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An agonising ordeal? No, says maternity expert NICOLE CROFT, giving birth is a natural high so powerful it can leave mothers wanting more

By Nicole Croft
Last updated at 10:08 AM on 2nd June 2011

The offer of a Caesarean section might seem heaven sent to any pregnant woman approaching delivery day with rising anxiety.

When I discovered I was expecting my first baby, I’d have paid good money for a general anaesthetic to spare me the agony of childbirth with which I was all-too-familiar, thanks to soap operas and the horror stories other mothers are strangely desperate to share.

I thought, as many women do, that the act of giving birth was a nightmare from which I needed saving — with drugs, surgery, medical intervention and, frankly, anything that might numb me to what was certain to be the most terrifying experience of my life.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Schoolgirls have dangerously low levels of iodine, which could put the health of future generations at risk, claim British researchers.

By Jenny Hope
Last updated at 9:36 AM on 2nd June 2011

Two-thirds of teenagers are deficient in the trace mineral, says a new study, partly because consumption of milk has plummeted in recent years.

But lack of iodine in pregnancy can lead to mental retardation in babies, with researchers saying even ‘mild’ levels of deficiency can be harmful.

Experts are calling for iodine to be added to salt – as already happens in some countries – or to folic acid supplements routinely recommended during the early stages of pregnancy.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Our health experts offer advice on post-pregnancy gingivitis and painkiller problems

7:00AM BST 01 Jun 2011

Q Since having my first child last year, my gums still bleed when I brush them. Is there any supplement I can take to stop this?

SARA STANNER WRITES: Hormones and the increase in blood volume during your pregnancy can make gums swell and become inflamed so they bleed more easily, especially when flossing or brushing teeth.

This condition, known as gingivitis, affects around half of pregnant women, but it usually subsides after childbirth. If it isn’t treated properly, it can develop into periodontitis and cause permanent damage to gums and the jawbone.

The best way to prevent and treat gingivitis is to floss daily, brush teeth gently at least twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, use an antimicrobial mouth rinse and visit the dentist for regular check-ups.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Woman who’s set new record for egg donation

Last updated at 5:33 PM on 31st May 2011

Faith Haugh claims she doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body – yet she has helped to create 19 children after donating the most eggs in the world.

In total, Faith has been through a staggering 41 donor cycles, which has involved her undergoing hormone injections to boost the number of eggs she produces.

The medication given to egg donors is similar to that given to women going through IVF so the same complications can occur.

A reaction to the hormones used to make a donor produce more than one egg can cause ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) and, rarely, liver failure or even ovarian cancer.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Still a student, an unplanned pregnancy seemed like a calamity. Now juggling fatherhood with revising for finals, John Saunders explains why he wouldn’t have it any other way

Tuesday, 31 May 2011

If you had told me this time last year that in 12 months I’d have had my first child without any reservations whatsoever, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it. Starting a family was the last thing on my mind. If I did think of that, it was in the context of a successful career, a secure and happy marriage and a mortgage – 30 seemed the age when all that would be in place. Right now, the closest thing I have to a career is a degree and a string of work placements; my partner Suzannah and I are secure and happy together, but not yet married. And I can’t even be sure we’ll be able to rent a place of our own when we move back home, let alone apply for a mortgage.

But none of that mattered when Suzannah gave birth to our little girl, Isla, four weeks ago. We were three now, where we had always been two, and it felt like that most clichéd of things – a miracle. I can’t even imagine any more how it would feel to not want to start to a family now. Everything else is just incidental. But that’s not how I felt last year.

Source: INDEPENDENT

Being a paediatric cardiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital involves me caring for children with complex congenital heart problems.

By Dr Robert Yates

I made a prenatal diagnosis on one baby, whose left side of their heart was small. When that happens it means the blood vessel coming out of the heart and supplying the body is likely to be narrow. In some cases the growth of the left hand side of the heart during the rest of the pregnancy will keep pace with the baby’s growth and it’s possible to use the left hand side of the heart to pump blood round the body after birth, when the narrowed blood vessel is surgically repaired. However, this growth doesn’t always keep pace, and we then have to perform complex surgery to use both the right and the left pumping chambers together to pump blood around the body simultaneously, which we call a single ventricle circulation.

