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Plans have been set out to improve care for women and their babies during pregnancy and childbirth in Wales.

Health Minister Lesley Griffiths said all women should receive safe, high quality treament, dignity and respect.

Ms Griffiths warned health boards they could not let services “drift” by failing to make changes.

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) said Wales had suffered variable standards of care in the past but this was a “significant opportunity”.

The minister outlined the strategy during a visit to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

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Plans by abortion clinics to send text-message reminders to women planning terminations have been criticised as “morally squalid”.

Britain’s largest abortion provider said it is introducing reminders because some girls and women had forgotten about their procedures.
Critics said the move, by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), gave a disturbing insight into casual attitudes to abortion.
BPAS, which carries out almost one third of NHS-funded terminations, likened the service, which begins in November, to reminders sent out by dentists before check-ups.
MPs and pro-life groups accused clinics of trivialising serious decisions. Dr Peter Saunders, Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship said the text reminders would exert pressure on women uncertain about whether to go ahead with an abortion.

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Pregnant women who eat low-fat yoghurt can increase the risk of their child developing asthma and hay fever, a study says.

At the European Respiratory Society conference, researchers will suggest this could be due to an absence of protective fatty acids in yoghurt.

The diets of more than 70,000 Danish women were analysed and their children followed until the age of seven.

Asthma UK says pregnant women should follow a balanced diet.

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Intra-uterine devices designed to prevent conception may also protect against cervical cancer, according to a study covering more than 20,000 women that was released on Tuesday.

Introduced in the 1970s, IUDs are today widely used around the world. The T-shaped device, containing either a plastic-and-copper wire or hormones, is placed inside the uterus to prevent pregnancy.

The study, published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, found that women with a history of using IUDs had roughly half the risk of developing cervical cancer compared to women who never used them.

Earlier research on IUD found a protection against cancer of the womb lining, but data on cancer of the cervix had been mixed.

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Study also links low-fat yoghurt to hay fever

Mothers-to-be who eat low-fat yoghurt are more likely to have children with asthma, a study found.

The analysis of the habits of tens of thousands of pregnant women also linked low-fat yoghurt with the development of hay fever.

The researchers, from the respected Harvard School of Public Health in the US, said that it may be missing fats that protect against allergies.

Previous research has linked low-fat dairy products with difficulty in becoming pregnant.

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Proposals for compulsory sex education for children as young as five have been ditched.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the Coalition would not implement the controversial plans put forward under Labour and had ‘no plans to change the law on sex education’.

This means that teaching sex education will remain optional in primary schools. Family campaigners feared that statutory sex and relationship education (SRE) could lead to teenage pregnancy being seen as acceptable by impressionable youngsters.

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Una Healy insists Saturdays tour will go ahead as normal after announcing pregnancy

Una Healy looked glowing today as she was pictured for the first time since announcing her pregnancy.

With no hint of a baby bump showing, The Saturdays singer, 29, couldn’t stop smiling as she left a Dublin hotel today.

After revealing her pregnancy this morning,the Irish redhead took to Twitter to assure fans her expectant state would not affect the group’s tour in December.

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A pharmaceutical company is recalling over 1.4 million packs of birth control pill after a packaging error left women taking the pill open to ‘a serious risk’ of getting pregnant.

Qualitest Pharmaceuticals is recalling multiple lots of birth-control pills after it was discovered select blisters were rotated 180 degrees within the card, reversing the weekly tablet orientation and making the lot number and expiration date no longer visible.

The problem could lead to inadequate contraception if women don’t get the proper daily regimen of the drug.

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Having a baby? It may be against the law to fire you, but it pays to be on guard

Well, this’ll be a short one. It’s obvious, isn’t it?

Meaning?

This is the 21st century. You just tell your bosses that you’re expecting a baby and they have to deal with it.

