Homebirth or hospital birth? Choose what's right for you, but educate yourself first | Jessica Valenti

We don’t have to declare doctors monstrous in order to promote midwives. Both choices can and should be made as safe and acceptable as possible

Before I gave birth to my daughter, I had a very specific ideas for how her delivery would go. I wanted as “natural” a birth as possible, so I was seeing a midwife (under the supervision of an OBGYN), I planned to forgo pain medication, my husband and I toured a birth center, and I even eyed the birthing tub in the corner of the room.

A few days later, I was admitted to the hospital and I delivered Layla almost three months early via an emergency C-section. Not everything turns out like you plan – and, lest we forget, pregnancy is not without its dangers to both mother and baby.

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from Pregnancy | The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/29/homebirth-or-hospital-birth-choose-whats-right-for-you-but-educate-yourself-first

The best iPhone apps of 2014

From SwiftKey and FireChat to Replay Video Editor and Silent Text 2: the best new iPhone apps that the App Store had to offer this year

• The best iPad apps of 2014

• The best iPhone and iPad games of 2014

The most popular keyboard-replacement app on Android made the leap to iOS in time for the launch of iOS 8, with its emphasis on the way it learns your writing style – with Facebook, Twitter and Gmail logins able to give it a head start – to make its predictions even smarter.

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How altruistic egg donors are changing the landscape of IVF

Vanessa Traill’s altruistic decision to become an egg donor has transformed the lives of strangers she may never meet

Vanessa Traill has never had sex, but last week she discovered she has three children: two girls and a boy. One day she’d love to meet them, but that won’t be for 15 or 20 years and Traill, 36, couldn’t be happier about that. She’s never gone a bundle on babies, and much prefers children when they’re older: in fact it was her lack of maternal instinct that led her to where she is now.

Traill is an altruistic egg donor. She’s one of a growing number of women, according to figures just released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), who are offering to go through the physically demanding process of having their ovaries stimulated, and the medically invasive procedure to retrieve their eggs, in order to help a woman or couple they’ve never met, and never will, to have a baby.

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Nice: mothers-to-be at risk of mental health problems need more support

Vulnerable women planning a child should receive guidance on how pregnancy could affect their mental health, says report

Women at risk of mental health problems or with existing conditions should receive more support at every stage of pregnancy and after childbirth, according to new guidelines issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). They spell out how doctors, nurses, health visitors and midwives should help pregnant women, new mothers and those who lose babies deal with mental health issues.

The guidelines come a fortnight after the bodies of Bristol woman Charlotte Bevan and her baby daughter, Zaani Tiana, were found in the Avon gorge after Bevan went missing from a maternity hospital, though they are not being issued in response to the tragedy.

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Pregnant woman's drug use equivalent to 'child abuse', court says

• Tammy Loertscher jailed following disclosure she’d used drugs in the past
  


• Federal civil rights suit planned in Wisconsin case

A federal civil rights lawsuit is being filed on behalf of a Wisconsin woman who was jailed and placed in solitary confinement because she allegedly used methamphetamines while pregnant, an act authorities there said abused her 14-week-old fetus.

Tamara “Tammy” Loertscher, 30, was jailed about a week after she sought prenatal care at a Mayo Clinic branch in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. While trying to have a serious thyroid condition and depression treated, Loertscher disclosed that she had previously used drugs, and doctors there tested her urine for metabolites.

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Phthalates risk damaging children’s IQs in the womb, US researchers suggest

Additives found in plastics and scented products could affect brain development and lower IQ

Pregnant women should avoid additives called phthalates found in common household products, according to US researchers, who found evidence that the substances may reduce children’s IQ.

Children whose mothers had the highest levels of phthalates had IQs on average seven points below those whose mothers had the lowest. The 328 women from inner-city New York who took part in the study had levels of phthalates in urine measured in the last weeks of pregnancy. IQs of the children were tested at seven years old.

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I had postpartum psychosis. More must be done to help mothers like me | Vonny Moyes

Postnatal depression’s bigger, uglier brother hit me. When all eyes are on the beautiful baby, we can forget to look at the mum



• Better care urged for pregnant women with mental health problems

“I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with you.”

