Too many preterm births. The number of preterm births is rising steadily. It is predicted that for 2006 nearly 13% of all children born in the US are preterm - born before 37 weeks of gestation. There is a US Surgeon General conference scheduled in 2008 to address this issue.

In 2005, preterm birth costs the nation more than $26.2 billion in medical and educational costs and lost productivity. Average first year medical costs were about 10 times greater for preterm than for term infants.

Go retro on the playground! Big fancy playground equipment might get the children “ooh-ing and aah-ing”, but to keep kids fit schools do not need to spend a lot of money. To get kids moving, schools should encourage games that involve running and jumping.

Fancy playground equipment is fine for improving coordination and sharpening minds, but if you really want preschoolers to play hard, give them a ball, jump-rope or hula hoop, a study concludes.

Anyone want to meet at the play yard for a game of kickball?

Taking a break from baby-making? There are now even more options to ensure you don’t have an “oops” moment. Web MD has an informative article that explains long-term birth control options that are hassle free and more reliable than ever. There is even the option of permanent birth control without invasive surgery, called Essure. As always, consult your doctor to determine what is best for you!

King Middle School in Portland, Maine, plans to offer birth control - and I don’t mean just condoms and a wish-you-well - to its students, who are usually in the 11-13 age range.

Students would need parental permission to use the city-run health center in the school, but they wouldn’t have to tell them they were seeking birth control.

Naturally, this decision has caused quite a firestorm. (See what MomSquawkers think here - register and weigh in!)

Defenders of the decision say the notion that young children can now easily get birth-control pills is flat wrong.

“They don’t just have a giant punch bowl full of pills,” [Portland School Committee member Robert O’Brien] said. The birth control will be given out only after extensive counseling, and no prepubescent children will get it, he claims.

Also, the school notes, condoms have been offered since 2000, but students were referred elsewhere for other birth control options. Students often did not follow up on that, so having birth control available at the school’s health center would ensure that those who need such protection would be more likely to get it.

Opponents of the measure say that children as young as 11 could manipulate the system to acquire birth control. Even Maine Governor John Baldacci has expressed concerns.

“I appreciate local officials trying to address a need in a medically appropriate way, but these are children,” he said in an interview with the AP. “An appropriate balance must be struck addressing the troubling situation that a small number of students find themselves in and recognizing the important role that parents and other family should play.”

What do you think? Is offering birth control to middle school students simply protecting our kids from pregnancies/STDs at an earlier age, or is the school making birth control too accessible too soon? Squawk back and share your thoughts!

Posted by Sunshining.

Would make for an interesting email address… A Chinese couple wishes to name their new baby “@”. Many Chinese speakers pronounce the symbol “ai ta”, roughly sounding out the letters “a” and “t”, and this resembles a word that means “love him” in Mandarin. The new dad did not report whether or not the name has been approved, but the Chinese government has been cracking down lately on names that use foreign or non-traditional characters.

Botched Sterilization Lawsuit: An Oregon woman is suing a hospital because she became pregnant after she believed she was given a tubal ligation. Alba Avendano underwent the surgery after the birth of her third child. She subsequently learned that she was pregnant. After giving birth again, Ms. Avendano underwent a second surgery, where doctors learned that one of her fallopian tubes had been left intact. She is suing for $1 million for raising the child, $1 million for emotional distress, and $30,000 in medical expenses. (Via Feministing.)

New Program to Lower C-Section Risk? Researchers out of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine conducted a study that found that women whose pregnancies were monitored through an alternative program called the Active Management of Risk in Pregnancy at Term (AMOR-IPAT) were less likely to deliver via C-section than women under traditional care (5.3% vs. 11.8%). Under AMOR-IPAT, pregnancy dating and risk assessment are used to determine an optimal delivery date; if the woman goes past that date, induction is offered. The researchers believe their method results in fewer C-sections because babies are delivered before the baby is too large for the mother’s pelvis, and before the placenta is too old to support the baby through labor.

