How to keep your pre-baby pals

Your best friend - at primary school you were joined at the hip. As teenagers you chased the same boys, and once you were adults you spent the weekends sharing a cocktail, talking on the phone or hitting the shops. But suddenly things changed because one of you had a baby.

We all know that having a child is a life-changing event for any woman to go through - being tired, busy and pre-occupied with a new little life can often take priority over your girlfriends.

But a recent survey by baby milk brand Aptamil, highlighted that women often lose even their oldest friends when they have a baby.

The study showed that more than a third turn to new pals who also have newborns, while one in ten say they never see their pre-baby pals.

Psychologist, relationship expert and mom, Dr. Pam Spurr, explains why this happens and how good friends can take action...

Pam says: "We often lose friends in the midst of key changes in our lives, moving house, changing jobs, going to university and then the big one - becoming a parent.

"If you are absolutely best buddies, who have been through a lot together, the chances are things won't change too much between you once a new life enters the equation. I absolutely needed my best friends when I first had a child, and even though they didn't know anything about parenting, we remained loyal friends.

"But, key friendships aside, often these changes in the make up of friendships do happen.

"Sometimes it can signify that the relationship maybe didn't mean that much to you in the first place, or that you are both just in too different places to make it work.

"But there are also ways to prevent it occurring between closer friends. For every parent, a new baby is the centre of their universe, but for a period of time, mums should use meetings with friends or phone calls to discuss other things as well as new baby.

"A lot of new parents risk becoming a 'baby bore' to their non-parent pals. While hearing about her boyfriend problems or questioning her about her latest business meeting might seem like it's completely off your radar, breast-feeding and nappies will be exactly the same for her.

"All relationships take hard work, so new mothers should physically try to get through the early stages of parenthood and maintain a relationship with regular chats. Once every spare moment isn't used for sleeping or relaxing, really utilize your spare time to see your closest friends - in ways that you would have in the old days.

"Rather than asking them round to see you and baby, get a good babysitter or hand the little one to a family member for the evening, and have a coffee or a glass of wine for a real girly chat together.

"If you are worried about becoming a baby bore- be honest. Explain that you feel as though you might be talking about the baby too much. If you are good enough friends you can get things out in the open and move on.

"If you are the friend without a new baby, do what all good friends should do - put yourself in her shoes. Imagine how you might change with stress, lack of sleep, massive responsibility and life changes and let the changes in your old pal pass.

"Empathize and most of all, help out. If you are popping over to see her, offer to pick up some food shopping on the way or some extra nappies or other things she might need.

"Make that extra effort, even if it doesn't feel the natural thing to do and try your very best to understand her position. The girl you could always rely on will come back fully eventually - albeit a little changed from becoming a parent.

"One of my best friends never had any children, and there were times that things were difficult, but we are still as close as ever - it certainly is possible."

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Teen Birth Rates Decline

Some good news: the overall U.S. teenage birth rate fell between 2007 and 2008, as did the birth rate in 14 states, according to government stats.

The headline decline - a 2.4% drop, to 41.5 births per 1,000 15 to 19-year-old women from 42.5 - masks a whole lot of state-by-state variation, though. New Hampshire has the lowest rate, at 19.8 per 1,000, while in Mississippi the rate was 65.7 per 1,000.

Since 1991 teen births have been declining, with the exception of a two-year uptick between 2005-2007, the CDC says. Still, even the lower birth rate in the U.S. is “substantially higher” than for other western countries, the CDC says, citing United Nations stats.

Generally, the South had more teen births. But things differed by race and ethnicity, too: Rates for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic teens were higher in the Southeast and lower in the Northeast and in California, while rates for non-Hispanic black teens were highest in the upper Midwest and Southeast.
CDC head Thomas Frieden has pegged teen pregnancy as one of the six “winnable battles” in public health. The others: smoking, obesity/nutrition, AIDS, auto injuries and health-care infections.

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New Mothers Grow Bigger Brains Postpartum

Motherhood may actually cause the brain to grow. Exploratory research published by the American Psychological Association found that the brains of new mothers bulked up in areas linked to motivation and behavior, and that mothers who gushed the most about their babies showed the greatest growth in key parts of the mid-brain.

