Rocker Trent Reznor is to become a new dad - the Nine Inch Nails star's wife is pregnant.
Mariqueen Maandig has revealed she's expecting a baby in a new Women's Wear Daily interview.
Reznor wed his wife and musical collaborator last year.
The duo's first album has now been put on hold due to the pregnancy.
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Hannah Allam is having a baby shower. Her son, Bilal, is due in four months. And unlike most baby showers, the guests at this one are more accustomed to donning helmets and flak jackets than writing out advice for the new mother on small blue cards.
That's because Allam's shower is being held in Baghdad, where she is a veteran reporter for McClatchy Newspapers.
Allam isn't the first foreign correspondent this year to be pregnant in Iraq. Deborah Haynes from The Times of London paved the way, giving birth to a boy. Nada Bakri from the The New York Times was in her eighth month of pregnancy when she left to give birth a few months ago, also to a boy.
In a room festooned with blue bunting, Allam reflects on covering a war while pregnant.
"The reactions started to change when my belly got bigger and definitely with the military. I spent most of the first trimester here. I was at the Iranian border, I was on a Chinook, I was on a Blackhawk, no problem. Second I start showing, they took one look at me and said we're not putting you on a Blackhawk," Allam says.
Despite the legions of women that have covered conflicts, whenever a female war correspondent is profiled the phrase "one of the few women to have made their name as a conflict reporter" constantly creeps in. It creates a false impression that we are the few. Editors these days are as likely to send a woman correspondent into combat as a man.
Among the guests at the baby shower: Liz Sly, veteran reporter from the Los Angeles Times; Jane Arraf who has been in Iraq since before the war and now reports for The Christian Science Monitor; and Leila Fadel from The Washington Post.
There are so many others. Since the war started, dozens of women have been sent to cover this conflict. It's been our choice, but for many of us, home and family have had to be parked at the blast wall gates.
Allam says she has been criticized for working in a war zone while pregnant.
"Yes, it's dangerous, yes, I am responsible for another life, but I don't see how it's that much different than a man who comes here while his wife is pregnant at home. You are still putting a parent at risk, you are still putting your child's future at risk," she says.
Of course, Iraqi women give birth in the country everyday, and that has its own challenges and difficulties. But Fadel of The Washington Post says a special sisterhood developed among women correspondents.
"You sort of bonded over being married to your job, and it's really an exciting thing to be able to celebrate somebody who's been able to not only be an excellent war correspondent, but also is married to a really wonderful person and is about to have her baby, and five months pregnant, she's still coming here," she says.
And she says she thinks it's important for Allam's son to know what his mother did before he was born.
"I threw this baby shower for her because [Iraq] has been a part of her life since 2003 as a person. So now she's going to have this memory for her son," Fadel says.
As she looks around the room, Allam gets teary eyed.
"I hope to come back. Everybody keeps asking me, when are you going to come back, are you going to come back? And I say, see you in a year," she says, laughing. "Don't tell my husband that, though."
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July has been designated Cord Blood Awareness Month by the National Health Information Center and a society of the American Hospital Association, with the goal of educating others about the medical value of cord blood stem cells. To recognize the occasion, throughout the month The Stem Cell Source will be highlighting useful information and resources for parents who want to learn more about cord blood banking.
While awareness of the medical value of cord blood stem cells is on the rise, the need for more education remains. According to a 2006 study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, three out of four expectant mothers who have heard of cord blood banking consider themselves minimally informed.
The need for greater education was the driving force behind the creation of the Cord Blood Education Center, an online program that informs expectant parents about their options for cord blood. Developed by Cord Blood Registry with input from healthcare providers, stem cell researchers and experts in public banking, the program describes all of the options available to expectant parents and is designed to give them access to information early enough in pregnancy so that they can make an informed choice about the storage, donation or disposal of their newborn’s cord blood stem cells.
Even if you are aware about cord blood stem cells, you may not know all of the facts. Take a moment to explore the Cord Blood Education Center and be sure to pass it on to others who can benefit from cord blood education.
