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[L]et me tell you a story of a real Socialist medical regimen as experienced by this author. In October 1981 I moved to Israel for a few years. I had never been out of the country before, other than my two years living in Montreal between the ages of three and five. My ex-wife was pregnant with our second child and the first order of business was to find a capable obstetrician. We sat down with friends who explained what was what. It turned out that the government did allow a couple to contract with a private obstetrician, but by...

Link only - AP article

Tuesday March 17, 2009 Courageous Mother Delays Chemotherapy Treatment for Cancer, Saves Lives of Twins By Hilary WhiteLIVERPOOL, March 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While some doctors routinely offer abortion in the case of women who are pregnant and facing cancer treatments, one British housewife has demonstrated that it is not always necessary to make such a difficult situation into a death sentence for the unborn child. Rachel Crossland, a British housewife and mother of six who had been diagnosed with cancer, refused chemotherapy and radiation treatment when she was informed she was 13 weeks pregnant with twins. The Daily...

French minister draws fire over short maternity leave By Christine Courcol, AFP January 10, 2009 PARIS - French feminists are taking aim at Justice Minister Rachida Dati who went back to work this week just five days after giving birth to a baby girl, saying she is setting a bad example. Smiling in a black suit and high heels, the 43-year-old minister attended a cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the Elysee presidential palace on the same day that she walked out of a Paris clinic clutching Zohra, her new daughter. Zohra was delivered by caesarian birth on January 2 and...

The happy story of the first baby of the year turned into a stunning and tragic one Thursday when the young mother suddenly died. Baby girl is Henderson County's first born of 2009 Nicole Buckner died Thursday morning at Mission Hospitals, one week after she was featured in the Times-News for delivering the first baby born in the county on New Year’s Day. She was 24. Blood clots began forming in Nicole’s body late Wednesday night, said Buford Buckner, her husband. “It appeared and then spread, she was getting bad circulation, then it systematically shut down her body,” Buford said....

Moms, Experts Say Relaxation Is Key to Pleasurable Childbirth

Natural Childbirth Moms More Attuned to Babies' Cry Finding may help shed light on postpartum depression in those choosing Caesareans THURSDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Mothers who delivered their babies vaginally appear to be much more sensitive to the cry of their own child within a few weeks of the birth compared with those who deliver by Caesarean section, a new study shows. The finding, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, give researchers insight into why postpartum depression seems to be linked more often to Caesarean birth. The researchers based their findings on MRI scans that...

"WASHINGTON - More women in their early 40s are childless, and those who are having children are having fewer than ever before, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the last 30 years, the number of women age 40 to 44 with no children has doubled, from 10 percent to 20 percent. And those who are mothers have an average of 1.9 children each, more than one child fewer than women of the same age in 1976.""

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two researchers say reducing abortions in the United States would significantly cut the rate of premature births. They say the rate has increased as abortion has been legalized and point to Poland as an example of how banning or significantly reducing abortions would help pregnant women. Dr. Richard E. Behrman, representing the Institute of Medicine, has identified prior first-trimester induced abortion as an “immutable medical risk factor associated with pre-term birth.”In his book Preterm Birth: Causes, Consequences, and Prevention, Behrman found that the premature birth rate in the U.S. was 12.5% in 2004 -- 40 percent...

ATLANTA - U.S. women are dying from childbirth at the highest rate in decades, new government figures show. Though the risk of death is very small, experts believe increasing maternal obesity and a jump in Caesarean sections are partly to blame.

The Beverly LaHaye Institute's analysis of official data reveals another dimension of the problems facing children when their parents are not married. First, marriage rates have dramatically decreased -- from a high of 149 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15-44 in 1970 to a low of 70 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women in 2005. Further, the percentage of pre-term and low birth weight babies continues -- along with the percentage of non-marital births -- to climb. Specifically, the percentage of pre-term infants has increased by more than 3 percentage points since 1981 -- an increase of one-third from...

"For those women who were not very educated with their first births, they kind of got railroaded into surgery with their first, and with their next baby, they are hitting this wall of opposition," she explains. "Unless you're highly educated and willing to take on the risk of an unassisted birth, you have no choice." After fighting with doctors and nurses to allow her third child to be born vaginally, Jenny vowed that she would never deliver in the hospital again. Her husband, Paul, wasn't against the idea of a home birth, but his wife's insistence that they do it...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., March 29 -- Angela Hendrix-Petry gave birth to her daughter Chloe by candlelight in her bedroom here in the early morning of March 12, with a thunderstorm raging outside and her family and midwife huddled around her. "It was the most cozy, lovely, lush experience," Ms. Hendrix-Petry said. According to Indiana law, though, the midwife who assisted Ms. Hendrix-Petry, Mary Helen Ayres, committed a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison. Ms. Ayres was, according to the state, practicing medicine and midwifery without a license. Doctors, legislators and prosecutors in Indiana and in the nine...