Source: INDEPENDENT

A pregnant mother of one is fighting for her life after being shot in the chest, according to authorities.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:12 PM on 30th May 2011

Police believe Yarelis Carrillo, 20, from Lawrence, Massachusetts, who is two-months pregnant with her second child, was caught up in gang crossfire after a fight broke out near to where she was standing. She was hit by a single bullet at 1.30am on Saturday just above her heart, and stopped breathing before being rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Protesters subject British clinics including Marie Stopes to prayer vigils and ‘silent sieges’

By Ben Quinn

A sleepy sidestreet near the centre of Maidstone may seem an unlikely frontline in the conflict that has bubbled away, usually with relative calm, since Britain legalised abortion in 1967. But on a recent weekday afternoon in Kent’s county town, a group of a dozen anti-abortion protesters, led by a veteran of the movement in the US, began their latest “prayer vigil” directly across the road from a Marie Stopes clinic. Over the course of two hours, members of the group intercepted young women approaching the clinic from either end of the street to hand them literature and engage in conversation, while the protesters themselves became the target of shouts of “disgusting” and “shame” from angry passersby.

Source: GUARDIAN

It has been less than four months since she suffered she lost her second baby in a year.

By Simon Cable
Last updated at 2:28 AM on 30th May 2011

But Amanda Holden says she is ‘optimistic’ and wants to try for more children. The 40-year-old Britain’s Got Talent judge, who is married to music producer Chris Hughes, said losing her unborn child seven months into pregnancy was ‘the worst time of our lives’.

Source: DAILYMAIL

The number of women having abortions in their 40s has risen by almost a third in just a decade, official figures show.

By Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 1:05 AM on 30th May 2011

Last year, more than 8,000 women aged between 40 and 49 decided to end their pregnancy, a 30 per cent increase since 2000. This means that more than a quarter of all pregnancies in women aged 40-plus are aborted – the highest level for any age group except teenagers.The head of Britain’s biggest abortion provider said the surge could be explained by a Sex And The City-style generation of carefree single women and divorcees who take gambles with contraception – and then are surprised when they become pregnant.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Professor Carl Djerassi is often asked what might have happened had he not invented the birth control Pill.

By Helen Weathers
Last updated at 1:46 AM on 28th May 2011

Would there have been a sexual revolution, free love, and the cataclysmic shift in attitudes which continues to shape society? Would the world have been a worse or better place? Did the Pill empower women by giving them control over their own fertility and the freedom to enjoy sex without fear of pregnancy? Or is it, as one writer put it, one of ‘the biggest disasters of the 20th century medically, morally and ethically’? Professor Djerassi raises an eyebrow and admits to feeling ‘p***** off” and offended by the ‘hogwash’ spouted by those who lay the blame for society’s ills on the Pill.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Until now, Victoria Beckham has remained tight-lipped about the impending arrival of her fourth child.

By Lara Gould
Last updated at 12:33 AM on 29th May 2011

But with just over a month to go until the former Spice Girl gives birth to her first daughter, she has suddenly become keen to share the secrets of her blooming appearance – by plugging a £27.60 pot of stretch-mark lotion on Twitter. Victoria, who is due to give birth by caesarean section on July 4, told her 1.2 million followers on the social media site last week: ‘Pregnancy tip!!!! I have used this through every pregnancy, it’s amazing!! X VB.’

Source: DAILYMAIL

The number of women having abortions in their 40s has risen by almost one third in a decade, according to new figures.

By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent

Experts said the dramatic rise reflects increased sexual activity among older women, and higher numbers of single women and divorcees – who are far more likely than previous generations to have casual sex or short-term relationships.The head of Britain’s biggest abortion provider said women in their 40s – dubbed “The Sex and the City generation” – were increasingly inclined to take chances with contraception, only to be shocked when they became pregnant. Pro-life campaigners described the figures as “extraordinarily depressing”.

Source: TELEGRAPH

The families of two women who died following obstructed labour begin an historic legal action today, in a bid to force the Ugandan government to tackle the shortages of doctors and midwives, drug stock-outs and absence of emergency transport that kill 16 women a day

By Sarah Boseley Friday 27 May 2011 14.44 BST

The families of two women who died in childbirth are starting a legal action against the government of Uganda today, alleging that the inadequate care and facilities provided for pregnant women caused the deaths and violates their country’s constitution and women’s rights to life and health. The case is unprecedented in Uganda. Aid agencies and medical charities and donor governments can condemn the death toll in pregnancy and childbirth, but the most powerful argument is the devastating testimony of those who suffer.

