Padma Lakshmi glams up her bump at the Glamour awards, Judy Reyes shows off her new stroller on the cover of Life & Style, Gisele wears a perfectly coordinated black outfit with a striped scarf for flare, Jenna Elfman shows off her sexy side in an off-the-shoulder gray dress, and Kourtney Kardishian is nearing the end but still rocking the high heel boots (also spotted with a cute yellow top).
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Beginning Monday, November 30th, Discovery Health's Baby Week will commence. From expectant mothers' indomitable will to survive, to unconventional families' historic births, to high-risk pregnancies that defy all the odds - this edition of Baby Week features actual events.
The special programming begins each night at 8 PM (ET/PT) from Monday, November 30, through Friday, December 4.
Featured Baby Week world premieres include:
Baby Week kicks off with the premiere of She Survived That...Pregnant?!, an hour-long special recounting the stories of pregnant women who survived deadly accidents and encounters that could have killed them--and their unborn children. The pregnant women include a woman whose parachute failed to open, causing her to land face-first on the ground; a woman who was first chased by a bear--and then after she managed to escape, was hit by a car; a woman who fell over a balcony and was impaled by a microphone stand; and a woman who was shot in the uterus, with her unborn baby suffering a bullet wound as well.
Transgendered And Pregnant premieres Tuesday, December 1, at 8 PM (ET/PT). This hour-long special tells the story of a transgendered couple--the wife, a male-to-female and the husband, a female-to-male transgender--expecting a baby under the most unusual of circumstances. In spite of ongoing hormone treatments, the male-to-female transgender wife managed to impregnate the husband, a female-to-male transgender--and Discovery Health’s cameras capture the couple throughout the pregnancy leading up to the birth of their first child.
I'm Pregnant And... premieres Tuesday, December 1, at 9:30 PM (ET/PT). This brand-new series follows the stories of women facing serious issues--emotional, physical, mental or circumstantial--as they navigate their nine-month journey through pregnancy. Topics explored throughout the six-part series include:
Expecting 15 Babies premieres Friday, December 4, at 8 PM (ET/PT).Three families experience the dangerous business of giving birth to and raising multiples, including the first Hispanic sextuplets in the United States, an expecting mother of quadruplets and a family with 22-month-old quintuplets!
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After giving birth, many women choose to have the placenta tossed out by hospitals. Some women are choosing less conventional ideas...
British designer Alex Green is taking people's placentas and turning them into teddy bears.
"I was very interested in how it was discarded unceremoniously as medical waste, why it's discarded and how we could bring it back…" said Green, who thought placentas deserved a symbolic treatment whether they're saved or not. "It was really about provoking a debate about placentas and how we treat them."
Green said that the placenta must first be cured with salt to kill the bacteria and remove water. He then softens it with eggs and tannins. Once the placenta is prepared, he sews it into the shape of the bear and fills it with brown rice.
"It's more heavy than you'd imagine -- they're more the sort of thing that you'd stick on a mantel pieces," Green told ABC. "It feels soft, somewhere between leather and suede but it's much more flexible than leather -- it's bendy."
Green knows that his idea isn't for everyone. "Of course a lot of people feel it's grotesque," said Green. "But, quite a few women have expressed interest in making them."
Many readers expressed disgust at the the concept. "This is just weird, and a gimmick, and yet one more thing to sit on a shelf, take up space, and collect dust. And, of course, lots of bucks for the 'artist' who thought it up," said LS on the blog ParentDish.
Added reader Ann, "Why turn the placenta into a teddy bear. That's disgusting...I think it's better to save the placenta and spinal cord in case the baby needs it to cure a disease in the future. It's called cord blood banking and so much more valuable than what has to be the most awkward teddy bear in the world."
But many treat the placenta with respect. Some cultures bury placentas and plant fruit trees on top of them as a living monument for the birth of their children. Discovery Green offers a how-to guide. Others believe that eating the placenta can be healthy for women who have just given birth. In Chinese medicine , eating placentas are said to replenish lost blood and nutrients. Some even believe it can help with postpartum depression.
