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CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, June 5, 2008 – More than 100 Iraqi families showed up to receive diapers, formula and cereal at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex Civil Military Operations Center, about seven kilometers southwest of Baghdad, May 31. An Iraqi woman and her children leave the Radwaniyah Palace Complex Civil Military Operations Center with free diapers, cereal and formula, May 31, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kerensa Hardy  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Rakkasan” soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team distributed two packages of disposable diapers, two cans of powdered formula and...

Carol Rudes has not read her son's love letter couched in a short autobiography he has written. He's been waiting for the perfect time to give it to his mom. Today. "My name is Mathew Rudes, and this is my story. When I was brought into this world 21 years ago, doctors predicted that I had less than 24 hours to live. "They had only to look at my warped body, hands bent at odd angles, to know that something was not right. I was quickly whisked away to another room. The doctors refused to let my mother look at...

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2008 – President Bush praised America’s mothers, especially those who’ve lost sons or daughters during the war on terror and those who gave their lives in service to their country, during his weekly radio address yesterday. An excerpt from the president’s remarks follows: “On this Mother’s Day weekend, we think of the many mothers who raised the brave men and women serving our country in uniform. And to those mothers, I offer the thanks of a grateful nation. “Your sons and daughters are defending our freedom with dignity and honor, and America appreciates the sacrifices that...

It Might Be True That 'Men Marry Their Mothers' ScienceDaily (May 7, 2008) — Whether a young man's mother earned a college degree and whether she worked outside the home while he was growing up seems to have an effect years later when he considers his ideal wife, according to a study by University of Iowa sociologist Christine Whelan. High-achieving men -- those who earn salaries in the top 10 percent for their age and/or have a graduate degree -- are highly likely to marry a woman whose education level mirrors their mom's. Nearly 80 percent of the high-achieving men...

Mothers And Offspring Can Share Cells Throughout Life ScienceDaily (May 5, 2008) — Cutting the umbilical cord doesn’t necessarily sever the physical link between mother and child. Many cells pass back and forth between the mother and fetus during pregnancy and can be detected in the tissues and organs of both even decades later. This mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals is called microchimerism. The phenomenon is the focus of an increasing number of scientists who wonder what role these cells play in the body. A potentially significant one, it turns out. Research implicates that maternal and fetal...

Good fathers 'powerless against vengeful mothers' By Tom Peterkin Last Updated: 1:04PM BST 01/05/2008 Decent fathers are left powerless to see their estranged children if vengeful mothers are determined to prevent access, a senior judge has admitted. Lord Justice Ward attacked child access law after presiding over a case that saw a “vicious” mother falsely accuse her ex-husband of sexually abusing their child. He spoke out after telling the father that there was nothing he could do to help him re-establish contact with his daughter after his ex-wife turned her against him. The man’s 14-year-old daughter, who cannot been identified,...

Ask any man when he last phoned his mother, and he will pull a guilty face. Ask him when he last talked about her to his friends and he will look at you as if you are insane. Why is the mother-son relationship so complicated? To find out, our correspondent asked someone who should know – his mum Men are more likely to confess to a predilection for pornography than admit to a close relationship with their mother. There isn’t much left that the modern man is made to feel ashamed of, yet confessing to your friends that you sometimes...

Indian DNA links to 6 'founding mothers' By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer NEW YORK - Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests. Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said. The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author...

Why motherhood is the greatest job of all22:13pm 29th February 2008 Motherhood is denigrated as never before. Yet here, in a tribute to Mums everywhere, the Mail's Allison Pearson says it's still the most joyous (and important) job in the world. Situation vacant: challenging managerial position in busy small organisation. Would suit flexible, energetic female who doesn't need any sleep. Shifts last 24 hours a day. Boss comes on holiday with you. You will be expected to be a teacher, a cook, a nurse, a chauffeur, a health and safety adviser, a cleaner, a management consultant and an agony aunt. Must...

Dear Santa, I've been a good mom all year. I've fed cleaned and cuddled my kids on demand, visited the doctor's office more than the doctor has, sold 62 cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years. Here are my Christmas wishes:...

In 1999 the CEDAW Committee, which regulates the operation of CEDAW in countries that ratify and domesticate it, told Columbia that the provision of its law outlawing abortion was a violation of the rights of women to health enshrined in article 12 of CEDAW. On July 1, 1999 the CEDAW lambasted Nepal for criminalizing abortion. On July 9, 1999, CEDAW Committee told Chile that the Chilean laws punishing abortion were violating the rights of Chilean women. In 2000, CEDAW told Burkina Faso to review its laws on abortion and provide for coverage by social security. In 2000 also, CEDAW...

