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Like any responsible new mother, Alex Silver wanted the very best for her first-born. That meant eating properly, no alcohol and exercising during pregnancy; non-toxic baby mattresses for the nursery and choosing the safest buggy.

And when Scarlett was born five years ago, like a growing number of British parents, she chose to have the blood from the baby’s umbilical cord (once considered medical waste) frozen and ‘banked’ – at a cost of £2,000.

The concept, which has been a possibility for about a decade, may sound bizarre but advocates claim that stem cells from the banked blood may be used at a later date to cure the child or a sibling of a host of deadly diseases, should they be struck down. Today there are about ten businesses in the UK offering to freeze and store cord blood and industry insiders estimate that up to 100,000 parents have chosen to do so in the UK. The global stem-cell market is forecast to treble to a staggering £40 billion by 2015.

‘When you get ready for your new-born you want everything to be right,’ explains company director Alex, 42.

‘Banking the cord blood was an absolute necessity. I would have compromised on decorating her nursery or her future school fees to free up the funds, although luckily we’re fairly comfortable so I didn’t have to.’

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

A test carried out during pregnancy could predict which women will develop a potentially fatal condition called pre-eclampsia, scientists say.

Presenting their study to the American Society of Nephrology, researchers said the test detected specific kidney cells in patients’ urine.

Out of 15 women who developed pre-eclampsia, all tested positive for the cells.

Experts say a simple, predictive test during pregnancy would be valuable.

Warning sign
Pre-eclampsia is a disorder which appears in the late stages of pregnancy and is characterised by high blood pressure and excess protein in the urine.

Source: BBC NEWS>> Read full article and comment

Newborns suffer permanent harm, including brain damage, disability or physical deformity, says top children’s doctor

Britain’s top children’s doctor has said that more than 10,000 babies each year suffer serious harm, including death, because their mothers drank alcohol, smoked, over-ate, or took drugs during pregnancy.

Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said newborns are suffering permanent harm including brain damage, disability or physical deformity. Others die because of miscarriage or stillbirth caused by their mother’s smoking.

What he called “avoidable [and] self-inflicted” harm to unborn children represented a major public health problem, an ongoing human tragedy and a high cost to the NHS, he said.

Source: GUARDIAN>> Read full article and comment

John Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston was thrilled when she became pregnant again last year at the age of 47.

But though many were surprised that the actress had successfully conceived in her late forties, it seems she is not alone.

Indeed, she could even be considered young when compared with a new generation of parents that are choosing to have children for the first time in their fifties.

It may seem a concept that defies nature, but with the help of fertility specialists, rising numbers of women are giving birth to their firstborns at an age when many of their peers are anticipating, or enjoying, grandparenthood.

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Women who take a certain type of anti-depressant during pregnancy could be contributing to a dramatic rise in the number of children with autism, say scientists.

They found in a study of rats, that newborns given a drug known as an SSRI, which targets the ‘happy hormone’ serotonin, showed brain abnormalities and behaviour typical of the developmental disorder. Rats are born at an earlier stage of development and those treated in the study were equivalent to babies entering their third trimester.

Unborn babies are exposed to anti-depressants taken by their mothers through the placenta.

The multidisciplinary team from the University of Mississippi Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco, said the findings could shed light on a possible link between anti-depressants and autism.

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When Carla Bruni gave birth to daughter Giulia last week at the age of 43 she joined a growing band of mothers giving birth later in life.

Research from the Office of National Statistics shows that the number of women giving birth in their 40s and 50s has trebled in a decade.

Ms Bruni can count Arlene Phillips, who gave birth at 47, Jane Seymour, at 44, Christie Brinkley, at 44, and Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding, who had her baby at age 48, among her contemporaries.

But is this new generation of older mothers driving a boom of a different kind?

Figures released today by a Harley Street cosmetic surgery firm reveal that the number of older mothers seeking post-birth surgery over the past five years has soared.

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Expectant mothers want to give their children the best possible start

Pregnant women are fitter and take more regular exercise than those not expecting a baby, a survey shows.

It says this is because they want to give the best possible start to their unborn child, to relax and to get fit for the birth.

Around a third of the women questioned for the study admitted never exercising before getting pregnant.

Swimming is the most popular exercise, with 60 per cent taking to the pool while pregnant, followed by walking and yoga.

However, almost a quarter said they continued to enjoy high-impact workouts at the gym, exercise classes or jogging when expecting.

