup.

Male
Biological Clock 'Ticks Too' [BBC]
Men
Can Be Infertile Too [LAT]

Australian crime victims are demanding that convicted rapist Mike Tyson be barred from entering Australia and "totted out as a celebrity, like some kind of Mother Theresa." • Former Indian septic-tank cleaners and other female "untouchables" put on a fashion show at the U.N. honoring a for-profit organization to help untouchables. • A teen girl in Colorado is sentenced to 18 years in prison after killing her half-sister in a "Mortal Kombat" fight reenactment. • Bob Dylan's ex-girlfriend and muse (and the woman pictured with him on the iconic cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) breaks her silence in a new memoir about the '60s. • Victims of a peeping tom case in Seattle are blamed by the peeper's wife for "putting on a show" because of their broken blinds. • Two more teens videotaped themselves beating up a fellow classmate and putting it on the internet. One word for these girls: idiots. • Gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace continues to run rampant in Bangladesh. • Game makers attempt to woo young girls with a new game that is essentially a lamer version of Guitar Hero.• Could the HPV vaccine cause teen paralysis? • Deliriously cute Leftovers video: ducklings in a bathtub!

And Italy, (where the birth rate is now about 1.3) isn't the only sumptuous locale where the birth rate is falling drastically short of the 2.1 "replacement rate": Greece and Spain are low on kids, too. But not, somehow, by choice: a European Commission survey found that the average European woman wants 2.36 children — and in Italy the answer was actually higher than average! But here's the catch.

According to Hans-Peter Kohler of the University of Pennsylvania, analysis of recent studies showed that “high fertility was associated with high female labor-force participation . . . and the lowest fertility levels in Europe since the mid-1990s are often found in countries with the lowest female labor-force participation.” In other words, working mothers are having more babies than stay-at-home moms.

How can this be? A study released in February of this year by Letizia Mencarini, the demographer from the University of Turin, and three of her colleagues compared the situation of women in Italy and the Netherlands. They found that a greater percentage of Dutch women than Italian women are in the work force but that, at the same time, the fertility rate in the Netherlands is significantly higher (1.73 compared to 1.33). In both countries, people tend to have traditional views about gender roles, but Italian society is considerably more conservative in this regard, and this seems to be a decisive difference. The hypothesis the sociologists set out to test was borne out by the data: women who do more than 75 percent of the housework and child care are less likely to want to have another child than women whose husbands or partners share the load. Put differently, Dutch fathers change more diapers, pick up more kids after soccer practice and clean up the living room more often than Italian fathers; therefore, relative to the population, there are more Dutch babies than Italian babies being born. As Mencarini said, “It’s about how much the man participates in child care.”

In other words:

By this logic, the worst sort of system is one that partly buys into the modern world — expanding educational and employment opportunities for women — but keeps its traditional mind-set. This would seem to define the demographic crisis that Italy, Spain and Greece find themselves in — and, perhaps, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of the world.

Put another way, stay away from Catholics, Asia hands and maybe classics majors. Society doesn't want their genes anyway. (Guess who's hereby off the hook?) Go find a Danish boyfriend and move to Italy once you're officially Euro! There's your pregnancy pact.

No Babies? [NYT Mag]

Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage In Yemen [NYT]

Related: Mayor Plans of "Listening Posts" On Teen Pregnancy [Gloucester Times]

According to the Guardian, even the Orthodox church, to which the majority of Romanians belong, thinks the girl should be permitted to get the abortion. Constantin Stoica, a church spokesman, said that her case is "an exceptional situation which must be treated in an exceptional manner and the family is the only one to take this decision." The Britain abortion plan's opponents, including the National Doctors Council, say that the "the rights of the fetus should be considered and the pregnancy should go ahead." A government committee decides this girl's fate today. Fingers crossed that she's allowed safe passage across the English Channel.

UPDATE: The girl will have her UK abortion! The Telegraph also has some heartbreaking quotes from the child's parents about the situation. But thank goodness for reasonable heads prevailing.

Romania To Rule On Abortion In UK For Girl, 11 [Guardian]
Pregnant 11-Year-Old Romanian Rape Victim May Travel To UK For Abortion Because Of Our Longer Legal Limit [Daily Mail]

Earlier: 14-Year-Old Polish Rape Victim Now Caught In Abortion Rights Battle
Romanian Abortion Drama 4 Months Opens To Rave Reviews
I Watched That Romanian Abortion Movie So You Don't Have To

Dorries' calls America "The Abortion Capital of the World" because the rate of abortion per 1,000 women is 19.4 to Britain's 18.3 (Australia's is the highest in the world, at 20.0). The Daily Mail has a chart comparing abortion laws in 9 different countries; in it, the newspaper lists the "Upper Limit" of legally-acceptable abortions in the U.S. to be 26 weeks. But the reality is that getting an abortion after 12 weeks in many states is outright impossible.

According to NARAL, the pro-choice organization, "23 states have unconstitutional and unenforceable bans that could outlaw abortion as early as the 12th week of pregnancy, with no exception to protect a woman's health." In addition, "15 states have unconstitutional and unenforceable near-total criminal bans on abortion." Zoe Williams points out that "If you really wanted more abortions to take place earlier in the pregnancy, then you would work towards improving access to terminations on the NHS." Similarly, if Americans really wanted fewer late term abortions, they would provide better sex education in public schools and easy and cheap access to birth control. As we said earlier, 87% of counties don't even have access to an abortion provider. And anyway, Dorries is just picking on America because we're so loud and crass and angsty over the abortion issue. If she were really being accurate, she'd go after those abortion-happy Aussies, who "kill babies" even more than we do.

Britain Is 'Becoming The Abortion Capital Of The World' Claims Tory MP Fighting To Lower Legal Limit [Daily Mail]
Fact, Fiction And Foetuses [Guardian]
Abortion Bans After 12 Weeks [NARAL]
We Had Our Babies Under The 24-week Abortion Limit - And They All Survived [Daily Mail]

Earlier: Pro-Life Teen Says "I Feel Like We're All Survivors Of Abortion"

In addition to Salon, video has also caught the attention of the blog 'What About Our Daughters'. ""Abortion Man' is a burning cross," a post on the blog reads. "Its hate imagery that would make Joseph Goebbels proud... YouTube has placed no age restriction on 'Abortion Man.' Kids apparently need to be protected from candy penises, but no such age controls are needed when you depict a violent attack on a pregnant Black girls. By the way, Toyota is running ads on the WayOutTV YouTube Page."

The video is not funny. The premise is not funny. It's seriously offensive and twisted, even as a fantasy. And it's not just some low-budget, no-name production: Michael Wayans, Damon's son, appears in the clip. What About Our Daughters adds this for perspective:

According to the CDC, black women have a maternal homicide risk about seven times that of white women. Black women ages 25-29 are about 11 times more likely as white women in that age group to be murdered while pregnant or in the year after childbirth.

It's A Bird! It's A Plane! No, It's Abortion Man! [Salon]
Daymon Wayans Thinks Violently Attacking Black Pregnant Teens is Funny: "Abortion Man" [What About Our Daughters]
Abortion Man [YouTube]

Earlier: Chris Rock Was Right: Abortion Is A Choice Between A Female And Her Friends