In a study published in this week’s edition of the journal The Lancet, researchers write that after studying more than 2500 women in Cameroon, in Africa, not only were abused women at 50% higher risk of losing one pregnancy, but that pregnancy loss was the result of all types of abuse (physical, emotional/psychological, or sexual), and that psychological abuse resulted in the highest number of miscarriages.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, miscarriage, spousal abuse, abuse when pregnant

Post from: Blisstree

Spousal abuse increases miscarriage risk by 50%

Today, Womb Within has it’s own Duh Study: More Staff And More Beds Means Better Maternity Services At Newham University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK. Really? You think?

The gist of the article says that they hired more people, had more beds, and provided more care. And, because they had more people and more beds, they gave better care. That’s a shocker….

Or am I just being a curmudgeon?

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Tags: pregnancy blog

Post from: Blisstree

Time for another duh study/report…

I have my opinion of this, but I’ll put it at the bottom, below the press release:

Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Program Assists Pregnant Women

Pregnancy centers receive funding for new medical technology

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — As the nation marked the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand the Knights of Columbus launched a new initiative aimed at providing women considering abortion a new way of viewing the life within them.

The K of C Supreme Council, in cooperation with its state council affiliates in Iowa and Florida, today provided two crisis pregnancy centers complete funding for the acquisition of ultrasound machines that will help the centers better provide for the health of both mother and child. Ultrasound exams, which are medically indicated throughout pregnancy for a variety diagnostic reasons, use sound waves to scan a woman’s abdomen, creating a picture or "sonogram" of the baby in her uterus.

Without K of C support, these centers would be unable to purchase the ultrasound devices, each costing tens of thousands of dollars.

The Women’s Help Center Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla., received a check today from K of C Supreme Director Dennis J. Stoddard and Florida State Deputy James J. Schonefeld. Supreme Director David A. Bellendier and Iowa State Deputy Patrick T. O’Keefe presented a check to Choices Medical Clinic in Iowa City, Iowa.

"The sophistication of today’s medical technology provides a ‘window on the womb,’" said Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson. "Even from the early stages of pregnancy, a mother can see her developing child, hear the baby’s heartbeat, and to recognize the miracle of new life within her."

The Knights of Columbus ultrasound project seeks to provide medically certified pro-life pregnancy centers with the modern technology to monitor the health of babies in utero, and to allow mothers to visually experience that development.

The Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest lay Catholic organization with more than 1.7 million members worldwide. Last year, Knights gave more than 68 million hours of their time to charitable causes and donated more than $144 million to charity.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus

Now, what do you think about this? To me, ultrasounds are a medical tool to assess that the baby is not in any distress and to detect problems. While I’m not the strongest abortion proponent, I also don’t like to see something like ultrasounds be used as propaganda – which is what this seems like to me.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, ultrasounds, knights of columbus

Post from: Blisstree

Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Program Assists Pregnant Women

Community-based Internet forums are great for new mothers, but could marginalize fathers

Researchers believe that local online forums could play a key role in helping new mothers to share experiences and concerns, according to a study published in the January issue of the UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Professor Wendy Hall from the University of British Columbia and Assistant Professor Valerie Irvine from the University of Victoria, Canada, studied online communication threads between a group of 40 women, who had all given birth in the same year and joined a local forum based in a moderate-sized Canadian city.

They concluded that these forums could provide a viable alternative to face-to-face groups, especially in rural communities where travel and professional support are limited.

As a result of the study, the researchers are encouraging healthcare professionals to help mothers with young children to set up, or access, similar community-based networks as they believe they offer more tailored support than existing corporate web-based forums with unlimited international access.

But they have warned that there is a danger that women-only forums can marginalise fathers and that if fathers are not actively involved in discussions about childcare this could pose particular problems for working mothers.

"The 12 women who initially set up the forum met while they were attending parent education classes" explains Professor Hall. "They invited a community health nurse to monitor their communications and correct any information that was wrong."

New members were then invited by word of mouth.

The 40 women who took part in the study gave the researchers permission to monitor their archived posts, which covered a one-year period. They were highly educated, with an average age of 36. The group included pregnant women as well as the mothers of babies up to 11 months of age. Eight out of ten were married and 88 per cent had above average incomes. Sixty-one per cent were employed outside the home, nine per cent worked at home for pay and 14 per cent were on maternity leave.

The researchers found that the women used the online support group to:

* Develop community connections in the small geographical area that the membership covered. It was used to share information about accessing community programmes and classes, suggest and share the names of service providers, organise dates for events, sell or trade children’s items, share videos and plan get-togethers.

