pregnancy: 2018

الجمعة، 28 ديسمبر 2018

Mothers are being abused during childbirth. We need our own #MeToo | Sally Gimson

Many women are scared to speak out about their treatment at the hands of medical professionals as they give birth

When I had my first baby by caesarean section, I woke up on the operating table. The pain was so extreme as they were cutting me open that as I was regaining consciousness my first thought was that I had gone to hell, and was being tortured. The pain was accompanied by a loud beating in my head. When I became more conscious, I realised that I had not been given enough anaesthetic, but I was paralysed and there were tubes in my mouth. Then I heard them say in German – because I was in eastern Berlin only a few years after the wall had come down – “She can have everything now.” Mercifully, I passed out. When I woke, I tried to say something in my faltering German. But they patted my hand, got my husband to show me my baby and pretended they hadn’t understood.

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الأحد، 23 ديسمبر 2018

Women can reclaim power over our bodies – by talking about them | Mandy Len Catron

Acknowledging the biological reality of a woman’s body is still unladylike. But if we can’t talk about our reproductive lives, we can’t defend them

I must have been four or five the first time I was told to “sit like a lady” – that is, with knees together. After that, no one needed to spell it out for me. A lady, I understood, was in full command of her body at all times.

This body never inconvenienced anyone by drawing attention to itself, or taking up too much space, or, God forbid, having any discernible odor. Like a dress worn for two hours on Easter Sunday, a lady’s body was to be admired, not lived in.

Shame and silence are powerful tools of misinformation

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السبت، 22 ديسمبر 2018

The science stories that shook 2018

Our guest scientists pick the breakthroughs and discoveries that defined their year, from insights into human evolution to our first trip aboard an asteroid

Take a deep breath. Dive into the emerald water. It’s 13 minutes and 70 metres down to lunch. Are you dead yet? Not if you are one of the Bajau “sea nomads ” of south-east Asia, who have been free-diving like this for more than 1,000 years, relying on their remarkable physiology, and, as we learned in April, their genes. Humans left Africa 50 millennia ago, encountering new environments that required adaptation to survive. Adaptation is mostly cultural – building shelters, using fire, deciding what to eat, and transmitting instructions from generation to generation. But alongside this are advantageous genetic mutations grasped by natural selection.

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الجمعة، 21 ديسمبر 2018

NHS to fund surgery on unborn babies with spina bifida

From April patients will be able to have prenatal procedure to repair foetus’s spine

Unborn children with spina bifida will be able to have surgery in the womb under NHS plans to give more patients innovative treatments.

Evidence from abroad has found that the procedure can improve the lives of sufferers, even allowing some infants to walk who might not otherwise have been able to do so.

Everolimus, a new drug that treats epileptic seizures caused by a genetic condition that leads to benign tumours forming in the body and the brain. About 300 people, most of them children, will start to get it.

Selexipag, a new tablet that treats pulmonary arterial hypertension, a life-threateningly dangerous form of high blood pressure. It works by relaxing and widening the blood vessels connected to the heart and lungs to stop them getting damaged, ultimately reducing the risk of heart failure.

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الثلاثاء، 18 ديسمبر 2018

Why do stories about morning sickness inspire such rage? | Zoe Williams

Medicine has a history of minimising female pain, even more so when the female is pregnant – there’s a savagery directed at the whole maternal package

You can tell when the Daily Mail disapproves of something because it puts it in capital letters, so it feels as though you, the reader, are being shouted at, which is confusing. How can it be your fault? You only just found out.

Anyway, the Mail is very angry with pregnant women: 20,000 ambulances (or “up to”, so it could be any number) are despatched every year for morning sickness. What a shameful waste of NHS resources. Those women should just eat a ginger biscuit and stop moaning, like it says in baby manuals from the 50s.

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الاثنين، 10 ديسمبر 2018

‘We meet hate with curiosity’: Dustin Lance Black on Tom Daley, babies and the ethics of surrogacy

The screenwriter and his husband had a son in June and bonded deeply with the surrogate mother. Now he has recorded a podcast series exploring the process in depth

Dustin Lance Black was a screenwriter, living in Los Angeles, in demand and extensively garlanded, when in 2013 he met Tom Daley, the Olympian diver from Plymouth. Black was the ultimate progressive all-rounder – then 39, he had won an Oscar for Milk, a biopic of the assassinated gay rights activist Harvey Milk, and built a reputation for his activism on gay marriage. He was also known for the thoughtful, open manner of his pioneering: his narration of the awardwinning documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition was informed by his experience of growing up gay in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So, when he fell in love with the diver – who is 20 years his junior and was then studiously neutral on politics, in the way athletes often have to be – it was not obvious from the outside that they were made for each other. Yet in the world where celebrities are still people, it was obvious to them. I have interviewed Daley, too, and he told me he introduced Black to his entire family and his friends in the week of their first date. They moved in together in London in 2014, got married in 2017 and this year had their first child.

When we announced our pregnancy, in the US there was just a lot of congratulations. Here it was more mixed

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الجمعة، 7 ديسمبر 2018

When my patient died giving birth, the reality of US maternal mortality and race hit me

Pregnancy-related deaths among black women are triple those of our white counterparts

I don’t allow myself to remember much about my patient who died. I don’t remember her name. I don’t remember the date. I don’t even remember how old I was at the time. But as a result of this memory, I am forever changed.

In almost a decade of maternity nursing, I’d never had an adult patient die, and I haven’t had a patient die since. Over the past 13 years, I have delivered numerous babies who died in utero or were born alive, but were expected to die shortly after birth because of their low gestational age or conditions that were incompatible with life. I am familiar and comfortable with providing support to a family who were preparing to lose, or had just lost, a much-wanted baby. This day was different. I received a report from the nurse going off duty on a living, breathing, labouring young woman, only to leave the hospital with nothing to give to the next nurse coming on shift.

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الثلاثاء، 4 ديسمبر 2018

'We could have saved them': Australia's stillbirth rate unchanged for 20 years

Landmark report finds stillbirth affects 2,000 families a year, and the rate is twice as high for Indigenous mothers

A landmark report into stillbirth in Australia has found that, unlike comparable countries around the world, Australia’s stillbirth rate has not changed in more than 20 years, and the rate among Aboriginal mothers is twice as high.

There were emotional scenes in parliament on Tuesday night as Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy tabled the report in a wooden coolamon, traditionally used in Indigenous families for carrying babies.

