According to a survey, twentysomethings’ appetite for sharing every aspect of their lives has made it on to the labour ward, with eight family members and friends in attendance at each birth
Name: Crowdbirthing.
Age: Popular among mums aged 16-29.
Continue reading...Each year 54,000 women face bullying or betrayal when they return to work from maternity leave. The Pregnant Then Screwed campaign gives women a place to share their stories anonymously
A new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that each year 54,000 women are forced out of work after having a baby. The Pregnant Then Screwed campaign allows women to anonymously submit their stories of pregnancy discrimination. Here are five such stories:
Continue reading...A woman has landed her dream job and just discovered she’s pregnant. Mariella Frostrup says that she should celebrate first, then choose a moment to tell her boss
The dilemma This week I found out I’m pregnant. I had been told it would be “next to impossible” to conceive because of a fertility disorder, so in a way this is a mini miracle and I’m overjoyed. However, last week I started a new job at the multinational tech company I work for. It’s the career opportunity of a lifetime, but I’m dreading their reaction – if I can’t plan a pregnancy how can I manage this project? If I take six months’ leave I miss a lot of the work I was actually hired to do. Do I pull a Marissa Myer and go back to work after two weeks? How do I break the news to my boss? Help!
Mariella replies Congratulations! Despite all your associated concerns let’s first recognise what amazing news this is. Many women who’ve been given a similar diagnosis will be beside themselves with envy at your good fortune, so it’s important you allow yourself a moment’s celebration. We’re complicated creatures and that’s never more apparent than in the face of happy news. Seconds after we’ve experienced that initial surge of happiness we’re worrying, conjuring issues where they don’t exist or bringing to the foreground background problems and concerns.
Continue reading...In the top 10 of unpleasant sounds, a crying baby ranks very high. It instantly activates a key part of your brain called the amygdala, which, among other things, acts as a sort of radar for emotional threats. So why would babies need to trigger this sort of urgent reaction? To get you to respond – and fast – to ensure their survival.
In the first few weeks, most babies cry for about two hours a day
Unfortunately, the way things go in these first few months does matter
Continue reading...US man and Spanish husband have been refused consent by surrogate mother to leave country after she claims they were not ‘an ordinary couple’
A same-sex couple is embroiled in a legal battle in Thailand after the surrogate mother who gave birth to their child has refused to allow them to leave the country claiming she was unaware they were gay.
The surrogate – who is biologically unrelated to the baby – handed over baby Carmen to Gordon Lake, an American, and his Spanish husband, Manuel, in January but later refused to sign documents to allow the infant to get a passport.
Related: Thailand bans commercial surrogacy
Continue reading...With the help of smartphone apps and FitBit-like devices, women can now track and understand their monthly menstrual cycles and pregnancies digitally
Every morning Kayla Strata takes her temperature using a basal digital thermometer and checks her cervical fluid. She then enters those readings into a smartphone app to determine where she is in her monthly cycle.
Known as the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM), this is a way to track ovulation to either help a woman become pregnant or prevent a pregnancy. Strata started using this method in 2014 when she decided hormonal birth control was no longer an option for her because of its side effects.
Continue reading...Report from ONS shows number of pregnancies decreased in all age groups under 30 while 27% births in the UK were to mothers born outside the country
The number of teenage pregnancies in the UK is at its lowest level in nearly 70 years, official figures have shown.
The Office for National Statistics said 25,977 women under 20 had babies in England and Wales last year, the fewest since the year 1946.
In most developed countries, women have been increasingly delaying childbearing to later in life
Continue reading...A US study has revealed that 95% of women who have had abortions believe it was the right decision. Yet, both in the US and UK, reproductive rights are increasingly under threat – it’s time to fight the stigma
In my work campaigning for reproductive rights I hear a lot of arguments based on punishment, shame and the censure of women. There is a pervasive belief that we aren’t best placed to make decisions about our reproductive futures –from where to have our babies to whether to terminate a pregnancy. This is all-too-often couched in patronising ideas about protecting us from our inevitable “bad” decisions because of the life-long trauma it will cause us. Google “I regret my abortion” and you’ll find screeds of highly emotive propaganda from those who are keen to control and curtail reproductive freedom.
So, while I’m not surprised by the US study that shows 95% of women don’t regret their abortions, I’m delighted to have something concrete to wave back at those who peddle seductive lies.
Continue reading...Hormones released in response to the stress of being harmed can permeate the placenta and affect an unborn child, experts tells inquiry into family violence
Children are “exquisitely sensitive” to the suffering of their parents, medical experts have told Victoria’s royal commission into family violence.
Professor Louise Newman, director for women’s mental health at Melbourne’s Royal women’s hospital, and Dr Robyn Miller, a social worker and family therapist, told the commission children could be affected by family violence even before they were born.
Related: Real help for people in real trouble will be the ultimate test for this inquiry
Continue reading...Experts say £200m spending reduction could saddle NHS with extra £250m on abortion and maternity services after government ignored calls to reconsider
Unplanned pregnancies are likely to rise and cost the NHS an extra £250m on abortions and maternity services because of the planned cuts to public health spending, leading sexual health experts have warned.
The Advisory Group on Contraception said on Friday that the government’s £200m in proposed savings were a false economy as cutbacks in sexual health advice and provision would have a direct impact on unwanted pregnancies.
Continue reading...Study into whether antidepressants could be partly to blame for birth defects finds there is a link with certain SSRIs but not all of them, and also that risk is low
Antidepressants such as Prozac are linked to a small risk of birth defects when taken by pregnant women, according to new research.
There have been claims in recent years that women taking some of the modern antidepressants of the class known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) have had babies with birth defects. A team of researchers based in the US and Canada have investigated data on nearly 18,000 women whose children were born with problems – including brain and skull malformations and heart defects – to try to establish whether antidepressants might be partly to blame. They compared the data with information on nearly 10,000 women whose babies were born without defects.
Continue reading...Government has indicated it may support proposal, which is backed by the SNP, to devolve responsibility to Scottish parliament
Scotland could get the power to set its own laws on abortion after the government indicated it was in favour of devolving the matter.
The idea is being pushed by a group of anti-abortion MPs who laid an amendment to the Scotland bill arguing for the transfer of competence over abortion to the Scottish parliament.
Related: Northern Irish woman launches legal bid to overturn abortion ban
Continue reading...More than 17,000 women in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand were questioned, with confusion over guidelines blamed for the figures
Drinking in pregnancy is common, according to a study which labels it a “significant public health concern” even though most women appear to give up once they know they are pregnant.
The authors of the study, in the journal BMJ Open, say the guidelines on safe drinking are confusing, pointing out that Ireland, New Zealand and Australia recommend no alcohol for the entire pregnancy, while the UK says one to two units once or twice a week will do no harm after the first three months.
Many women may have an episode of binge drinking before they realise they are pregnant
Continue reading...If there is one time in in a woman’s life that she should feel totally justified in not living up to social expectations of beauty, it’s childbirth. And yet ...
Google the phrase “wax before”, and an unwitting internet user will find herself amid the disturbing, troubling world of pregnancy message boards in which women across the world discuss what they believe to be the irrefutable merits – nay, necessity – of waxing bare their nether-regions before giving birth to their beloved children.
“I got a Brazilian and a pedicure before both of my babies were born,” wrote one Rebecca Eckler. “I know obstetricians and nurses have seen every type, shape and amount of hair down there, and that no woman should be embarrassed if her lady bits aren’t neat and tidy, but I’m just so used to being groomed.”
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