Source: GUARDIAN

A car thief mowed down a pregnant woman and her friend as he made off with her Audi A3 after answering an advert to buy it, Scotland Yard say.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:55 PM on 27th May 2011

The 33-year-old needed hospital treatment and her 54-year-old female friend remains in a critical condition after being hit by the car in Merton, south London, on Tuesday evening. The thief had answered an ad offering the car for sale, but as he viewed the silver Audi at her home he locked himself in the car before driving off – knocking the horrified pair down in the process.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Carla Bruni showed off a rounded belly at the G8 summit, all but confirming rumours that the French first lady is pregnant.

2:54PM BST 26 May 2011

Posing for photographs with the wives of other leaders on the sidelines of the summit in the French resort of Deauville, she wore a loose-fitting white smock dress which stretched over an obvious bump. She was later seen in a black dress with her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, who appeared to place a protective hand on her as she walked in front of him. The former model has not confirmed rumours she is expecting, but she has made no great effort to dispel them.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Carla Bruni shows off pregnancy at last, but is still keeping Mum

By By Lydia Warren
Last updated at 7:51 AM on 27th May 2011

In recent weeks she has turned to baggy clothing and even a Grace Kelly-style oversized handbag in an effort to quash the rumours. But surely Carla Bruni can deny it no longer? For after weeks of speculation over whether she’s pregnant, the French First Lady appeared to be proudly showing off a baby bump at the G8 summit yesterday.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Speculation over baby bump intensifies as France’s first lady opts for smock over usual fitted outfits

By Kim Willsher in Deauville

All anyone wanted to talk about was the bump. But France’s first lady was determined the country’s worst kept secret would remain a little longer as she held court among the leaders’ wives at the G8 summit.

Shunning the usual visits to art galleries and museums, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, whose father-in-law said last week that she is pregnant, chaired a working meeting on her chosen campaign subject, illiteracy. “I’m not going to play the wallflower,” she reportedly told Elysée advisers in the runup to the event in Deauville. In a programme tailored to that demand, Bruni-Sarkozy also met Normandy food producers. On Friday she will host a working lunch for women from African delegations and international organisations on the protection of mothers and children against Aids.

Source: GUARDIAN

Leah Hardy used to be delighted that she delayed pregnancy but now has regrets

By Leah Hardy
Last updated at 10:37 AM on 27th May 2011

Almost ten years ago, I wrote a rather smug article for a glossy magazine extolling the virtues of late motherhood. At the age of 38 I’d just had my first child, and I waxed lyrical about how I felt it was the perfect age to embark upon motherhood. In my 20s and early 30s, I had travelled, partied and had fun, I wrote, and was now ready for what I suppose I must have assumed was the duller, more restricted, and frankly, less fun life of being a mother. I seem to recall congratulating myself on being calmer, more patient and less flighty than a younger mother would be.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Scientists say they have discovered why drinking coffee makes it harder for women to conceive.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:47 AM on 26th May 2011

Caffeine, the stimulant in coffee, impairs the transport of eggs from the ovaries to the womb, they found.Previous studies had shown that consuming too much coffee affected female fertility. Recent research involving 9,000 women found that drinking more than four cups a day cut the chances of conceiving by a quarter. Until now, the reason for the link was a mystery. The new investigation, conducted on mice, showed that caffeine inhibits contractions of the fallopian tubes which are needed to carry eggs to the womb.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Soaring caesarean section rates have more to do with saving lives than women’s fear of labour, says Cherrill Hicks.

By Cherrill Hicks 7:39PM BST 24 May 2011

Are affluent middle-class women swallowing up precious NHS funds by insisting on caesarean sections? Are the “too posh to push” brigade following in the footsteps of celebrities like Posh Spice and Patsy Kensit in their desire to keep their nether regions unscathed by normal, messy childbirth? Do we, in fact, need psychiatric help to overcome our pathological fear of labour?

Certainly, that seems to be the case if you read the draft of the latest guidelines on caesarean sections produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. According to Nice, women who are so afraid of giving birth normally that they want a caesarean section should be offered counselling by a mental health specialist, presumably to be helped to see the error of their ways; or as the watchdog puts it, to help them “address their fears in a supportive manner”. It also points out that, since a normal birth is £800 cheaper than a pre-booked c-section, every 1 per cent reduction in the number of women having caesarean sections would save the NHS £5.6 million.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Coalition appoints pro-abstinence charity Life to key sexual health forum, while omitting British Pregnancy Advisory Service

By Ben Quinn

A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health. The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Stuart Cowie, Life’s head of education, said: “We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past.”In contrast, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been omitted from the forum despite its long-term position on the previous advisory group and 40-year track record in providing pregnancy counselling nationwide.