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Shared leave policy is a confused mess | Letter

The system is in urgent need of reform, writes Peter Moss

The feature on “shared parental leave” (The couples who share parental leave – and its highs and lows, 1 December) failed to explain that this policy is not parental leave at all, but transferable maternity leave with use by fathers dependent on their partner’s agreement to transfer a part of her maternity leave. Genuine parental leave is an entitlement equally available to both parents. Though not mentioned in your article, it does exist in the UK due to an EU directive, with each parent entitled to 18 weeks’ non-transferable parental leave, albeit unpaid and only available for four weeks per year. The UK’s leave policy is confused, confusing and dysfunctional, and in urgent need of reform. This is unlikely to happen while misleading terminology goes unquestioned and alternatives that might lead to more equal sharing of childcare are unexamined.
Emeritus Professor Peter Moss
International Network on Leave Policies and Research

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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The nasty shock of being offered a seat | Letters

Robin Burt and Margaret Fingerhut say they were mortified to be offered a seat, but Valerie Smith says that when offered one, one should accept

“Young people these days have no manners” is the sort of thing old blokes like me and John Crace say to each other (If you see me on the tube, please don’t offer me your seat, 1 December). But nobody in a social gathering would dream of suggesting we might be getting on a bit. So why is it that when we get on a crowded tube that young men offer us their seat? It’s worse than that. Young women do it as well.

What we need is a strategy. The grey hair doesn’t help, although I have enough to delude myself that I have achieved the suave, silver fox look. Maybe it’s the way we dress? I’m usually in “smart casual”, going home after an afternoon tea dance, buoyed up with confidence because an attractive young woman has asked me to dance with her or I am on my way to a jazz club. There’s not much scope on a crowded train to demonstrate that we can walk unaided so maybe it’s the way we stand. I have tried that Fred Astaire pose: one foot flat on the floor, the other crossed at the ankle, toe touching the floor (it’s harder than it looks, try surreptitiously holding the vertical pole). Then there’s how to respond: “No, I’m fine, thanks” or “It’s OK, I’m getting off at the next stop”. I’ve tried avoiding eye contact, then they get up and touch me on the shoulder. Suggestions on a postcard… no, not a postcard, that makes me sound old.
Robin Burt
London

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Surrogacy isn’t about money. But the law must change to benefit women | Natalie Gamble

UK law limits payments and provides little structure for surrogacy. Only proper regulation will protect surrogates

One of the UK’s most senior family judges, James Munby, has called for the UK to relax the rules against paying surrogates. His comments are spot-on: the law needs to catch up with the realities of modern surrogacy.

For decades it has been customary in the UK for surrogates to be paid between £12,000 and £20,000. Having handled hundreds of UK surrogacy cases (not just complex and international surrogacy cases, but also routine, everyday UK cases), I have seen only a small minority where there has been no element of benefit or compensation. The family court now routinely authorises payments to surrogates of more than their expenses, both explicitly in the high court and implicitly in the magistrates’ court, where sums are accepted at face value. The case law makes clear that payments will always be authorised after the event where this is in the child’s best interests. There has never been a case where an order transferring parenthood has been refused.

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الاثنين، 3 ديسمبر 2018

The tragedy of stillbirth: 'An unfathomable amount of heartbreak'

Stillbirth statistics in Australia have barely changed in 20 years. Two scientists are driven to make progress, raise awareness and empower women

The Centre for Research Excellence in Stillbirth is in a grand heritage building within the vast Mater hospital complex in Brisbane. With verandahs on all sides, it’s fronted by palm trees and jacarandas in bloom. Aubigny was once a private house with a small synagogue – the Sisters of Mercy took it over and turned it into a hospital, one now so large it surely has its own postcode. A statue of the Virgin Mary at the entrance makes me think of the prayers and curses no doubt directed her way by suffering patients and their families for more than a century.

Stillbirth is one tragedy many people assume has been consigned to history. But the conversation I’m about to have in this lovely old building with the centre’s director, Professor Vicki Flenady, and her colleague, Dr Fran Boyle, demolishes that assumption. It is not a rare event.

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الأحد، 2 ديسمبر 2018

Infertility is an issue for some women with endometriosis. But it’s not the whole story | Kate Young

Unintended pregnancy can be difficult for any woman - and it is just as common in women with endometriosis

Recent advances in public awareness and policy for endometriosis – a chronic inflammatory condition experienced by women – have been promising. But we still have a long way to go until women’s diverse needs are met through quality healthcare for endometriosis (among other conditions). As a public health researcher, one of my key concerns is what women are told about endometriosis and fertility.

With the way endometriosis is often spoken about one might think it is a sentence for infertility. This is not the case. Far from it.

So what are the consequences for women of telling them that a diagnosis of endometriosis is a sentence for infertility?

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الخميس، 29 نوفمبر 2018

Study suggests rate of foetal alcohol syndrome disorder higher than thought

Up to 17% of children could have symptoms of FASD through mothers drinking during pregnancy, says new report

Up to 17% of children could have the symptoms of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) because their mothers drank during pregnancy, according to a new study, whose findings were criticised for potentially causing pregnant women to panic and seek an abortion.

Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is diagnosed from a collection of mental and physical problems in a child, including some distinctive facial features, such as a small head, small eyes and a thin upper lip. It can be associated with learning difficulties and mood problems.

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Woman tells of ‘pregnancy’ that turned out to be 26kg ovarian cyst

Keely Favell lost third of her body weight after operation to take out growth discovered by obstetric ultrasound

A woman has told of how an ovarian cyst weighing 26kg (57lb) was removed from her body after doctors insisted at first that she must be pregnant.

Keely Favell lost a third of her body weight after surgery to remove the growth. She had started to gain weight in 2014, but only went to see a doctor about it in 2016 after she blacked out while at work.

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الأربعاء، 28 نوفمبر 2018

NHS trust at centre of baby deaths inquiry deemed 'unsafe'

Shrewsbury and Telford hospital’s A&E and maternity care is inadequate – regulator

The hospital trust at the centre of an inquiry into dozens of baby deaths and injuries has been declared inadequate by the NHS’s care regulator over its “unsafe” A&E and maternity care.

The move by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the latest blow to hit Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS trust, which has been under pressure over a growing catalogue of alleged breaches of care standards.

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Lab-grown placentas 'will transform pregnancy research'

Cambridge team develops organoids or mini placentas to advance knowledge of stillbirth and pre-eclampsia

Scientists have grown “mini placentas” in a breakthrough that could transform research into the underlying causes of miscarriage, stillbirth and other pregnancy disorders.

The tiny organoids mimic the placenta in the early stages of the first trimester and will be used to understand how the tissue develops in healthy pregnancies, and what goes wrong when it fails.

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Who can afford to get pregnant? IVF 'baby scholarships' raise a class issue

Private foundations are now helping couples and individuals seeking fertility treatments in a country where IVF costs more than anywhere else on earth

In 2016, after seven years trying to conceive, New York state assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte was pregnant with twins. At 13 weeks, she lost one in a miscarriage. At five months, she went into preterm labor, and rushed to a New York hospital.