It may be the 21st century, but human nature doesn’t change. Your manager will be ruminating privately on how your absence will mess up corporate schedules rather than the miracle of new life. So blasting in just before a critical investors’ conference, waving a printout of your maternity rights, is not going to endear you to anyone.

Psychology is the key: it’s vital that your boss is the first to know. Pick a time when they are likely to be relaxed at some point after that critical first trimester of pregnancy is over and before your belly betrays you.

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A doctor and his heavily pregnant wife whose house was invaded by squatters have been told they must look after their unwelcome guests’ possessions.

A group of up to 11 squatters abandoned three old televisions, four filthy mattresses and a parka coat in the home owned by NHS and Harley Street consultant neurologist Oliver Cockerell, 49, and wife Kaltun.

A court order states that they would be liable for any damage to the possessions.

Their West Hampstead house is now protected by 24-hour security and builders are working to ensure that the couple and their first baby – when he or she arrives – can move in. Finishing the nursery has been given top priority. The couple are in the meantime living at their former flat in St John’s Wood.

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Smiling and waving both hands as she arrived at court – an hour late – this is the pregnant model who was today found guilty of assaulting a female police officer as a student protest exploded into violence.

Mackayla Forde lunged at Sgt Joanne O’Connor as a kettle in Trafalgar Square became ‘a flurry of fists and people’.

The 26-year-old donned a hoodie and balaclava to take part in the demonstrations against tuition fee hikes last November 30, City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

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A dangerous shortage of midwives is putting the lives of mothers and babies at risk, experts have warned.

While there are shortfalls across the country, some areas are worse than others, putting mothers and babies at risk, the Royal College of Midwives said.

The RCM said 4,700 more midwives were needed across England to keep up with added pressures, such as growing numbers of obese and older pregnant women.

The college claims midwife numbers have not kept pace with the birthrate in England, which has risen 22 per cent in the past two decades.

Their figures showed the North East and North West had a shortfall of less than 10 per cent, while the East Midlands and east of England needed 41 per cent more midwives.

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I can’t say I have much sympathy for Victoria Beckham and her bad back. Not long after having had a baby, and having been diagnosed with a slipped disc, she was back tottering around in stupidly high heels at New York Fashion Week.

As she has also had operations for severe bunions, I can’t believe her doctors didn’t advise her to stay out of them for the foreseeable future.

According to news reports, she was diagnosed with a herniated disc, and journalists were quick to speculate that her penchant for wearing high heels during her pregnancy may have been to blame.

While I think her actions were foolish and will certainly exacerbate her conditions, I don’t think wearing heels caused her back problem. Slipped discs are relatively common, affecting around one in five people in the UK, and the most likely causes mainly involve overuse: from heavy lifting and twisting, to sitting for long periods in positions of bad posture. While there is evidence that wearing heels certainly causes backache and a variety of other problems, there is none to show they cause slipped discs.

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

Mother-to-be Beyonce is certainly wearing pregnancy well.

The 30-year-old, who recently announced she was expecting her first child with husband Jay-Z, was simply glowing as she dressed her tiny baby bump in a belted glittering gold dress.

The singer looked stunning in the frock as she arrived at the J.Crew Spring 2012 Fashion Show at New York Fashion Week, today.

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Mother-to-be Beyonce is certainly wearing pregnancy well.

The 30-year-old, who recently announced she was expecting her first child with husband Jay-Z, was simply glowing as she dressed her tiny baby bump in a belted glittering gold dress.

The singer looked stunning in the frock as she arrived at the J.Crew Spring 2012 Fashion Show at New York Fashion Week, today. Letting her pre-natal glow shine through, Beyonce wore barely any make-up on her flawless complexion, and had her long hair tumbling in curls around her shoulders.

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The weird pregnancy pictures that will make your belly laugh

They’ll make your stomach churn, or give you a belly laugh.

Either way these mothers-to-be, perhaps a little weary of their baby bumps, have taken the opportunity to have a little fun at their unborn child’s expense.