Rich mothers 'have more sons' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 12:01am BST 08/08/2007 Rich, married and well-educated women tend to have more sons while those who are unhealthy and poorer tend to have more daughters, according to a study. Well-off women produce more sons Researchers studied 50 million people and found that mothers in 'good condition’ - those who were married, better educated and younger - bore more sons than mothers in 'poor condition’. The reason, simply put, is that women are tougher than men so according to evolutionary theory women living in poorer communities are predisposed to...

Mother's Day is, to be honest, somewhat of an annoyance. It's manifestly one of those tedious Hallmark holidays wherein everyone is supposed to run out and support the revenue stream of cardboard manufacturers in the name of expressing gratitude to mothers, fathers, grandparents and anyone else to whom we might be related. I imagine it won't be long until Sept. 18 is declared Anonymous Sperm Donor's Day, which will probably be celebrated by giving matching card sets to one's two mommies and lighting a candle for dear old anonymous sperm donor, whoever he might be. Mothers are not only important,...

Hope freepers remember dishes and recipes that were specialties of their moms this Mother's Day.

Mother’s Day Away Deployed moms stay in touch with home By 2nd Light Infantry Brigade Combat Team,2nd Inf. Div. Public Affairs Multi-National Division–Baghdad FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq, May 11, 2007 — U.S. Army Spc. Latoya Roberts will be spending this Mother’s Day away from her 1-year-old son, but she’s doing everything she can to shorten the distance. "It’s quite a feeling just knowing you have that person’s life in your hands and you’re responsible for him."U.S. Army Spc. Latoya Roberts “I have pictures of him everywhere, and I talk to him on the Webcam every weekend,� she said....

Mother's memoir reveals sensitive Stalin Last Updated: 1:01am BST 07/05/2007 Josef Stalin, the monstrous Soviet dictator responsible for the deaths of millions, was a "sensitive child" with a love of flowers, his mother's memoirs have revealed. Keke Djugashvili: son installed her in a former Tsarist palace Stalin was born in Georgia in 1878, the only child of a cobbler, Beso Djugashvili and his wife, Keke. In her memoirs, released from a secret Soviet archive, she detailed how a series of illnesses and accidents left "Soso" - her nickname for Josef - partially crippled, and how he coped with a violent...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2007 – While some American homes have only drapes or blinds in the windows, other households also display a unique flag that signifies a family’s support of a son’s or daughter’s service in the military. Those banners represent an old tradition and are part of Blue Star Mothers of America Inc., a patriotic organization that traces its roots back to World War I, when mothers displayed flags decorated with stars signifying the number of offspring serving in the military. Gail Cunningham, a resident of Lakewood, N.J., founded New Jersey-based Chapter 1 of the Blue Star Mothers...

Mothers get heart risk off their chest 15 February 2007 From New Scientist Print Edition. Breastfeeding is well known to boost an infant's health, and now it seems it may be good for the mother as well. In a study of 96,648 nurses who gave birth between 1986 and 2002, those who had spend at least two years of their lives breastfeeding were 19 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who hadn't breastfed at all. The difference was independent of any of the usual risk factors for heart disease, such as family history, diet or...

Now that the party of death has retaken control of Congress, battles over funding of embryonic stem cell research, chemical abortifacients, contraception, sex education, special privileges for homosexuals, and other such controversies will ensue over the next two years. The fight over an obscure international treaty could be just as important, if not more so, than these others even though few people have ever heard of CEDAW. The pompously named CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, sounds on its face not to be too bad, just clumsy and utopian. Yet it is a...

....More American women than ever are putting motherhood before matrimony. New data released by the Centers for Disease Control show that nearly four in 10 U.S. babies were born outside of marriage in 2005—a new high. These unwed moms aren't all teens—last year teen pregnancies fell to their lowest levels in 65 years. Some—like 44-year-old Mary Lee MacKichan, who used a gay friend as a sperm donor—are professional, older women who want to have babies before their biological clocks run out, but most are low-income twentysomethings. (Unwed births among 30- to 44-year-olds are up 17 percent since 1991; among those...

