Free Republic

The link between a mother and child is profound, and new research suggests a physical connection even deeper than anyone thought. The profound psychological and physical bonds shared by the mother and her child begin during gestation when the mother is everything for the developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance, while her heartbeat provides a soothing constant rhythm. The physical connection between mother and fetus is provided by the placenta, an organ, built of cells from both the mother and fetus, which serves as a conduit for the exchange of nutrients, gasses, and wastes. Cells may migrate through the placenta...

The Obama Administration is planning to build multiple health-services facilities across the African nation of Mozambique, where up to sixteen facilities will be constructed in rural locations. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) this morning unveiled the Health Infrastructure Development Program (HIDP) via the FedBizOpps database, where it issued an announcement seeking to pre-qualify construction firms. The general goal of HIDP is to support the Mozambican Ministry of Health (MISAU) in the provision of improved health care services, according to the presolicitation notice. Each of the rural health centers will contain "a maternity unit, an attending or exam unit,...

Mumbai - It’s the last chance of the decade to have a unique, memorable birth date — 12/12/12. And expectant parents are lining up for that moment. Ahead of December 12, 2012, couples are preparing to fix this unique birth date for their newborns. This trend of having muhurat babies – or planned caesarean section on special dates – is getting fashionable among parents, say city gynaecologists who get requests from patients wanting babies on their ‘auspicious’ day. Over the last few years, dates with repetitive numbers all through the the ‘DD-MM-YY’ format are becoming a craze, says doctors. Last...

A 14-year-old girl is facing homicide charges after deputies said she gave birth to a baby in her Lakeland home, then strangled the baby and hid his body in her bedroom. Deputies arrested the Kathleen High student on Thursday, five days after the Polk County Sheriff's Office received a call that a baby had been found inside a shoebox in the girl's Lakeland home, authorities said. Investigators later determined that she had delivered the baby in the bathroom, then choked the baby to death. "Everybody's a loser here," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference on Friday. "This 14-year-old...

"What about a woman who is pregnant due to rape or incest?" This is one of three hard cases often cited as "exceptions" that make abortion an appropriate alternative. (The other two are when the life of the mother is threatened or the child has a serious handicap or deformity.) 1. Pregnancy due to rape is extremely rare, and with proper treatment can be prevented. Studies conducted by Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute indicate that two consenting and fertile adults have only a 3 percent chance of pregnancy from an act of intercourse. They also indicate there are factors involved in...

First, let's define the term "rape." When pro-lifers speak of rape pregnancies, we should commonly use the phrase "forcible rape" or "assault rape," for that specifies what we're talking about. Rape can also be statutory. Depending upon your state law, statutory rape can be consensual, but we're not addressing that here. Assault rape pregnancies are extremely rare. Most pro-lifers have heard this comment, but too often cannot back it up with facts. A candidate for office in the State of Arkansas made this comment before the last elections. He was roundly criticized and ridiculed by the opposing candidate and the...

Pregnancy loss is a common and painful condition for gestational women, accounting for 25-40% of total pregnancy, having become a serious social-medical issue worldwide. Animal studies and clinical investigations have indicated that the cause of many mid-term miscarriage/abnormal pregnancy has been seeded very early during the onset of embryo implantation. Epidemiological study also showed that maternal stress at early pregnancy is strongly associated with various complications during ongoing gestation. However, whether and how the process of embryo implantation is affected by environmental factors such as stress induced sympathetic activation remained elusive. Considering the mammalian uterus is an organ with extensive...

Third-trimester microbiota resembles that of people at risk of diabetes. Women's gut microbe populations change as pregnancy advances, becoming more like those of people who might develop diabetes. These changes, which do not seem to damage maternal health, correspond with increases in blood glucose and fat deposition thought to help a mother nourish her child. Although scientists have profiled microbial communities around the world and throughout the human body, this is the first time they have tracked the gut microbiome during pregnancy, says Ruth Ley, a microbiologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who led the work1. Ley had...

It's been two months since Jessica Simpson gave birth to daughter Maxwell Drew Johnson, and yet, according to fitness experts, she still looks to be at least 182 lbs. For a woman whose body has been a major part of her success, Jessica is traumatized by her surplus size. And friends say she has reached a breaking point in her struggle to lose the baby weight. While no new mom should be expected to be superslim so soon after giving birth, Jessica, 32, is actually getting paid — to the tune of a reported $4 million — to shed 70...