* Request and provide emotional support. The women shared their stories, experiences and feelings, expressed sympathy, thanked others for their help and talked about their beliefs and expectations. For example they discussed practical issues, like breastfeeding, finding child care, teething and healthcare experiences, and emotional issues, like how they felt about going back to work.

* Share information that they had gleaned from websites, reading or care providers, and learn. For example, they talked about the best ways to get their babies to sleep, useful websites and books they had discovered or advice they had been given by their healthcare provider on issues such as milk allergies. They also helped other members whose computer skills were less developed.

* Normalise the experiences they were having with their babies and as mothers. The women found it helpful to discuss problems and compare notes about problems as it made them realise that other mothers had similar issues. They also talked about how they had solved problems, the advice they had received and how their experiences would change as their children developed.

The authors have pointed out that the experiences of mothers on a tightly-knit geographical forum could be more similar than women on a website that draws membership from diverse communities across the world.

"The mothers who became part of this online community obviously drew great benefits from the advice, support and friendship they received from other local women" says Professor Hall.

"However some of the women did report that their partners were commenting on how much time they spent on the computer and they acknowledged that social activities were organised that excluded fathers.

"There were some indications that our study group felt that parenting was primarily their responsibility and that fathers didn’t need to be included in the discussions. Supporting mothers is very important but it is also vital that fathers are not sidelined in a way that discourages them from being active parents."

The authors conclude that local online support groups can play an important role in helping to support women in what can be an isolating experience, by bringing them together with other mothers with similar expectations, beliefs and knowledge.

"This self-sufficient grass-roots group required limited monitoring by the community health nurse and this format could offer an alternative to face-to-face support groups" says Professor Hall. "Nurses and other healthcare providers could also help women to identify online local or regional resources.

"The forum we studied clearly shows that the opportunity to share experiences with like-minded, local women can stop pregnant women and mothers from feeling isolated and worrying about giving birth and parenting."

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Tags: pregnancy blog, online forums for new mothers

Post from: Blisstree

Community-based Internet forums are great for new mothers, but could marginalize fathers

There are still those who feel that very moderate drinking during pregnancy isn’t harmful, I can’t believe there is anyone who feels that binge drinking is ok. However, according to this news report. up to 50% of Australian women drank while pregnant, some of them binging in the final months.

Click on the TV screen below to watch the brief news clip:

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Image: iStock

Tags: pregnancy blog, alcohol during pregnancy, drinking while pregnant, binge drinking while pregnant

Post from: Blisstree

50% of Australian mothers drink while pregnant

How many boys are born compared with girls?

In 2005, there were 2,118,982 boys compared with 2,019,367 girls, for a ratio of 1,049 males for every 1000 females.

What day of the week has more births? Which has the fewest?

More babies are born on Tuesdays and Sundays are the quietest. But, this is for the United States where many babies are born by planned or elective Cesarean sections, which could skew the days. More C-sections are done on weekdays than on weekends, but the researchers did find that more vaginal births occurred on Tuesdays too.

Which month has the most births? Which has the fewest?

August is the busiest month for people who deliver babies. February is the least popular month. (Marijke asks: could this be because there are fewer days though?) If you’re planning your pregnancy – as much as pregnancies can be planned, it is more likely that you’ll aim for warmer weather, which explains why August is the most popular, followed by July and September.

Are most moms married or unmarried?

The unmarried mother rate is rising and increased substantially over the three years from 2002 to 2005, to 9% to 12%.

How old are the moms delivering now?

Women between 20 to 24 years old had babies at a rate of 102.2 per 1000 births. The record low for births in this age group was the year before, in 2004.

For women between 25 to 29 years, the rate has been stable, relatively unchanged since 2002 at 115.5 births per 1000.

• Women 30 to 34 years increased slightly to 95.8 per 1000 births.
• Women 35 to 39 years saw the rate rise by 2% since 2004 to 46.3 per 1000 births.
• Women 40 to 44 years also saw a 2% rise to 9.1per 1000 births.
• Women frorm 45 to 49 stayed stable for quite a while and recently saw a rise to 0.6 per 1000 births.
• Women 50 years and older made up 417 of the total births, up from 374 the year before.

How many C-sections were done?

The C-section rate is rising at alarming rates, say experts. In 2005, there was a 4% increase in C-sections over the year before to a total of 30.3% of births being by C-section.

How many babies were born in 2005?

4,138,349 babies were born in 2005, a 1% increase over the year before.

Which state has the highest birth rate? Which has the lowest?

Vermont has the lowest birth rate of 10.1 births for every 1000 people in the state. Utah has the highest rate at 20.9 per 1000 people in the state.

How many deliveries took place in a hospital?

99% of babies were born in a hospital in 2005.

How many babies were delivered by midwives?