Led by neuroscientist Pilyoung Kim, PhD, now with the National Institute of Mental Health, the authors speculated that hormonal changes right after birth, including increases in estrogen, oxytocin and prolactin, may help make mothers' brains susceptible to reshaping in response to the baby. Their findings were published in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.

The motivation to take care of a baby, and the hallmark traits of motherhood, might be less of an instinctive response and more of a result of active brain building, neuroscientists Craig Kinsley, PhD, and Elizabeth Meyer, PhD, wrote in a special commentary in the same journal issue.

The researchers performed baseline and follow-up high-resolution magnetic-resonance imaging on the brains of 19 women who gave birth at Yale-New Haven Hospital, 10 to boys and nine to girls. A comparison of images taken two to four weeks and three to four months after the women gave birth showed that gray matter volume increased by a small but significant amount in various parts of the brain. In adults, gray matter volume doesn’t ordinarily change over a few months without significant learning, brain injury or illness, or major environmental change.

The areas affected support maternal motivation (hypothalamus), reward and emotion processing (substantia nigra and amygdala), sensory integration (parietal lobe), and reasoning and judgment (prefrontal cortex).
In particular, the mothers who most enthusiastically rated their babies as special, beautiful, ideal, perfect and so on were significantly more likely to develop bigger mid-brains than the less awestruck mothers in key areas linked to maternal motivation, rewards and the regulation of emotions.

The mothers averaged just over 33 years in age and 18 years of school. All were breastfeeding, nearly half had other children and none had serious postpartum depression.

Although these early findings require replication with a larger and more representative sample, they raise intriguing questions about the interaction between mother and child (or parent and child, since fathers are also the focus of study). The intense sensory-tactile stimulation of a baby may trigger the adult brain to grow in key areas, allowing mothers, in this case, to “orchestrate a new and increased repertoire of complex interactive behaviors with infants,” the authors wrote. Expansion in the brain’s “motivation” area in particular could lead to more nurturing, which would help babies survive and thrive physically, emotionally and cognitively.

Further study using adoptive mothers could help “tease out effects of postpartum hormones versus mother-infant interactions,” said Kim, and help resolve the question of whether the brain changes behavior or behavior changes the brain – or both.

The authors said that postpartum depression may involve reductions in the same brain areas that grew in mothers who were not depressed. “The abnormal changes may be associated with difficulties in learning the rewarding value of infant stimuli and in regulating emotions during the postpartum period,” they said. Further study is expected to clarify what happens in the brains of mothers at risk, which may lead to improved interventions.

In their “Theoretical Comment,” Kinsley and Meyer, of the University of Richmond, connected this research on human mothers to similar basic research findings in laboratory animals. All the scientists agreed that further research may show whether increased brain volumes are due to growth in nerve cells themselves, longer and more complex connections (dendrites and dendritic spines) between them, or bushier branching in nerve-cell networks.

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Pregnancy During Spring May Boost Kid's Risk of Food Allergies

The chances of a child developing food allergies may be increased if that child is conceived in the early spring, a preliminary study by Finnish researchers suggests.

Studies have already shown that children born in autumn or winter are more likely to develop eczema, wheeze and asthma than children born in spring or summer, the researchers noted.

There may be several reasons for this new finding, said lead researcher Dr. Kaisa Pyrhonen, of the Institute of Health Sciences at the University of Oulu, including concentration of pollen in spring, exposure to sunlight, which is related to synthesis of vitamin D, and viral infections.

"These are possible explanations, but our study design did not allow any assessment of the causal role of the above factors," Pyrhonen said.

Pyrhonen said the study findings are preliminary and families should not plan pregnancies around specific times. "Because our study was an observational study, we cannot give any recommendations to families," Pyrhonen said.

The report is published in the Oct. 20 online edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

For the study, Pyrhonen's team collected data on 5,920 Finnish children born between 2001 and 2006. From birth to four years, 961 of these children were tested for food allergies.

Up to age of 4, the odds of having a food allergy varied according to season of birth, ranging from 5 percent for children born in June and July to 9.5 percent for those born in October and November, the researchers found.

In fact, 11 percent of children whose 11th week of development occurred during April or May had food allergies, compared with 6 percent of children who reached that stage of development in December or January, Pyrhonen's group found.