The psychiatrist’s words pierced like a bullet. Months of suppressed grief became fat, heaving sobs and one defeated plea, “why are you doing this to me?”, before I ran out and collapsed at my husband’s feet. We’d been cut loose, left alone to career through my delirium. What could we do now?

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Better care urged for pregnant women with mental health problems – study

Deaths from indirect causes such as suicide have remained constant despite overall fall in maternal mortality rate

Urgent action is needed to improve care for mothers-to-be with pre-existing medical and mental health problems, experts said, as a new study showed that the death rate among such women has remained constant despite an overall fall in maternal deaths.

There were 321 maternal deaths – women who died during their pregnancy or within six weeks of giving birth – between 2010 and 2012, equivalent to 10.1 per 100,000 women giving birth, compared with 11.4 per 100,000 in 2006 to 2008, a study led by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University found.

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It’s hard to cope with my pregnant wife being so irritable | Mariella Frostrup

A man with a short-tempered wife, about to give birth to their second child around Christmas, bemoans his lot. Mariella Frostrup rediscovers her own inner grumpy feminist



If you have a dilemma, send a brief email to mariella.frostrup@observer.co.uk

The dilemma I have a fiery and super-short-tempered wife, who loses her cool the moment something doesn’t work the way she wanted. Sometimes she blurts out really nasty things which I fear is beginning to push me away. Sometimes she unleashes her anger at our two-year-old son. But I love her very much and I want to provide and give her a happy life because, when calm, she is an amazing person to be around and we are excited to be expecting a daughter this month. I really don’t know how to approach or calm her down without aggravating her, so I just find myself distancing away from her to give her space, which does work sometimes, but even that at times annoys her because she thinks I am sulking when I stay away and say nothing to her.She is a good person at heart, but I really want to be able to remove the ridiculously short-tempered side of her.

Mariella replies Surgically perhaps? It’s so inconvenient when the love of one’s life turns out to be human after all. It may be that you’ve just written to me on a bad week, but watching the women around me slowly unravel as we approach the “festivities” has definitely aroused the grumpy feminist within. I try to keep it under lock and key.

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We can’t be complacent about pregnant women’s rights in Britain | Rebecca Schiller

A local authority has failed to make drinking in pregnancy a crime, but we should be wary about further attempted incursions

This morning, women stood precariously on the last solid ground in the landscape of UK reproductive rights, looking ahead at an uncertain and treacherous footing. The court of appeal rejected the claim for criminal compensation in the case of CP vs Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. Thankfully, following this judgment, we still have solid ground under our feet.

Had the unnamed local authority’s solicitors successfully persuaded the court that excessive drinking in pregnancy was a violent crime against a foetus (now a seven-year-old child with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder), it would have marked a dramatic departure from the way the UK legal system has previously defended the autonomy of pregnant women.

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Mother who drank heavily when pregnant not guilty of crime, court rules

Child born with lifelong damage after excessive drinking by mother is not entitled to compensation, judges say

A mother who inflicted lifelong damage on her child after drinking heavily during her pregnancy did not commit a criminal offence, the court of appeal has ruled.

The unanimous decision sets clear limits on the legal rights of the unborn child and dispels fears that women could become liable to prosecution for their lifestyles during pregnancy.

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New birth guidelines: ‘For midwives, they are preaching to the converted’

Midwives at St George’s hospital in London say outcomes are better for women giving birth in midwife-led centres and at home

Over coffee and hobnobs at their kitchen table, eyed by a greyhound called Jim, first-time parents-to-be Poppy Mardall and Chris Pensa are discussing babies, birth and umbilical cords with a community midwife from St George’s hospital in Tooting, south London.

The couple say they took a while to decide what kind of birth they wanted, before finally deciding on a home birth. Some 2% of all births associated with the hospital are done this way.

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Judge rules mother not guilty of crime for drinking while pregnant

Child born with lifelong damage after excessive drinking by mother is not entitled to criminal injuries compensation, court rules

A mother who inflicted lifelong damage on her child after drinking heavily during her pregnancy did not commit a criminal offence, the court of appeal has ruled.