Midwives delivered 7.9% of babies, a number unchanged from the year before.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, pregnancy rate, midwives, cesarean sections, c sections, vaginal deliveries, birth rates

Post from: Blisstree

10 answers to questions you didn’t know you had

There’s a big push *not* to increase maternity benefits from many people who feel that they shouldn’t bear the cost of your children, they managed well without it so why should you get it, and many other similar lines of thought. But, many are fighting back with arguments that show maternity leave is of benefit to everyone.

The newest finding about maternity leave after giving birth has found that it can result in lower rates of Cesarean sections (C sections) and increased levels of breastfeeding – both actions that are often the best choices for babies and the mothers.

According to a press release issued by the University of California at Berkeley about two recent studies said:

One study found that women who started their leave in the last month of pregnancy were less likely to have cesarean deliveries, while another found that new mothers were more likely to establish breastfeeding the longer they delayed their return to work.

The study on the use of antenatal leave – time off before delivery with the expectation of returning to the employer after giving birth – and the rate of C-sections is the first examination of birth outcomes in U.S. working women, the researchers said. It will appear in the January/February print edition of the journal Women’s Health Issues.

I tend to really believe that finding. I took five weeks off before my oldest son was born. I hadn’t planned on it, but I was working at a school for physically disabled children and we hit March break when I was about 36 weeks pregnant. I didn’t want to take a week off, go back for just a few weeks and then take off, so I treated myself to four weeks – which turned into five because he was late. And I still remember how relaxing it was and how much I treasured those five weeks all to myself.

I remember saying that no matter what happens in life, I’ll never be able to have that time to pamper myself again and enjoy being pregnant at the same time. And I did enjoy being pregnant.

The second study, on maternity leave and breastfeeding was also addressed in the press release:

In this study, women who had returned to work by the time of the interview took on average 10.3 weeks of maternity leave. Overall, 82 percent of mothers established breastfeeding within the first month after their babies were born. Among women who established breastfeeding, 65 percent were still breastfeeding at the time of the interview.

Researchers found that women who took less than six weeks of maternity leave had a four-fold greater risk of failure to establish breastfeeding compared with women who were still on maternity leave at the time of the interview. Women who took six to 12 weeks of maternity leave had a two-fold greater risk of failing to establish breastfeeding.

Having a managerial position or a job with autonomy and a flexible work schedule was linked with longer breastfeeding duration in the study. After 30 days, managers had a 40 percent lower chance of stopping breastfeeding, while those with an inflexible work schedule had a 50 percent higher chance of stopping.

Overall, the study found that returning to work within 12 weeks of delivery had a greater impact on breastfeeding establishment for women in non-managerial positions, with inflexible jobs or who reported high psychosocial distress, including serious arguments with a spouse or partner and unusual money problems.

"The findings suggest that if a woman postpones her return to work, she’ll increase her chances of breastfeeding success, especially if she’s got a job where she’s on the clock and has less discretion with her time," said Guendelman. "Also, women who are in jobs where they have more authority may feel more empowered with how they use their time."

What do you think?

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Tags: pregnancy blog, breast feeding, breastfeeding, maternity leave, antenatal leave, cesarean sections, c sections

Post from: Blisstree

Maternity leave results in fewer C-sections and increased breastfeeding

All too often, we sit back and complain about our lot in life, forgetting that there are others who don’t know if they’ll see tomorrow, often as they are trying to make the world a better place for others.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, midwifery, midwives afghanistan

Post from: Blisstree

Midwifery in Afghanistan

In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers studied 542 women who had become pregnant unexpectedly. They found that those who had one unplanned pregnancy had twice the chance of becoming pregnant unexpectedly again, and three times as high if they were under 24 years old when the first one happened.

Unplanned pregnancies, especially in younger women, carry risks that include the mother not getting the proper prenatal care and not taking care of herself as she should during pregnancy. This can result in a premature baby or a low-birth weight baby, which itself can result in complications at birth and later on in life.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, unplanned pregnancy, unexpected pregnancy, teen pregnancies

Post from: Blisstree

Unplanned pregnancies raise chances of having more unplanned ones

Thomas is pregnant again and I’m assuming we’ll have another media circus. I have no issues with how people live their lives, as long as they’re not harming anyone – but I do believe that Thomas’s need for publicity over this can and will likely be harmful to the children later. We aren’t talking about a gay or lesbian couple that has decided to have a family – we’re talking about a woman who looks male, but still has not given up her female sex organs. Either have a sex-change operation or don’t – but don’t boast about being a male who is pregnant.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, pregnant man, thomas beatie, ovaries, sex-change operation, male hormones

Post from: Blisstree

“He” is NOT a man, but “he” is pregnant again.