SourceCuteness abounds at the thinkgeek webstore. Check out these adorable products for the geeky mom and her little ones, including a spill-proof bowl and Yoda backpack:
Saved By the Bell alum Tiffani Thiessen has a bun in the oven.
She and husband, artist and actor Brady Smith, are expecting their first baby next May.
Thiessen, 35, now stars on USA's drama White Collar.
She and Smith have been married since 2005. They shot down baby rumors last December.
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Mrs Herald, who is just 2ft 4ins, was told that becoming pregnant could kill her but has already defied doctors to have two healthy babies.
Now Mrs Herald, who uses a wheelchair, and her husband Will, who is 5ft 9ins, are awaiting the birth of their third child, due in the next four weeks.
She cannot hold her daughter because her belly gets in the way, and has to rely on her husband Will to do most things around the house.
Mrs Herald admits being pregnant is "uncomfortable" and leaves her bedridden for weeks on end. By the time the new addition, a boy, is one he will already tower over his mum.
The couple met in 2000 while working for a supermarket in their home town and were desperate for a family after marrying in 2004.
But doctors warned Mrs Herald a baby would grow so large inside her tiny body it would eventually crush her organs.
"It broke my heart that I couldn't have kids," she said.
"All my life my parents had told me that I could do anything. Then there were these doctors telling me that we couldn't be a complete family. It really hurt."
Eight months later, the couple were thrilled when they discovered Mrs Herald was pregnant and decided to go ahead even though family and doctors begged them to reconsider.
"They all told me that I would die. They begged me not to have a baby. Even my mother said,' You know you won't survive right?'
"I told her: 'It's a miracle that I am here, that I have life, why couldn't this be a miracle too?'"
After 28 weeks, doctors performed a cesarean section and daughter Kateri was born, weighing just 2lbs and 1oz in 2006.
She grew well but there was heartbreak for the family when they discovered Kateri had inherited Mrs Herald's condition and would also never grow to a normal height.
But the young family resumed life as normal, before Mrs Herald became pregnant a year later.
"It was kind of like the last time, everyone screamed: 'What are you doing?' at us," she said.
"The doctors told me I was pushing my luck. But we just prayed that God would bring us through it."
She admits that the second pregnancy has taken its toll, saying: "It was hard, I got so much bigger faster. At my worst point I remember bursting into tears, because I looked like a beach ball with a head and little feet.
Doctors tried to let the second baby stay in Mrs Herald's body for as long as possible, letting her pregnancy go to 34 weeks before taking her into theatre.
Daughter Makaya who, at 18 inches was more than half her mum's body length when she was born, weighed 4lbs and 7oz.
Now both girls are bigger than their mother, who is now 30 weeks pregnant with her first boy.
She said: "It's getting tougher and tougher to move.
"We didn't plan to have more than two kids, we just think that they're a great gift to the world, and when I look at them I see Will and I feel so full of love, it's tough not to want more."
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Before you start choosing bedding and matching nightlights, make sure you have the basics of the room ready.
Measure the room and sketch it on paper. Keep a copy in your wallet - you’ll refer to it during many stages of your nursery planning.
Include the heights and widths of the windows, closets, and doors.
Note the locations of electrical outlets, heat and air conditioning vents or systems, and light fixtures.
Take a look at the walls. Is there paneling or wallpaper that you would like to remove? An old coat of paint that needs refreshing?
The fastest and easiest way to create an environment is with paint. The new zero and low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paints are perfect for the nursery since they are odorless and emit no toxic gases. They also dry fast and cover well. These luscious, environmentally friendly products can be tinted to any color.
As for finishes, forget flat paint and go with eggshells and satins. They’re more durable and easier to clean. When you’re ready to choose a color, paint large samples on your walls and evaluate them during different times of the day. Colors change as the light does.