Catholic Vote Swings Democratic in Midterm Elections By Jeff Diamant Religion News Service Catholics, who compose a massive 67 million-person slice of the electorate, favored Democrats in Tuesday's election by 55 percent to 45 percent, according to National Election Pool exit polls. That's a marked difference from 2004, when President Bush, a Republican United Methodist, won 52 percent of the Catholic vote and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a Catholic, received 47 percent. Catholic voting patterns varied by state, but the overall shift helped Democrats in several big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to John Green, a senior fellow at...

Carolina families with sons and daughters in the military are outraged at comments made by Senator John Kerry. Speaking Monday about education, Kerry said “If you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” Tuesday, parents say it’s another example of the former Democratic presidential candidate sticking his foot in his mouth, according to Sherry Weatherly. Her son Jordan Weatherly graduated near the top of his class in the Army Ranger program. Sherry says Jordan’s patriotism...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2006 -- Since June 23, 1936, the last Sunday in September has been recognized as Gold Star Mother’s Day, thanks to Senate Joint Resolution 115. On Sept. 20, President Bush issued a proclamation declaring that, this year, Sept. 24 will be observed as Gold Star Mother's Day. “I call upon all government officials to display the flag of the United States over government buildings on this solemn day,” he said in the proclamation. “I also encourage the American people to display the flag and hold appropriate ceremonies as a public expression of our nation’s sympathy and...

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America Since America's founding, every generation has produced patriots willing to sacrifice for our great Nation. Many of these proud sons and daughters have given everything for our freedom, and America has mourned the loss of every life. On Gold Star Mother's Day, we pay special tribute to the mothers of those lost while defending our country and extending the blessings of liberty to others. Gold Star Mothers have long borne the hardships of war with dignity and devotion. Through heartbreaking loss and unimaginable grief, they continue to support each...

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, had a way with words. In 1922, she wrote a book chapter titled "The Cruelty of Charity." Charity toward the poor, especially toward poor immigrants, she opined, only "encourages the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others, which brings with it … a dead weight of human waste."

LONG BEACH, Ca., Aug. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- His Nesting Place, a pro-life home for unwed mothers will be featured on FX Networks "30 Days" program this Wednesday, August 24th at 10:00PM. Morgan Spurlock, producer of Super Size Me, sent his video crew along with pro-choice activist, Jennifer from Atlanta Georgia, to His Nesting Place for 30 days. During these 30 days Jennifer lived in the home under the same guidelines as any pregnant woman in a crisis pregnancy situation would live. Jennifer was required to help out around the home as well as volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center...

HATE-filled mums willing to sacrifice themselves and their BABIES are being hunted in the war on terror. Security sources confirmed last night that alleged “baby bombers” were among those arrested over the plot to massacre thousands by downing transatlantic flights. Those being quizzed included a husband and wife with a six-month-old infant. The discovery prompted fears that there were fanatical mothers in secret al-Qaeda cells in Britain ready to become suicide bombers — and to die with their tots in their arms. And it emerged as the reason why women at airports were ordered to drink from their babies’ bottles...

NORCO, Calif. - Teenagers who toilet-papered and damaged a home now face felony vandalism charges because of a mother's extraordinary sleuthing. Katja Base, mother of six, was unwilling to let the teens get away with it, saying she tracked them down to teach her kids about accountability.

In the name of the fatherhttp://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1033732006 http://tinyurl.com/ozefu DANI GARAVELLI Sun 16 Jul 2006 ONCE upon a time, I believed it didn't matter a whit whether a baby was born into a family with one parent or two. Or with two mothers or two fathers rather than a mother and a father. Why should it? What was important was not the number or gender of the parents, but whether or not they were loving and attentive. That was, of course, before I had any of my own. Now I realise that bringing up children is a challenge even for two well-meaning...

HOLMDEL, N.J., July 11, 2006 – U.S. military men and women have given the Iraqi people hope, Iraq's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations said during a July 9 ceremony here at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. Molly Morel, an American Gold Star Mother from Tennessee, talks with Ambassador Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, Iraq's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi spoke to a group of American Gold Star Mothers, mothers who have lost a child in the service of the United States. The...

HOLMDEL, N.J., July 10, 2006 – More than 40 American Gold Star Mothers and their guests from around the country came together here yesterday to honor the children they've lost in the country's conflicts. Members of American Gold Star Mothers Inc., are escorted by New Jersey State Troopers to the New Jersey Vietnam Memorial. A ceremony at the memorial July 9 honored the mothers and the children they lost in America's conflicts. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The ceremony, held at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial here, included a roll call honoring...