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Married love cheat faked DNA test so he could deny girlfriend’s child was his

Conrad Luis De Souza was sentenced to two years and three months
Court heard his CV was a ‘work of fiction’
He pretended he was another doctor with a similar name
Worked in ‘clinical guidance’ roles without the right qualifications. A married man who pretended to be a doctor faked a paternity test after his lover became pregnant so that he could deny he was the father.

Conrad De Souza seduced scientist and committed Christian Silke Luetzelschwab in December 2007.

He began an affair with her after claiming he was a single doctor when he met her at a conference.

De Souza told her that he had been educated at £9,000-a-term Dulwich College, followed by Cambridge, before working as a GP and then as a heart specialist.

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Performance artist who plans to give birth live on stage pictured with her birthing pool

Family pictures and personal decorations adorn Brooklyn gallery
Audience of 15 expected to watch delivery in ‘next few weeks’. The audience will be expectant, and so will the performer.

These are the first pictures of the brightly-coloured Brooklyn art gallery that’s been converted into a bedroom – so an artist can give birth.

Marni Kotak has created a cosy environment for the birth of her first child. It is brightly decorated with ocean blue walls, family pictures and photo-imprinted pillows and blankets of the mother-to-be.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Expectant mothers want to give their children the best possible start

Pregnant women are fitter and take more regular exercise than those not expecting a baby, a survey shows.

It says this is because they want to give the best possible start to their unborn child, to relax and to get fit for the birth.

Around a third of the women questioned for the study admitted never exercising before getting pregnant.

Swimming is the most popular exercise, with 60 per cent taking to the pool while pregnant, followed by walking and yoga.

However, almost a quarter said they continued to enjoy high-impact workouts at the gym, exercise classes or jogging when expecting.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Being too thin can be just as damaging as being too fat when it comes to getting pregnant, according to new research.

Thinness is associated with fertility problems in couples trying to conceive naturally, often due to underweight women having irregular periods and producing low levels of the hormone oestrogen.

Obesity can also affect the chances of conception, with excess weight linked to irregular periods and conditions such as polycystic ovaries. But while lots of research has focused on the negative impact of obesity, a new study suggests being underweight is just as bad if not more so.

Experts in Chicago analysed data from 2,362 cycles of IVF involving women under the age of 40. For women who were underweight – with a body mass index (BMI) of between 14 and 18 – the chance of delivering a healthy baby was 34%.

Source: Thisislondon.>> Read full article and comment

Pregnant women are able to exert a degree of control over when they give birth, according to a study.

Researchers at Yale University in the US found an increase in spontaneous deliveries on Valentine’s Day – at 3.6 per cent higher than average.
They also found an unusually low number on Halloween – at 5.3 per cent lower than normal.
Less surprisingly, far fewer women opted to have a Caesarean on October 31 than normal (down 16.9 per cent), while lots chose Valentine’s Day for their new arrival (up 12.1 per cent).
The study, published in the Journal of Social Science and Medicine, is called ‘Influence of Valentine’s Day and Halloween on Birth Timing’.
Becca Levy, associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale School of Medicine, and fellow authors of the study, wrote: “This study raises the possibility that the assumption underlying the term “spontaneous births,” namely, that they are outside the control of pregnant women, is erroneous.”

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It’s a girl, and a nation is gripped. Well, all except her father – he had the euro to take care of…

France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, gave birth to a baby girl in a private clinic in Paris last night.

President Nicolas Sarkozy was not present for the birth. He visited his wife in the clinic yesterday afternoon before flying to Frankfurt for talks on the eurozone debt crisis with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

He flew back to Paris late last night and visited his wife and baby daughter at the exclusive Clinique de la Muette in western Paris.

The Elysée Palace made no official announcement but friends of Ms Bruni-Sarkozy told the French news agency AFP that she gave birth to a little girl at about 7pm Paris time.

Source: INDEPENDENT>> Read full article and comment

Payments to egg donors are to triple to £750 a time. The fertility authority says it is to cover the costs of those wishing to help childless couples –but will it simply encourage vulnerable women to sign up to what is a potentially life-threatening procedure?

Making babies by artificial means is not without risk. Nina Thanki, 37, from Leicester, died in 2006 from a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot on her lung – triggered by the egg-retrieval procedure she had undergone just a few days earlier.