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A new study confirms that children conceived via infertility treatment may have a higher-than-average risk of cerebral palsy -- explained largely by their higher rates of multiple births and preterm delivery.
The study, of nearly 590,000 children born in Denmark between 1995 and 2003, found that those conceived through assisted reproduction were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with cerebral palsy as children who were conceived naturally.
The findings, reported in the journal Human Reproduction, confirm those from a number of past studies. They also suggest that the increased risk of cerebral palsy can be largely attributed to the heightened odds of twin or higher-order births, as well as preterm delivery, with assisted reproduction.
However, the absolute risk of having a baby with cerebral palsy is still quite low for couples undergoing infertility treatment.
In the U.S. and Europe, it's estimated that two or three of every 1,000 babies are affected by the disorder. So even with a relatively increased risk, the vast majority of children born via assisted reproduction techniques will not have cerebral palsy.
Still, researchers say their findings offer an argument for implanting women with only one embryo at a time, in order to cut the odds of multiple births and preterm delivery.
Cerebral palsy refers to a group of conditions, usually present at birth, that permanently impair movement, balance and posture. The impairments range from mild -- some children have only relatively minor problems with movement -- to more severe, with some children being unable to walk or having additional impairments, such as mental retardation or vision and hearing problems.
The precise cause of cerebral palsy is unknown, but it is believed to involve a disruption in normal fetal brain development. Premature and low-birthweight infants are known to have a higher risk than full-term, normal-weight babies.
For the new study, researchers led by Dr. Dorte Hvidtjorn, of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, examined national data on all 588,967 children born in the country between 1995 and 2003. That included 33,139 children conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or with the help of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs.
Overall, 0.2 percent of all children were diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The risk was more than doubled among children in the IVF group, and 55 percent higher among those conceived using fertility drugs, compared with children conceived naturally.
When the researchers factored in the effects of multiple births and preterm delivery, the link between fertility treatment and cerebral palsy disappeared -- indicating that those two factors are likely responsible for the connection.
In fact, the researchers found no increased risk of cerebral palsy among singletons born via IVF.
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Mexican actor Diego Luna and wife, Camila Sodi, welcomed a baby girl into their family last Thursday.
The Y Tu Mama Tambien actor, most recently seen opposite Sean Penn in Milk, has been somewhat of an industry recluse since the birth of his son, Jeronimo, back in 2008.
Perhaps Diego is just reveling in being a family man. Diego and Camila named their new daughter Fiona, after Diego's late mother who passed away in 1982.
Congratulations to the happy parents!
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Scientists have discovered an evolutionary reason why humans and whales both have grandmothers.
As post-menopausal females age, the researchers say, they become increasingly interested and helpful in rearing their "grandchildren".
This could help explain why female great apes and toothed whales (cetaceans) have lifespans that extend long beyond their reproductive years.
They report the findings in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.
The "grandmother hypothesis" was first proposed in the 1950s. It stated that menopause, which stops a female's fertility well before the end of her lifespan, may have evolved to benefit a social group, because grandmothers went on to play such an important a role in caring for offspring that were already born.
Dr Michael Cant, from the University of Exeter in the UK, was one of the authors of this paper.
He explained that he and his colleague, Rufus Johnstone, looked at how humans and whales balanced "the costs and benefits of breeding with the costs and benefits of switching off breeding".
Dr Johnstone, who is an evolutionary biologist based at the University of Cambridge, told BBC News: "It's easy to forget about the cetaceans, but since they're the only other mammal apart from us [where females] have a comparable post-reproductive lifespan, it's important to study them in this context."
Previous studies have suggested that female chimpanzees and gorillas also go through menopause, but the conclusions are controversial.
The two scientists developed a mathematical model to study "kinship dynamics" in killer whales (orcas), short-finned pilot whales and humans.
This revealed that, as post-menopausal females aged, they developed closer ties to infants.
