Vasectomies And Birth Control Procedures Increasing To Prevent ‘Accidents’

More and more men are now having vasectomies and women having procedures to make sure that they do not ‘accidentally’ end up having a baby.

This video from Fox news meets one family with four children who explain why they did not want to take any chances of number five coming along. With college just round the corner for their eldest, and one child with special needs… they decided to make sure fate could no longer intervene.

Father of four Steven Lent told the news channel “We already have our hands full obviously with four and so we couldn’t risk having another one, so were both wanting to just be 110% sure that I wouldn’t get pregnant again.”

Doctors are seeing more and more couples who are seeking procedures for perminant birth control. The financial impact of having another child is now becoming the main reason for families wanting to keep their families small.

OBYN Deanna Bullaro-Anderer said “I’m getting more and more patients coming to see me regarding their options for permanent contraception. Can they afford another child? There is a very legitimate concern on what would happen if they did have another child.”

Bullaro-Anderer recommends the Essure procedure to families such as the Lent family, where time and money are important factors.

“The Essure procedure is 99.8% effective permanent form of contraception. It’s performed right here in the office. It takes a little less than an hour to do.” Bullaro-Anderer told the news channel.

The procedure works by placing micro-inserts into the patients fallopian tubes. Over the next few months, a natural barrier is formed by tissue growth, which permanently blocks the tubes.

         

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Exercises during pregnancy could help babies

Moderate pregnancy exercise can benefit babies development new research suggests. Though pregnant women should discuss exercise levels with their GP first.

A research team from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences suggest it is linked to nervous system development and better foetal heart health as well as aiding the mother’s health.

The team set out to research if maternal exercise had direct cardiovascular benefits for the foetus.

They also wanted to see if foetuses whose mothers exercised had increased breathing movements compared to non-exercise exposed foetuses.

Foetal breathing is a “practice” movement where a baby developing in the womb gets ready to breathe after it is born.

It is also a sign of how well the respiratory system and central nervous system are developing.

The scientists used a non-invasive device to measure the magnetic fields produced by the electrical activity of maternal and foetal heart rates.

It was also able to pick up foetal movements including breathing, body movements, hiccups and sucking.

The women studied were aged between 20 and 35 and were checked between the 36th and 38th weeks of pregnancy.

They were classed as exercisers if they did moderate intensity aerobic exercise such as moderate to vigorous walking, stationary bicycling and running for at least 30 minutes, three times per week. Most were doing more.

The researchers then compared them with pregnant women who did not exercise regularly.

Dr Linda May, who led the study, said: “Foetal breathing movement and the nervous system were more mature in babies exposed to exercise.”

She said further research was needed, both to look at more pregnancies and to evaluate the health of babies once they had been born.

But she said understanding more about how to improve the development babies’ nervous system could aid understanding of cot death.

“Some researchers think it has to do with something being wrong in the central nervous system, which affects respiration.

“Babies aren’t able to wake up and breath for themselves if they need to.”

She said this study had shown the babies of women who exercised had a more mature respiratory system, suggesting they would fare better after birth.

Dr May said it was safe for women to exercise while pregnant.

But she said the team did not yet have evidence about what the minimum beneficial level of exercise in pregnancy was.

Patrick O’Brien, a consultant obstetrician and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the study was interesting and worth following up, although it was small.

He added: “This is an interesting finding and one which should encourage women to keep healthy when pregnant.

“Pregnant women should consult their midwives and doctors on the types of exercise they could do when pregnant and how much.”

Mr O’Brien said excessive exercise during pregnancy could be dangerous for the unborn baby if a woman becomes too hot or lets their heart rate go over 130 beats per minute.

But he said there was is no increased risk of miscarriage or premature labour linked to exercise.

He advised: “Keep within your comfort zone so that you can still hold a conversation.”

The findings from this pilot study of 26 women are being presented to the American Physiological Society’s conference in New York.

         

Valproate epilepsy drug could lower babies IQ

Mothers with epilepsy are able to have perfectly healthy children, ongoing research suggests however that sodium valproate, or just, “Valproate” taken by the epileptic mother, may lower a babies IQ.

Women with epilepsy usually need to keep taking their epilepsy drugs while pregnant, research suggests that some drugs could have harmful effects on the baby. The drugs are already known to transfer into the babies bloodstream, and there seems to be a higher risk of birth defects for babies if their mother has epilepsy. An ongoing study has suggested that birth defects are more common with sodium valproate (sometimes just called Valproate) which has been used for many years to prevent seizures.

The study measured the intelligence quotients (IQs) of 309 3-year-old children whose mothers had taken anti-seizure drugs for epilepsy while they were pregnant. It found that children whose mothers had taken lamotrigine, phenytoin, and carbamazepine had higher IQ scores than children whose mothers had taken valproate. Scores for children whose mothers had taken valproate were on average 6 to 9 points lower. The average person has an IQ of 100, with about half the population scoring between 90 and 110.