The previous year, Temilola Akinbolagbe, 33, collapsed at a bus stop in Croydon, South London, two days after hormone treatment prior to egg collection. She died of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a usually mild condition that in her case caused a heart attack.

Source: INDEPENDENT>> Read full article and comment

Pregnant women were urged to get their annual flu jab yesterday as research showed they have a five times greater risk of a stillbirth if they are admitted to hospital with swine flu.

The study, by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, recorded seven stillbirths and three deaths of babies shortly after birth among 256 mothers infected with swine flu between September 2009 and January 2010.

In 2009, 36.6 per cent of healthy pregnant women had the jab, as did 56.6 per cent of pregnant women with other health conditions. Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “This shows the importance of vaccinating all pregnant women.”

Source: INDEPENDENT>> Read full article and comment

US mother’s horror at Facebook message from missing 15 year old

It was perhaps the most joyous and simultaneously horrifying news for the mother of a runaway to hear.

A 15-year-old girl missing since June contacted her mother via Facebook on Friday – revealing she is married and pregnant after fleeing to Mexico.

It was believed Alisa Wheeler ran away from her Southern California home with her adult boyfriend when she disappeared four months ago.

No one had heard from her until she reached out to her mother last week, and confirmed she is living in hiding across the border after marrying another man.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

Women infected with the 2009 strain of the virus five times more likely to have babies with birth defects

Scientists are warning that pregnant women who catch swine flu have a far greater risk of having a stillbirth.

According to a study, women infected with the 2009 strain of the virus were five times more likely to lose their baby during pregnancy or just after giving birth due to defects.

It also reported that premature labour was more common among this demographic when compared to mothers who had not caught the infection.

Researchers from Oxford University are now urging all pregnant women to get immunised against flu, which will be of the main viruses circulating this winter.

Swine flu refers to a relatively new strain of influenza that resulted in a pandemic from 2009 to August 10 2010, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it officially over.

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A pregnant woman’s mother had to plug in a heart monitor because the midwife did not know how to use the equipment, a tribunal heard.

Mercy Ngozi Okeke caused the patient ‘unnecessary worry’ when she could not use the heart monitoring equipment properly, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
The woman’s mother eventually reached down to turn the appliance on as Okeke tried to make it work.
Okeke just wanted to ‘stand in a corner of the room,’ the hearing was told
She also tried place a baby on her mother’s stomach without untangling the umbilical cord from around his neck, it is claimed.
The midwife has been accused of a catalogue of blunders at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup between January 3 and February 24, 2006, amid numerous concerns about her incompetence.

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Lily Allen is having a baby shower on Thursday.

The ‘Smile’ singer is in the latter stages of her pregnancy and to celebrate her child’s imminent arrival she is going to have a party this week.

Lily – who is married to Sam Cooper – is experiencing some uncomfortable pregnancy side-effects and she plans to fill her time until the baby shower by watching vampire TV drama ‘True Blood’.

She revealed in a posting on her twitter page: “Bad back, no sleep. Gah, some Curiously Cinnamon, and then I’m gonna start True Blood, and watch it till my baby shower on Thurs, MEGA ! (sic)”

Source: INDEPENDENT>> Read full article and comment

Why are there so few women at the top (‘Shocking’ lack of women directors exposed in report, 13 October)? Answer, or part of it, is “it’s pregnancy, stupid”.

I write from a deep sense of frustration. For more than 35 years it has been unlawful discrimination to treat a woman unfavourably because of her pregnancy or maternity leave. For more than 15 years, week after week, I have been advising senior female executives who have lost their jobs because of pregnancy or maternity leave. Often a woman returns from leave to a downgraded job with changed reporting lines, so she is forced out – after many years of commitment to the company. From meteoric rise to meteoric fall; nothing changes.

The last thing a pregnant woman or new mother has time to do is sue her employer. In 99% of cases she leaves silenced by a compromise agreement, with a stack of cash but no job, and her career in tatters. The solution? Aside from quotas, employers should have to report to their board and an independent watchdog if a woman is dismissed or leaves within two years of becoming pregnant.

Source: GUARDIAN>> Read full article and comment

Alley and Iain were abandoned as babies by the same mother, 18 months apart. She’s calling for hospitals to provide hatches where infants can be legally left. He says that would be a ‘shameful crime’.

They were born brother and sister just 18 months apart – but were both abandoned within hours and would never have known each other but for an incredible stroke of luck three decades later. Alley Lofthouse, now 44, was found blue with hypothermia on a doorstep while her brother Iain Hogg was dumped on the floor of a public lavatory in the Sixties.