Doctors turned her away, saying they couldn’t give her a bed because of insurance issues and because it was against “hospital policy” to admit pregnant women before 23 weeks. She was driven to another hospital, where her baby, Jonah Bichotte Cowan, died shortly after birth.

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الأحد، 18 نوفمبر 2018

French whistleblower welcomes committee studying babies with missing limbs

Epidemiologist in Rhône-Alpes who raised alarm says government move vindicates her work

The whistleblower who raised the alarm over clusters of babies born with missing upper limbs in France has welcomed the government’s decision to set up a national scientific committee to search for a cause.

Emmanuelle Amar said the move, announced by the health ministry, vindicated her work after she had been “dragged through the dirt”, and more importantly recognised the concerns of the families affected.

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الجمعة، 16 نوفمبر 2018

I had my baby in prison, so I know how jails are risking mothers’ lives | Anonymous

I have never felt so alone. To the staff, you are just another face, another number – and they don’t think about your baby

I was 16 weeks pregnant when I was sent to prison. When I arrived with my maternity notes in hand, I was left locked in a small room with 16 other women. I complained to the guard that I felt sick. Her response was: “Get used to it.” I proceeded to be sick all over myself.

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الاثنين، 12 نوفمبر 2018

Too many baby deaths avoidable, report into NHS finds

Each Baby Counts project analyses cases of stillbirth, neonatal death and babies born with brain damage

Seven out of 10 stillbirths, neonatal deaths and babies brain damaged at birth could be avoided if the NHS provided better care during labour, a new government-funded report has found.

The inquiry identified lack of staff, the pressure on maternity units and a failure by midwives and obstetricians to follow guidelines as common factors in such events.

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Private IVF clinics urged to stop charging for expensive add-ons

Fertility experts criticise use of optional extras that do not increase chance of pregnancy

IVF clinics have been putting profits before patient care by charging clients for expensive treatment add-ons that have no proven effectiveness, according to a draft statement by fertility experts, practitioners and the sector’s regulator.

The consensus statement agreed by 11 organisations, including the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), expresses concerns about how frequently patients are being charged for optional extras that do not increase the chances of pregnancy.

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الجمعة، 9 نوفمبر 2018

'I felt lost and alone': Michelle Obama reveals experience of miscarriage – video

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts, Michelle Obama reveals that she suffered a miscarriage 20 years ago and underwent in vitro fertilization to conceive her two daughters. The revelations come before Tuesday’s release of her memoir, Becoming

Becoming Michelle will air on 11 November on ABC at 9pm ET
Michelle Obama reveals miscarriage and IVF treatment in new book

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الأحد، 4 نوفمبر 2018

New pregnancy guidelines bring back weigh-ins and end routine vitamin D tests

Updated Australian advice recommends testing for hepatits C and better management of diet

Pregnant women will be offered a weigh-in at every antenatal visit and consistently advised about diet and exercise while routine vitamin D testing will be scrapped under updated pregnancy care guidelines.

Routine testing for hepatitis C at the first antenatal visit is also recommended.

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الأربعاء، 31 أكتوبر 2018

Baby arm defects prompt nationwide investigation in France

Launch of inquiry follows discovery of 11 more suspected cases of birth abnormalities

France has launched a nationwide investigation into babies born with missing upper limbs after the discovery of nearly a dozen new suspected cases.

The national health agency had initially dismissed claims that a cluster of seven infants born with abnormalities in the Ain area near the Swiss border was abnormally high.

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الثلاثاء، 30 أكتوبر 2018

WNBL introduces historic pregnancy and parental care scheme

Policy to support new mothers on away trips
Move hailed as ‘crucial step forward’

A new policy has been implemented in Australian women’s basketball aimed at breaking down the barriers that pregnancy and childcare had previously presented for players.

A parental and pregnancy care policy was announced by the Australian Basketballers’ Association and the Women’s National Basketball League on Wednesday, providing players in the national league access to the full provision of a qualified carer or player-elected support personnel for all away trips.

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Sarah Hanson-Young: Greens branch tried to bar my preselection over pregnancy

Senator to give speech detailing decade-long battle against sexism in politics

Greens branch members attempted to overturn Sarah Hanson-Young’s preselection to the Senate after learning she was pregnant, the South Australian senator says, in a speech detailing her decade-long battle against sexism in politics.

In a speech to be delivered to the Women in Leadership summit in Adelaide on Wednesday, Hanson-Young, who was the youngest person ever elected to an Australian parliament, said her entry into politics in 2007 came with a rude awakening when she simultaneously discovered she was pregnant.

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الاثنين، 29 أكتوبر 2018

Carey Mulligan calls for on-set childcare in film industry

Actor speaks out about lack of progress for working mothers in wake of #MeToo movement

The actor Carey Mulligan has spoken out about the limited progress for working mothers in the film industry since the widespread reckoning of the #MeToo movement and has called for on-set childcare to help parents.

She praised the introduction of codes of conducts for on-set behaviour in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, but argued the lack of childcare was preventing talented people from doing their jobs.

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Having babies less than a year apart 'poses risks for mother and child'

Study of nearly 150,000 pregnancies in Canada finds the safest interval between births is 12 to 18 months

Having babies less than a year apart poses risks for both mother and child, whatever the woman’s age, according to new research.

The authors of a big study of nearly 150,000 pregnancies in Canada say the safest interval between births is 12 to 18 months. They suggest women over the age of 35 who may not want to wait long between one pregnancy and the next should be counselled that waiting 12 to 18 months is safest for both them and their baby.

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السبت، 27 أكتوبر 2018

Marriage by this age! Babies by that age! When will we stop giving women deadlines?

The new version of Sondheim’s Company suggests that 35 is make or break for women – enough already

I am one of those people who generally dreads going to the theatre, mainly because I like to eat supper after 6pm but before 11pm. But I made an exception last week and went to director Marianne Elliott’s delightful new take on Company, Stephen Sondheim’s musical about single versus marital life. (I am also one of those people who loves Sondheim, and being someone who avoids the theatre but loves Sondheim is like loving to swim but hating the water. Welcome to my pain.)

In the original version, Bobby, a 35-year-old man in New York, frets about his perennially single status, while all his married friends urge him to commit. The first time I saw Company, I was a 33-year-old woman living in New York and as single as it was possible to be without being an actual nun, and, as much as I loved the musical, I left feeling furious. (Loving a musical and also feeling furious about it: truly, my pain never ends.) Was I really supposed to worry about a single 35-year-old man? I should probably mention here that I’d recently gone on a date with a single 35-year-old man who told me he normally only dated twentysomethings, but that for decrepit old me he’d made an exception. So forgive me, Sondheim, if my sympathy was in short supply.