Usually, the main factor that predicts a child’s IQ is the IQ score of his or her mother. This was true of the children taking other anti-epilepsy drugs, but not for children taking valproate. This suggests that valproate made a real difference to what happened to the children. The effects on IQ were more noticeable when women were taking higher doses of valproate.

This study is part of a longer-term study. The researchers will complete their work when the children are aged 6.

Talk to your doctor about how your epilepsy should be treated while you’re pregnant, or trying to get pregnant. Your doctor can help you make sure you’re on the type of medicine that best controls your seizures, at the lowest dose. Your doctor might suggest you change to a different type of medicine, or to a lower dose, before you get pregnant.

He or she can also advise you about the dose of folic acid you need to take. Folic acid helps protect the growing baby against birth defects. If at all possible, speak to your doctor six months before you plan to start trying for a baby. That means you’ll have time to sort out any problems with changes to your medicine.

If you’d like to help doctors find out more about the effects of epilepsy drugs in pregnancy, you can register your pregnancy with the UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register (http://www.epilepsyandpregnancy.co.uk).

From:

Kimford J. Meador MD, Baker GA, et al. Cognitive function at 3 years of age after fetal exposure to antiepileptic drugs. New England Journal of Medicine. 2009;360:1597-1605.

         

Teenage Girls Will Now Be Offered a GCSE Course in Parenting

Any teenage girl who is thinking about having a baby or is already pregnant will now be able to take a GCSE qualified course to learn basic skills of being a young parent.

Many parents are outraged now at the fact that their daughters and sons are now being offered a course that will teach them the ins and outs of being a young parent. This course will teach these teens who want to become pregnant or who already are, basic skills of caring for a newborn, healthy pregnancy advice, dealing with toddler tantrums, and other parenting advice.

Family campaigners have called this course “irresponsible,” especially since the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe already. They are afraid that teens will see having a baby as an “achievement” instead of a life long commitment as being a parent.

The new plan will recognize the courses that are already being offered by the National Community Learning Partnership. The current classes are held at public places such as the YWCA and other training centers, but now that they are accredited by the GCSE, they will be offered in more places. Some actual schools may even start offering the classes if they have several students who are pregnant and want to take the course.

There are no age limits on the course and there have been girls as young as 12 who have taken the course. Students who take this course will achieve a level one qualification, equivalent to G to D grade standard at GCSE.

Pregnancies among teenage girls in the UK has been on the rise since 2002. More than 40,000 babies a year are born to teenage mothers in the country. Currently only about 1,000 of those girls attend the parenting courses offered by Edexcel. A spokesperson for these courses has said that that the teens who attend are more likely to have a healthy child and excel and move onto university and support their child.

But Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, says that this plan is “irresponsible” and will do the opposite of what it is intended to do. He says, “Awarding a qualification to pregnant teenagers and young parents sends out the message that having a baby while still at school is an achievements.”

He also goes on to say, “There is a danger that this kind of initiative could normalise illegal sexual activity and make it respectable for underage girls to have babies.”

         

Diet could alter a baby’s genes

A new study suggests that a poor diet can actually alter a baby’s genes. The age old mother’s saying, “Eating for two” could have drastic affects on fetal development, even altering a gene responsible for a protein that promotes normal development and growth.

If a pregnant rat does not eat well, her offspring exhibit genetic changes that affect what they’ll become. Because the genes and cellular mechanisms involved in the study are very similar to those in humans, researchers think the study could be applied to humans.

Rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition, the researchers figure; they were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. The poorly nourished rats were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and neuro developmental delays.

“Our study emphasizes that maternal-fetal health influences multiple healthcare issues across generations,” said Robert Lane, professor of pediatric neonatology at the University of Utah. “To reduce adult diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, we need to understand how the maternal–fetal environment influences the health of offspring.”

The results, announced this week, are detailed online by the FASEB Journal.

The researchers split rat fetuses into two groups. The first group was normal. The second group had the delivery of nutrients from their mothers’ placentas restricted. The rats were examined right after birth and again at 21 days, considered preadolescence. The lack of nutrients in the second group caused a gene responsible for a protein that promotes normal development and growth in rats and humans to significantly reduce the amount of the protein produced before and after birth.

         

21-year-old sperm produces baby for IVF couple in USA

A North Carolina, USA, couple welcomed a baby last month that was born via IVF, (In vitro fertilization) from her father’s frozen 21-year-old sperm.

Reproductive Endocrinology Associates of Charlotte (REACH) disclosed on Thursday the birth of a baby girl conceived through IVF using sperm frozen for 21 years.

Chris Biblis, 38, the babies father, was treated for leukemia between the ages of 13 and 18. In 1987, when he was 16, Biblis family encouraged him to freeze his sperm, in spite of the fact that advancements in treating male infertility did not yet exist.