If she had a hammer BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Jan. 23, 2000.) So my wife and I are preparing for childbirth. When I say, ''my wife and I,'' I, of course, mean ''my wife.'' She will be the most directly involved. On behalf of all men, I just want to take a moment here to get down on my knees and thank whoever invented our current biological system, under which the woman's job is to have the baby somehow go from the inside of her body to the outside of her body,...

When his wife woke with labor pains early Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, barely had time to call 911 before the couple's third child, a son, was born at home in their bedroom. Slade Ryan Jindal arrived before the ambulance did at approximately 3:25 a.m., Jindal spokesman Trey Williams said Tuesday. Jindal, per instruction by phone from a nurse at the doctor's office, put the baby in the arms of his wife, Supriya, and tied off the umbilical cord with a shoe string, Williams said. "His dream in life was to be a doctor. He kind of got to...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life law firm has filed a brief with the Supreme Court in the case concerning the Congressional-approved ban on partial-birth abortions. The American Center for Law and Justice told the court to reject the argument made by abortion advocates that abortion is safer than childbirth.After President Bush signed the partial-birth abortion ban, pro-abortion groups launched three lawsuits against it and federal appeals courts in Nebraska, New York and California declared the ban unconstitutional.The ACLJ has already filed a brief in the Nebraska case and submitted papers in the California case on Thursday.“Yet again we see...

I just found out I am a bad mother. Not because I let the kids apply their own sun block, or because hot dogs are the major source of protein in our home in the summer. And not because I took them to the town fair and let them ride “the barf rides” 16 times. No, apparently, according to a “leading childbirth expert,” I have failed since the very beginning to properly bond with any of my children because they were delivered by Caesarean section. French obstetrician Michel Odent presented his findings in Cambridge, England last month, detailing how a...

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;...

Note: The author, Ann Widdecombe is a longtime member of the English Parliament, 58, MP, single. A man's company is preferable. Men are vastly more relaxing. I find talking about all that emotional rubbish with women so incredibly wearing: I hate introspection. Men are far less screwed-up than women. They don't make emotional demands or talk endlessly about themselves; they talk about politics, the theatre, that sort of stuff. They like to be strong and like to be thought to be strong. I think that's perfectly normal.

Evidence is growing that in vitro fertilization causes serious birth defects and genetic anomalies. The most recent study has shown that babies born from IVF have three times the rate of genetic brain disorders. The survey examines nearly all of the 1,105 IVF babies born in Ireland since 1989. The study particularly notes a comparatively high incidence of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) and Angelman Syndrome (AS) at almost three times that of the general population.  The study said that although the number of incidents of brain disorders are small, "there are strong circumstantial observations that suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between assisted...

(AgapePress) - Several new studies reveal an unprecedented accuracy in linking women's medical records to their death certificates when comparing abortion and childbirth mortality rates. Such findings could possibly change the application of the 33-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling -- which legalized abortion -- while alerting medical professionals to common risk factors associated with abortion and death.One of the studies, which is part of a series, was completed by researchers from the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health in Finland. Its findings disputed the age-old presumption that abortion is linked to fewer deaths than is childbirth...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pregnant women coached through their first delivery do not fare much better than those who just do what feels natural, according to a study released on Friday. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found that women who were told to push 10 seconds for every contraction gave birth 13 minutes faster than those who were not given specific instructions. But they said the difference has little impact on the overall birth, which experts say can take up to 14 hours on average. "There were no other findings to show that coaching or not coaching...

Women should have a family first - before they are 35 - and leave their career until later, a group of leading doctors said yesterday. The obstetricians and gynaecologists said the increasing number of women delaying having children were defying nature and risking heartbreak. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they recommended that if women wanted families and a career, they should have children earlier, and called for more support for younger mothers. Women's groups voiced caution over putting a deadline on childbirth but agreed on the need for more support. Susan Bewley, consultant obstetrician at St Thomas' Hospital in...

"Don't you dare guilt your wife into having a natural childbirth!", I am told by a nice woman I know at church. I have known this lady for some time, and we have never talked politics. Suddenly, my wife is hot political topic #1. And though the politics are 'under the radar', my wife is clearly a target in the ongoing cultural war. Until my wife started to dramatically enlarge during this last trimester, comments like these had been few. Now, it is a torrent. "What hospital? What OB? You are getting an epidural, right? What brand of formula do...