Those facts were all either knew about their origins until DNA testing established that they shared the same, unidentified, birth mother. Their reunion, when they were in their mid-30s, gave Alley and Iain a unique bond unheard of among British ‘foundlings’.

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Women who fail to take folic acid in early pregnancy could be threatening their child’s ability to speak according to scientists.

A study has revealed that mothers who don’t take the vitamin supplement are twice as likely to have children with severe speech delays.

Experts at Columbia University in New York, say that the results highlight the health benefits of folic acid which is already known to reduce the risk of certain types of birth defects.

Around 40,000 Norwegian women were questioned during the first stage of pregnancy on what supplements they were taking four weeks before and eight weeks after conception.

Three years later researchers revisited the women investigating their children’s language skills, including how many words they could string together in a phrase.

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Hilary Duff is having “ferocious” pregnancy cravings.

The ‘Cinderella Story’ actress – who is expecting her first child with husband Mike Comrie next year – admitted she has become addicted to red hots hot dogs and says she is too impatient to wait once a craving hits.

She told ‘Good Morning America’: “When I get something on my mind I want, I want it now. I’m ferocious.

“I’m always up for red hots, which is so weird because I’ve never liked them before. Thank god, it’s not fried and covered in butter. Red hots are totally doable.”

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An American performance artist will give birth to her first child this month in front of an audience at a New York gallery to create her latest “work”.

Marni Kotak has converted her gallery into a delivery room, complete with inflatable birthing ball, her grandmother’s bed and a rocking chair, and is now on display so she can be observed preparing for the labour.
She added that her project – titled The Birth of Baby X – would continue throughout the child’s life until it becomes independent and goes to university.
The controversial performance is to take place in Brooklyn’s Microscope Gallery.

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Annette Morales-Rodriguez accused in savage murder of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz

Suspect admits she scoured the streets for pregnant women because boyfriend wanted a child
Suspect described as a mother of three who claimed to neighbours that she was pregnant. A Wisconsin woman who already had three children and was desperate to have one with her new boyfriend was today charged with killing a pregnant mother, cutting out her baby and passing off the child as her own.

The criminal complaint filed today details the horrific story behind the murder of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz, 23, who was expecting her fourth child that she had planned to name Omar.

Her alleged killer, Annette Morales-Rodriguez, admitted she had scoured the suburban Milwaukee neighbourhood for two weeks looking for a pregnant woman whose child she could steal and call her own.

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Women are experiencing unnecessary heartbreak as they miscarry due to poor NHS services, two new surveys suggest.

A Mumsnet poll of around 1,400 women who had a miscarriage in the last decade found 63% of women who miscarried at home following a hospital scan were not offered adequate pain relief, while 48% of those who were in hospital for their miscarriage were treated alongside pregnant women or those with newborn babies, causing unnecessary distress.

More than a fifth (21%) of those referred for a scan had to wait three days or more for it, while 35% of women who needed a surgical procedure had to wait four days or longer. Overall, 29% said the information provided by healthcare staff was poor or inadequate.

Source: London Evening Standard>> Read full article and comment

Thousands of women suffering a miscarriage are treated alongside pregnant women or new mothers in hospital, a survey has revealed.

The heartbreak of losing a baby is compounded by shortcomings in the NHS, with up to one third having to wait at least four days for a surgical procedure or scan.

Two out of three women are not offered adequate pain relief. Now Mumsnet, the website for parents which carried out the survey, has drawn up a five-point code to improve healthcare services for the one in four pregnancies which end in miscarriage, affecting around a quarter of a million women each year in the UK.

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Could the president’s popular wife become Paris’ first yummy mummy, asks Anne-Elisabeth Moutet

Forget little Florence Cameron. Forget Tony and Cherie’s Leo – and those embarrassing Balmoral disclosures. Nicolas and Carla’s bébé, due to arrive imminently, promises to send France into a rarely-seen frenzy, right in time for next year’s presidential election.
Coyly alluded to for months before the obviously growing bump prompted the happy Maman to disclose her condition in a Bastille Day interview about Libya (as one does), the presidential child will, we are assured, be shielded from media intrusion. No pictures, either, at the chic Clinique de La Muette in the 16th arrondissement of Paris where she is expected to give birth (rated on the forums of auFeminin.com, France’s answer to Mumsnet, as the Parisian woman’s favourite).