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الأربعاء، 24 أكتوبر 2018

My workplace was supportive after a traumatic abortion. This should be normal | Hannah Bambra

Women are often expected to carry on without recognition for the time it takes to heal - physically and emotionally

My personal decision to abort was not a straightforward one – I had to consider a whole range of complicated factors. I am decidedly pro-choice, but that stance didn’t make the process itself easier. My abortion was traumatic. A large part of me felt attached to that potential child and I was consumed by grief and crippling depression for months following. There is little to no non-religious space to discuss feeling a sense of loss post-surgery.

I lost my partner, my enthusiasm for life and ultimately a job I cherished

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Surgeons repair babies' spinal cords in the womb in UK first

Team at London’s University College hospital performed the surgeries to treat spina bifida

Weeks before they even took their first breaths, two babies had their spinal cords delicately repaired by surgeons, in the first operations of their kind in the UK.

The spina bifida surgeries were successfully performed by a team at University College hospital in London this summer on two babies while they were still in the womb.

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الاثنين، 22 أكتوبر 2018

Amy Schumer announces she is pregnant with her first child

The comedian posted a photo on Instagram showing the heads of herself and her husband edited onto the bodies of Meghan and Prince Harry

Amy Schumer has announced she is pregnant with her first child.

The actor and comedian posted a photo on Instagram showing the heads of herself and her husband, chef Chris Fischer, edited onto the bodies of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the latter of whom is also expecting a child.

About to announce some exciting news on @jessicayellin insta page. Please follow her for up to the minute #newsnotnoise she breaks down what’s really going on. She agreed to post a lil noise today for me! Follow her and VOTE!!

News pic.twitter.com/UBe1ZQq5Yz

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الأحد، 21 أكتوبر 2018

France to investigate cause of upper limb defects in babies

The cases concentrate in Loire-Atlantique, Ain and Brittany but no cause has been found

France’s health minister has announced a new investigation into the births of several babies with upper limb defects in various parts of the country in recent years, saying it was “unacceptable” no cause had been found.

Health minister Agnès Buzyn said she and her environment counterpart François de Rugy had decided to look more closely at what caused 14 babies to be born with stunted or missing arms since 2007, two weeks after health authorities said they had failed to find an explanation.

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الأربعاء، 17 أكتوبر 2018

Spike in premature births among Latinas linked to Trump's win

Premature births among Latinas increased from 7.3% to 8.4% according to New York City Health Department research

Latina immigrants in New York City have seen a spike in premature births – an increase that researchers with the city Health Department say may be tied to the shock win by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The study released Wednesday by the Health Department and Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health compared births in the city in the months before Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, from September 2015 through July 2016, with births in the months after he was inaugurated, from January to August 2017.

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الثلاثاء، 16 أكتوبر 2018

Suffering of childbirth is made acceptable by its glorification | Letters

More elective caesarians should be carried out, says Hilary Farey, and Lizzy Gwilliam provides a network for disabled mothers

I agree with your columnist Chitra Ramaswamy that Keira Knightley should not be criticised for being open about how vaginal childbirth can be messy, painful and mutilating (The attacks on Keira Knightley are misogynist, G2, 10 October). The suffering of childbirth is made acceptable by its glorification, in the same way that soldiers are fooled into volunteering to go to war. Now that more women in our country have their babies later, and the babies are getting bigger, the suffering caused by a difficult birth is on the increase.

As a GP doing postnatal checks on my patients, I see fewer having their first baby who haven’t had a major complication such as a prolonged labour, shoulder getting stuck, bad tear, retained placenta, postpartum haemorrhage or post-traumatic stress disorder. An awful lot go through a full labour then still end up with a caesarean section. It would seem sensible if more elective caesarians were carried out, say if the baby’s estimated birth weight was over 4kg for a first baby, but this is unacceptable to the mindset of our current establishment of midwives and obstetricians.

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الاثنين، 15 أكتوبر 2018

Perspectives on adding folic acid to flour to prevent spinal bifida | Letters

Dr JK Anand, Chris Page and Pam Lunn reflect on the UK government’s decision

Of course the planned fortification of flour with folic acid will help – where the cause of spina bifida is nutritional deficiency of folic acid (All UK flour to be given folic acid additive, 15 October). However, it can not conceivably prevent the defect where it is due to genetic factors – two defective genes from two parents coming together.

In some parts of the world consanguineous marriages are commoner than in others. An academic paper in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (Vol 32, No 2, June 2014) by Nazish Jabeen and Sajid Malik from a university in Pakistan is useful reading. The practice has nothing to do with religion. It is purely “custom and practice”.

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الأحد، 14 أكتوبر 2018

Folic acid to be added to flour in effort to reduce serious birth defects

Ministers reject food industry objections in major U-turn over compulsory fortification

All flour will be fortified with folic acid after ministers swung behind a plan that medical experts believe will stop hundreds of babies a year from being born with birth defects, the Guardian can reveal.

Ministers will order the introduction of automatic fortification within weeks after being convinced by their own advisers that the policy will reduce the risk of babies developing spina bifida and other conditions that involve severe disability or death.

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السبت، 13 أكتوبر 2018

The secret to… preparing for a baby if you have a disability

Manage your expectations, check hospital access routes – and prepare to be a novelty

Find professionals who understand that your disability isn’t the first thing about you – that you’re a pregnant woman first and foremost. Chances are, you’ll be under a consultant’s care – their support is important. A pragmatic, helpful and sensitive midwife is also critical. Find out if the same midwife can be with you during the birth.

Go to the hospital to check access routes if you use a wheelchair. When the time comes, check you can stay on the labour suite, even if you’re not ready to give birth – endless logistical to-ing and fro-ing is energy-sapping. Find out if you can labour and deliver your baby in water; you may find it easier to get into positions for a calmer birth.

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الجمعة، 12 أكتوبر 2018

Warmer words might help us to deal with the pain of miscarriage | Letters

Rosie Toothill, Mike Corcoran and Shirley Harrington respond to Katy Lindemann’s article about the grief of losing a baby being compounded by insensitive language

I wanted to thank Katy Lindemann for writing about her painful experience of miscarriage (How dare they call my lost baby a ‘product of conception’, 11 October). After suffering a miscarriage very recently, I have been struck by a number of things, as well as working out how to cope with the pain and anxiety this has brought. The language used in my experience was largely the same as Katy’s; mine was classed as an “unviable” pregnancy, which felt so cold and inhumane, and certainly did not represent how I felt about my pregnancy. As Katy pointed out, your “unviable” pregnancy is everything you have always dreamt of and hoped for. There is so much work to be done around how, as a society, we deal with and talk about early pregnancy, pregnancy loss and infertility, to help women and their families dealing with these issues every single day, often silently.
Rosie Toothill
York

• Thank you, Katy Lindemann, for sharing your experience of early pregnancy loss. Sadly, your story mirrors the experience of my wife and I last year, having suffered two miscarriages in close succession. We too were shocked and upset at the change of language from “baby” to “product” once a heartbeat could no longer be detected. We also found sharing a crowded waiting room with expectant parents all of whom were at different stages of the early pregnancy rollercoaster particularly unhelpful, especially when one mum-to-be began sharing the good news of a positive scan to her nearest and dearest by phone.