One coat or two? One might do, so after your first lap around the room, take a look for missed spots and then decide.
You can easily transform a room with wainscot or a simple chair rail. Supplies for either are available from a retailer like Home Depot. If you’d like to create the same kind of impact without hardware, try using a different color paint for the lower half (3 to 4 feet) of the walls – or paint a horizontal stripe around the perimeter of the room.
When your child is a bit older, you can add personality (and fun!) to his or her room by adding chalkboards, dry erase boards, or cork to the bottom half of the walls.
Floor coverings are not just attractive, but they can also cushion a delicate bottom, soften late night cries, and warm up a chilly room. If you have your heart set on wall-to-wall carpeting, pay attention to what the carpet's materials. Synthetic carpet can harbor dust and dirt, and some adhesives may contain V.O.C.’s.
If wall-to-wall carpeting is not in your plans, there are many options to consider. But before you explore your choices, evaluate your floor’s current condition. If you already have carpet, peel back a corner and take a peek. You may find hardwood, cement, or a plywood subfloor. This is your platform and it needs to be in good shape. Seams should be flush. Nails and screw heads must be sunk - you want to be able to vacuum and damp mop a child’s room.
Floor coverings made from natural products are allergen-free and a breeze to clean. These materials include: linoleum, bamboo, and cork.
Cork, the latest in eco-green flooring materials, is a harvested resource that retains warmth and is loaded with air pockets that act as natural shock and sound absorbers. Many cork tiles have no VOCs and come in an array of colors. Installation is very straightforward : You apply adhesive with a roller to a cleaned and prepared surface and glue the tiles down. And just like linoleum, cork cuts with a knife.
Laminates, such as the wood grained styles from Pergo, are popular in children’s rooms. Unlike hardwoods that are nailed into subfloors, laminate floors float on the surface. There are two kinds of laminates: the "snap-together" style, which is easier to install but not as structurally sound, and the "glue-together" type. Both are durable and childproof.
Map out where to place major furniture and necessities. These should include, but are not limited to:
When deciding where to place the crib, consider the following:
WINDOW PLACEMENT
For your baby’s safety, don’t place the crib under a window. Your child will be standing and climbing in no time and windows can lead to a dangerous fall.
FURNITURE NEAR THE CRIB
Sooner than you think, your baby will be reaching out of her crib and grabbing at anything she can get her hands on. If you will be keeping the changing table, dresser, or other furniture near the crib, make sure you do not leave loose fabric, blankets, towels, or small items within baby’s reach.
AIR VENTS
You don’t want hot or cool air blowing on your baby's head. But you also don’t want your little one to get too hot or too cold; 65-70 degrees is the recommended temperature range.
WINDOWS
Most babies sleep best in dark rooms. Look into blackout shades that can go under your drapes or curtains. There are also decorative, light-blocking roman shades are be attractive on their own. As your baby becomes more mobile, he can pull on drapes and curtains, or get tangled in window blind cords. To prevent these potential dangers, avoid using long curtains or drapes and consider cordless blinds or use cord protectors.
LIGHTING
Lighting can help create a soothing environment and you'll want to include both bright and low level settings in your plan. Dimmer controls make it easy to go from playtime to naptime.
SAFETY
If your house is not already equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, look into installing these throughout your home and in the nursery.
REPAIRS
If the room needs any major repairs, such as heating or electrical, take care of them as soon as possible. Once the baby arrives, it will become more difficult to work on these problems.
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Expectant mothers may enjoy listening to their unborn babies' heartbeats, but they shouldn't rely on home fetal heart monitors to provide an accurate picture of fetal health, researchers say.
The devices may provide false reassurance in some situations, according to Dr. Abhijoy Chakladar of Princess Royal Hospital in West Sussex, England.
In the British Medical Journal, Chakladar reported a case in which a 34-year-old woman who was 38 weeks pregnant went to the emergency department because she couldn't hear her baby's heartbeat with her home fetal heart monitor.