First up, there’s there the mother pictured with a gun and a grenade-launcher. Not Rambo but Mambo, perhaps?

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Levi Johnston writes in his upcoming book that his ex-girlfriend Bristol Palin was so angry about her mother’s pregnancy with son Trig that she wanted to get pregnant, too.

Johnston says when Bristol found out her mother, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was expecting a baby she said she should be having a baby, not her mother. He says she told him in March 2008, “let’s get pregnant.”
His book, “Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs,” comes out Sept. 20.
In Bristol Palin’s own book, “Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far,” released last June, she says she lost her virginity to Johnston on a camping trip when she got drunk on wine coolers, a claim Johnson disputes in his own book.

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A young mother has revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 19 – because she was pregnant.

Lisa Clough, 26, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and had her left breast removed before undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

As she recovered, the mother-of-one was stunned to be told that she had developed the cancer while she was pregnant with daughter Isabelle Lilly due to the changes in her hormones. During pregnancy, women’s breasts are exposed to large amounts of estrogen and other hormones that may prompt the growth of some breast cancers.

Sales assistant Lisa has now been given the all-clear and has recently begun reconstructive surgery.

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Babies begin to recognise pain before they are born, a study has shown.

They learn to tell the difference between pain and touch as early as the 35th week of pregnancy, researchers have discovered.

Scientists measured the brain waves of 25 normal-term and 21 premature babies to look for differences in activity.

As the electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings were made the infants had samples of blood taken by lancing their heels, a routine standard procedure.

Among premature babies, the heel lances produced general bursts of electrical activity in the brain. But after 35 to 37 weeks the babies’ response switched to localised activity in specific brain areas

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The emerging field of epigenetics shows how traumatic experiences can be transmitted from one generation to the next

For New Yorkers, the events that transpired on the morning of 11 September, 2001 must have seemed like a nightmare. Immediately after the attack on the World Trade Centre that day, psychologists predicted that a wave of trauma would sweep across the country. Although this prediction turned out to be wrong, it is estimated that some 530,000 New York City residents suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the months following the attack.

Among the tens of thousands of people directly exposed to the World Trade Centre attack were approximately 1,700 pregnant women. Some of these women went on to develop symptoms of PTSD, and some of the children have inherited the nightmare that their mothers experienced on that day.

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Michelle Heaton and Angellica Bell’s unveil step out in very glamorous maternity fashion

Michelle Heaton and Angellica Bell both dazzled in white as they showed off their baby bumps at the Comfort Prima Awards tonight.

The pregnant pair opted for different style dresses but both looked glowing as they posed on the red carpet.

Michelle, 31, who is expecting her first child with husband Hugh Hanley, told the MailOnline that she loves being pregnant. She said: ‘I’m so excited. I’m five months pregnant and love it. I haven’t felt bad or really suffered during my pregnancy.’

She added: ‘I just hope my baby is healthy so I don’t mind what it is. I would like one of each but we will see how this goes.’

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A pregnant woman told how she woke up to find a fox face-to-face with her in bed.

Lianne Scott, 24, who is due to give birth to her second child today, was woken by the animal at 2am.

She said: “I felt something touch my arm. I opened my eyes and I was face to face with a fox. I was petrified. I’m surprised it didn’t send me into labour to be honest.”

Source: Thisislondon>> Read full article and comment

Melanie has terminal cancer yet determined to start a family she chose to get pregnant

Twenty-nine weeks into her first pregnancy, Melanie Jaggard is eagerly anticipating the arrival of twins. Like any excited mum-to-be, her mind is full of questions. Will they be boys, girls or one of each? Scans so far have failed to determine their gender, so they have decided to keep it a surprise.

What will their personalities be like and will she and her husband Charlie ever agree on girls’ names? Melanie likes old-fashioned names, but Charlie is less keen. Will the first few months pass in a haze of sleepless nights and disorganised chaos, or will it be the blissful realisation of a dream they have both long hoped for?