In terms of specific allergies, a child whose first three months of fetal development ended in April or May was three times more likely to be allergic to milk and eggs compared with those who reached that stage in November or December, the researchers said.

Commenting on the study, Dr. Erick Forno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said there could be a variety of reasons for this finding.

"But what is important is that we are understanding more that there are environmental factors that at some point during pregnancy play an important role in developing the immune system that predisposes the kid to have either food allergies or environmental allergies or asthma or eczema or something of that sort," he said.
Forno cautioned that this was an observational study (a type of study in which people are observed or certain outcomes are measured and no effort is made to affect the outcome -- for instance, no treatment is given). "So there may be other things that these researchers didn't measure that are also associated. What they are looking at is the common consequence. So we can't say it's a causal association," he said.

Parents need to realize that things outside the uterus are very important in the developing fetus, Forno said, adding, "We are only beginning to understand what goes on."

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Euro-MPs give thumbs up to five-month maternity leave

Euro-MPs voting amid a sea of pink and blue baby balloons Wednesday endorsed a hotly-contested plan to offer new mothers across Europe five months of fully-paid maternity leave.

But conservative parliamentarians as well as the European Commission immediately cautioned that in times of economic constraint, the vote might not translate into action.

"If we want to move towards gender equality in the work place," said justice commissioner Viviane Reding, "we must find the right balance between concrete rights for mothers and the current economic realities facing businesses in the EU."

Wednesday's vote, a first reading which now goes to EU governments, proposes raising maternity leave from 14 weeks to 20 while giving fathers across the 27-nation bloc two weeks to spend time with their newborn.

Reding said the European Commission would act as "honest broker" to help wrest an agreement between the proposal adopted by parliament and the EU 27.

"The vote," she said, "is very ambitious, but certainly will not make it easy to find a balanced compromise with the Council (of 27 states) in the near future."

The Commission initially had suggested 18 weeks maternity leave, in line with recommendations by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Some governments have warned the 20-week fully paid leave will add a huge burden to hard-pressed economies, while business leaders say it may work against giving jobs to women in the long term.
Britain for one, which the same day unveiled its harshest spending cuts in decades, says it would more than double its maternity leave bill, adding up to 2.4 billion pounds a year (2.75 billion euros, 3.8 billion dollars).
Britain currently has the European Union's longest maternity leave, at 52 weeks. But it is far from fully paid, with only the first six weeks on 90 percent pay.

German women get 14 weeks, French women 16, and Belgians 15 weeks.

"Maternity must be standardized, it is a service rendered to society but the rules vary from one country to another," said Portuguese Socialist Edite Estrela, who introduced the bill. "Our societies need children."
Welcoming the parliament's support for the bill, she said the costs would be covered if only 1.4 percent more women went to work. "In the UK costs will be covered if just 0.4 percent more women are able to carry on working," she said.

But some MEPs fear the bill could in the long run undermine employment opportunities for women.

"It goes too far," said British liberal Elizabeth Lynne. "We mustn't ruin systems that are functioning. Leave on full pay will stop many young women from finding a job."

Conservative French MEP Pascale Gruny said the vote was "false good news that will wind up being a brake on employing women across Europe."

Once governments have debated the bill, it will return -- perhaps vastly revised -- to the 736-member parliament.

Reding last month warned that the costs of fully paid, 20-week maternity leave over a 20-year period would reach "up to 40 billion euros for France and 57 billion euros for the UK."

Condemning the extra costs, business leaders argue that new statutory leave is unnecessary EU meddling in workable national systems which, in the last instance, may harm employment for women.

"The proposal is expensive and burdensome ... and will increase the complexity of hiring women," said the head of Business Europe, Philippe de Buck.

There are are huge differences across the EU on paternity leave.

Fathers get no time off in Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Ireland while in Finland they may take three to eight weeks, four in Finland and even 12 in Slovenia, but over eight years.

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Johnson & Johnson again recalls a Tylenol product

Tylenol caplets are again being recalled by Johnson & Johnson after some consumers were sickened by ingesting the pills or smelling a musty or moldy odor on the bottles.

Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit received some complaints from people who reported nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea after taking the pills, a spokeswoman said Monday.

This makes 13 recalls in barely a year by the health care giant, mostly for more serious problems with its nonprescription drugs, contact lenses, blood glucose test strips and hip implants.