Source: GUARDIAN

A Nigerian family planning expert has told the BBC it would be difficult to implement the suggestion that Nigerians should only have three children.

24 May 2011

Isaac Ogo pointed to the tradition of polygamy and the belief that the children were seen as a “gift from God” in a male-dominated society.

Recent UN figures suggest Nigeria’s population could jump to 730 million by 2100 – behind only India and China.

UN special adviser Jeffrey Sachs said this prospect alarmed him.

“It is not healthy. Nigeria should work towards attaining a maximum of three children per family,” he told the AFP news agency.

Mr Ogo, from the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria, agrees with the goal but says it will be hard to change the views of many Nigerians.

He says Nigeria is a “high birth, high death” society where many people think: “I need to have as much children as I want, as I don’t know which will survive.”

Nigeria is one of the world’s worst places to have a baby, according to the UN.

About 145 women die each day in pregnancy or childbirth, as do 2,300 children below five years of age.

Source: BBC NEWS

More than 20,000 women a year are having two or more abortions by the age of 25.

By Sophie Borland

25th May 2011

A third of all terminations are carried out on patients who have had at least one already.

Last year 189,574 abortions were carried out in England and Wales, 8 per cent more than in 2000, according to Department of Health figures.

Well over a third – 70,466 – were for women under the age of 25, of which 22,468 were ‘repeats’.

Eighty-five women who had an abortion last year had already terminated seven pregnancies. The figures show that despite government campaigns to reduce unwanted conceptions the numbers are still rising.

Source: DAILYMAIL

There has been a slight rise in the number of abortions carried out in England and Wales.

24 May 2011

Some 189,574 abortions were carried out in 2010, up 0.3% on the 189,100 in 2009 and 8% more than in 2000 (175,542).

These abortions were to women living in England and Wales. Another 6,535 were to non-residents.

The last time there was a rise in the total number of abortions was between 2006 and 2007.

Half of abortions (49%) in 2010 were to women with partners while 26% were to single women and 16% of abortions occurred within marriage.

Some 3,718 were to girls under 16 (slightly down on the previous year), 12,742 were to those aged 16 and 17, and 21,809 were to girls aged 18 and 19.

Some 27,046 abortions were among women aged 35 and over.

In total, 64,303 procedures were to women who had had at least one abortion previously.

Of these, 1,201 abortions were among girls under 18 who had undergone one previous abortion, while 79 were to girls who had had two or more.

Among those aged 18 to 24, 17,735 abortions were to girls who had one abortion previously while 3,453 were to girls who had had two previously.

The statistics also showed that almost 300 women aged 25 to 29 had had four or more previous abortions.

Source: INDEPENDENT

A quarter of fathers-to-be go through their own ‘pregmancy’ – suffering symptoms such as food cravings and morning sickness.

By Daily Mail Reporter

25th May 2011

Men have become so closely involved with their partner’s pregnancy that 23 per cent report emotional and physical changes often associated with women.

Research found they become more emotional, ‘weepy’, and suffer mood swings, nausea and even phantom pregnancy pains.

Expectant fathers involved in the study also reported cravings for bizarre food combinations such as tomatoes and oranges and pickled eggs and icepops.

Of those affected, 26 per cent experienced mood swings, 10 per cent had food cravings and 6 per cent felt nausea, which was unconnected to any other illness. Three per cent even suffered imaginary pregnancy pains.

Source: DAILYMAIL

A midwife repeatedly chanted “no pain, no gain” to the mother of a stillborn boy while she was in the throes of labour, a disciplinary hearing was told.

7:30AM BST 25 May 2011

Biobelemoye Toby told the sobbing woman she was a ‘silly girl’ and ‘did not deserve the baby’ as she screamed for a doctor and her husband begged the midwife for help. The 41-year-old was two weeks overdue when she was incorrectly given a double dose of medication to induce the labour at the Royal Free Hospital, in Hampstead, London.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Sex selection of foetuses in India has led to 7.1 million fewer girls than boys up to age six, a gender gap that has widened by more than a million in a decade, according to a study published in The Lancet.