Accutane and Pregnancy: Roughly the same number of women are becoming pregnant while on Accutane (isotretinoin) since the iPledge program became mandatory. Accutane can cause serious brain and heart damage in a developing fetus; for this reason, men and women who want a prescription for the acne medication have to enroll in a program that keeps a database of users, and women need to prove that they are on birth control and need to take a pregnancy test before each refill. (Accutane can also damage a fetus within 30 days after a woman stops taking the drug.) Most of the pregnancies were reportedly the result of a failure to stick with a birth control plan. Today the FDA is to gather its advisers to review the safety restrictions on Accutane and its generic versions.

DYK… it’s World Breastfeeding Week?

If you and your husband don’t use condoms, just maybe, says a researcher out of the State University of New York in Albany. Dr. Gordon G. Gallup has been looking at data that suggest that women who have intercourse without condoms are less likely to become depressed or kill themselves than those who do not have sex or who use condoms. In addition, women who do not use condoms become increasingly depressed as the time since their last sexual encounter lengthens, while no such correlation exists for women whose partners generally use condoms. The no-condom women also tend to be quicker to seek out new relationships when old ones end.

This suggests, notes Dr. Gallup, that the hormones contained in semen that may be absorbed through the vaginal wall, some of which are known to elevate mood, may be creating an addiction and subsequent withdrawal symptoms.

Gallup controlled for variables including method of contraception, frequency of sexual intercourse, as well as the women’s perception of their relationship. He concedes that women who regularly have sex without condoms might share personality traits that make them less susceptible to depression. But the behavior most often associated with non-condom users is sexual risk-taking, and studies have found no correlation between high-risk sexual behavior and lower rates of depression.

It’s an interesting idea, from an evolutionary biology point of view. If women get hooked on semen, the species is more likely to survive. But my husband just laughed and called it a “guy study”. Well, maybe it’s both.

Posted by MommaSteph.

You’ve perhaps heard of Lybrel, the new birth control pill, now approved by the FDA, that a woman takes daily, and that eliminates menstrual periods for as long as she takes it. This may be good news for women with certain medical conditions, such as extremely painful periods or excessive bleeding, notes medical sociologist Jean Elson in this NPR interview, but that’s not how Lybrel is being marketed, she says. Rather, it’s being touted as a way for a regular old woman with regular old periods to have more control over her body, and to eliminate the messiness and discomfort of menstruation. (Of course, women have had the option of skipping their “dummy” pills and staying on a continuous course of birth control pills, which has the same effect. I wonder, though, do their insurance companies cover all those extra pills?)

As it happens, many women who dropped out of the testing of Lybrel did so because of “breakthrough bleeding” - or a pop in visit from Aunt Flo. Not particularly predictable, and potentially quite embarrassing.

More important than how well this medication works or doesn’t work, however, is how we women think about our bodies, says Ms. Elson. Menstruation, for most women, is not a medical problem to be solved by a pill, and yet that is the message that is being communicated to young women.

“There has been a whole history, a cultural history, of viewing men’s bodies as the norm, and then viewing women’s bodies as a deviation from that, and specifically menstruation as a deviation from a normal body, and that’s not really the case. It is absolutely normal and natural for women and for girls of a certain age to menstruate.”

Ms. Elson’s advice to those tempted to try on a tampon-free lifestyle? Weigh the costs and benefits. We don’t know what the future effects of Lybrel are, she notes. A young woman who opts for Lybrel for non-medical reasons “may be balancing inconvenience or messiness or embarrassment currently with future health problems.”

Just some food for thought.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Bollywood Babies: Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, is pregnant with twins. She shared, “No film experience can compare with this…In fact, I’ve put my big project ‘Dallas’ on hold until the babies come.”

Who’s confused? A study appearing in the medical journal The Lancet reports that children of women who consumed fish while pregnant have better developmental skills than their peers. Moreover, the researchers note that limiting fish intake to 12 oz. per week, as the U.S. government does because of contamination concerns, is detrimental to fetal brain development.