It's the fifth time that the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company has recalled nonprescription medicines because of consumer complaints about an unpleasant odor.

The moldy odor is thought to be due to the presence of trace amounts of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, McNeil said in a statement.

Previously, the company said the chemical was on wooden shipping pallets that it has stopped using after Jan. 15.

Asked if that was again the case with the latest recalls, J&J spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said, "We've seen both.

"Some complaints have come in from smelling the bottles and some from ingesting the pills," Goodrich said.

She could not say whether any complaints from the prior recalls had involved people ingesting the pills.

The latest recall, announced Monday, covers one lot of Tylenol 8 Hour caplets in 50-count bottles.

McNeil said the recall is precautionary and the problems reported by consumers were temporary and not serious. The company said the risk of serious harm is remote.

The first two such recalls, both late last year, involved first five lots and then all product lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles with the red EZ-Open Cap.

On Jan. 15, J&J issued a large-scale recall of containers of children's and adult Tylenol, plus Motrin, St. Joseph's aspirin, Benadryl, Rolaids and Simply Sleep, also because of a moldy smell that had made people sick. Then on July 8, the company recalled 21 lots of Benadryl, Motrin and about nearly 20 varieties of Tylenol for the same reason.

J&J did not say how many bottles are in a lot.

Rival drugmaker Pfizer also recalled a product recently because of a musty odor, pulling bottles of its top-selling cholesterol medicine Lipitor on Oct. 9.

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Saints QB Brees and wife announce birth of 2nd son

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his wife Brittany are celebrating the birth of their second son, Bowen Christopher.

The reigning Super Bowl MVP announced the child's birth on his Twitter account Tuesday.


Brees says his wife and the baby are doing "great", but noted she "has yet to give in" to the name he wants. Earlier this month, Brees posted a Twitter message soliciting ideas for uncommon boy names that begin with the letter "B".

The couple's first son, Baylen, became a star after the Saints' Super Bowl victory when his father carried the youngster onto the field.

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Fish Oil Use in Pregnancy Didn't Make Babies Smart

Many women take fish oil supplements during pregnancy, encouraged by obstetricians, marketing campaigns or the popular view that a key fish oil ingredient - docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA - is beneficial to a baby's cognitive development.

But a large study published Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that the DHA supplements taken by pregnant women show no clear cognitive benefit to their babies. The study also found no evidence that DHA can reduce postpartum depression, except perhaps for women already at high risk for it.

Some previous studies have suggested that DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil, can aid in a baby’s brain development if taken during pregnancy. But many of those studies were small or observed women already taking fish oil, who might be more health-conscious. The new study, with more than 2,000 participants, was a clinical trial in which women received either fish oil with DHA or a placebo (vegetable oil).

“It’s puzzling because observational studies have shown benefits,” said Dr. Emily Oken, an associate professor in population medicine at Harvard Medical School, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

But not every expert was surprised.

“I think a lot of us have been skeptical that something as easy as taking a DHA supplement would improve neurologic development,” said Dr. William Barth Jr., chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “I wish it were so simple, that there was a pill we could take to make our children smarter.”
He said more research was needed, but for now, “I think the market is running way out in front of the science.”

Scientists agree that DHA, naturally transmitted to a fetus through the placenta in the last half of pregnancy, is important, probably to visual and brain development. Several studies indicate that babies born prematurely receive too little DHA, and some studies have found that premature babies fed DHA after birth show better cognitive performance or visual coordination later on than preemies who aren’t given DHA.

But the new study, which mainly assessed full-term babies, found no cognitive difference at 18 months whether mothers received DHA supplements or placebos. The lead researcher, Dr. Maria Makrides of the University of Adelaide in Australia, said this suggested that full-term babies already get enough DHA in the womb, and that “there’s no extra boost” from getting more.

Nonetheless, several experts said they would continue to support taking DHA in pregnancy, especially since it is safe and apparently has few downsides. They cited a smaller 2003 Norwegian study that found I.Q. increases at age 4, although no cognitive benefit was seen in infants or 7-year-olds.