This showed, the scientists said, an "underlying similarity" between whales and great apes that might otherwise have been masked by the big differences in their social structures.
"Our analysis can help explain why, of all long-lived social mammals, it is specifically among great apes and toothed whales that menopause and post-reproductive helping have evolved," the researchers wrote in the paper.
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Another baby is on the way for Zac Hanson!
The pop rocker, 24, and his wife Kate are expecting their second child, he revealed Thursday on nationally-syndicated radio show Kidd Kraddick in the Morning.
"I have a new new baby. It's coming," he said. "Nobody even knows."
Zac and his wife, who wed in 2006, welcomed their first son, John, in 2008.
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A recently published PEW Research Report finds that while childlessness is still on the rise, only women with advanced degrees defy this trend.
Compared to a decade ago, women with master's degrees or more are increasingly choosing to have children. This reversal is most pronounced among women holding PhDs, who are 32% more likely to choose to have kids than a decade ago.
This counter-intuitive finding begs the question: Why are the most educated women reversing the childless trend when historically women with more education have less or no children? And what has changed for these women since the 90’s to make having kids an appealing option once more?
One theory is that companies are taking efforts to retain top female talent. With increased company support and flexibility, women are able to free up the time necessary to start a family.
Another theory is that women who pursue advanced degrees are increasingly opting out of the corporate “rat race” in favor of careers that will offer them more work/life balance. Most revealing of this is the fact that among women holding advanced degrees, those with MBAs are much more likely than lawyers and doctors to drop out of the workforce entirely once they become mothers.
Conversely, the biggest increase in childlessness over the past decade was among women with the least amount of education (high school or less). Due in large part to the jobs available to them, they are increasingly squeezed both for time and money. When finances and time are the two biggest factors one considers before deciding to have children, their predicament is not conducive to raising families.
Bottom line: As the rate of childlessness equalizes the decision to have or not have children becomes more of a voluntary one. For the most educated women, this is an encouraging sign that we’re moving towards a world in which women no longer have to choose between work and family.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, this is a sign that women are increasingly exercising their right to choose the circumstances under which they have children. Either way you look at it this is a positive indicator of progress in female empowerment, education and employment.
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Ugly Betty star Becki Newton and her husband Chris Diamantopoulos are expecting their first child, EW reports.
The happy news is causing quite a stir on her new sitcom, Love Bites. "She plays a virgin [in the pilot episode], so we have to make adjustments to that," Vernon Sanders of NBC tells USA Today.
Congrats to the Newton-Diamantopoulos family!
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Pregnant women subjected to passive smoking give birth to babies with an increased, lifelong susceptibility to cancer, research reveals.
Passive smoking causes the same type of genetic damage in unborn infants as that found in adult smokers with cancerous tumors.
Researchers said the abnormalities in newborns were indistinguishable from those found in babies of mothers who were active smokers.
And they may affect survival, birth weight and lifelong susceptibility to diseases like cancer, according to the study published online in the Open Paediatric Medicine Journal.
Dr Stephen Grant and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh in the U.S. found a smoke-induced mutation in an oncogene, a gene which transforms normal cells into cancerous tumors.
The mutation was the same level and type in newborns of mothers who were active smokers as those in babies born to non-smoking mothers exposed to tobacco smoke.
The mutations were also discernible in newborns of women who had stopped smoking during their pregnancies, but who did not actively avoid second-hand smoke.
The study confirms previous research in which Dr Grant discovered evidence of genetic abnormalities in babies whose mothers were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.
There is also evidence that maternal exposure to passive smoke, as well as a history of paternal cigarette smoke exposure, is linked with an increased risk of childhood cancer, especially leukaemias and lymphomas in children under five.
Dr Grant said: 'These findings back up our previous conclusion that passive, or secondary, smoke causes permanent genetic damage in newborns that is very similar to the damage caused by active smoking.
'By using a different laboratory test, we were able to pick up a completely distinct yet equally important type of genetic mutation that is likely to persist throughout a child's lifetime.