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Digital contraceptives and period trackers: the rise of femtech

Market predicted to be worth $50bn by 2025, despite scandal around app Natural Cycles

Digital contraceptive techniques have been on the receiving end of bad press recently after Swedish company Natural Cycles was described as “misleading” by the UK’s advertising body, and a number of women complained about becoming pregnant while relying on the app.

But that hasn’t stopped the industry from thriving, with the launch of Moody Month, which tracks hormones and menstrual cycles , and Flo Health, an ovulation calculator, being valued at $200m in the same week, suggesting there is still massive demand among women for products which are invariably described as femtech.

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الخميس، 11 أكتوبر 2018

Alcohol labels warning of risk from drinking while pregnant 'will save lives'

Australia-New Zealand agreement to mandate labels that were previously voluntary

Alcohol producers will be forced to label their products with warnings relating to the risks of drinking during pregnancy in an agreement reached by Australian and New Zealand ministers.

The labels will be developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand in consultation with the alcohol industry, and will include a pictogram and warning statement. Labels have previously only been applied by the industry on a voluntary basis since 2011.

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Use of caesarean sections growing at 'alarming' rate

In some countries more than half of births now involve the procedure, experts say

The use of caesarean sections to deliver babies has reached epidemic proportions, say experts, with the procedure growing in use at an “alarming” rate.

While caesarean sections can be a crucial intervention for the safety of the mother and child, for example if the baby is showing distress or if the mother is bleeding before birth, experts say the procedure would account for about 10-15% of births if only used when medically necessary.

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الأربعاء، 10 أكتوبر 2018

How dare they call my lost baby a ‘product of conception’ | Katy Lindemann

The grief of losing a pregnancy can be compounded by language. More openness and sensitivity is needed

“There’s your baby’s heartbeat,” said the sonographer, pointing to the screen as we listened to the thump-thump-thump that was the most magical sound I had ever heard. A week later, the next scan showed that this beautiful twinkling heartbeat had gone, and our baby had died. I couldn’t face having to wait to pass the pregnancy sac, so I opted for surgery: a procedure called an ERPC: “evacuation of retained products of conception”.

I remember thinking that “evacuation” sounded like something you’d have done to your bowels. “Products of conception” might be the correct clinical term, but to us, as a grieving couple, that was our dead baby: our much longed-for baby, who was already loved and anticipated as a unique human being, not simply an object to be discarded.

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الاثنين، 8 أكتوبر 2018

UK doctors accused of helping couples choose the sex of their babies

Watchdog investigating claims at least four British doctors are facilitating gender selection

The UK’s fertility regulator has launched an investigation into claims that at least four British doctors are helping couples to choose the sex of their babies.

Hundreds of couples are allegedly paying up to £14,000 for a sex selection service, despite the practice being illegal under UK law for non-medical reasons.

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الجمعة، 5 أكتوبر 2018

How can I stop worrying about not having a second child?

Try to understand what’s going on, says Annalisa Barbieri, and take control where you can

I am 35, married, with a five-year-old. I have been trying to get pregnant for three-and-a-half years. In that time, I have had a miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy, for which I received nonsurgical intervention.

My husband has come around to the fact that it may never happen for us again. He seems to accept we may be a family with just one child, and I want to be able to accept that, too. I know it’s out of my control, but I can’t stop worrying. I feel that trying to get pregnant has made me anxious and controlling, and taken much of the joy out of our sex life. I don’t want to be like this and I’m sure the anxiety isn’t helping when it comes to our chances of getting pregnant.

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الخميس، 4 أكتوبر 2018

Faulty batch of 58,000 Clear & Simple pregnancy tests recalled

UK-sold Clear & Simple digital pregnancy tests made in July 2017 have returned false positives

Consumers have been urged to check that they do not have one of a batch of faulty pregnancy tests, amid fears that they could incorrectly show a positive result.

The makers of Clear & Simple digital pregnancy tests said there had been a “small number” of false positives, all related to a batch of the kits made in July 2017.

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الأربعاء، 3 أكتوبر 2018

Child of Mine review – poignant study of the trauma of stillbirth

Katie Rice’s documentary sensitively approaches a tough subject while listening to the concerns of midwives and obstetricians

The UK’s high rate of stillbirth – one in 200 pregnancies, among the most elevated in the developed world – is generating a growing number of documentaries aiming to initiate a wider dialogue. Debbie Howard’s film Still Loved (2015) spoke to Midlands parents in the process of grieving or moving on; now director Katie Rice provides three case studies with varying outcomes, released – as was Howard’s film – to coincide with baby loss awareness week.

The films share certain tropes: sobering first-person testimony, a poignant emphasis on artefacts that make such loss palpable (photos, condolence notes, those unworn booties) and understandably brief running times, recognition that this is a tough subject to talk about and a small, precious offering of hope.

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الخميس، 27 سبتمبر 2018

Huge numbers of stillborn babies 'may have been missed'

Hundreds of thousands of deaths a year are not being recognised in international estimates, research suggests

Hundreds of thousands of babies who died in the womb could have been missed out of international estimates on stillbirths, research suggests.

According to figures for 2015, an estimated 2.6 million babies a year worldwide are stillborn – dying at a point in pregnancy when most babies would survive outside the womb.

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الأربعاء، 26 سبتمبر 2018

Sister of UK woman who died in botched C-section makes justice plea

Xynthia Hawke, 28, died in France in 2014 after error by anaesthetist who was drunk

Xynthia Hawke was 28 and expecting her first child, with all the excitement and delight of a new mother to be.

She and her French partner, Yannick Balthazar, had planned everything down to the last detail in what they hoped would be as natural a birth as possible in a specially chosen clinic.

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الاثنين، 24 سبتمبر 2018

‘There are pressures to keep working to the end of pregnancy - to keep up’

Young pregnant women are significantly more anxious and overwhelmed than a generation ago. What’s behind this rise, and what are the solutions?

When Jasmine Hanks, 27, was pregnant with her first child, so was Beyoncé, as well as some of the cast of The Only Way is Essex. “I think this is really stupid,” she says, sounding embarrassed, but still pained. “I followed them on Instagram; they had perfect bumps and looked really glam. When you’re heavily pregnant, you think you look an absolute sight in comparison – that does nothing for your self-esteem.”

