pregnancy

الأربعاء، 12 أكتوبر 2016

More babies face health risks due to obese parents, experts warn

Doctors say increasing number of babies worldwide face serious problems, such as brain damage, strokes and heart disease

A growing number of babies worldwide are at risk of brain damage or having a stroke, heart attack or asthma in adulthood because their mother was obese, health experts have warned.

Leading doctors said dangerously overweight mothers were passing on obesity to their children as the result of “a vicious cycle” in which excess weight can seriously affect the health of parents and their offspring.

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Janet Jackson says she is pregnant with first child

Singer had earlier this year postponed Unbreakable tour, saying she and husband Wissam Al Mana were ‘planning our family’

Janet Jackson has confirmed she is pregnant with her first child at the age of 50. The American singer was rumoured to be expecting after postponing the second leg of her world tour earlier this year, telling her fans she was planning for a family.

She has now confirmed the news, telling US publication People: “We thank God for our blessing.” Jackson also showed off her baby bump in a picture for the magazine.

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الأحد، 9 أكتوبر 2016

Down’s syndrome and the threat of eugenics | Letters

Neither in Sally Phillips’ film, A World Without Down’s Syndrome, nor in your review by Julia Raeside (Last night’s TV: A documentary straight from the heart – and that’s the problem, 6 October) was there any reference to “eugenics”. Yet possibly still within living memory proponents of eugenics in America (and elsewhere) were advocating selective breeding to determine the future of society. It is worth noting that such ideas were grounded in the work of Francis Galton, who was a powerful influence on Cyril Burt, who in turn later developed the 11-plus exams. (His influence might be resurrected in the tests used to determine who is most fit for the new grammar schools we’re promised.)

Sally Phillips’ programme does, therefore, offer a timely reminder of the dangers of embarking on a determinist view of society and the risk that selective breeding is acceptable. As Phillips reported, there is a lot of pressure to avoid a potential “burden” as an outcome of the wrong sort of foetus. In America the eugenicists gathered data purporting to show which sectors of society were more (or less) fit for the future. Favoured solutions proposed to avoid a future populated by those deemed to be “unfit” for society included restrictions on immigration and enforced sterilisation. There is much in the history of that movement to warn us of the dangers of a determinist future. It is, therefore, right to have the questions raised: what kind of society do we want; and how kind do we want society to be?
Dr Simon Gibbs
Reader in educational psychology, University of Newcastle

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الجمعة، 7 أكتوبر 2016

Facing my fear: I wanted to have a baby. But as a trans man, I was terrified of labor | Trevor MacDonald

Would an event centered around parts of my body with which I felt extreme discomfort send me into a panic?

When I became pregnant, the reason was to start a family, not to somehow embrace femininity or to de-transition. I’m a transgender guy, born with typical female anatomy. I’d taken testosterone for a few years and then stopped in order to conceive. I’d also had chest surgery as part of my transition, so even as my belly grew, I sported a flat, masculine-appearing chest and I maintained my beard.

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الخميس، 6 أكتوبر 2016

Sorry, Sally Phillips, but a woman should know if her unborn baby has Down’s | Hadley Freeman

A woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy is non-negotiable. Even if Phillips – someone I’ve long-admired – doesn’t like their reasons

I’ve always been a fan of Sally Phillips. I loved her as the chain-smoking feminist Shazza in Bridget Jones, of course, as well as the nightmare girlfriend from the past in Green Wing. But mainly I loved her for the 90s feminist sketch show Smack the Pony. Some women experience their feminist awakening when they read The Female Eunuch or Andrea Dworkin. For me, it came from Nora Ephron and Smack the Pony, in which Phillips, along with Fiona Allen and Doon Mackichan, gloriously satirised the rigid expectations placed on women, often by other women.

Which brings me to Phillips’ documentary, A World Without Down’s Syndrome?, which screened on Wednesday night on BBC2. There has been an enormous amount of publicity for this documentary, with praise for Phillips’ clearly heartfelt intentions. The actor has an adorable young son, Olly, who has Down’s, and one of her aims is to provide a counterbalance to the almost entirely negative depiction of Down’s in both society and the media. For this, she should be loudly applauded. True, her wholly positive depiction of her life with a child with Down’s is as partial as the wholly negative ones, not least because her son is relatively high-functioning and Phillips and her husband are able to afford help. Still, as I said, it’s a much-needed corrective, and hats off to her.

To argue for screening is not to argue, as Phillips suggests, that people with Down’s don’t have a right to life

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الأربعاء، 5 أكتوبر 2016

Are you one of the growing number of people without children? Tell us why

Choice, circumstance, health and the perceived benefits all play a part in deciding whether to have children. We’d like you to share your experiences

The number of women in the UK and US not having children is at an all-time high. American women without children between the ages 15-44 increased from 35% in 1976 to 47% in 2010. We’d like you to share your reasons for not having children, and we’ll use a selection of experiences in our reporting.

Women in the UK born in 1984 had an average of 1.02 children by the time they were 30 years old, which is slightly fewer children than women born in 1969 who have on average 1.12 children by 30 years old. 18% of women born in 1969 remain without children, whereas only 11% of those born in 1944 were without children.

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الثلاثاء، 4 أكتوبر 2016

Westminster: wealth, opulence and socially isolated new mothers

In an area where wealth and poverty sit side by side, a maternity project is tackling loneliness and mental health problems

In a noisy community hall in London, mothers and toddlers sit in a circle shaking tambourines and singing. At first glance it’s just another infant music session, but looking around, a different picture emerges. Nearby a mother, a sleeping baby in her arms, chats quietly to an attentive volunteer known as a maternity champion, while another cheerfully hands out cups of tea to a couple of exhausted-looking women, that tell-tale sign of new motherhood.

The maternity champions project, run by Paddington Development Trust in partnership with the NCT, the UK’s largest parent charity, launched as a two-year pilot in 2014, funded by Westminster council’s public health team. Funding has recently been extended for a further two years and the aim is to roll out the concept nationally. The pilot is part of a wider programme of NCT peer support projects across the country, to provide support, link parents to antenatal and postnatal services, and reduce the social isolation many new mothers feel.

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