'Pregnant women should not only stop smoking, but be aware of their exposure to tobacco smoke from other family members, work and social situations.'
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A friend of NYMag.com was trolling the red carpet last night at a New York screening of The Kids Are All Right when he spotted a baby bump! And it wasn't the one on Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler - it was the one on her friend and fellow SNL alum Rachel Dratch! Rubin congratulated a slightly flustered Dratch, who hasn't shared the news publicly but who got up to pose in front of the cameras with Poehler, bump to bump!
SourceVisit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Women who plan home births recover more rapidly from childbirth, but there is a higher risk of their child dying, an international study suggests.
US analysis of more than 500,000 births in North America and Europe found death rates for babies in planned home births were double that of those in planned hospital births.
But the risk was still low, at 0.2%.
UK doctors said the evidence needed to be taken into account, but a midwives' body questioned its relevance.
The research, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, examined studies on the relative safety of planned home and hospital births from around the world.
Researchers looked at data from nearly 350,000 planned home births and more than 200,000 planned hospital deliveries.
Crucially, it looked at where the woman had planned to give birth, rather than the actual birthplace.
The researchers argued that the safety of home births may have previously been overplayed by the fact that when there are complications and a woman is rushed to hospital, any adverse outcome is recorded as a hospital birth.
Rates of home birth vary across the developed world. In the Netherlands a third of women deliver at home, while in the US around one in 200 women do so.
The researchers described their findings of a doubling of the risk of neonatal mortality among those planning home birth as "striking", because it is often those with the lowest risk of complications who do not need to deliver in hospital. When researchers took out babies with congenital abnormalities, the risk was threefold.
When deaths occurred among the home birth group, they were overwhelmingly attributed to respiratory problems during birth and failed attempts at resuscitation.
Overall these problems have been decreasing in recent decades, which is thought to be down to greater medical intervention, including more liberal use of ultrasound, electronic fetal heart monitoring, the induction of labor and cesarean delivery.
But the lack of medical intervention may explain why the mothers who planned a home birth tended to end up with fewer tears or lacerations, fewer cases of postpartum haemorrhage and fewer infections.
But the researchers suggested these benefits did come at a cost.
"Women choosing home birth, particularly low-risk individuals who had given birth previously, are in large part successful in achieving their goal of delivering with less morbidity and medical intervention than experienced during hospital-based childbirth," said lead author Dr Joseph Wax from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Maine Medical Center.
"Of significant concern, these apparent benefits are associated with a doubling of the neonatal mortality rate overall and a near tripling among infants born without congenital defects."
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Even though one in eight babies in the United States are born preterm each year, most new or expectant mothers and their doctors don't discuss preterm birth, a new survey shows.
Conducted by the March of Dimes and BabyCenter, the poll included more than 1,000 participants, including new or expectant mothers, mothers who've experienced preterm birth and their obstetricians/gynecologists.
Despite the fact that prior preterm birth is a major risk factor for delivering another baby prematurely, nearly 40 percent of women who had a previous preterm delivery were not informed of this by their doctors.
"If you've had a preterm birth, talk to your doctor because the greatest risk factor for having a preterm baby is if you've already had had one," said Dr. Alan Fleischman, March of Dimes medical director. "Our survey found that a lot of moms don't feel informed about preterm birth's risk factors and potential consequences."
"Early prenatal care, including reviewing medical history and lifestyle habits, is an opportunity to give babies a better chance of a healthy, full-term birth," said Fleischman. "Therefore, having that conversation about preterm birth should take place early enough so the mom-to-be can address any modifiable risk factors, and treat any health conditions that may put her or her baby at increased risk."
The survey also found that more than two-thirds of new and expectant mothers did not know the correct definition of preterm birth (less than 37 weeks of completed weeks of gestation), and one-third weren't able to pinpoint risk factors associated with preterm birth.
Among the other findings:
Learn more about premature labor here.
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