Biblis, who has been cancer-free for 20 years, sought fertility treatments at REACH with his wife Melodie, 33, in 2008. Baby Stella Biblis was born in excellent health on March 4th.

REACH founder and fertility specialist Dr. Richard L. Wing said; “They achieved pregnancy on their first cycle of intracytoplasmic sperm injection used in conjunction with IVF, a now-routine procedure for male infertility, using her eggs and his frozen sperm.”

Scientists first injected a sperm cell into a human egg in a lab setting in 1992.

         

Pollution linked to smaller babies

A study reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health concludes that motor vehicle pollution is linked to smaller babies.

Traffic fumes from either living near a busy road or overexposure to motor fumes may affect fetal development.

The study found that pollution produced by motor vehicles, both sooty particles and nitrogen dioxide affected the likelihood of pregnant women having smaller babies.

The research took into account risk factors such as a young mother’s age, poor education, ethnicity, poverty, smoking and being a single parent.

Research was based on data on almost 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003.

The researchers took air quality measurements from within six miles of the mothers’ homes.

         

Making a C-Section a more, “Natural” experience

A revolutionary new technique from Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London attempts to turn C-Sections into an experience closer to vaginal birth the Times Online reports.

The idea was conceived by Professor Nicholas Fisk, in response to the rising numbers of Caesareans in the UK. 24 per cent of all births are now Caesarean deliveries. Over half are emergency C-sections rather than planned, and maternal age is a factor; according to the National Sentinel Caesarean Section Audit, mothers under the age of 20 have a C-section rate of just 13 per cent, compared with 33 per cent for mothers aged between 40 and 50.

A Caesarean is undoubtedly a major surgery. It is also a moment of great joy parents and this is what Professor Fisk, and two colleagues - Dr Felicity Plaat, consultant anaesthetist, and Jenny Smith, a senior midwife and author wish to emphasise.

Fisk says, “It struck me that all the effort was going into changing normal childbirth but that Caesarean section was still steeped in old surgical rituals,”

“In some cases I was horrified; the baby would be dragged out like a tumour and passed to several medical staff before the mother. It was ripe for reform.”

His team focused on three areas. First, parental involvement: dropping the drape that “divorced” the mother from her abdomen, to allow her to see her baby’s head emerge.

The second point was physiological: Fisk showed that when a Caesarean is performed slowly the baby is able to “autoresuscitate” - start breathing unaided - while still attached to the placenta, as in normal birth. The baby is “half-delivered” and a combination of the naturally contracting uterus and the baby’s vigorous wriggles allow the lungs to expel fluid in a similar way to a vaginal birth. This reduces the risk of the baby needing help to breathe; a common occurrence after a Caesarean.

Finally, Fisk wanted to see newborns handed immediately to their mother for skin-to-skin bonding. “There are now official standards for skin-to-skin bonding in childbirth, but these are almost never met with Caesareans,” he says. One obstruction is that the monitoring equipment needed for patients in surgery is routinely attached to the mother’s chest. “In a natural Caesarean we attach the ECG wires to the back of the chest so that the baby can be placed on the mother after birth,” Plaat says. The anaesthetic dose is lowered so that there is no “heaviness in the arms” to prevent holding the baby, and a clip that measures oxygen in the blood is attached to the toe.

Read More from the Times Online at http://timesonline.typepad.com/alphamummy/

         

Pregnant Singer Jill Scott Working on Children’s Album

The 8 months pregnant singer reveals that she is currently working on a childrens album.

Jill Scott, who is due with her first child in April, revealed that she is currently working on a childrens album called “Ballads and Lullabies for babies” She also goes on to say that since she is 8 months pregnant she has put the singing on hold temporarily, saying, “I’ll record it when I can breathe again.” Scott says that she can hardly breathe with this pregnancy, “because being pregnant moves your organs out of the way and you lose lung capacity.”

The singer also goes on to say how excited she is about this pregnancy. “I can’t get over it actually. And here comes somebody that I get to raise and enjoy and teach. I get the pleasure of seeing everything new again. The sky is new, the clouds, the park, dogs are new. And my baby will be new. I am thrilled.”

         

Spanish, “Pregnant Man” to give birth to twins

Ruben Noe Coronado Jimenez, 25, a Spanish transsexual says that after artificial insemination he is pregnant with twins.

Spanish law that went into effect last year allows those citizens suffering from “a sexual identity problem” to undergo hormonal treatment to change their sexual status without drastic surgery or a sex change.

Ruben told Pronto magazine, “I am six-and-a-half weeks pregnant,” also saying he took treatment to restart his menstrual cycle.

Ruben Noe Coronado Jimenez said he had kept his female status to undergo fertility treatment, but would start the process this month to officially change his gender to male in accordance with newly passed legislation.

Ruben said, he would therefore give birth as a man. If all went well he would give birth by Caesarean section in September.

         

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