‘I’m loving my pregnancy and now I just can’t wait to meet our babies,’ says Melanie, 32, whose non-identical twins are due on November 7.‘I think Charlie would love a son to play cricket and rugby with and I would love a daughter to buy pinks and purples for, but really as long as they are healthy we would both be happy.’

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The First Lady of France’s expression of late-pregnancy ennui strikes a chord.

Ah, could there be a lovelier sight than the latest tranche of celebrity pregnancy pics? So life-affirming, so heartwarming, they’re worth their weight in Hello! subscriptions, spreading joy among the child-bearing fraternity faster than a Formula One Bugaboo.
What’s that you say? Those racy heels are a bit high? That blonde-bombshell blow dry is a bit overdone? No, no, no, not Amanda Holden three months in and looking glam as a pedigree show pony. I’m talking about global minx, Carla Bruni, looking, well, so absolutely bloody awful she (whisper it) could be One of Us.

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A blood test which could tell mothers if they are at high risk of giving birth prematurely could be available soon.

Scientists have found 80 per cent of premature births can be spotted early using a test given during the second trimester of pregnancy.

Currently women are only assessed as high risk if they have already had one premature child or if there have been complications during labour.

Those deemed to be at risk are advised to modify their lifestyle by taking lots of rest and can be given hormones that help keep the baby in the womb for longer.

Around 50,000 babies a year are born at less than 37 weeks in Britain, which represents around eight per cent of all births.

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Women were today warned against taking the painkiller ibuprofen during early pregnancy after scientists found it can more than double the risk of miscarriage.

Health experts advised women to check with their GP or midwife before taking any pain medication following a study of the drug involving thousands of mothers-to-be.

Scientists also called for women trying to get pregnant to be made aware of the risks.

Ruth Bender Atik, National Director of the Miscarriage Association, said: “There wasn’t certainty abut this before. What this study does is confirm it, and that’s very important.

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A mother delighted to discover she was pregnant was somewhat daunted after learning she was expecting three non-identical triplets.

Catherine Cunningham and her husband Brendan were astonished by the news when they went for a 12-week scan because they had conceived their children naturally.

The chances of having three children from three eggs fertilised simultaneously is only one in 25,000. Catherine gave birth by caesarian to Max, Sam and Jamie in May at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

Max, who weighed 5lb 4oz, and Jamie, 5lb 8oz, were initially rushed to special care, but four months on all are doing well. Sam weighed in at 4lb 10.

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Doctor and his heavily pregnant wife celebrate after spongers are ordered out of their home

Squatters apologise to home owners
Security hired to guard the house until couple moves in.

A consultant neurologist and his heavily pregnant wife yesterday won a ‘common sense’ court ruling to force 14 squatters out of their new £1million home.

Dr Oliver Cockerell and his wife Kaltun had only completed the purchase of their house on August 23, in anticipation of the birth of their first child.

But when they arrived to fit new locks and activate the burglar alarm two days later, they discovered the gang.

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New research shows that taking certain painkillers in first 20 weeks increases risk of miscarriage by 2.4 times

Women who take even a small dose of painkillers such as ibuprofen early in their pregnancy more than double their risk of suffering a miscarriage, research shows.

The findings prompted medical experts to advise mothers-to-be to avoid taking the drug and instead to use paracetamol for pain relief. Taking any painkillers from the class of medicines known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – such as ibuprofen, naproxen and Diclofenac – in the first 20 weeks after conception increases the risk of miscarriage by 2.4 times, the study found. The paper, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that pregnant women taking any type of NSAID, and any dose of one, ran that scale of extra risk of spontaneous abortion.

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A ‘peek-a-boo’ baby owes his life to his determined mother and her aunt after he remained hidden from view on a pregnancy scan.

Doctors told first-time-mother Amy-Lou Howard she should seek a termination because her son Edward didn’t show up on the screen.