Preggo on the Mini-Pill? The FDA is looking into data that suggests that an increasing number of women are becoming pregnant while on the Pill because the new lower dose formulas do not protect against pregnancy as well as the “old school” pills. In particular, overweight women may need the higher dose pills in order to be adequately protected.

Hospital birth, home birth…trouser birth? 24-year-old Pennsylvanian Rebecca Johnson and her mom just about made it into the hospital before Rebecca’s baby arrived, but he made a surprise appearance just as his mom got out of the car in the hospital parking lot. Says Ms. Johnson, “I didn’t know what happened until he was in my pant leg.” Doctors report that mom and baby Mason are doing well.

Hispanic Dads and Culture Shock:  A study out of the University of Missouri-Columbia used interviews to explore Hispanic male immigrants’ attitudes toward family planning and found that for these men, their traditional values are often in conflict with the fast-paced, wealth-driven culture of their adopted country.  For example, traditionally Hispanic masculinity is associated with large families, which can be hard to manage in the US.  Other factors requiring adjustments:  Accepting that they will not necessarily be able to be the sole breadwinners for their families, and losing family time because of challenging work schedules.

Vasectomy Danger?  Researchers out of Northwestern University have found that older men who underwent vasectomies are more likely than their peers to develop a form of dementia called Primary Progressive Aphasia, in which the ability to recall and use words is impaired.  A possible reason:  It may be that in men who are snipped, the semen that leaks into the bloodstream breaks the blood-brain barrier and causes damage. 

Kate the Great:  Kate Winslet is threatening to sue a British magazine over a story that claims she is seeing a diet doctor in Los Angeles.  Ms. Winslet, a mother of two, has been outspoken about the pressure to be thin and has repeatedly announced that she will not conform to the super-skinny trend.  ”I will continue to say what I feel about this issue of women being thin and emaciated. It’s just out of control…I know I’m a role model to young women. It’s a role that I take very, very seriously and I would never want anyone to ever think I was a hypocrite in doing something like going to a diet doctor, for goodness sake. I mean, it’s really, really ridiculous.”  Go Kate!  Give ‘em hell!

Most of us moms have heard something about this, but the rumors surrounding the reality run the gamut from logical to ridiculous. It is true - for a while, anyway, and if you’re wise to your body.

Sex columnist Dan Savage received a question about this method and an answer (from a guest columnist) explains it all well. (Yes, that’s sex columnist, so if racy language or content offends you or is a no-no where you’re using the computer, don’t visit Savage Love any time soon.)

If baby is exclusively breastfed, ovulation is normally�suppressed for the first six months postpartum, which is what makes this method work. However, your first postpartum menstrual cycle may not be sufficient warning to use an additional birth control method if you happen to ovulate that first cycle. Using an ovulation predictor kit or charting your basal body temperature are ways to keep track of this possibility.

If pregnancy would truly be a bad thing for you while breastfeeding your young baby, using LAM(Lactational Amenorrhea Method) may not be something you should rely on, as things like baby sleeping through the night (and therefore reducing frequency of feedings) and using a breast pump rather than a baby to extract your milk can trigger your body to ovulate, rendering LAM ineffective.

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More Incentive to Quit:  A study out of Duke University finds that quitting smoking may be more difficult for people whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.   This research used rats, some of whom were exposed to nicotine prenatally.  Those that were later self-administered nicotine in higher doses after a period of abstinence than those who were not exposed before birth.  The researchers believe that smoking during pregnancy may make changes in the developing baby’s brain that last a lifetime.

Good luck with all that…A Bears fan is willing to rent out her eight-months pregnant belly for ad space in exchange for two tickets to the Super Bowl.  Her only condition:  She will not advertise for the Colts.

Just so you know…Condom sales have plummeted in Korea, and experts believe it’s because until February 7, 2008, we are in ”the year of the golden pigs”, which comes only every 600 years.  Babies born in a golden pig year are supposedly fated to live prosperous lives.  But bad news for condom manufacturers is good news for personal hygiene producers:  Sales of mouthwash and shampoos are up.