Natalie Portman's husband backs ballet director fired for discrimination

Choreographer Benjamin Millepied has joined other top dance world figures to demand Lyon Ballet director is returned to post after dismissal for pregnancy discrimination

Choreographer Benjamin Millepied, the husband of Natalie Portman, has signed an open letter calling for the reinstatement of a ballet director who was fired for pregnancy discrimination.

Yorgos Loukos was dismissed as Lyon Opera Ballet’s director earlier this month. A hearing found that he had discriminated against 34-year-old dancer Karline Marion during her pregnancy and after her return from childbirth. The 67-year-old Greek was initially fined for the offence before a second tribunal ruled he should be fired.

Related: Rose McGowan: Natalie Portman's Oscars dress protest 'deeply offensive'

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/32aAtKe

First baby is born through new egg-freezing technique

Cancer patient’s immature eggs were collected, matured in lab and frozen for use five years on

A woman who was left infertile by cancer treatment has given birth to a baby after her immature eggs were collected, matured in a lab and frozen for use five years later.

Fertility specialists at Antoine Béclère University hospital in Clamart near Paris said the healthy boy, named Jules, was the first baby to be born through the new procedure.

Related: UK time limit on storing frozen eggs and sperm could be extended

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/38Gavke

'Motherless mothers': the hidden grief of becoming a mom without one of your own | Sara Gaynes Levy and Jessica Zucker

Adjusting to parenthood without a mother as a touchstone can be poignant, complex and emotionally challenging

There’s a profound psychological transformation that happens upon becoming a mother. Many women turn to their own mothers to glean insight, sometimes feeling a deepening of connection, or at the very least a more well-rounded understanding of their maternal lineage. But if your mother has passed away, or if the relationship is too damaging to hold on to, nascent motherhood can be laced with a new kind of grief.

In the absence of that connection, the transition to motherhood might take on different meaning altogether. Some women find they have a new appreciation for the complexities of what their own mothers endured; they may begin to feel more strongly bonded to them even in their absence. Others may experience a sense of isolation, pangs of envy or fits of anger. Adjusting to motherhood without a mother as a touchstone can make for a complex and poignant period.

I find it so strange that you can have a hard relationship with a parent, but still think I just want my mom

Sara Gaynes Levy is a freelance writer in New York City covering health, wellness, and women’s issues.

Jessica Zucker is a Los Angeles-based psychologist specializing in women’s reproductive and maternal mental health and the author of the forthcoming book I Had a Miscarriage: A Memoir, A Movement (Feminist Press, 2021).

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2P5Q4Fz

In a stew over your Lancashire hotpot | Brief letters

Parenting classes | Rose theatre, Kingston | Retro success | Stews | Donald Trump

“We need parenting classes for girls and – crucially – boys,” writes Alice O’Keeffe (Journal, 6 February). Be careful what you wish for. Once you have parenting classes you encourage ideas of the “right way” to look after babies. There are many right ways, and it may be hard, but at the moment we have the freedom to learn them for ourselves. The best education would be for secondary-school children and expectant mothers to visit new mothers to become familiar with what it’s really like.
Naomi Stadlen
Author of What Mothers Learn – Without Being Taught (out in April)

• The “National Theatre” adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (G2, 6 February) is actually a transfer from, and a co-production with, the Rose theatre in Kingston. The Rose, a theatre producing exciting and imaginative work, receives no Arts Council funding and needs all the publicity and recognition it can get.
Simon Higman
Kingston, London

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/39kHgDx

Alex Morgan shows pregnancy does not end a playing career | Suzanne Wrack

American is the latest elite sportswoman to prove pregnancy no longer means their title switches from athlete to mother

It already has 1.5 million views. Alex Morgan twists away from her marker and lets rip at goal – again, and again, and again. It is not a particularly unusual sight; Morgan scored 23 goals for club and country in 2018 and nine goals in the 22 games in which she featured last year. But this is different. The marker is static, the training drill simple but, under a “USA LFG” hoodie, Morgan’s seven-month‑pregnant belly juts out proudly.

A day later, in full USWNT training gear, the 2019 World Cup Silver Boot-winner was stepping off the national team coach having joined her teammates for training before their Concacaf Olympic qualifier against Mexico in California. Again, the world retweeted.

Related: Megan Rapinoe on target as USA beat Canada in Concacaf final

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2UEk4fj

I last had a baby five years ago – a lot has changed since then | Eva Wiseman

Scans, ‘natural’ childbirth and epidurals: the political shifts in maternal care

It’s been curious to note what’s changed between 2014, when I last gave birth and 2020, when all signs point towards me doing so again. There are the small things, such as the quality of ultrasound scans, which this time seem so accurate, so detailed and school-photo-like compared to the eerie shadows we were presented with last time. Small things, like the prevalence of baby slings today – with Meghan Markle herself caught up in a “babywearing scandal” – and weaning advice, and the crushing weight of knowing too much.

And then there are the larger things, like my midwife’s detailed advice about monitoring the movement of the baby, the rhythm of its literal gut punches, and why to go to hospital when it starts drumming. There’s been a shift in origins of influence, in the places women get their information. When Kim Kardashian posted on Instagram about a morning sickness medication (in exchange for a reported $500,000), sales for the prescription pill jumped 21% to nearly $41.7m – today midwives only have so much power. Mothers continue, like me, to age – there’s a rumour that, at the hospital where I’m planning to give birth, there are more pregnant women over 50 than under 20.

Continue reading...

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

New mothers to receive health check six weeks after giving birth

Campaigners welcome move to assess women in England for physical and mental wellbeing

New mothers will be given a physical and mental health check six weeks after giving birth, in a victory for campaigners.

From April, the 600,000 women a year who have babies in England will undergo an assessment of their health and wellbeing with either a GP or practice nurse at their surgery.

Continue reading...

from Pregnancy | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2H2vrpn

We should celebrate the sex appeal of pregnant women, not shame them | Yomi Adegoke

Nothing makes me happier than seeing women such as Jodie Turner-Smith deem their bump a part of their body to show proudly

It was hard to believe that Jodie Turner-Smith, the chiselled-from-black-marble female lead of Queen & Slim, the feature film debut from Melina Matsoukas, could get any more resplendent. Then she got pregnant. Last Friday, she glowed on Graham Norton’s couch, her bare bump on display below a chic, one-shouldered crop top.

Not everyone was as taken with the vision. Inevitable uproar ensued over her audacity to don anything other than a muumuu, to which she clapped back via Twitter, sharing a picture of herself in the outfit with the caption: “Gives zero fucks about your disdain for pregnant women’s bodies on British television.” Personally, I love maternity looks where the bump is treated like another piece of flesh to flash, even if somehow it still rankles with some people.

Continue reading...

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