Handing down the judgment, Lord Justice Treacy said the central reason for dismissing the appeal was that: “a mother who is pregnant and who drinks to excess despite knowledge of the potential harmful consequence to the child of doing so is not guilty of a criminal offence under the law if her child is subsequently born damaged as a result.”

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Call the midwife - no surprises for this mother who says home birth is best

Kate Edgely was amazed to be asked if she would consider a home birth for her second child after having had complications with her first, but she was very glad to have been given the option

Today’s news that women are less likely to suffer complications if they give birth away from doctors and hospitals comes as no surprise to me. When I went into labour with my first child, after a healthy pregnancy, my husband drove us to our local hospital.

Seven hours later, I was told she was stuck, a heavy metal monitoring belt was strapped around my contracting belly and her heartbeat dropped to 60 beats per minute, about half what it should be.

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Have you been 'mommytracked' by your employer? Share your story

Peggy Young took her employer to court for placing her on unpaid leave when she was pregnant, but what about women who suffer in silence? We want to hear

When Peggy Young got pregnant while employed by UPS, her bosses placed her on unpaid leave.

Young was a part-time driver for the shipping and logistics giant. Her doctors advised her against heavy lifting, and even though heeding this would not interfere with her everyday duties, UPS placed her on leave. The company argued it could only make accommodations for people hurt on the job, which didn’t include pregnancy.

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Should pregnant women be encouraged to shun hospital labour wards? | Milli Hill, Ellie Gibson, Joseph Harker

Nice guidelines now suggest that 45% of births are more suitable for midwife-led care. Our writers discuss their experiences

Choices cannot be fully free if they are rooted in fear, not fact. Nowhere is this illustrated more vividly than in the 21st-century birth room. Here is a place where the power dynamic is weighted heavily in favour of the experts, where information is not always given in an unbiased way and where fully grown women still talk in terms of what they are “allowed” or “not allowed” to do.

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The US is still the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave

The US supreme court is hearing a pregnancy discrimination case that could have far-reaching effects for American women who work through their pregnancies

The US supreme court on Wednesday is hearing the case of 42-year-old Peggy Young, who sued her employer, UPS, for pregnancy discrimination. Young claims the shipping company refused to accommodate her pregnancy by giving her a temporary assignment to avoid lifting heavy packages.

But as the case unfolds, the US continues to shirk an even more basic pregnancy accommodation: maternity leave.

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UPS pregnancy discrimination case weighed by US supreme court

Justices begin hearing case of UPS employee Peggy Young with potential to affect many American women who continue to work throughout pregnancies

• Analysis: US only developed country that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave

The US supreme court is taking up a pregnancy discrimination case with the potential to affect many American women who continue to work throughout their pregnancies.

The case before the justices on Wednesday involves a former driver for UPS who wanted a temporary assignment to avoid lifting heavy packages after she became pregnant in 2006.

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If we truly valued motherhood, we would actually do something to help pregnant women | Jessica Valenti

For all of the court cases and conservative rhetoric, we’re failing global norms on nearly every policy that would support mothers, parents and families

• UPS employee takes pregnancy discrimination case to supreme court

We’ve all heard the platitudes: Motherhood is the most important job in the world. If mothers made a parenting salary – we’re chefs, chauffeurs, housekeepers and office managers! – we’d be bazillionaires.

Come on. We’re not even willing to let a pregnant woman hold on to a job.

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Low-risk pregnant women urged to avoid hospital births

NHS guidance from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence suggests 45% of births ‘unsuitable’ for labour wards

Women with low-risk pregnancies are to be encouraged to have non-hospital births under new NHS guidelines, which could see almost half of mothers-to-be planning to deliver their baby away from traditional labour wards.

Guidance from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says that midwife-led care has been shown to be safer for women and recommends that all women with low-risk pregnancies – 45% of the total – should be advised that giving birth in a midwifery-led unit, whether attached to a hospital or not, is “particularly suitable”.

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