That study’s lead author, Dr. Ingrid Helland of Oslo University Hospital, said that perhaps the benefit shown at age 4 existed at 7 but was difficult to identify amid other developmental factors. She said babies in her study might have received more DHA than those in this study. Dr. Oken said the new study might have shown no benefit in 18-month-olds because effects in infants might be “hard to measure” or “it may be that the benefit of DHA is not as important as when you’re 4.”

Dr. Makrides’s team plans assessments at 4 and 7. Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, a neonatologist heading the nutrition committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that unless further studies showed no benefit as children got older, he would continue recommending DHA, now in many prenatal vitamins, because “I’m not convinced at this time that we should reverse course.”

Much about DHA is unknown. Its effect in supplements for children and adults is being studied, as well as whether supplements offer the same benefit as DHA-rich fish, like salmon.

Some studies, including the new report, suggest DHA supplementation in pregnancy reduces the likelihood of premature birth. And the new study showed small reductions in postpartum depression in women with histories or high risk of depression. Dr. Scott Stuart, a University of Iowa psychiatry and psychology professor, said his pregnant patients with mild to moderate depression had improved when taking DHA while seeing a counselor.

“There’s no harm that we know of at all, in contrast to many antidepressants,” he said. “And it might be of some help.”

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Model Eva Herzigova Expecting Second Child

Model mama Eva Herzigova is expanding her family.

The Czech beauty is four months pregnant with her second child with partner Gregorio Marsiaj. The new baby, due next spring, will join big brother George, 3.

"Gregorio and I are thrilled with the wonderful news," Herzigova tells PEOPLE exclusively. "Our son George is being really sweet, asking all different questions about the baby and talking to my belly."

The model, 37, was spotted shopping for her new arrival on Monday at a Bonpoint boutique in London.

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What is RSV?

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of severe, lower respiratory tract disease among infants and young children worldwide. Why is it so bad? To help us understand more about how this virus causes illness, first let's break down its name:

'Respiratory'-refers to the part of the body that this virus attacks (versus say the kidneys).  The respiratory system is what helps you to breathe and is divided into two main parts:  the ‘upper’ respiratory tract (URT) is composed of the nose, mouth & throat, whereas the ‘lower’ respiratory tract (LRT) involves the bronchi, bronchioles and lungs.  NOTE:  RSV commonly sets up shop in the bronchioles, which causes the wheezing associated with RSV, and is called ‘Bronchiolitis’ (not Bronchitis).

‘Syncytial’–during infection, RSV causes the infected respiratory tract cell to fuse & merge with its neighbors, creating little tiny bridges (syncytia) between cells.  Then RSV can spread from cell to cell along the syncytia like wildfire, rapidly infecting the entire URT & LRT, thus disrupting the functioning of the cells lining the respiratory tract.  As you now can imagine, this creates lots of mess, literally overnight.

‘Virus’ –ultramicroscopic, infectious agents that can replicate only within cells of living hosts.  In the case of RSV, humans are the only source of infection.


In summary: RSV is a virus that attacks & rapidly disrupts the breathing system, severely so in infants, babies and children.  The classic RSV patient has copious amounts of nasal goo, a wet sounding cough, and in some, an audible wheeze.

How then is RSV then different from the common cold?
RSV is different from a common cold in that it:

1. May begin with URT symptoms, but RAPIDLY progress over 1-2 days to involve diffuse small airway-LRT disease–characterized by cough, nasal congestion, wheezing and chest rumbling, fever, and decreased interest in drinking or eating.
2. Produces HUGE amounts of mucus, and wheezing.
3. The duration of RSV is longer than the common cold: generally 7 to 10-days, but can last longer.
4. RSV is EXTREMELY CONTAGIOUS. An infant or child can be infected by direct or indirect contact with VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF VIRUS. Direct contact with the virus can occur, for example, by receiving a kiss on the face from a loving brother or sister infected with RSV, OR it can be transmitted by droplets (like from a sneeze, a cough, or a drippy nose).  Indirect contact can occur if the virus gets on an environmental surface (such as a crib guardrail, doorknob, a swing, monkey bars etc.) that is then touched by other people. RSV can live many hours on contact surfaces. To complete transmission, people then rub their eyes or pick their nose.