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Two dads, one mum – one family

Today was the all-important 20-week scan, the one where we find out if everything’s OK. This is the pregnancy halfway point where we get to check that everything’s developing normally and, should we choose, to find out the baby’s sex. We all went along, Catherine lying on the examination table while my partner Cameron and I squashed into the space that would usually be occupied by just the one loving husband, taking it in turns on the single chair.

The sonographer was professionally unfazed by our unorthodox set-up. Most people, at least among the professionals you have to deal with, take all the differently shaped families they meet in their stride. It makes the occasional bit of prejudice or negative comment all the more jarring when you do come across it and, unfortunately, sometimes you still do. But not today. Today everyone is all smiles and solicitousness.

Source: GUARDIAN>> Read full article and comment

Expectant mothers living in large towns or cities are a third more likely to give birth prematurely because of pollution, research suggests.

Traffic fumes are the biggest culprit, with chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a by-product of petrol, producing a 30 per cent increase in risk.

Ammonium nitrate from agriculture and industry heightened the threat of premature birth by a fifth – 21 per cent – while benzene, a petrochemical, and diesel fumes caused a 10 per cent increase.

Researchers also noted the concentrations of pollutants were higher in winter than in summer, and coastal cities had cleaner air than those further inland.

Study author Dr Beate Ritz said: ‘Air pollution is known to be associated with low birth weight and premature birth.

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A 44-year-old mother who did not realise she was pregnant is recovering at home after giving birth on a Derbyshire street.

Jane Eadie, from Langley Mill, said she was amazed when she gave birth to her third baby – a boy named James – on King Street in Belper on 24 September.

She believed she had gained weight over the past nine months because she had stopped taking some pills.

Mrs Eadie also thought she had started the menopause.

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She announced her pregnancy to a worldwide audience at the recent MTV Video Music awards.

So it’s no surprise that Beyonce is incorporating her growing baby bump into her stylish new music video.

In a 30 second new teaser video for the song, appropriately named Countdown, the star at one point turns to the side in a clinging black dress and shows off her blossoming tummy. She sings: ‘I’m tryin’ to make us 3 from that 2′ in the song, before three images of her displaying her bump are shown.

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Parents who were advised by doctors to terminate a pregnancy because their unborn daughter’s tumour would make it impossible for her to survive birth have celebrated her first steps.

Scans showed a large tumour covering the entire left chamber of Charley-Marie Skinner’s heart that was restricting blood flow.
Specialists were convinced she would die in the womb and instructed Heather and Andy, from Darwen, Lancashire, to terminate their baby.
But the parents refused, saying they would rather let her die naturally than go through the trauma of an abortion.
So certain were the doctors that she wouldn’t survive, her parents were told to start making funeral arrangements.

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Una Healy takes pregnancy in her stride in an LBD at the Pride Of Britain Awards

She’s nearly four months pregnant with her first child, but there’s still no sign of Una Healy’s baby bump.

And The Saturdays singer is clearly enjoying being able to wear her regular style as she slipped into a tight-fitting little black dress at the Pride Of Britain Awards.

Joined by her bandmate Rochelle Wiseman at the Grosvenor House Hotel bash, there was no hint to the Irish singer’s expectant state in her asymmetrical Paule Ke number.

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Our experts answer readers’ questions on nosebleeds during pregnancy and whether it is OK to freeze fruit.

I am five-and-a-half-months pregnant and I keep getting heavy nosebleeds. I feel very weak afterwards, maybe because of the blood loss. Is this normal, and is there anything I can do about it? I’ve also completely lost my appetite. Any advice would be gratefully received
Catherine Hill, London
DR DAN RUTHERFORD WRITES:
A Nosebleeds are usually due to leakage of blood from a fragile blood vessel on the surface of the wall (septum) that separates the right and left sides of the nose. Nosebleeds are common in the general population, but a pregnant woman is about three times more likely to have a nosebleed than a non-pregnant woman in the same age range. It’s not known exactly why, but the hormone changes of pregnancy may increase the blood flow through the lining of the nose, thus increasing the risk of a bleed.

