These dummies failed parenting class. Parents who were the victims of a home invasion fled their house - leaving their 8 year old child behind. Incredible.

World class mom. There is a woman in China, an officer, who has been breastfeeding nine babies to keep them alive in the aftermath of the terrible earthquake there. That just warms my heart. While the idea of breastfeeding another persons child may seem strange, the life-or-death circumstances around this situation changes that. I would like to think that I would do the same thing. Kudos to her!!!

Do you agree? A woman in Ohio just was awarded $20 million. She sued her doctor for a delivery room issue. She was told in advance she had a narrow birth canal, and they tried for 13 hours to get the baby out. She ended up with an emergency C-section. The baby was born with some birth defects - mild retardation, vision problems and issues in moving her limbs. They claim the child’s injuries were because her head was squeezed.

Boy, I would have loved to be on the jury for this one. I wonder - what was this mom’s birth plan? Was she dead set against a C-section - did she push them to delay it? Can the doctors prove that the child’s injuries came from her head being squished in the birth canal?

In any case, I think $20 million is a bit excessive. But don’t even get me started with my opinions on our legal system.

Yesterday, a friend (who doesn’t yet have kids) asked me if there was a particular moment when I felt like a mom for the first time - did it just “happen” as soon as I got the double lines on the pregnancy test, or what?

Of course there was a particular moment - and it was one of the most defining moments of my life.

I miscarried my first (unplanned) pregnancy around ten weeks. I had barely gotten my mind around the fact that I was pregnant, so I didn’t feel like a parent at all. I felt the loss, but not the motherhood I’d already walked into in some ways.

With my daughter, I didn’t feel very maternal for a long time. I loved this new little person growing inside me, but on some level it was still an abstract concept to me. That changed when we were sent for an ultrasound to measure my amniotic fluid levels, and the tech freaked us out by running for the doctor, who sent us straight to the hospital. We didn’t really understand until he told us that, among other things, if she rolled on her cord, she didn’t have enough room to get off of it, and she could die if she didn’t get out of there now.

Suddenly it wasn’t “the baby is” anything - it was “my child is in danger.” Over the next 22 hours, I went from passive observer of my pregnancy to mama bear mode, and when she finally cried that first ticked off cry, all was right with the world. My daughter was safe, and I was firmly entrenched in motherhood in every possible sense of the word.

Was there an equally defining moment for you, when you realized “Wow - I’m a parent!” for the first time? Squawk back and share!

Posted by Sunshine.

Parenting classes won’t guarantee a better child. Many parents reach out to parenting classes when they are having issues at home. But a new study shows that these classes do not seem to have an impact on helping a difficult child. They do help the parent manage the stress and help them to set realistic expectations.

Behavioral problems impact nearly 15% of all children, and left untreated can lead to more serious issues later in life. Targeted therapy - counseling or psychiatry is the most effective, but is expensive and not available to many. (or you can send your kids to Tom Cruise to get straightened out… OK, I jest)

More folic acid benefits. Most of us are already aware that taking folic acid, especially during a pregnancy, can help prevent some birth defects such as spina bifida. But now, doctors are seeing that folic can have another great benefit - it greatly reduces the risk of pre-term labor.

By taking folic acid one year before conceiving, the risk of pre-term labor between weeks 20-28 is reduced by a whopping 70%, with a 50% lower rate between weeks 28-32. It is recommended that all women take the supplement daily regardless if they are TTC or now. Especially as quite a few of us know that not all pregnancies are planned.

(and for those of us taking part in the MomSquawk Biggest Loser contest, I don’t recommend eating 8 slices of Wonder Bread per day to get your daily dose!)

Magnesium Sulfate lowers cerebral palsy risk. To us non-medical people, magnesium sulfate is known as Epsom salts. And studies show that if women are given this during pre-term labor, it can reduce the child’s chances of having cerebral palsy by 50%. One thing to keep in mind is that women can have a negative reaction to taking magnesium sulfate - including respiratory problems. In any case, if you are at risk of PTL, you may wish to discuss with your doctor if this is an option for you.

(I don’t know if it is just me, but I think the picture shown in the linked article is terrible - that mom looks downright peeved. OK, maybe she is just having a bad day… ugh!)