Hanks checked Instagram first thing in the morning, then Facebook on her lunchbreak, and found an inexorable onslaught of feelings of inadequacy – which she found much more distressing in pregnancy than before. “You’re constantly having these images of perfect, beautiful women thrust in your face all the time. It’s quite difficult to see past what’s in front of you in the mirror.”

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الخميس، 20 سبتمبر 2018

Air pollution sickens us in a car-addicted society | Letters

Readers join the dots between various recent reports on the effects of air pollution on human health and the part played by cars in turning the atmosphere toxic

Your report (School run is the ‘biggest polluter’ of air children breathe, 18 September) highlights the continuing failure of government to recognise the dangers of air pollution, specifically from diesel engines, and to take necessary action to limit the number of premature deaths. But the school run is only part of the problem facing infants, children and the wider population.

Many schools are on what are now extremely busy roads; only a minority have had an air pollution survey; and because of austerity measures they seldom have the resources to take remedial action by acquiring air purifiers. School buses keep their diesel engines ticking over for half an hour or longer and legal restrictions are simply ignored by bus companies and the police. Ice-cream vans in public parks and holiday resorts are diesel-powered, but they keep their engines running all day, even when located near children’s playgrounds.

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الأربعاء، 19 سبتمبر 2018

Too much gluten while pregnant linked to increased diabetes risk for baby

Experts warn against switching to a gluten-free diet because that may reduce intake of fibre, iron and B-vitamins

Eating a high gluten diet when pregnant appears to be linked to an increased risk of having a child who develops type 1 diabetes, new research suggests, although experts say expectant mothers shouldn’t rush to ditch bread and pasta.

While studies in rodents have suggested there a possible link between low gluten consumption in mothers and a lower incidence of type 1 diabetes in offspring, no such link has previously been found in humans.

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Pregnancy weigh-ins were stopped in the 90s – and they’re still a bad idea | Lucy Jones

Yes, talk about healthy diets and weighing if there’s a problem, but calls to make this mandatory are misguided

In the latest “pregnant women are doing it all wrong” news, the weigh-in may return in an effort to stop Britain’s expectant mums piling on too many pounds.

Midwives stopped weighing pregnant women in the 1990s because there wasn’t any clinical evidence to suggest it made a difference to the health of the woman or their baby. In fact, regular weighing was thought to cause stress and anxiety.

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الثلاثاء، 18 سبتمبر 2018

NHS fees for maternity care 'putting migrant mothers at risk'

Vulnerable women becoming distressed by legacy of ‘hostile environment’, report says

Migrant mothers and their babies are being put at risk because they are too frightened of incurring large debts and falling victim to the so-called hostile environment immigration policy to access vital medical care, a report has found.

Migrant mothers not settled in the UK are not eligible for taxpayer-funded treatment, and are charged 50% more than the normal tariffs for antenatal care, births and postnatal care. Some with secure immigration status have also been mistakenly charged for treatment. Attempts at debt collection launched shortly after new mothers leave hospital can trigger mental health issues among some of the poorest and most vulnerable women in the UK, the research found.

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الاثنين، 17 سبتمبر 2018

Gaining too much or too little weight in pregnancy could affect baby's health

Midwives say guidelines should be provided to help them advise expectant mothers

Midwives should be given guidelines on how to advise expectant mothers about managing their weight, their professional body has said, reacting to research that suggested the commonly held belief that pregnant women needed to eat for two was a myth.

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy could put the future offspring at an increased risk of insulin resistance and affect their blood pressure in childhood, according to the study published in the journal, Diabetologia.

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The state has no right to stop me learning the sex of my unborn child

A new test that reveals a baby’s sex at 10 weeks has, predictably, led to panic about an increase in terminations – as if we need even more anxiety about pregnancy

When should a woman be able to find out her baby’s sex? And what should she be able to do with this information? In the latest instalment of What to Expect When Society Lays Expectations Upon You, to which Wide Awoke dutifully refers whenever anything pregnancy-related crowns its head, the Labour party is calling for a ban on pregnant women being told the sex of their baby after the early blood tests. Why? Because of a concern that some people may choose termination on the grounds of sex. Which is, quite rightly, illegal. The sex of a foetus is not a reason for termination; I think most human beings can agree on that.

Let’s delve deeper. Noninvasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT), now offered by the NHS to screen for genetic conditions including Down’s syndrome, can also determine a foetus’s sex from as early as 10 weeks. Parents cannot use NIPT to find out a baby’s sex unless they go private, and this appears to be happening more. A report last year warned that “permitting NIPT for sex determination in the UK may be encouraging sex selection”. The Labour MP Naz Shah said that a preference for boys in some cultures could force parents “to adopt methods such as NIPT to live up to expectations of family members”.

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Labour calls for ban on early foetus gender test

There are concerns some could choose to terminate pregnancy because of baby’s sex

Parents-to-be should be banned from using a blood test to determine the gender of their baby in the early stages of pregnancy, Labour has said.

The call comes amid concerns that some could choose to terminate the pregnancy because of a foetus’s sex.

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الأحد، 16 سبتمبر 2018

Air pollution particles found in mothers' placentas

New research shows direct evidence that toxic air – already strongly linked to harm in unborn babies – travels through mothers’ bodies

Scientists have found the first evidence that particles of air pollution travel through pregnant women’s lungs and lodge in their placentas.

Toxic air is already strongly linked to harm in foetuses but how the damage is done is unknown. The new study, involving mothers living in London, UK, revealed sooty particles in the placentas of each of their babies and researchers say it is quite possible the particles entered the foetuses too.

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الخميس، 13 سبتمبر 2018

Growing childbirth terror disorder 'fuelled by social media'

Horror stories may exacerbate tocophobia, leading to more C-section requests and abortions

Horror stories on social media could be one reason why some women suffer from a pathological terror of childbirth, a leading expert and midwife has said.

Tocophobia is a mental condition defined as a severe fear or dread of childbirth.

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الثلاثاء، 11 سبتمبر 2018

Freeze eggs before 35 for a better chance of IVF success, says report

Age at time of freezing is key to whether fertility treatment will succeed, says UK regulator

For women intending to undergo IVF treatment using frozen eggs, the younger they are when they are frozen the greater the chance of a successful pregnancy, according to a report by the UK’s independent fertility regulator.

Most IVF treatment cycles use fresh eggs, but a very small number use eggs that have been frozen and thawed. It can, for example, be especially beneficial for cancer patients who decide to freeze their eggs before undergoing chemotherapy.