The scan appeared to show an empty sac in Amy-Lou’s womb, which lead them to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy. This potentially fatal condition is where the foetus grows outside the womb and Amy-Lou was advised she would need an injection to flush out her fallopian tubes to remove the foetus.

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She was front row and centre to watch her perform at Glastonbury back in June.

And once again Gwyneth Paltrow was right by her pregnant pal Beyonce’s side as she celebrated her 30th birthday in Venice, Italy, today.

The pair were seen chatting on the deck of a luxury yacht, along with the singer’s husband and the father of her first child, Jay Z. Gwyneth, 38, appeared to have had handed over what looked to be a birthday card to her close friend.

The two certainly have plenty to catch up on, especially since Beyonce announced her pregnancy just last week.

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Cabinet minister Liam Fox has said he would support efforts to reduce the “far too high” number of abortions.

Amid tensions within the coalition over a backbench bid to change the law on counselling for women considering a termination, Dr Fox said he would back anything that made people “think twice”.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries is rallying support for an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill which would prevent abortion providers giving advice to pregnant women.

The move would stop organisations such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service providing counselling. Ms Dorries says that, because they receive money for carrying out abortions, they have a vested interest.

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French first lady, wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, discusses her pregnancy for the first time and her wish for family privacy

The French first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has spoken publicly for the first time about the child she and the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, are expecting in a few weeks.

Until the television interview on Sunday night, neither one of the couple had discussed the pregnancy. The nine-minute interview was recorded at the Elysée Palace earlier this week. The baby will be her second child and Sarkozy’s fourth.

Bruni-Sarkozy insisted the child would be shielded from the spotlight. “I will never show a photograph of this child and will never expose it [to publicity],” she said, admitting she regretted allowing her son Aurélien, now 11, to be photographed in Jordan in 2008 before she and Sarkozy were married.

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Marie funded her heroin habit by selling sex. Then she became pregnant and her daughter was taken away. Rhiannon Howells hears how they were reunited and their lives turned around

Marie Franklin will never forget the day her daughter was born. “I was 10 days late, fat, fed up,” she recalls. “I went to the hospital three times before they let me stay. I was excited and scared. Then my waters broke, and an hour and a half later I had a baby girl. The moment I held her in my arms was amazing, but weird – I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God!’ But it was … lovely.”

It’s an ordinary yet wonderful story of mother-child bonding, but what happened next is neither ordinary nor wonderful. After leaving hospital, Marie and her partner Steve took baby Chloe back to their house in Bristol. But rather than sitting down to a cup of tea, the new mum had what she’d denied herself, yet craved, throughout her pregnancy – not a glass of wine or a cigarette, but a hit of heroin.

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Thrilled Amanda Holden proudly shows off her growing baby bump

Amanda Holden looked positively glowing last night as she beamed with delight showing off her growing baby bump.
The actress is clearly ecstatic by the impending birth, having announced last month she is expecting a baby girl.
Her new addition to the family is all the sweeter following her tragedy in February when she lost her unborn son seven months into her pregnancy.

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From a mother who endured the agony of stillbirth, a heart-wrenching but inspiring account of trying again

A sensible person might have chosen to do a pregnancy test when the house was quiet and calm, but I just couldn’t wait.

My three-year-old daughter Phoebe was banging on the bathroom door, my mother-in-law was shouting for me to help with the packing cases — we’d just moved from London to Amsterdam — and our apartment looked like a bomb-site.

Locked in the bathroom, I remained absolutely still, gulping back deep breaths of mingled fear and excitement, staring at the faint blue line.

The most stressful nine months of my life were about to begin, yet I was almost sobbing with relief. I’d longed for this, and dreaded it too.

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Colonel Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha has had a baby in Algeria, it was claimed today.

Aisha, her brothers Hannibal and Mohammed, and the dictator’s wife Safiya all fled to Libya’s neighbour over the weekend.

Now Algerian authorities say she gave birth to a daughter within hours of arriving in the country.
The Gaddafi family members left as rebels closed in on the tyrant’s home town of Sirte, giving his forces until Saturday to lay down their weapons.