A few days earlier, she said she had noticed that the baby was moving far less than usual. However, she reassured herself that everything was OK by listening to the monitor. A couple of days later, when she listened again, she couldn't detect anything and sought medical help.
Physicians performed an ultrasound and found no fetal heart activity. They gave the diagnosis -- intrauterine death -- but could not explain why it had happened.
All blood tests and infection screens were normal. There was no significant microbial growth from the placenta or fetus, and the fetus seemed morphologically normal, Chakladar said.
He said the stillbirth "may have been unavoidable," but listening to the fetal heart monitor "certainly delayed presentation to the hospital."
"Without training," he added, sounds heard on the monitor "could easily be misinterpreted." Likely, the mother had simply heard her own pulse or placental flow instead.
Home monitoring devices can give only a snapshot of the heart rate and "provide no indication of other important prognostic features," he said.
Medical professionals provide context that an untrained mother can't, he added. For example, midwives and obstetricians take careful histories and make experienced observations before making interpretations for a diagnosis.
But the sale and use of at-home fetal heart monitors has been on the rise, Rebecca Coombes, associate editor of BMJ, wrote in an accompanying editorial.
The devices are often sold over the Internet, making it hard for the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency -- which is responsible for regulating fetal monitors classified as medical devices -- to take disciplinary action.
But not all fetal heart monitors are medical-grade. Coombes said the regulated products use medical-grade ultrasound Doppler devices, which have to conform to medical standards and can cost $500 or more. But cheaper devices that do not use ultrasound retail for as little as $33.
"These are not considered medical devices," she said.
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Hormonal fluctuations make it harder for women to sing during pregnancy, a new study finds.
Many professional singers have difficulty singing while pregnant, but it hasn't been known whether this was because of hormones or other causes, such as decreased lung capacity as the baby grows.
In this study, researchers followed a professionally trained singer through 12 weeks of pregnancy and for 12 weeks after she gave birth. Once a week, the singer was recorded reading and singing into a device able to measure the pressure exerted to make each sound. This data was then matched with measurements of the singer's hormone levels.
The researchers found that increased levels of hormones during pregnancy correlated with changes to the singer's vocal folds. These temporary changes forced the singer to use more pressure from her lungs to sing the same notes as when she wasn't pregnant.
"It seems that it's harder work during pregnancy to sing," study author Filipa La of Aveiro University in Portugal, said in a news release from the American Institute of Physics. But she added that this is a single case study, and larger studies need to be done before doctors could give reliable advice to professional singers.
The study was presented recently at the meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, in San Antonio, Texas.
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First, fill out a questionnaire at govbenefits.gov to see if you're eligible for any government benefits.
Pregnant women can use federally funded health centers that permit you to pay what you can afford, based on your income. They can provide complete care when you're pregnant as well as a host of other health services. To find one in your area, type in your address at www.findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov.
Medicaid is a federally funded state-run program that may help low-income families. The Kaiser Family Foundation provides an excellent database detailing what Medicaid may cover, at http://medicaidbenefits.kff.org/. Just click on your state. Unfortunately, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirms there is no centralized federal database to provide pregnant women information on where to go either at local or state levels for Medicaid services.
Each state has a "Women Infants and Children" program, which provides nutritious foods, nutrition education and referrals to health and other social services. Administered by the USDA Food & Nutrition Service, this program covers low income, pregnant, postpartum and breast-feeding women, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk. A household of four would qualify if its annual income is less than $40,793, according to the USDA Food & Nutrition Services. For more information, go to www.fns.usda.gov/wic. Be sure also to examine other federally sponsored nutritional programs located near the bottom of that same web page.
For information on prenatal services in your community, call 1-800-311-BABY. For information in Spanish: 1-800-504-7081.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program may help children of families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private health. Go to www.insurekidsnow.gov or call 1-877-543-7669.
Indian Health Service provides public health care services to American Indians and Alaskan natives as well as non-Indian women who are pregnant with an eligible Indian's child. Contact www.ihs.gov.