Once an infant or child becomes exposed, the illness usually begins 4 to 6 days afterwards with a runny nose and a decrease in appetite.  Coughing, sneezing, wheezing and fever typically develop 1 to 3 days later.  In very young infants, irritability, decreased activity & appetite, and breathing difficulties may be the only symptoms of infection.

Most otherwise healthy infants infected with RSV do not require hospitalization.  Although 4-5 million children younger than 4 years acquire an RSV infection per year, only about 0.5 to 2 % will need to go to the hospital for care. Most children hospitalized for RSV infection are under 6 months of age. And most cases, including among those who need to be hospitalized, will fully recover in about 1 to 2 weeks. After infection, your child will continue to be contagious for at least 8 days.

RSV strikes children & adults of all ages. By 2 years old, almost all children have been infected at least once and hence have some immunity against it. Although re-infection throughout our lives is common, we are better able to tolerate the virus as we age. Older children & adults usually get upper respiratory tract illness, but the elderly & others with chronic medical conditions (e.g.,  asthma, cancer, immuno-compromised conditions, etc.) may have more serious lower respiratory tract complications.

The tenets of care for a simple “cold” or respiratory illness can go a long way to also help an infant or child with RSV. They are:

• elevation of the head of the bed with something under the mattress
• a cool mist or ultrasonic (not ultraviolet) humidifier
• repeated, but gentle use of a bulb suctioning after instilling normal saline drops (easily purchased at the pharmacy)
• small, but frequent formula or breast feedings
• no smoking around the baby.  Even on the clothes, tobacco smoke will irritate the lungs and make things worse for the infant/child.
• and if there is a fever, use of (age appropriate) cooling measures

If what you are doing at home isn’t relieving the symptoms, and your infant/child seems to be having trouble breathing or is lethargic, seek out medical care! It’s very hard to keep from catching RSV, just like it’s hard to keep from catching a cold. But you can lower the chances by practicing good health habits. Whether you are infected with RSV or not, during the RSV season it is imperative to keep your fingers out of your eyes, nose & mouth! Regular hand washing, eating food with utensils and wiping of hard surfaces with soap and water or disinfectant may help stop infection and spread of RSV. Also, persons with RSV illness should not share cups or eating utensils with others.

Ideally, persons with cold-like symptoms should not interact with infants, babies or high-risk children.  If this is not possible, these persons should take extra care not to infect others.  They should refrain from kissing.  They should also cough or sneeze into the bend of their elbows (not their hands).  When possible, limiting the time that high-risk children spend in child-care centers or other potentially contagious settings may help prevent infection and spread of the virus during the RSV season.

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Calcium Supplements during Pregnancy May Prevent Tooth Decay

A recent study has demonstrated that taking a woman who takes calcium supplements while she is pregnant may help children's teeth. The new study suggests that if a woman takes calcium supplements during her pregnancy they may help to prevent tooth decay.

The recent study was conducted in Argentina, and followed 195 children up until their 12th birthday, whose mother were chosen at random to receive a placebo or a calcium supplement.

The new study revealed that the children whose mothers who took the calcium supplement had a 27 percent reduction filled or missing teeth and in tooth decay in both the permanent and primary teeth.

The result of the study suggests that taking a calcium supplement while a woman is pregnant is provides prolonged protection throughout childhood.

Doctors at the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy in Buenos Aires believe that teeth mineralization begins in fetal life and this could be a kind of positive fetal programming that continues on throughout the child’s life.

This new breakthrough means that pregnant woman should take calcium supplements while they are pregnant because it might mean better dental health for their children. Taken in the proper amounts, there are no known side effects of the calcium supplements there is absolutely no reason why a woman who is pregnant shouldn’t take them and every reason why they should.

Not only will they help to prevent osteoporosis, they will give their children a head start on better dental health and fewer cavities. For women who are between the ages of 20 and 50, the recommended calcium consumption is 1,000 mg per day and for women who are older than age 51, it is recommended that women take 1,200 mg per day.

Usually, the typical amount of calcium supplementation for adult women is between 800 mg and 1,000 mg daily. Although this is the first study of its kind, more similar studies are expected in the future.

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Pregnant Celine Dion Hospitalized

Celine Dion is taking a pregnancy precaution.
 
The Grammy-winning singer has been admitted to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., to prevent the early delivery of her twins, according to a statement released by her rep.