Nato has pounded Gaddafi forces in the area.
Meanwhile, Colonel Gaddafi was said to have fled south from Tripoli days ago. His feared son Khamis is believed to have died on Saturday in a Nato air strike on a convoy south of the capital.

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It’s not unusual for a mother to go back to work soon after giving birth.

But a model has stunned her colleagues by returning to the catwalk – just nine days after having a baby.

Anna Freemantle, 32, was back in front of the cameras less than two weeks after the birth of baby Leo.

The model, who has rubbed shoulders with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, said women shouldn’t have to chose between motherhood and a career.

And she is even gearing up to do a sexy underwear shoot.

She said: ‘Although the whole process of pregnancy is quite private and quiet, the one thing it made me realise is how lucky I’ve always been never to have felt particularly hindered by my body.

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The ‘Run the World (Girls)’ singer arrived at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in a loose fitting orange dress, and clutched her visible baby bump as she posed on the red carpet.

She told the press: “I have a surprise!”

Beyonce’s publicist later confirmed the news, telling People.com: “I’m happy to say it’s true.”

The child will be the first for the 29-year-old and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, who married in 2008.

During the VMAs Beyonce first cheered on Jay from the side of the stage as he performed new single ‘Otis’ with Kanye West, then wowed the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles herself, singing ‘Love on

Source: Thisislondon>> Read full article and comment

Pregnant women considering an abortion will be offered independent counselling under Government plans to be announced next week.

MPs will debate proposals to prevent organisations that carry out terminations – such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service – offering pre-abortion counselling. Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who backs such a ban, said the independent advice would not be compulsory but an option. She said her aim was not to achieve fewer abortions but that could be the consequence, which would be “good”.

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Women considering a termination could be offered independent counselling as part of the biggest shake-up of abortion laws for 20 years.

The move is designed to give women a breathing space before going ahead, and pro-life campaigners claim it could cut the abortion rate by a third, or 60,000 terminations a year.

At present counselling is offered by abortion providers, but there are concerns that the advice may be biased because they are run as businesses.

Under the proposed changes, abortion clinics would be told to offer free access to independent counselling run on separate premises by a group which does not carry out abortions.

Abortion charities say the move would simply lead to thousands of delayed terminations, meaning a greater risk for the mother.

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Singer Beyonce Knowles has outlined a baby bump to photographers after months of speculation she might be pregnant.

The R&B star, 29, used her hands to frame her baby bump under a loose-fitting dress as she arrived at the MTV Music Video Awards in Los Angeles.

Beyonce did not talk to media but her publicist later confirmed the pregnancy, Associated Press reported.

It will be the first child for Beyonce and her husband rapper Jay-Z, who married in 2008.

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Fury over NHS charging up to £6 for baby scan photos

Hospitals have been accused of cashing in on expectant mothers with charges of over a fiver for pictures of their babies in the womb.

Ante-natal wards up and down the country regularly insist proud parents pay a mandatory donation in exchange for the tiny print outs of unborn foetuses.

Posts on online pregnancy forums have revealed a postcode lottery in ultrasound photo charges, which have jumped from a nominal couple of pounds to up to £6 in some areas.

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Concerns that mothers on low incomes may lose out are matched by questions about the NCT’s firm belief in natural childbirth

Signing up for NCT antenatal classes ranks alongside buying a Bugaboo pram and joining Mumsnet for many middle-class pregnant women.

New figures show that there has been a boom in the number of women paying around £200 to attend a course of private NCT sessions – a jump from 25,000 in 2005/6 to 40,000 in 2010/11 – while the provision of free NHS classes in austerity Britain is increasingly patchy.

Despite a discount scheme from the NCT for the poorest families, a two-tier antenatal system is emerging, where less well-off women have little access to the advice and support so crucial for first-time mothers. Along with the scrapping of the health in pregnancy grant and child trust funds and changes to child tax credits and the Sure Start maternity grant, it is yet another area where mothers on low incomes are losing out under the coalition’s cuts programme.