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Can there be a more selfless act than carrying a baby for someone else? Bridget Freer speaks to a surrogate mother and the woman she helped, not once, but twice

Sharmy Beaumont, 35, is a medical writer. She and her husband John, 35, a financial adviser, have two daughters, Isabelle, two, and Freya, one. They live in Surrey
I looked at Liz, lying in the most awful, awkward position, as if she were having a smear test, and just felt this enormous wave of gratitude. There she was, someone we didn’t even know a few months earlier, and she was doing this horrible, horrible thing for us; it’s really mind-blowing. By having our embryos implanted, she was giving us such hope.
When I was 24 I was told I had a genetic abnormality that meant I was unable to carry a pregnancy. I was devastated. John and I had been together since we were 19, and knew we wanted children. It’s something that could make or break a relationship, but he was clear that he’d stand by me.

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A gunman shot dead a pregnant woman in a Madrid church and then killed himself, but medics were able to save the victim’s baby, police say.

The man walked into the church of Santa Maria del Pinar and opened fire, killing the woman and injuring another woman nearby.

Witnesses said the man then knelt before the altar and shot himself.

Emergency crews delivered the victim’s baby by caesarean section, police said. The motive for the attack is unknown.

A spokesman said initial investigations showed no relation between the 34-year-old man and his 36-year-old victim.

Source: BBC NEWS>> Read full article and comment

Pregnant women and the obese will be hit hardest by this winter’s flu outbreak and the expected strain is “capable of causing some very nasty illnesses”, an expert warned today.

Professor Wendy Barclay said: “Pregnant women are the most vulnerable because of changes in their immune system. They really need to be targeted to get the vaccine.” She added that although obese people “are not deemed to be in an at-risk group they need to know they are vulnerable”.

The type of virus which caused the majority of deaths last winter as well as the pandemic of 2009 – the H1N1 swine flu – is expected to be the dominant strain again.

Source: London Evening Standard>> Read full article and comment

Women pregnant with twins or triplets should be warned about the possible dangers of aborting one of their babies, according to an NHS watchdog.

The first guidance on multiple pregnancy from Nice says that mothers-to-be should be given information on the “physical risks and psychological implications” of what is known as “selective fetal reduction” before their foetuses are screened for Down’s syndrome.
It comes as increasing numbers of women choose to abort one of their twins or triplets, usually because of the risk that they will be born disabled.
The rise has been linked to the fact that more older women are becoming pregnant after having IVF treatment. This makes having twins or triplets more likely, which can mean complications in birth.

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Nice has issued guidance on how health professionals should manage multiple births after discovering wide variations

The NHS has been told to improve its care of pregnant women carrying twins or triplets in order to reduce the significant medical risks involved for both mothers-to-be and their babies.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which sets standards for the NHS, has issued its first guidance on how health professionals should manage multiple births after discovering wide variations in the quality of care provided by different parts of the NHS.

Improvements and new procedures are needed in order to give women who conceive twins or triplets better and more consistent care, minimise the number of unnecessary caesarean deliveries among them and reduce the number of twins and triplets who require specialist care at birth.

Source: GUARDIAN>> Read full article and comment

Having finally adjusted to pregnancy, you’ve just given birth and your body is shaped as never before. Amy Fleming has been there, and she has a few ideas when it comes to clothing your post-birth belly

This week’s post is dedicated to all the women out there who have just given birth. After thoroughly enjoying rocking my triumphant, third-trimester bump, my suddenly baby-free abdomen was reduced to a flobbly, deflated, yet still-really-quite-large balloon. I remember being quite shocked by this.

To add insult to injury, while heavily pregnant, I had somehow tricked myself into thinking that I hadn’t gained much weight other than around my middle. Through the post-birth fog, however, the reality of my true enormity hit me. Put it this way: a full month postpartum, I got the guts up to try on my baggiest pre-pregnancy jeans. A cruel fact of life is that jeans never lie, and it felt as though I were trying to shoehorn myself into an eight-year-old’s trousers.

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Going through labour is terrifying enough without having to give birth in the back of an ambulance.

But a scared mother from Birmingham was forced to have her baby on the side of the road, just 45 minutes after doctors and midwives turned her away from Good Hope Hospital saying: ‘What you’re experiencing is not labour.’

Sarah Bowskill’s daughter, Lily May, then had to undergo emergency resuscitation when she stopped breathing soon after her birth.

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Childhood obesity appears to begin in a mother’s womb, a new study has concluded using state of the art technology to monitor fat levels in unborn babies.