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الاثنين، 10 سبتمبر 2018

My IVF life: I'm pregnant, and I feel like hell

The early weeks of pregnancy leave me anxiety-ridden and depressed, but I’m lucky compared to many who undergo IVF

Is it particular to IVF, or are the early weeks of every pregnancy as anxiety-ridden as this? Perhaps. I feel like you would have to be very relaxed not to fear that every twinge or flicker of something is a harbinger of miscarriage. The odds that the PGS-tested embryo that implanted in my uterus will result in a live birth are about two out of three – much better than the odds we faced earlier in the IVF process. But they’re still far from perfect. I Google “chances of miscarriage” and the number of weeks pregnant I am on a fairly regular basis.

Pregnancy makes me anxious, and does not agree with me physically, either. After the positive test I feel normal for a week and then the nausea begins: every morning I awake feeling like I am trapped on the choppiest of seas, or suffering from the worst hangover of my life. The usual remedies do not abate it for long – yes, I try crackers, ginger candy, peppermint, vitamin B6 and Unisom taken in combination. At best I get an hour of semi-relief before relapsing. But because I am only nauseous and not vomiting, my doctor offers me no further remedy, just a cheerful reassurance than it’s likely to pass by the time I reach 15 weeks. If I reach 15 weeks.

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الأحد، 9 سبتمبر 2018

Ruth Davidson describes pregnancy as 'fearful and hopeful'

In her new book, the Scottish Conservative leader also wrote about being offered lower pay than a male predecessor during her time at the BBC

Ruth Davidson has described her pregnancy as ”joyous, mortifying, fearful and hopeful”.

The Scottish Conservative leader announced earlier this year that she was expecting a baby with partner Jen Wilson and has revealed they are currently referring to the unborn baby as Fionnuala.

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السبت، 8 سبتمبر 2018

Pippa, you’re carrying a child, not some unwanted fat | Barbara Ellen

If the younger Middleton sister would stop trying to exercise her pregnancy into oblivion, she might find she enjoys it more

Does Pippa Middleton realise that she’s pregnant, or does she think that she’s just fat? I ask, because in her always unmissable Waitrose Weekend column, she was musing on endeavouring not to “break into a penguin-style waddle”. Having fretted about forms of exercise such as running, tennis, swimming and yoga, she’s “embraced barre-style workouts”, and wants to ensure that her “old favourite jeans will still fit … eventually”.

Especially considering that Middleton is in her third trimester, this seems tragic. Where does such “still got it!” gestation paranoia come from? As for waddling – what is her problem with being a pregnant woman who looks and acts … pregnant? Same with those “old favourite jeans” – they’re just an item of clothing, not a denim-rebuke. If they don’t fit so well, post-birth, how about just sticking them in the bin? Or perhaps she could don a black veil and bury the jeans in the garden in a symbolic gesture of mourning to her lost pre-pregnancy “hotness”?

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الاثنين، 3 سبتمبر 2018

What the US can learn from Canada about how to treat moms

I can’t imagine motherhood without Canada’s generous paid maternity leave. It’s time for America to get with the program

When my daughter was 11 months old, we were strolling down a sunny street when she casually reached her hand out of her stroller and made the sign for “airplane”. I looked from her dimpled knuckles to the sky and, sure enough, there in the distance was a plane streaking its way across the horizon. I hadn’t seen it, but she had. And although she hadn’t yet signed “milk” during the thousands of times I’d nursed her over the previous months, she had remembered the one time I showed her the sign for airplane. She’d seen an airplane and then she told me about it. On the scale of milestones in a baby’s life, this was huge.

I’ve now come to see that 12-month period as an official, federally mandated recognition of how life-changing it is to become a parent

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الجمعة، 31 أغسطس 2018

I’m ditching Natural Cycles, but I still believe in tech-based contraception | Nichi Hodgson

Decades of research have gone into condoms, the coil and the pill – we need to give next-generation birth control a chance

• Natural Cycles app: ‘highly accurate contraceptive’ claim misled consumers

It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve paused my subscription to the contraceptive app Natural Cycles this week. It follows the news that the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that the app cannot with confidence advertise itself as a “highly accurate contraceptive”, primarily because the statistics on its efficacy – that only seven in 100 women using it will become pregnant – come from a study conducted by the company that developed the app itself.

Natural Cycles promotes itself as a form of non-hormonal, non-intrusive contraception. Women input information about their menstrual cycles and body temperature into the app, and it uses algorithms to predict which days they are at risk of getting pregnant in the event of unprotected sex.

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'I didn’t get arrested, I got rescued': jail is a lifeline for some pregnant women

Incarceration is some women’s only shot at pregnancy healthcare – but the quality varies enormously

When Evelyn (name changed) found out she was pregnant, she panicked. Thanks to a criminal record, she struggled to find work. Without a regular job, she’d been unable to rent housing and was staying in a single-room occupancy hotel in San Francisco’s Mission District. That was after a stint living on the streets. And while she had technically been able to get insurance through Medicaid, with so much daily stress in her life, the added challenge of seeking out – and affording – regular prenatal care seemed insurmountable.

So when she was arrested and jailed after turning herself in for an outstanding warrant during the third trimester of her pregnancy and she began receiving prenatal care in prison, her incarceration felt like a blessing. “I didn’t get arrested, I got rescued,” she later told Dr Carolyn Sufrin, the OB/GYN who cared for her at the San Francisco county jail.

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الاثنين، 27 أغسطس 2018

NHS maternity units were forced to close 287 times last year

Labour says turning away expectant mothers is ‘disgrace’ and blames Tories for midwife shortage

Almost half of maternity units at hospitals in England were closed to expectant mothers at least once during 2017, research by Labour has found, with the party blaming staff shortages and other resourcing problems.

Freedom of information (FoI) requests by Labour identified almost 300 occasions when maternity units were closed and expectant mothers sent elsewhere, with the most common reasons cited being a lack of capacity and staffing issues.

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الثلاثاء، 21 أغسطس 2018

Instead of judging women who want a C-section, why not listen? | Rebecca Schiller

When it comes to birth planning, the woman’s needs should be paramount. It should make no difference if she asks for a caesarean

If a pregnant woman doesn’t feel safe pushing her baby out, should she be forced to? In theory, of course not. But today Birthrights – the charity promoting human rights in childbirth that I run – released a report showing the worrying treatment of British women who request a caesarean-section birth.

Transparency about what happens to women who ask for a C-section is long overdue. Since its revision in 2011, the Nice best-practice guidance has rightly recognised that women should always be the primary decision-makers in childbirth, while also protecting the right of individual doctors to decline to support an individual who requests a C-section on non-medical grounds. Despite this guidance, Birthrights’ advice service now handles more requests for support on this issue than on any other.

