I’m still running at seven months pregnant. But it’s transformed how I think about exercise | Nell Frizzell

All too often, staying fit is about vanity and status. The slower and wheezier I become, the more I realise it’s also about survival

Have you recently seen a sweating woman with a watermelon stuffed up her fleece, wheezing her way behind a bush mere metres from a towpath to have a pee? If you have, please say hello next time – for that woman, I suspect, is me.

At seven months pregnant, I am still running three times a week. By “running”, I mean hurling my lumpen body through various woods, fields and city parks at a speed slower than walking, while wearing a pair of gently disintegrating trainers. Do I have to stop every 10 minutes to empty my bladder? You bet I do. Am I running half my usual distance in twice the usual time? Yes, ma’am.

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Epilepsy medication affected Sophie’s pregnancies. Should Australia adopt tougher guidelines?

Exclusive: FoI documents show Advisory Committee on Medicines considered tightening prescribing requirements for sodium valproate – but chose not to

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More than 100 pregnant women have been exposed to medication for epilepsy and bipolar disorder which carries a high risk of birth defects, as the government’s independent medical and scientific committee opted against recommending stricter prescribing rules for the drug.

Freedom of information (FoI) documents show the Advisory Committee on Medicines (ACM) met in April to consider changing the prescribing requirements for the drug, sodium valproate, after the UK introduced tougher regulations in January.

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Makeup, floss and hair dye use in pregnancy leads to more PFAS in breast milk – study

‘Forever chemicals’ pose health threat to developing children and linked with preterm birth, shorter lactation

Higher usage of personal care products among pregnant or nursing women leads to higher levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in their blood and breast milk, new research shows, presenting a serious health threat to developing children.

The new study helps connect the dots among previous papers that have found concerning levels of PFAS in personal care products, umbilical cord blood, breast milk and shown health risks for developing children.

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How having babies became so political - video

The pronatalist movement in the US is gathering pace once again, rekindled by Silicon Valley personalities and hard-right conservatives who are becoming increasingly vocal about whether or not women are having enough babies. But it's not just in the US, some governments in other countries have launched marketing campaigns encouraging people to have more children, while others have offered financial incentives. But while many of these policies claim to be about halting population decline, there are other factors at play. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates efforts around the world to boost birth rates, as well as the underlying political motivations, from bodily autonomy to immigration

• Birthrates are plummeting worldwide. Can governments turn the tide?

• When desperate measures to persuade women to have children fail, it’s time for fresh thinking

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Women who have lost a baby prefer the term ‘pregnancy loss’ over ‘miscarriage’

Exclusive: New research finds ‘clinical, cruel’ language used by medics is unacceptable to many

Women who have lost a baby often dislike the language used by medical professionals and would prefer the term “pregnancy loss” over “miscarriage”, research has found.

More than six in 10 women (61%) who had lost a baby between 18 and 23 weeks of pregnancy said it was unacceptable for doctors, midwives and nurses to use the word “miscarriage”.

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He has already fathered many children. Now Musk wants all of the US to embrace extreme breeding | Arwa Mahdawi

Trump’s billionaire best friend wants young people to ‘fear’ childlessness. He’ll be right at home in an incoming administration set on rolling back reproductive rights

Is Elon Musk the dinner party guest from hell? It sure seems that way. Not only is the man desperate for people to laugh at his crass jokes, he reportedly has a weird habit of trying to donate his sperm at every opportunity – including, according to an October New York Times report, an incident where he offered some spermatozoa, as casually as you might pass the salt, to a married couple “he had met socially only a handful of times” during a Silicon Valley dinner party.

Musk has denied offering sperm to strangers over supper. But it would be in keeping with his creepy breeding fetish: Musk is desperate for people in developed countries to have more children and has himself fathered at least 12 children with three women. (One of the children has since sadly died.) He’s become one of the most famous faces of a growing pro-natalist movement – one with an unsettling overlap with eugenics and deeply misogynistic ideas.

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He already has 12 children. Now Musk wants all of the US to embrace extreme breeding | Arwa Mahdawi

Trump’s billionaire best friend wants young people to ‘fear’ childlessness. He’ll be right at home in an incoming administration set on rolling back reproductive rights

Is Elon Musk the dinner party guest from hell? It sure seems that way. Not only is the man desperate for people to laugh at his crass jokes, he reportedly has a weird habit of trying to donate his sperm at every opportunity – including, according to an October New York Times report, an incident where he offered some spermatozoa, as casually as you might pass the salt, to a married couple “he had met socially only a handful of times” during a Silicon Valley dinner party.

Musk has denied offering sperm to strangers over supper. But it would be in keeping with his creepy breeding fetish: Musk is desperate for people in developed countries to have more children and has himself fathered at least 12 children with three women. He’s become one of the most famous faces of a growing pro-natalist movement – one with an unsettling overlap with eugenics and deeply misogynistic ideas.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Continue reading...

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