Researchers found some babies have similar build up of fat around their abdomen that adults aged in their 50s have.
The study of babies at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, west London, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to investigate links between obesity in children and their mothers.
It reportedly found evidence that being overweight or obese in pregnancy could result in potentially harmful changes to a baby’s fat levels while still in the womb.

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Childhood obesity starts in the womb, with overweight mothers giving birth to fat babies.

New scanning techniques have allowed British scientists to examine fat levels in newborn babies.

They found some had built up fat around their abdomen in the same way as adults in their 50s.

It is the first direct link to be shown between the weight of a mother-to-be and her child.

Obese youngsters are more likely to develop a string of health problems, including heart disease, brittle bones, diabetes and asthma.

Almost half of women of child-bearing age are overweight or obese and more than 15 per cent of pregnant women are obese.

Source: DAILYMAIL>> Read full article and comment

It began as an intervention for extreme circumstances. So how did pregnancy reduction become an option for women carrying twins?

As Jenny lay on the obstetrician’s examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound technician had turned off the overhead screen. She didn’t want to see the two shadows floating inside her. Since making her decision, she had tried hard not to think about them, though she could often think of little else. She was 45 and pregnant after six years of fertility bills, ovulation injections, donor eggs and disappointment – and yet here she was, 14 weeks into her pregnancy, choosing to extinguish one of two healthy foetuses, almost as if having half an abortion. As the doctor inserted the needle into Jenny’s abdomen, aiming at one of the foetuses, Jenny tried not to flinch, caught between intense relief and intense guilt.

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Mother with cystic fibrosis defies medics to give birth to triplets

This is the woman who has made medical history – by giving birth to identical triplets whilst suffering from cystic fibrosis.

Kandace Smith, from South Louisiana, U.S. was told by doctors to terminate the dangerous triplet pregnancy as they didn’t think she was going to survive.

People with the lung disease cystic fibrosis have a shortened life expectancy and any pregnancy is dangerous because of the extra pressure it puts on the lungs.

But Miss Smith, 20, bravely refused, and carried on with the world-first pregnancy, even though it meant risking her own life.

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A pregnant woman was pulled over and found to be nearly twice the legal drink drive limit as she went home from a party celebrating the forthcoming birth.

A pregnant woman was pulled over and found to be nearly twice the legal drink drive limit as she went home from a party celebrating the forthcoming birth.

Kaley Anderson was told by magistrates that she risked the life of her child after she drank wine with friends in South Shields before setting off home.

She was pulled over by police when they saw she was driving erratically and had not switched on the lights of her Vauxhall Corsa.

Appearing in court today, the 22-year-old pleaded guilty to driving with 62mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the limit is 35mg.

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Mother-of-one did not know she was four weeks pregnant when she had operation

A mother told yesterday how her gastric bypass killed her unborn baby by starving it of nutrition in the womb.

Holly Emms, 25, had stomach surgery on the health service after doctors warned that her 18stone frame was damaging her health.

She was unaware that she was in the early stages of pregnancy. She lost nine stone in just four months following the procedure – while her unborn daughter was slowly starving.

The child, who she called Juli, and was born 15 weeks premature, weighing only 1.9lbs and too weak to survive.

Yesterday Miss Emms – who now weighs under nine stone and wears a dress size eight – said: ‘I heard her cry when she was born, which was wonderful, but then she was taken away and put in a incubator.

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France’s First Lady reveals why she is desperate to give birth

Like many heavily pregnant mothers-to-be, Carla Bruni says she is desperate to give birth.

But the French First Lady has confessed that her urgency is not driven simply by the desire to see her bundle of joy in the flesh.

She is also desperate to start drinking and smoking again.

Miss Bruni, 43, admitted that, after nearly eight months of carrying her first child with President Nicolas Sarkozy, she is ‘totally fed up’.

She said yesterday: ‘Quite frankly, I can’t stand it any more. I spend most of my time either sitting down or lying down. I can’t drink or smoke any more. I’m in a hurry to get it over with.’

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She already struggled with a fake pregnancy bump while shooting scenes for New Year’s Eve, but it seems second time round isn’t any easier.

Jessica Biel was seen re-shooting scenes from the upcoming film and it seems she still hasn’t got the knack of keeping the fake belly under wraps.

The actress, 29, was seen strolling on set in a pair of pink tracksuit bottoms and a white T-shirt with the body padding protruding visibly from the bottom. Jessica plays mother-to be Tess and was filming scenes in New York alongside Seth Meyers who acts as a rickshaw driver.

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