The decision was made on the advice of Dion's physicians so that she'll be in close contact with her doctors, who can properly observe the 42-year-old leading up to the babies' arrival.

Her rep insists Dion's hospital stay should not be cause for alarm, saying that this is merely "the standard of care for any patient with twin pregnancy in this clinical setting."

Dion and her husband, René Angelil, are already the proud parents of 9-year-old René-Charles.

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Lance Armstrong Welcomes a Baby Girl!

It looks as though congratulations are in order for Lance Armstrong and girlfriend Anna Hansen!

The seven-time Tour de France champ announced the birth of his fifth child, daughter Olivia Marie, on Twitter early Monday morning (October 18).

"Olivia Marie Armstrong has arrived!" says the proud new dad, though no other details have been revealed as of yet.

Olivia is the second child for the happy couple who welcomed their first child, Max, in 2009.

The cycling star also has three children – Isabelle, Grace, and Luke – with ex-wife Kristin Richard.

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Infertility: My Best Friend Is Pregnant!

If you have been trying for months (or years) to get pregnant, the news of anyone you know having achieved this triumph can be a real bummer. But when the news comes that your best friend is the mother-to-be, there are lots of emotional issues for both of you. Was hers a planned pregnancy? Did you hear the news from her directly? How open have you been with her about your struggles with infertility? Is she sensitive to your emotions upon hearing her news?

All of these issues will play a part in how your friendship continues to unfold in the coming months. If hers is an unplanned pregnancy, your friend may confide in you as she makes future decisions. Not only will it feel difficult for her to confide her ambivalence about this pregnancy, it may be just as difficult for you to empathize with her at a time that becoming pregnant is at the top of your wish list, without an ounce of ambivalence on your part. Should she decide to terminate the pregnancy, your feelings will be even more painful. You know at one level you should reach out and offer emotional comfort, but where are you going to find comfort for yourself? It is emotionally complex to watch this friend end a pregnancy because she assumes that when she is more ready for parenthood her body will be ready as well. Her decision to end the pregnancy may be one time that you will probably need to offer her whatever comfort you can muster and then turn to others in your life for solace and understanding. If, instead, her decision is to continue the pregnancy, then you and she face a new set of relationship issues as she seeks to resolve her ambivalence and you seek to keep your envy at bay.

So, let's go back to the beginning and explore how you first heard the news. If it was not from your friend but, instead, from a mutual acquaintance, you have every reason to ask her why, as her best friend, you were not among the first to know. Even as you ask, you already know the answer. She could not bear to see the pain in your eyes, hear the catch in your voice, wonder about the genuineness of your hug. So now is the time that both of you must talk about how her pregnancy might affect your relationship, what your hopes and fears are, and how you can keep your communication as open as possible while both of you are treading unexplored territory in keeping your friendship alive.

If you heard the news of her pregnancy directly from your friend, how did she share her news and what was your reaction? If you knew she was trying to become pregnant you had probably already rehearsed a few phrases in anticipation of her news. She, on the other hand, also probably had done her share of rehearsing before breaking this news to you. If you had not known that she was trying, then the news will likely have taken you by surprise, with many mixed emotions. It is a real challenge to receive ordinarily joyful news when both of you know there is more than a tinge of sadness in you, the recipient. Certainly the sadness is not about wishing her anything but happiness -- but you know already that you will be left behind on this particular happiness journey, and you wonder whether your friendship can be resilient or whether it will crumble or wither under the shadow of your friend's upcoming anticipation of parenthood.

And, just as you hope she will have some empathy for your yearning for a pregnancy of your own, it is important to reflect on how familiar she has been with your infertility struggles. Many couples grappling with infertility agree to be fairly discreet with friends and loved ones, preferring (at least initially) to contend quietly as a couple with sadness, with diagnostic test results, and with treatment decisions and outcomes. Others are far more open, both in terms of emotions and medical details. Your friend's capacity to empathize with you now will be affected by how much you have shared in the past about your own infertility, both its medical aspects and its emotional impact. If you need more empathy than she is offering, this may be the time to be more open with her about what she can do to offer emotional support. Both of you will need to recognize the imbalance you will continue to face, as she is potentially experiencing joy and ambivalence and you are likely feeling envy.

How has pregnancy affected your closest friendships?

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