Surrogacy going wrong? There is a British woman who is currently in her 9th surrogate pregnancy and doctors warn she is risking her life to carry her current triplet pregnancy to term. Carole Horlock is 41 years old and the triplets she is carrying would be children number 12, 13 and 14. Her first two children are her own, and she has so far delivered nine surrogate children. She is refusing to listen to doctors warnings, and already has plans for her next surrogacy. OK. I know there are some gals who love being pregnant. But does anyone besides me think that just maybe this woman has other issues? I think that surrogacy is a wonderful option for some couples, but I find it hard that someone would be willing to die just to give a stranger a biological child. And I wonder if there should be age/health limits to surrogate moms. I could only imagine the sadness (and lawsuits?) if this woman would die as a result.

Just in case you were wondering. The first New Years baby born in America was born in El Paso, Texas at 11 seconds after midnight. Her parents named her Leia. She joins her brothers Luke and Anakin. No, I am not joking.

And for no other reason than… the fact that some of these scientific studies really crack me up. Here goes. Studies show that male monkeys “pay” their females for sexual favors. Apparently, females that were “groomed” by their men had sex a lot more than those who didn’t. Personally, I would call that foreplay rather than payment. Hey, why not show your husband this article and try to hit him up for a trip to a swanky spa. It doesn’t sound like such a bad trade off. Maybe these lady monkeys are on to something…

Family Life and Onset of Puberty: A new study published in the journal Child Development finds that good parental support and low marital conflict are associated with later onset of puberty in girls. Early puberty has been linked with a higher likelihood of mood disorders, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and cancers of the reproductive system. According to one of the researchers: “These results replicate and extend previous longitudinal research indicating that higher levels of positive investment and support in family relationships in preschool predict lower levels of pubertal maturation in daughters in the seventh grade.”

School Readiness and Home Environment: By studying 420 pairs of five-year-old twins, researchers report that environmental factors - such as family resources and income, parental attitude toward learning, and quality of child care arrangements - are associated with school readiness. “Our results have important implications for preventive interventions,” said Michel Boivin, Canada Research Chair in Child Social Development and professor of psychology at Laval University in Quebec City and one of the study’s authors. “They should be seen as a further incentive for continued implementation and evaluation of preventive intervention programs aimed at improving the level of school readiness in children from at-risk families.”

Smoking and Pregnancy: A University of Aberdeen study finds that baby boys of women who smoked during pregnancy are more likely to have abnormal penises and poorly descended or smaller testicles.

Time to Quit: It’s the Great American Smokeout!

Ambitious Autism Study: Enrollment is beginning on the largest study undertaken to look at environmental and genetic risk factors for autism. The five-year study will involve 2,700 children and their families from around the US. “We hope this study will help us learn more about the factors that may lead to autism and other developmental disabilities, and how genes and the environment may affect child development,” said Lisa A. Croen, PhD, the study’s local principal investigator and an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. “The results may also contribute to better services and treatments for affected children and to prevention strategies.”

Conjoined Twins Doing Well: Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias, 27-month-old twin girls from Costa Rica, survived a nine-hour surgery and are now separated. The riskiest part of the surgery on the formerly conjoined twins was clamping their hearts after separation, as they had been connected there. Their surgeon announced that, baring any complications, he expects the girls to live normal lives. The two are the ninth and tenth children in their family.

Health Scare for Nancy Grace: CNN anchor Nancy Grace, who gave birth prematurely earlier this month, is back in the hospital because developed pulmonary edema. Her husband reports that the new mother is now on medication and under observation, and is doing well. The new babies, John David and Lucy Elizabeth, are also continuing to do well and are, according to their dad, “out of the critical area”.

Binge Drinking and Pregnancy: A new study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health finds that while heavy drinking throughout pregnancy has been associated with birth defects and neurological problems, there is little evidence that binge drinking harms a developing fetus. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion. While the researchers recommend more study in this area, and caution that practitioners advise pregnant women to avoid binge drinking, they note: “When pregnant women report isolated episodes of binge drinking in the absence of a consistently high daily alcohol intake, as is often the case, it is important to avoid inducing unnecessary anxiety, as, at present, the evidence of risk seems minimal.”

Really? An expert in divorce issues cautions that Brittney Spears and Kevin Federline are majorly screwing up their kids as they dissolve their marriage. “They are doing almost everything wrong,” said Larry Ganong, professor and co-chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences and professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing. “Interparental conflict is so damaging for kids. The message is that parents need to cooperate as much as possible, put the children’s needs first, stifle anger and take the high road. I don’t get the sense that Brit and K-Fed are doing that.”