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Middle class mothers-to-be are paying for a service that is likely to be unavailable to poorer families

The flight of the middle classes to paid-for antenatal classes as free NHS services are run down threatens to exacerbate the divide between rich and poor, according to the Royal College of Midwives.

The number of parents attending classes run by the largest private provider has nearly doubled in the past five years, at a time when the NHS service has become increasingly patchy. Yet research shows that advice and support to a woman before and shortly after pregnancy is crucial to providing the best start in life.

Janet Fyle, the Royal College of Midwives’ policy adviser, said she feared that existing class inequalities between families were being built on by a system that helped affluent families to provide the best parenting while lower socioeconomic groups missed out.

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Abortion rules are set to be tightened by the Government in the biggest shake-up in a generation.

The Department of Health is to announce plans for a new system of independent counselling for women before they finally commit to terminating a pregnancy. The move is designed to give women more “breathing space”.
Pro-life campaigners suggest the change could result in up to 60,000 fewer abortions each year in Britain. Last year, 202,400 were carried out.
The plan would introduce a mandatory obligation on abortion clinics to offer women access to independent counselling, to be run on separate premises by a group which does not itself carry out abortions.

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After his first child was born, Matt Gaw used work as an excuse to spend long hours in the office – no whiff of nappies, no screaming – leaving the childcare to his overworked wife

As the second line formed on the wee-covered stick, my wife and I hugged, feeling the same surge of joy that we had when our first pregnancy was confirmed. But this time there was relief, too, because we had decided that if we had a second child I would give up my job to become a stay-at-home dad.

We thought this plan would be good for my health and an opportunity to develop my freelance work. But we both knew it was also a financial arrangement. My wife earned significantly more than I did, and we simply couldn’t afford childcare services. For two years, since her nine months’ maternity leave had ended, she had been on call for every illness, snow day or industrial action. Her job had always been flexible and, meetings and international trips aside, was largely home-based. So when the nursery called to say Seth had been sick, it seemed natural – or it did to me – that my overworked wife was left to handle it.

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Amanda Holden is expecting her second child.

The ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ judge – who has a five-year-old daughter, Lexi, with music producer husband Chris Hughes – is three months pregnant with a baby girl, and admits she is “thrilled and terrified” at the same time.

She wrote on her twitter page: “Lexi’s question of the day(and most days) “Mama when are you going to get a baby in your tummy?”Happy to say TODAY Lexi!Mama is pregnant!Yay.

“Am thrilled and terrifed all rolled into one! (sic)”

Amanda and Chris’ baby joy comes six months after the 40-year-old star suffered the tragic stillbirth of her baby son when she was just two months away from reaching full term.

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“I’m not fat, I’m pregnant!” Actually, some women may be both but there are currently no UK guidelines to help midwives and women define how much is too much when it comes to weight gain during pregnancy.

In this week’s Scrubbing Up, Bridget Benelam from the British Nutrition Foundation says there needs to be clear advice on weight control for pregnant women.

Nearly half of women of childbearing age are overweight or obese in the UK and this means there are increasing numbers of obese pregnant women. But spotting those mothers whose bumps are due to fat as well as baby is difficult, not least because there are no UK guidelines on how much weight women should gain during pregnancy.

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Under the microscope with Julia Bradbury

The Countryfile presenter, 41, on having endometriosis, not succumbing to plastic surgery and why she wouldn’t want to live forever. YOU’VE JUST HAD YOUR FIRST CHILD. HOW WAS THE PREGNANCY?

Yes, I had a boy, Zephyr, with my partner Gerard. I have endometriosis, where the womb lining grows outside the uterus, and bleeds and swells during periods. Because of this condition, I wasn’t sure if I would ever realise my ambition to be a mum, so it all feels like a bit of a miracle.

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