Mindy Bizzell decided to have her second son at home partly because of money and partly because of faith. She and her husband, who had recently moved to a remote town on the Washington State coast, lacked health insurance but earned too much to qualify for state aid. Delivering her baby in a hospital would cost upwards of $10,000, compared to the roughly $3,000 it would cost to hire a home-birth midwife to take care of the entire pregnancy.

The blind Chinese human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest on April 22 and may be under the protection of the U.S. Embassy, was initially detained for exposing the massive abuse of Chinese women under China’s one-child policy. His documentation of forced sterilizations and abortions landed him in jail for four years, followed by a year and a half of house arrest. His daring escape has now triggered renewed attacks on organizations engaged in helping Chinese women keep and feed their infants. Since April 28, the Family Planning Commission of Susong County in China’s Anhui province has been...

In an incredibly bizarre situation that appears headed for a legal challenge, a Dallas-area volleyball coach and science teacher was fired by the Christian school at which she worked for becoming pregnant before being married. As first reported by Dallas Fort Worth network WFAA, Rockwall(Texas) Heritage Christian Academy volleyball coach and science teacher Cathy Samford was fired during the fall semester after she became pregnant out of wedlock. Samford had led the volleyball program for three years and had been named the school's coach of the year once during that span. Still, that couldn't help save her job when she...

Public release date: 9-Apr-2012 Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9023 University of California - Davis Health System This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese. A major study of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and the risk that a child will be born with a neurodevelopmental disorder has found strong links between maternal diabetes and obesity and the likelihood of having a child with autism or another developmental disability. Conducted by researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study found that mothers who were obese were 1-2/3 times more likely to have a child with autism...

Disdain for pregnant women in the workplace is at a record high in our nation. Pregnancy Discrimination cases are on the rise. In the past ten years the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC has resolved pregnancy discrimination cases totaling $150.5 million in damages for over 52,000 women. Some say this is because of a competitive labor market that shows little mercy to moms. I believe this is yet another tragic byproduct of our acceptance of abortion. While abortion does not cause this discrimination, it has lead to a widespread devaluing of motherhood in society. How can we expect a...

A recent study revealed more evidence that a Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) abstinence program is effective in delaying sexual onset. Four major conclusions are drawn from the article, entitled, Impact of the Choosing the Best Program in Communities Committed to Abstinence Education. 1. Students in an SRA class were more likely to delay the onset of sexual activity from pre to posttest than their peers. 2. The findings of this study are more realistic and relevant than the Jemmott study on abstinence, as well as most “comprehensive” sex ed. research since the study occurred in schools. 3. The study was...

The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers. Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York. Developed...

Army Orders Soldiers to Wear Fake Breasts and 'Empathy' Bellies Soldiers don fake belly, breasts to better understand pregnant troops' exercise concerns By Seth Robson Stars and Stripes Published: February 16, 2012 CAMP ZAMA, Japan – The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new...

Time was when healthcare prevention was associated with smoke-cessation, dieting and exercise to avoid preventable diseases such as heart attacks, cancer and strokes. With the HHS mandate requiring contraception coverage under all insurance programs, including religious organizations, pregnancy has now moved into the realm of preventable disease.

Maria Keller was pregnant with her fourth child when she visited her doctor for a routine ultrasound at 20 weeks and was confronted with a moment all mothers dread. Maria and her husband, Joe, suspected something was not quite right when the ultrasound technician suddenly became quiet as she caught the first glimpses of the couple’s unborn child on the ultrasound screen. Then the technician abruptly exited the room, leaving Joe and Maria waiting for a few tense minutes before they were called in to see the doctor, who met them with a distressed look on his face. The ultrasound...

Not every family plans to have a baby but they usually have some idea once the baby is on the way. However, a Portland, Ore., woman who went to the hospital thinking her appendix had burst was told by doctors that she was actually going into labor. "I was 39 weeks [pregnant] and didn't have the slightest clue," Kim Nelson told local TV station KGW. "I thought the weight gain was due to cysts I had in my ovaries and working at Dairy Queen and eating all that food," she said. "I didn't have the slightest idea that this little...