7:30AM BST 24 May 2011

In Indian families in which the first child has been a girl, more and more parents with access to prenatal ultrasound testing are aborting a second female in the hope that a subsequent pregnancy will yield a boy, said the study. The increasingly lopsided ratio of girls to boys is larger in wealthy households than poorer ones, the researchers reported. Between 1980 and 2010, they estimate, four to 12 million girls were aborted because of their sex.

Source: TELEGRAPH

A baby is to sue Virgin Airlines in Australia after claiming he suffered food poisoning as an unborn baby after his mum ate a contaminated chicken roll on board.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:44 AM on 24th May 2011

Mother Renee Cherry has launched legal action on behalf of her one-year-old son Zayd Fokeera and is seeking compensation for alleged damage to his health. In a statement through her lawyers, Ms Cherry said it was very distressing for her to learn that she had suffered listeria poisoning while pregnant. ‘It’s every mother’s worst nightmare,’ she said. According to the claim filed in the Australian Supreme Court, a pregnant Ms Cherry flew internally from Townsville to Brisbane, then from Brisbane to Melbourne, on May 23, 2009.

Source: DAILYMAIL

India’s 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven – activists fear eight million female foetuses may have been aborted in the past decade. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi explores what has led to this crisis.

23 May 2011 Last updated at 00:19 GMT

Kulwant has three daughters aged 24, 23 and 20 and a son who is 16. In the years between the birth of her third daughter and her son, Kulwant became pregnant three times. Each time, she says, she was forced to abort the foetus by her family after ultrasound tests confirmed that they were girls. “My mother-in-law taunted me for giving birth to girls. She said her son would divorce me if I didn’t bear a son.” Kulwant still has vivid memories of the first abortion. “The baby was nearly five months old. She was beautiful. I miss her, and the others we killed,” she says, breaking down, wiping away her tears. Until her son was born, Kulwant’s daily life consisted of beatings and abuse from her husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Once, she says, they even attempted to set her on fire.

Source: BBC NEWS

One in three women suffers severe nausea in early pregnancy but many are routinely being denied medication, says Anna Tyzack.

By Anna Tyzack 7:00AM BST 23 May 2011

Charlotte Brontë is thought to have died of it in 1852, and many pregnant women still suffer such severe nausea and vomiting in the early stages of pregnancy that normal life becomes impossible.

Emily Williamson-Pound, 27, from Henley-on-Thames, was so ill from morning sickness in the first four and a half months of pregnancy that at one point she gave up trying to eat. By the time she gave birth to her daughter, Eloise, in January, she had lost almost two stone.

“I was sick all day, not just in the morning,” she says. “I stayed alive by drinking coffee with sugar. I honestly felt like I was dying.”

Source: TELEGRAPH

Middle-class women should be talked out of demanding caesarean births because reducing the rate would bring “significant” savings to the NHS, proposed clinical guidance suggests.

By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent

One in four births in Britain today is now carried out by caesarean, a major operation which costs the NHS thousands of pounds a time.The rate has more than doubled since 1980, and some research suggests their growing popularity has been driven partly by more affluent mothers demanding them – those who critics say are “too posh to push”. Many obstetricians consider the rate to be too high. Now the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has issued draft guidance saying women who want caesareans simply because they fear giving birth naturally, rather than for a clinical reason, should be made to have a full discussion about their options.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is expecting a boy, a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed, just days after the French president’s father let slip his daughter-in-law is pregnant.

By Henry Samuel

23 May 2011

Jacques Séguéla – an advertising tycoon who brought the presidential couple together in 2007 at a dinner party – disclosed the sex of the child in an interview with a Belgian newspaper.

He told Brussels daily Le Soir: “I have it on good authority that the baby will a boy.”

It will be the couple’s first child. France’s 43-year-old first lady already has a nine-year-old son, Aurélien, with the media philosopher Raphaël Enthoven.

Mr Sarkozy, 55, has two sons, Pierre, 25, and Jean, 23, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, who he divorced in 1996. He has a 13-year-old son Louis from his second marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, who he divorced in 2007.

This is not the first time Mr Séguéla has filled the public in on the presidential couple’s private lives. In 2009, he gave a blow-by-blow account of how they met at an impromptu “blind date” soirée, describing the scene as an “unexpected game of seduction between two wild beasts”.

Source: TELEGRAPH

An Australian woman has won an unprecedented legal battle to use sperm taken from her dead husband who died just a day before he was due to sign the consent forms to start IVF treatment.