TV Baby News: The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck and husband Tim welcomed their second child, a boy, on Friday morning. The couple have a two-year-old daughter, Grace. Ms. Hasselbeck reportedly plans to call her co-hosts this morning to announce the newcomer’s name.

When to TTC? Researchers have published in the journal Decision Analysis a description of a program aimed to help women weigh various factors and come up with the optimal time for them to plan to have their first baby. The program aims to help women sort through education and career considerations, plus age and other concerns. For example, for some women having a baby early on could derail career opportunities, while for others, taking maternity leave early on in the career track has less of a negative impact. One of the researchers offers, “We use decision analysis all the time to guide complex business and policy questions and decisions, so why not use the structured approach to improve our understanding for making important personal decisions?”

Congenital Heart Disease and Brain Development: Researchers at University of California, San Francisco, found through a study that the brains of babies born with congenital heart disease resemble those of premature babies. They propose that abnormal fetal circulation may be impacting the brain development of these babies. “Traditionally, the focus has always been on the surgery. It would be great to be able to say that you do the surgery and fix their hearts and their blood oxygen and then brain development catches up. We need to look more broadly at what occurs before surgery. For example, there has been interest in doing heart repairs earlier, even in utero,” [Dr. Patrick] McQuillen said. “Our data has implications for the timing of surgery.”

Pre-eclampsia linked to later heart disease: Two new British studies link the pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia with developing heart disease later in life. The first study finds that women who have had pre-eclampsia during pregnancy have a twofold risk of heart disease, and “women with a history of pre-eclampsia had an almost fourfold risk of high blood pressure and a twofold risk of fatal or non-fatal ischaemic heart disease, stroke and blood clots in later life.” The second study shows that doctors could predict which women were at risk of developing pre-eclampsia based on certain risk factors. Women with high pre-pregnancy blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels had a seven times greater risk of developing pre-eclampsia than those who did not. Overweight or obese women, and women with a family history of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes were also at a greater risk, and those women who took the pill before pregnancy reduced their risk.

Like mother like child: A new study suggests that excess weight in the mother before and during pregnancy may influence a child’s tendency to be fat. Mothers with higher body-mass index before pregnancy and a larger upper-arm circumference later in pregnancy correlated with the child’s height-adjusted fat mass measurements. Likewise, mothers with a lower body-mass index before pregnancy and a smaller upper-arm circumference later in pregnancy correlated to children with less body fat. “Further research is needed to determine if this association is from the effect of a mother’s excess weight prior to pregnancy; the effect of a mother’s lifestyle on that of her child; or a genetic factor passed from mother to child.”

More heavy news: A mother’s body-mass index at the time she becomes pregnant correlates with symptoms like hyperactivity and concentration problems in the child, says a new study. In addition, being overweight before pregnancy and gaining a considerable amount of weight during pregnancy comes with greater risks than being of normal weight and experiencing the same weight gain. “The next step for these scientists is to study whether there is a causal connection between the mothers’ obesity and symptoms in the child and, if so, what this is due to. One plausible explanation is that the risk of complications during pregnancy is greater among overweight women…It is also possible that both the mother’s obesity and the child’s symptoms are the result of genetic factors.”

New Clue to Gestationtal Diabetes: Researchers have discovered that a protein called menin slows the growth of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, and may hold the clue as to what causes gestational diabetes. It was also found that the hormone prolactin, which becomes elevated during pregnancy, triggers the production of insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. This hormone seems to regulate the amount of menin in the pancreas. Researchers think that prolactin decreases menin levels during pregnancy, allowing the pancreas to produce more insulin to meet the demands of the pregnancy. “We think it likely that one reason for developing gestational diabetes is an impaired ability of islet cells to respond to growth signals like prolactin.” It is possible that these findings may lead to tests to detect if a woman is at risk for developing diabetes during pregnancy, and may also lead to treatments to stimulate islet cell growth in those with diabetes.

Asthma and breastfeeding: Breastfeeding for longer than four months could be detrimental to baby’s lungs if the mother has asthma, says a recent study. It is theorized that breast milk transmits hormones that promote inflammation from mothers with asthma to their babies. “Compared to children of asthmatic mothers breastfed for shorter periods, those breastfed for four months or longer had a 6% reduction in certain lung function testing at 16 years.” Researchers say it is too early to advise new mothers to not breastfeed past four months.