MACON, Ga. - A 27-year-old woman was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for leaving her newborn daughter in a Wal-Mart restroom last year. Amy Shorter covered her face after the verdict was read Wednesday, and several relatives cried as they left the courtroom. They declined to comment. The jury found Shorter guilty of felony murder for causing the baby's death while committing first-degree cruelty to children. Defense attorney Elizabeth Lane had argued that Shorter did not intend to kill her child. Lane said Shorter didn't know she was pregnant and panicked after giving birth in the...

Dad, Hey old man how are you? this has been the hardest month I have ever endured in the military lots of death destruction and broken spirits here. We have lost the largest amount of Iraqis we have lost in the 3 yrs we have been here in the last month it is heart wrenching. It is tough to look them in the eye and try and fix what is broke when the guys you were advising are no longer alive simply because they are working with us. We have experienced this before but never quite like this, this is...

She buried her best friend on Christmas Day. After the funeral — and with the relatives debating the fate of her friend's four young daughters — Lily Robles, then 26, was pulled into a bedroom by the oldest daughter. "She had just turned 11. Tears were running down her face," Robles says. "She told me, 'I'm really scared. Nobody wants us. Do you want to be our mom?' " Turns out she did. Nine years later, Robles is still the one paying the bills, taking the hugs and scrutinizing the report cards of teenagers Vianca and Mireya Perez, and 10-year-old...

Who is in the driver's seat of the minivan next to you? Sorry, it might look like her, but, it's not really Mommy. Thanks to the vogue for "consensus" or "democratic parenting," our children are now the ones who decide whether they are ready to leave without kicking up a fuss, and when they're ready for bed. Not only are we unable to say "No!" to our three-year-olds (who don't suffer the same difficulty), we are asking them where we should go on vacation and which restaurant we should go to for dinner. If there is anything we could have...

Randi Anderson knew she was on her own the day her son was born 22 months ago when she drove herself to the hospital. Long before Anderson pulled up to Swedish Medical Center, her film-school boyfriend was gone. Twenty hours after she arrived at the hospital, she joined the growing ranks of single mothers. It is a group that often feels isolated, suffers higher-than-normal rates of depression and believes it carries a stigma in a culture that celebrates marriage. "I certainly feel like it's written across my face," Anderson, 34, said. "We've been told it's not OK to be a...

ABOARD USS RONALD REAGAN, At Sea (NNS) -- Mothers aboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) received a warm embrace from Sailors from the Supply Department as a special luncheon celebration was prepared for them on the aft mess decks May 10. The ceremony was designed to celebrate Mother’s Day for the hundreds of mothers assigned to Ronald Reagan, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 14, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 7 and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 7, who will be away from their children on the special day. Culinary Specialists, food service attendants and members of the ship's 3 & 2 Association provided the...

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2006 – Spending Mother's Day thousands of miles away from their kids is going to be no picnic for more than 7,400 military moms deployed in support of the war on terror. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Christine Buckley, deployed to Djibouti with Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, has been home only twice to celebrate Mother's Day with her sons, ages 8 and 6. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert S. Taylor, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Many say they're planning their own celebrations thinking of their children and calling home,...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – Raising children to be productive members of society is an invaluable contribution. But you don't get cold cash for that kind of work - this society values only those economic contributions one makes outside of the home. So it's worth asking just how much would a mother be paid if she did all that she did in the world of real paychecks? [Snip] Salary.com determined that a stay-at-home mother might be paid as much as $134,121 for her contributions as a housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, janitor and CEO, among other functions. The stay-at-home mothers...

Kim James was 17 when she first learned what a midwife does. Though she still can’t place her finger on it, she knew it was what she wanted to be. “It is something that always interested me, and I am not sure why,” she said. “It’s not lucrative, the hours are terrible and most of the work is done in the middle of the night. “But,” she adds, “it is extremely rewarding work.” James began working in 1989 at Cherche La Femme, Columbia’s first birthing center. The center was co-founded by a certified nurse-midwife, Sharon Lee; a physician, Elizabeth Allemann;...