By Bonnie Malkin

23 May 2011

Jocelyn Edwards has been fighting to have a baby with her husband Mark’s sperm since he died in an accident at work in August 2010.

At the time, the couple had discussed fertility treatment after failing to conceive and were just one day away from signing the relevant consent forms.

Using sperm without the consent of the donor is banned in the state of New South Wales, where the couple lived. But On Monday Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme ruled that in the circumstances it was appropriate to allow Mrs Edwards, 40, to use the sperm.

Justice Hulme said the choice was either to destroy the sperm or give it to Mrs Edwards and he ruled in her favour as the administrator of her late husband’s estate.

“Although there is no direct evidence, the clear and only inference is that she desires to have a child with the aid of assisted reproductive treatment,” he said.

Source: DAILYMAIL

The twin sisters living uncannily similar lives

By Daily Mail Reporter

24th May 2011

Identical twins Caroline Paxton and Elizabeth Cooke have always been inseparable.

They were born just four minutes apart, went to the same primary school, high school, college and were awarded the same grade for identical degrees at the same university.

But while their husbands agreed to a double wedding ceremony, they put their foot down over honeymooning in the same place.

The sisters are both policewomen, drive the same model of car, have the same group of friends, each live in a detached house and often end up accidentally wearing the same outfits and buying each other identical birthday cards and presents.

They both had their first children within months of each other and are now both pregnant with their second.

Source: DAILYMAIL

India’s 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven – activists fear eight million female foetuses may have been aborted in the past decade. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi explores what has led to this crisis.

23 May 2011

Kulwant has three daughters aged 24, 23 and 20 and a son who is 16.

In the years between the birth of her third daughter and her son, Kulwant became pregnant three times.

Each time, she says, she was forced to abort the foetus by her family after ultrasound tests confirmed that they were girls.

“My mother-in-law taunted me for giving birth to girls. She said her son would divorce me if I didn’t bear a son.”

Kulwant still has vivid memories of the first abortion. “The baby was nearly five months old. She was beautiful. I miss her, and the others we killed,” she says, breaking down, wiping away her tears.

Until her son was born, Kulwant’s daily life consisted of beatings and abuse from her husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Once, she says, they even attempted to set her on fire.

“They were angry. They didn’t want girls in the family. They wanted boys so they could get fat dowries,” she says.

India outlawed dowries in 1961, but the practice remains rampant and the value of dowries is constantly growing, affecting rich and poor alike.

Source: BBC NEWS

A dietary supplement of amino acid and antioxidant vitamins can reduce the risk for pregnant women of a dangerous condition.

23 May 2011

A dietary supplement of amino acid and antioxidant vitamins can reduce the risk for pregnant women of a dangerous condition called pre-eclampsia, according to a study released Friday.

Affecting five percent of first-time pregnancies, pre-eclampsia leads to abnormally high blood pressure, protein build-up in urine, and swelling in the feet and ankles.

Its causes are unknown and the only way to alleviate potentially life-threatening symptoms is to give birth.

Earlier research showed a link to a deficiency in L-arginine, an amino acid that helps to maintain a healthy blood flow during pregnancy.

Some experts have also suggested that antioxidant vitamins can help ward off the condition.

Researchers led by Felipe Vadillo-Ortego at National University in Mexico City designed a study to find out if a combination of L-arginine and antioxidants would prevent onset.

Source: INDEPENDENT

Private fertility clinics in Britain are set to come under increased scrutiny.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
22nd May 2011

They have been attacked for exploiting vulnerable couples with their high fees and exaggerated success story claims.

Fertility expert Lord Winston has slammed ‘many clinics’ for ‘misleading’ their prospective patients by saying their treatments were more successful than they actually were.

The ‘exorbitantly’ high prices they charge, and the way they offered treatments abroad to bypass stringent UK guidelines, were also called into question.

In particular he singled out The Bridge Clinic, in London, as somewhere that advertised ‘incredible’ figures.

He made his comments during a House of Lords debate on the future quangos threatened by government cuts.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said, in response, it will now make clinics ‘take a more responsible approach to patient information’.

Source: DAILYMAIL

HFEA acts as Lord Winston accuses fertility centres of claiming ‘impossible’ success rates and charging exorbitant fees

By Brian Brady

Britain’s fertility watchdog is to launch a crackdown, forcing private IVF clinics to stop making exaggerated claims about success rates, amid growing complaints that some have been “misleading” patients and charging exorbitantly high fees. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed last night that it will oblige clinics to “take a more responsible approach to patient information”, to ensure websites gave vulnerable couples a realistic assessment of their chances of having a child.