Some labor unions, professional clubs, associations and organizations offer private group plans to members, which may be lower-cost.
Other options:
Care.com is allowing free access this weekend to the premium services offered on their website in honor of National Family Caregiver Month. Find caregivers in your area, run background checks, and contact caregivers directly for free! You can find babysitters, nannies, senior caregivers, special needs caregivers, tutors, pet sitters and housekeepers. Visit their website to find out more!
The Cry Translator listens to a whining child and analyzes the pitch, volume, tone and inflection of his nerve-jangling noise. Ten seconds later, it provides you with one of five “translations”: hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed or bored.
The idea of this $30 iPhone application, apart from preying on the anxieties of new parents, is to help teach you the meanings of the distinctive sounds and to help out babysitters who might otherwise try to feed your three-month old (hunger) instead of just switching over to the Family Guy from American Idol (bored). The application even gives advice on what to do, depending on the translation.
According to the seller, Biloop Technologic, clinical tests have proven the app to be accurate 96% of the time, and it will “continue to translate crying regardless of the age of the child”. This last is an excellent feature, and will help me determine the cause the next time the Lady starts to blubber. On previous experience, I can guess it will most likely be “annoyed” or “bored”. On sale here until November 11th for $10.
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For many people, it's one of life's most intimate moments. But for a 23-year-old Minnesota teacher, the birth of her first child will be an event open to anyone in the world.
For the past few months, Lynsee (who asked to keep her last name private) has been sharing daily details about her pregnancy on the social network MomsLikeMe. When she gives birth in the next few days, more than a thousand women who follow her online -- plus anyone else with an Internet connection -- will be able to watch a live broadcast of her child's birth from their computes.
"We wanted to share this experience," Lynsee said about the decision she made with her husband Anders. "If I were in a classroom, I'd be teaching about development. It was a way for me to teach… A way for me to use myself as a textbook."
The day Lynsee found out she was pregnant, she joined the MomsLikeMe site for the Twin Cities area. She and her husband had just moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul and, not knowing many people, she found the Web site to be a good way to meet other women and learn about local resources.
Soon after joining, she answered a message from the site's manager asking pregnant women in the area to contact her. And before she knew it, Lynsee wasn't just a member of the online mothers' network, she was a contributor.
After talking it over with her husband, the young woman agreed to share every last detail of her pregnancy through a daily blog, and then finish off the project with a live Internet broadcast of the delivery.
How did her husband feel? "He was a little hesitant at first, as was I," Lynsee said. But after MomsLikeMe assured them that the video would be shot tastefully, the parents-to-be embraced the idea.
"I shared pretty much anything -- it's pretty much a tell-all blog," Lynsee said about her online postings.
When she gives birth, a cameraman will be in the hospital room with Lynsee, her husband, her mother and her midwife. A second camera will be mounted in the corner. Lynsee said there will not be any graphic shots taken from over the midwife's shoulder.
In addition to the live broadcast, anyone registered with her group on MomsLikeMe will be able to chat with Lynsee while she's in the delivery room.
"I hope to give women a sense of empowerment and joy because it's a very miraculous everyday event," she said. "We're just sharing the story from the empowerment and emotional aspects."
Since making the decision to broadcast the birth, Lynsee said she has not had any second thoughts, and said her family has been 100 percent supportive.
But some mommy bloggers said they were surprised to see someone use new technology to reveal so much.
Would you consider broadcasting your birth live? Would you consider watching another person's birth live?
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Only days after birth, babies have a bawl with language. Newborn babies cry in melodic patterns that they have heard in adults’ conversations — even while in the womb, say medical anthropologist Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg in Germany, and her colleagues.
By 2 to 5 days of age, infants’ cries bear the tuneful signature of their parents’ native tongue, a sign that language learning has already commenced, the researchers report in a paper published online November 5 in Current Biology.