Promoting a particular way of giving birth as the best or right way simply divides us

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الاثنين، 20 أغسطس 2018

One in six NHS trusts do not offer maternal request caesareans

Charity suggests blanket bans could be incompatible with human rights law

Almost one in six NHS trusts in the UK do not offer women caesarean sections on request and many more have inconsistent policies, a charity has said.

Official guidance states that women should be offered a planned c-section “if after discussion and offer of support ... a vaginal birth is still not an acceptable option”.

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السبت، 18 أغسطس 2018

My girlfriend and I thought she had appendicitis – then she gave birth

Most people have nine months of pregnancy to prepare for parenthood, we had three hours

Shortly after my daughter was born, I found myself kneeling on the floor of our house in Nottingham, carefully cutting her out of a babygrow with a pair of scissors. There was no emergency – I was simply so overwhelmed at being left alone to look after her, and she looked so fragile that I didn’t want to hurt her by bending her delicate little arms. So I resorted to scissors.

I am sure most new fathers feel helpless, and even after nine months’ preparation, terrified of doing the wrong thing. But I didn’t even have the luxury of those nine months of pregnancy to get ready – I had just three hours’ notice. At 11.45pm on 11 May 2015, I was 29, carefree and child-free. By 12 May 2015 at 3am, I was a dad.

Had we known, we certainly wouldn't have gone ziplining the weekend before Lyndsay gave birth

I didn’t know what I was doing. I was sleep-deprived, scared and clueless

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الأربعاء، 15 أغسطس 2018

Adele shares story of friend's postpartum psychosis to help new mothers

‘Talk about how you’re feeling,’ singer urges, as experts say taboos can leave people isolated

Perinatal health experts and campaigners have praised the singer Adele for highlighting the issue of postpartum psychosis in new mothers.

Her best friend, Laura Dockrill – a poet, author, illustrator and short story writer – was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis after giving birth to a boy, who is Adele’s godson.

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America's hottest export? Sperm

An American and a Danish company dominate the global sperm market – and both claim their supply is biggest

Ella Rasmussen’s doctors started to prod her about children when she turned 30. She was single, suffered from endometriosis, and contemplated a hysterectomy. After several years, the nudges took hold. Because she wasn’t a good candidate to freeze only her eggs, she was advised to undergo IVF and freeze fertilized embryos.

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الثلاثاء، 14 أغسطس 2018

Bump in the road: how to deliver a baby in an emergency

A woman gave birth to her son next to the M25 on Monday. What should you do if you have to help someone in labour?

The M25 does not feature in many birth plans, but for one woman who gave birth to her baby boy on the roadside after a coach crash on the M25 on Monday, that was the reality. So, what can you do if you find yourself having to deliver a baby when there are no experts around to do it? Clare Livingstone, a professional policy adviser for the Royal College of Midwives, who has delivered a baby on the back seat of a car, has lots of advice.

The mother will naturally try and catch the baby, too, and that’s absolutely fine

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الاثنين، 13 أغسطس 2018

New Zealand to consider miscarriage leave for parents in bid to tackle 'taboo' subject

Women and their partners could be entitled to three days of paid bereavement leave after a miscarriage or stillbirth

A bill legislating three days’ paid bereavement leave for women and their partners after a miscarriage will be considered by New Zealand’s parliament.

The Labour MP Ginny Andersen, who sponsored the bill, said miscarriage was still a “taboo subject” in New Zealand and paid leave to grieve for the loss of a baby – at any stage of the pregnancy – would bring the subject into the open. The proposed bill also covers stillbirths.

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الأحد، 12 أغسطس 2018

Campaigners await UK decision on abortion clinic buffer zones

Pro-choice activists say they expect announcement from Home Office within weeks

Campaigners calling for buffer zones to prevent harassment and abuse of women accessing abortion centres are expecting a Home Office announcement within weeks.

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الجمعة، 10 أغسطس 2018

Jacinda Ardern: ‘Having a baby around changes the tone a little bit’

In an interview with the Guardian, New Zealand PM reflects on life after giving birth

Jacinda Ardern is having a busy week. By early Friday afternoon she had launched a plastic bag ban, negotiated an end to a strike by nurses and announced plans for a new mental health hospital.

From the outside it appears to be business as usual for New Zealand’s prime minister. But seven weeks ago Ardern became only the second leader in the world to give birth while in office, and on Monday she returned to work having to juggle the responsibilities of office with the demands of parenthood.

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الثلاثاء، 7 أغسطس 2018

Motherhood isn’t easy – even for a warrior like Serena Williams | Gaby Hinsliff

The athlete is brave to admit to the physical and emotional toll of being a mother – she will give heart to ordinary women

Serena Williams is a warrior. Even people who know next to nothing about tennis know that; we’ve all read about how she bounced back from almost dying giving birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia, to playing tournaments six months later. She is astonishing, Amazonian, famously not as other mortals.

But she is also, it seems, fighting a very different battle off court. Days after being thrashed by the British player Johanna Konta, Williams wrote on Instagram that she had been worrying about “not being a good mom” and was still processing “postpartum emotions” that she hints have affected her game. She described her conflicted feelings about an intense training schedule that means she’s not with her daughter as much as she’d like, in terms that many new mothers returning to rather less high-profile jobs will recognise. What had been a straightforwardly uplifting fairytale – woman has baby, comes back even stronger, and in the process shows everyone that motherhood doesn’t have to take it out of you – is becoming more complicated. We’re now seeing a more vulnerable side of Williams, as she concedes that in some senses motherhood has changed her; that her astonishing physical strength sometimes conceals psychological turmoil.

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from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2vJ5cOE

الاثنين، 6 أغسطس 2018

'I felt I was not a good mom': Serena Williams details post-partum struggles

Grand slam champion says motherhood has affected recent form
American suffered heavy defeat to Johanna Konta last week

Serena Williams has said concerns over motherhood have affected her recent form.

Williams suffered the heaviest defeat of her career last week when she lost 6-1, 6-0 in just 52 minutes to Britain’s Johanna Konta at the the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.

Last week was not easy for me. Not only was I accepting some tough personal stuff, but I just was in a funk. Mostly, I felt like I was not a good mom. I read several articles that said postpartum emotions can last up to 3 years if not dealt with. I like communication best. Talking things through with my mom, my sisters, my friends let me know that my feelings are totally normal. It’s totally normal to feel like I’m not doing enough for my baby. We have all been there. I work a lot, I train, and I’m trying to be the best athlete I can be. However, that means although I have been with her every day of her life, I’m not around as much as I would like to be. Most of you moms deal with the same thing. Whether stay-at-home or working, finding that balance with kids is a true art. You are the true heroes. I’m here to say: if you are having a rough day or week--it’s ok--I am, too!!! There’s always tomm!

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from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2M0kbP9