Source: INDEPENDENT

When I had Zach, my life just seemed like one long, sad day’

By Bonnie Estridge
Last updated at 3:28 AM on 22nd May 2011

Stacey Solomon gazed down at her newborn son as she cradled him, and felt nothing but waves of sadness and regret. The birth had been difficult – labour had lasted an excruciating 37 hours – and when the 6lb 10oz scrap was handed to her, as her jubilant parents watched, she was ‘completely numb and utterly, utterly miserable’.

Stacey, 21, who shot to fame after singing her way to the final of ITV’s X Factor in 2009, and went on to win I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! last year, says: ‘I looked at Zach – I suppose that I must have had some love for him as I had given him a name – and thought, “What am I going to do?”

Source: DAILYMAIL

An 11-year-old girl became pregnant after allegedly being raped in a YMCA sauna by a day camp counsellor who had been supervising her.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:09 PM on 21st May 2011

The girl, who went on to give birth to the child, also contracted a sexually-transmitted disease in the alleged attack last July. She was allegedly assaulted twice by a 17-year-old worker and gave birth in March. Her mother had no idea of the pregnancy or the alleged rape until December, when she noticed her daughter’s stomach had grown. The family of the girl, who is now 12, claim the YMCA was negligent, especially because the second assault was witnessed and reported by a lifeguard working there. The family have now filed a civil lawsuit in state Supreme Court.

Source: DAILYMAIL

A dietary supplement given to pregnant women at high risk of pre-eclampsia can reduce the likelihood of the disease occurring, a study says.

20 May 2011 Last updated at 00:22 GMT

Writing in the British Medical Journal, researchers says the presence of an amino acid and antioxidant vitamins in the supplement helps to combat abnormally high blood pressure. More than 600 women took part in the study in Mexico City. But experts say more research is needed on the effects of the supplement. Pre-eclampsia is a serious condition where abnormally high blood pressure and other problems develop during pregnancy.

Source: BBC NEWS

Selecting a potential father for your children, it turns out, is not unlike shopping online.

By Paul Henley BBC News, Copenhagen

“A lot of our clients typically want their donor to be at least 180cm [5ft 11in] tall and have blue eyes,” says Peter Bower, director of Nordic Cryobank, who is showing me his database of sperm donors. Customers narrow their computer search to eliminate men who are under or over a certain weight in kilos. They can click on a candidate’s profile and, for a fee, download an audio interview and a photograph of him as a baby. Staff also provide a few sentences giving their impression of donors – a physical description or an illuminating detail, Mr Bower says, such as “that he enjoys chatting in the lab after he has donated, dresses nicely or is very interested in a particular sort of music”.

Source: BBC NEWS

* Cells from Leanne’s overactive immune system were killing her fertilised eggs

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:50 PM on 19th May 2011

A woman who struggled to fall pregnant for eight years has given birth to a baby boy after she was injected with chicken egg yolk. Leanne Blackwell, 38, and her plumber husband Andy, 48, had been trying to conceive since 2003 and spent £15,000 of IVF without success. Then in 2010, Dr George Ndukwe, from Care Fertility in Nottingham discovered the couple had incompatible immune systems.

Source: DAILYMAIL

A serving High Court judge has told the BBC that he is approving commercial surrogacy agreements made by British couples abroad.

19 May 2011 Last updated at 14:55 GMT

Laws in the UK are designed to try to prevent such arrangements, but Mr Justice Hedley said his paramount concern was the welfare of the child. The most recent case the judge approved was last month, involving a baby born to a surrogate in the Ukraine. The judge said he was “extremely anxious” about the current situation. In Britain, the judge said, the only payment allowed to a surrogate mother was one of “reasonable expenses.

Source: BBC NEWS

Mother who tried to get pregnant for eight years finally gives birth after she’s injected with yolk from CHICKEN EGG

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
19th May 2011

A woman who struggled to fall pregnant for eight years has given birth to a baby boy after she was injected with chicken egg yolk.

Leanne Blackwell, 38, and her plumber husband Andy, 48, had been trying to conceive since 2003 and spent £15,000 of IVF without success.

Then in 2010, Dr George Ndukwe, from Care Fertility in Nottingham discovered the couple had incompatible immune systems.