Fluent speakers use melodic patterns and pitch shifts to imbue words and phrases with emotional meaning. Changes in pitch and rhythm, for example, can indicate anger. During the last few months of fetal life, babies can hear what their mothers or other nearby adults are saying, providing exposure to melodies peculiar to a specific language, Wermke says. Newborns then re-create those familiar patterns in at least some of their cries, she proposes.
“Our data support the idea that human infants’ crying is important for seeding language development,” Wermke says. “Melody lies at the roots of both the development of spoken language and music.”
Scientists already knew that, in the final months of gestation, babies can hear people talking, especially their mothers. Newborns prefer the sound of their mothers’ voices to the voices of other people, for example. In the days after birth, babies show signs of discriminating the sound of their native language from others and of recognizing when voice-like tones change in pitch.
Wermke’s team goes further, suggesting that newborns adapt their cries to melodic patterns characteristic of whatever language they have heard spoken.
She and her colleagues studied 60 healthy newborns, 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 born into German-speaking families. The researchers recorded 2,500 cries as mothers changed babies’ diapers, readied babies for feeding or otherwise interacted with the youngsters.
Acoustic measures allowed the researchers to identify 1,254 cries (in this case, a cry is a vocalization produced with a single breath) that contained clear rising-and-falling arcs suitable for a detailed analysis.
German newborns’ cries tended to start out high-pitched and gravitate to increasingly lower pitches. French newborns’ cries started out low-pitched and then moved higher. Comparable high-to-low and low-to-high intonation patterns characterize words and phrases used by fluent speakers of German and French, Wermke says.
Newborns strive to imitate their mothers’ behaviors however they can, in order to attract attention and foster bonding, Wermke proposes. Newborns can readily mimic the musical structure of what a mother says, in her view.
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An 11-year-old girl became one of the world's youngest mothers - after she went into labor at her wedding.
Kordeza Zhelyazkova, from Sliven, Bulgaria, was still wearing her wedding dress and tiara when she was rushed to the hospital, where she gave birth to a 5-pound, 8-ounce girl.
"I'm not going to play with toys anymore - I have a new toy now," Kordeza told reporters as she showed off little Violeta.
Kordeza - who got pregnant two weeks after her 11th birthday - told the News of the World: "It feels strange...now I must grow up. I am not going back to school."
The baby's 19-year-old dad, Jeliazko, met Kordeza when he rescued her from bullies in the playground.
"I was walking past the school when I saw some boys mocking her and I told them to leave her alone," he said. "Then she arranged to meet me and asked me out on our first date.
"We didn't plan to have sex or a baby, although I fell in love with Kordeza the moment I saw her," Jeliazko said.
But within a week, Kordeza was pregnant - and Jeliazko was facing six years in jail for having sex with a minor. The age of consent in Bulgaria is 14.
"I thought she was 15," he said. "She didn't tell me she was 11. I was really scared."
"I didn't want to say in case he wouldn't fancy me," Kordeza confessed.
"I didn't know I was pregnant until my grandmother saw I had put on weight," she added. "I just thought I'd eaten too many burgers."
"It's normal for our girls to have babies young," said Kordeza's grandmother Dida, 55. "It's our tradition. But I didn't want it for my Kordeza - I felt she was too young."
The family planned a three-day Roma wedding so Kordeza and Jeliazko could be married before the baby arrived.
But Kordeza went into labor on the second day. "I had been having pain in the morning and a couple of hours into the wedding, it got worse."
She was rushed to hospital and gave birth 20 minutes later.
"It was quite easy but painful, too," she said. "I was very happy when I saw her. She has a nose like me and hair like Jeliazko."
Violeta's grandmothers will be her guardians, and Kordeza and her daughter will receive about $115 a month in state benefits.
SourceAbout Us
The Pregnancy Weekly blog is an online magazine about pregnancy, baby, and parenting. Our blog is an extension of PregnancyWeekly.com - the online pregnancy guide, calendar, and community providing resources that help you monitor your week by week pregnancy.