Parent's are selling a chance to witness their son's birth on January 28th.

Here's a wrenching fact: If the U.S. had an infant mortality rate as good as Cuba's, we would save an additional 2,212 American babies a year. Yes, Cuba's. Babies are less likely to survive in America, with a health care system that we think is the best in the world, than in impoverished and autocratic Cuba. According to the latest C.I.A. World Factbook, Cuba is one of 41 countries that have better infant mortality rates than the U.S. Even more troubling, the rate in the U.S. has worsened recently. In every year since 1958, America's infant mortality rate improved, or...

To the Editor: Re "Trying to Avoid 2nd Caesarean, Many Find Choice Isn't Theirs" (front page, Nov. 29): I do not believe that the issue of whether a vaginal delivery can or should be performed in a pregnancy after a prior Caesarean should be framed as a matter of a woman's right to choose. It is perfectly reasonable for a hospital or a doctor to decide not to offer this service because it is felt to be too risky and the patient who desires it would be better served in a tertiary care center where obstetric complications are more routinely...

To: City Desk, Health Reporter Contact: Maria Sliwa, 973-272-2861 or msli9@aol.com NEW YORK, Nov. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Internationally acclaimed life coach and motivational speaker, Aleta St. James, will achieve her greatest accomplishment when she becomes a single mother of twins on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004, just three days before her 57th birthday. She will give birth at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York. To date, St. James is one of the few women in the world to deliver twins in her late 50's. For the past 25 years, St. James has applied her Energy Transformation techniques combined with...

Americans are living in a time when access to obstetrical care is an important topic in politics. Obstetricians are leaving practice in high numbers because of insurance rates which reflect the high number of lawsuits families are filing. This is a sign that the time has come for fellow Americans and politicians to recognize that Professional Midwifery Care has the potential to help resolve many of the concerns American mothers have in maternity care. How can midwives help the current state of maternity care and cost in the US? The cost benefits are evident of many levels: Beginning with prenatal...

WHO and partners act to reduce the maternal death toll of half a million women each year Every minute of every day, at least one woman in developing countries dies in childbirth -- more than half a million each year. Today, WHO and the Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health are intensifying support to countries around the world to ensure that a woman does not die while giving birth to her child. The needs are wide-ranging - from training skilled birth attendants who can help a woman give birth safely, to the very basic issue of recording the cause...

Leading doctors today called for a major overhaul to avoid babies being born alive after abortions. Pregnancy expert Professor Stuart Campbell has demanded rules should be tightened after it was revealed that at least nine babies are known to have survived terminations in recent years. He said injections that were supposed to end their lives in the womb failed to do so - and he called for stricter regulations to be enforced on the methods of abortion. Professor Campbell said that all abortions carried out after 18 weeks of pregnancy should include an injection, followed by drugs, to induce labour...

African Women at High Risk of Childbirth Death-UNMon October 20, 2003 02:31 AM E By Robert Evans GENEVA (Reuters) - Sub-Saharan African women are 175 times more likely to die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth than their sisters in rich countries, three United Nations agencies reported Monday. But figures based on years of research into maternal mortality, an area where statistics for many countries are difficult to establish, also showed the United States with a much worse record than many European countries or Canada. In Africa at large, a report from the three agencies said, one in 16 women...

Substitute "Poor-Choice" for "Pro-Choice," Expert Advises (Springfield, IL)--"Pro-choice" rhetoric implies that abortion and childbirth are equal options. But research shows that women who choose abortion suffer significantly more physical and psychological health problems than those who give birth. Moreover, there is no research showing that abortion produces any significant benefits for women compared to giving birth, according to one of the nation's leading experts on post-abortion complications, David C. Reardon, Ph.D. In order to challenge the assumption that abortion is a good choice, the Elliot Institute, directed by Dr. Reardon, has launched a new web site at www.PoorChoice.org. The site...

My niece, April, is having labor induced today. She's had a very rough pregnancy and has been warned that she must not have another child. From sonograms we know it's a baby girl and my brother is there with his son. The baby's head is not quite where it should be positioned, so they may do a c-section. Please pray for her and the baby. I've never asked for prayer before, but April is so young and such a fine person. She'll be having a hysterectomy after this because the doctors are all advising her to do so.

Three recent events - a new book by economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the April 15, 2002 Time magazine cover story about it, "Making Time for a Baby," and a recent "60 Minutes" story by Leslie Stahl on the same subject - have re-ignited the ongoing debate about women balancing career and family. The current furor centers on the growing epidemic of childlessness, especially among successful women. In Hewlett's new book, "Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children" (Talk Miramax Books, March, 2002), she notes that many women who put off having children until their 30s or 40s...