CHICAGO - Women can maximize their chances of having healthy babies by spacing their pregnancies at least 18 months but no more than five years apart, researchers say. The researchers reached that conclusion after an analysis of 67 international studies involving more than 11 million pregnancies. The analysis found that spacing babies too close together or too far apart raises the risk of such complications as premature births and low birth weight. The findings suggest that millions of infant deaths could be avoided worldwide with better family planning, said one of the authors, Dr. Agustin Conde-Agudelo of Santa Fe de...

by KATE MULVEY, Daily Mail 08:54am 24th February 2006 As I lay on the bathroom floor, clutching my stomach, the tears rolling down my cheeks like torrents, all I could feel was a gaping, infinite sense of loss. Yet I was not at some funeral of a loved one, I was at a child's fourth birthday party, and I was the only woman there without a baby. Are you childless and is it right for you? Tell us in our reader comments below I never planned on being 39 and childless but somehow, here I was, a few months shy...

SAUK CENTRE, MINN. - It's time for the roll call of military mothers in this central Minnesota meeting room: Becky Eibensteiner, her daughter back from Iraq. Sue Winges, her son headed to Iraq. Iris Krebsbach, one son home from Bosnia but another sent to Iraq. All counted, 24 mothers. Some weep. The room falls silent. "Every meeting brings tears to my eyes," said Cathy Von Wahlde, a member of the Blue Star Mothers of Sauk Centre whose daughter Jodi returned from Iraq last fall. "When I look at all the other moms sitting there concerned and worried about their sons...

Cynthia and Richard Humphries from Elfrida voice their opinion as they participate in Saturday's Mother's Against Illegal Aliens rally along Highway 92 in Hereford. (By Mark Levy-Herald/Review) Mothers Against Illegal Aliens protest focused on immigration impactsBY GENTRY BRASWELLHERALD/REVIEW SIERRA VISTA — The founder of Mothers Against Illegal Aliens says the ungoverned flood of illegal immigration is ruining opportunities for “the legal families of America.� Phoenix resident Michelle Dallacroce said she founded the organization officially in January. A dozen or so demonstrators gathered Saturday morning along Highway 92 near milepost 331 in the Hunter Canyon area protesting poor immigration policy...

Obese women who become pregnant are putting their and their baby's health at risk, a new report says. Feb. 3, 2006 — Being obese during pregnancy has a negative effect on women and their babies and can lead to an increased risk of birth defects, according to a committee of fetal development scientists and physicians. Common complications to the baby include various types of birth defects, macrosomia (large body size), and shoulder dystocia, a potential life-threatening complication during labor in which the baby's shoulder cannot pass easily through the birth canal, the committee said in statement published in the journal, Birth...

What exactly do women want out of life? Regardless of the complexity of the question, the answers are readily available by the hundreds. All you have to do is pick up a magazine, newspaper or "self-help" book and all will be revealed, neatly simplified, packaged and made readily digestible for a readership with an apparently insatiable curiosity about the desires and needs of women.But how accurate are those answers? And more to the point, how reliable is the research upon which they are based?In her new book "Are Men Necessary?" (Putman; $25.95; 352 pages), New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd...

'Four mothers' for Europe's Jews There are now some 8m people of Ashkenazi origin around the world Almost half of Europe's Jews are descended from just four women who lived 1,000 years ago, a study says. Scientists studied the mitochondrial DNA - passed from mother to daughter - of 11,000 women of Ashkenazi Jewish origin living in 67 countries. The Ashkenazis moved from the Mid-East to Italy and then to Eastern Europe, where their population exploded in the 13th Century, the scientists say. One of the authors said the study shows the importance of Jewish mothers. "This I could tell...

Bearing sons 'can shorten mother's life' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 02/11/2005) Giving birth to and raising several sons could be bad for the long-term health of mothers but good for fathers, according to a study published today. Scientists suspect that having large families shortens a parent's lifespan, because the effects of reproduction and childcare can take their toll on health. However, in a society without good health care, sons could be especially costly for the mother for several reasons. They are, on average, born heavier and place more physical stresses on the body. They also raise levels of...

Raising Boys Without Men by Peggy Drexler, Ph.D. Benefit to society or slap in the face to fathers? If you're a single or lesbian mom who is raising a boy without his father and you want assurance that you can raise him to be a decent man, “Raising Boys Without Men” is the book for you. Peggy Drexler takes us on a feel-good journey through the lives of several boys being raised by single moms and lesbian couples. What she found was these boys were essentially the same as the boys being raised in heterosexual families. She states, “I came...

For decades, the Kreuzberg district in Berlin has been a marketplace for all kinds of drugs and recently it has only gotten worse. But now, a group of Turkish mothers have banded together to take back the street. It's "Mothers Without Borders" against the drug dealers.