Leanne’s overactive immune system was producing cells that were killing her fertilized eggs before they could develop.

He suggested a novel approach to lower her immune system – by injecting her with protein taken from a chicken egg.

Mrs Blackwell was given an intralipid solution containing a combination of egg extracts and soy oil through a drip, before being inseminated with the couple’s fertilised eggs.

Research shows the fatty acids in the egg reduce the number of killer cells in the immune system.

Finally in May 2010 Leanne discovered she was pregnant, and gave birth to baby Martyn weighing 6lbs 13oz in February this year.

Source: DAILYMAIL

Children whose mothers smoked while pregnant are at an increased risk of developing asthma, say scientists.

By Stephen Adams

18 May 2011

They have discovered this could be partially because smoking while pregnant can change the structure of the child’s DNA, weakening the immune system.

While it is commonly thought that genes are immutably, except if exposed to radiation, more and more evidence is showing that DNA can be changed by more everyday environmental influences. This happens through a normal biological process known as DNA methylation.

Now American medical researchers have found a potential genetic “root cause” of the link between smoking while pregnant and childhood asthma.

They found that the children of women who smoked while pregnant were more likely to have experienced more DNA methylation of the AXL gene, which is crucial to development of the immune system.

Carrie Breton, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California USC in Los Angeles, said: “We found that children exposed to maternal smoking in utero had a 2.3 percent increase in DNA methylation in AXL.”

Source: TELEGRAPH

It’s the news every mother-to-be dreads: that their baby faces a life of terrible disability. But would YOU make the same choice as Sara?

By Sara Carpenter

19th May 2011

Feeling my unborn son move inside me should have been a joyous moment midway through my pregnancy — a milestone that took me closer to welcoming my third child into the world. Instead, every tiny movement made me feel sick with guilt at what I knew I had to do.

Sitting, head in hands, at our kitchen table, I wept at the turn our lives had taken and the terrible dilemma my husband Andrew and I were suddenly facing. It was a choice no parent should ever have to make.

This should have been a straightforward pregnancy. After all, this baby was every bit as planned and wanted as our other two children, and welcoming our first son into the family would be a special joy.

But things were different from the start. In contrast with my previous two pregnancies, I had felt sick and weak every minute of every arduous day. It was almost as if my body had been trying to tell me something. I’d grown to love this baby, but something felt terribly wrong.

My fears were confirmed on October 1, 2006, when a routine scan changed everything. I’d held my breath as the consultant spent far longer than I knew was standard studying and measuring sections of my baby’s spine and brain.

Scan images are notoriously hard for lay-people to make sense of, but the protrusion on my son’s back was impossible to miss. As the doctor switched off the monitor and turned her chair to face me, I clenched my fists and jaw, willing her to say there was nothing to worry about.

Instead, my stomach lurched as she said: ‘I’m sorry, but your baby has spina bifida.’

Source: DAILYMAIL

Pregnant women who “eat for two” are putting themselves at risk of long-term obesity, a study has found.

By Victoria Ward

18 May 2011

The extra weight could put both the expectant mother and the baby at risk and lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, later in life.

The long term research, undertaken by Bristol University, adds to mounting evidence that being overweight during pregnancy can have harmful effects on both mother and baby.

NHS guidelines specifically advise against eating for two. They suggest that in the first six months of pregnancy, a woman’s recommended energy intake of 1,940 calories a day does not change.

In the final trimester, pregnant women need around 200 extra calories a day, equivalent to two slices of toast with butter.

The study found that women who gained more than the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy were three times as likely to be overweight, or become “apple-shaped,” 16 years later.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is expecting a child with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president’s father confirmed yesterday, in what commentators noted was extraordinarily good timing for the deeply unpopular leader.

By Henry Samuel

17 May 2011

Pal Sarkozy, 82, appeared to end weeks of persistent speculation by telling a German tabloid: “I’m glad to be having a grandchild”.

Neither the president nor his wife “want to know the sex the child, but I’m sure it’s a girl who’ll be as beautiful as Carla,” he told Bild newspaper.

Pal Sarkozy subsequently denied speaking to Bild but went on to tell Le Parisien: “We’re mad with joy, but they don’t want to announce it yet.”

If the 43-year-old goes on to have a baby, it will be a first for a president in office in the history of the French republic.

Bernadette Chirac, wife of former President Jacques, said: “It’s absolute happiness for this family and it’s the future of France.”

Source: TELEGRAPH