Pregnant? Keep buckling up! Yes, it can be uncomfortable, but is definitely can save you and your baby in an accident by preventing you from hitting the steering wheel or the windshield. Worried about the belt hurting the baby? Worn properly, low under the bump, damage is minimized as the pelvic bone will absorb most of the shock.

In an accident at 20mph, an unbuckled mom has a 70% chance of loosing the fetus, while buckled moms only have a 12% chance of losing theirs. Approximately 370 fetuses are killed each year in car accidents, which somewhat surprisingly is less then newborn children killed in their first year in car accidents. So when you are considering the most perfect/safest carseat for your newborn, don’t forget to protect him before he is born too!

How much sex is good sex? It’s not necessarily about how many times you do it, but more about how long you do it each time. Of course, this is an individual thing, but research shows that intercourse between 3-13 minutes is most satisfactory. And 1-2 minutes is “too short” (tho I have to admit that on those few occasions that I give in when I really am not in the mood, 1-2 minutes is just fine with me!). To clarify - they are talking about actual intercourse here, foreplay does not count and I am sure most of us gals appreciate a nice warm up before the show!

A “teen repellent” under controversy. An English father to a 15 year old daughter who was harassed by groups of teens has created an interesting devise called the “Mosquito“. It emits an annoying, high-pitched noise that only youths can hear thus encouraging them to scram from wherever they are loitering. (The noise is heard by most under 20 years old, yet by hardly anyone over 30 years old.)

He has sold over 4,000 of these devices so far, mostly by word of mouth. The inventor has pointed out that the device is not harmful to children’s hearing, just like an annoying alarm clock. He also stated that he is not anti-teens, he is just wanting to discourage “anti-social behavior.” Civil liberties groups have signed petitions to get the device banned in Europe, but earlier this week the European Commission has confirmed that hey will not ban it.

New research supports the long-held hope that sex education does help teens avoid pregnancy — if the program is comprehensive, including information on birth control options instead of the abstinence-only approach.

Researchers found that 1 in 4 teens received abstinence-only sex ed, another two-thirds received comprehensive sex education, and almost one in ten (mostly from rural areas or very poor families) had no sex ed at all. Of these teens, the ones who received comprehensive sex ed were slightly (very slightly; the researchers termed the gap “not statistically significant”) less likely to engage in vaginal intercourse, but no group was less likely than the others to receive sexually transmitted diseases.

Also, according to research results, teens who received comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or to get someone pregnant than those who received no sex education.

Says the study’s lead author, Pamela Kohler of the University of Washington in Seattle, “There was no evidence to suggest that abstinence-only education decreased the likelihood of ever having sex or getting pregnant.”

Is anyone surprised?

Posted by Sunshine.

No, that’s not some plea for dirty comments.

The ’sex talk’ I mean is the ‘birds and bees’ conversation of old. You know, The Moment when you tell your kids where babies really come from, and how they get there. A new study shows that the big talk should really be more of an ongoing discussion.

“It’s important that parents set a foundation early on in talking with their kids about sex so that it becomes part of the norm in their household,” said study lead author Steven Martino, a behavioral scientist at RAND in Pittsburgh. “As children grow and have experiences, you want them to feel it’s natural to talk to their parents. When asked where they’d like to get their information, kids say from their parents more than anyone else.”

I don’t remember feeling that way as a teen. Hmm.

The study followed hundreds of teens and their parents. The families were divided into two groups. One group of parents completed a course in how to keep a discourse on sex and related topics open with your child; the other group did not.

Follow-up surveys were completed at one week, three months and nine months after the intervention began. The surveys were designed to assess 22 sex-related topics, such as the consequences of sex, how to make decisions about when to have sex, how to say no if you didn’t want to have sex, how well condoms prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and more.

[W]hen teens and their parents had more conversations — repetition — teens reported feeling closer to their parents and felt they could talk more openly with their parents about sex and other topics.

Go figure - the more you talk about something, the less taboo it becomes.

While I obviously haven’t been a parent long enough to encounter this situation, I can’t imagine making sex as closed-off a topic as it was during my adolescence. My parents basically told me, “Don’t do it before you’re married - premarital sex is a sin,” and left it at that. I didn’t follow their advice, such as it was, and I hope I can create a more informative, open atmosphere for conversations on sex when my kids are old enough to be curious. I’d love to not have to think about my kids having sex until they’re 40, but since that’s not rational, I’d still rather them come to me than shut me out.

Posted by Sunshine.

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…

Sex Education - It appears to be working. A government survey shows that teens that have had some sort of sex education were more likely to wait longer before loosing their virginity. And boys surveyed who received sex ed were less likely to have started having sex at all. Also promising is that there are improvements in urban and African American respondents - areas where there are higher cases of pregnancy and STD’s.

Showing favoritism? You can’t possibly love one child more than the other… right? Well, apparently beetles can. Scientists have spent a lot of time studying these little critters and have proven that they tend to favor the eldest child. Certainly we humans are more fair than they are, right? File this one with the other “and why do they research this?” items. (via EurikAlert)

“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat…” I have been singing that song in my head a lot the past two weeks. Ever since my husband announced he ordered one from the butchers for Christmas dinner. I have been endlessly fretting about how to cook the darn thing, and lamenting why, oh why, a goose. So, in the spirit of the season, I again went to my keyboard to discover that:

The goose is a tradition that goes back to mythological times when there were geese gods and the bird was eaten for grand occasions. From those ancient ritualistic times to more modern days (think old world), geese, with their migratory patterns, appeared and were available at the winter time of year and were eaten at ceremonial events such as Christmas and winter solstice. Even later on in North America, the turkey came to replace the goose in these events, possibly because of American Indian influence - they linked turkeys to the sun.

OK that is somewhat interesting, but still does not solve my problem of how to cook it! Suggestions?

Five shopping days left - good luck everyone!

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.

Pre-Eclampsia Signs and Symptoms: A new study published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing advises that in caring for women with pre-eclampsia, in addition to monitoring for persistent headache, blurred vision, and abdominal pain, caregivers should look out for perceived stress, vertigo, inability to concentrate and mental changes as warning signs that the pregnant woman’s condition may be worsening. Pre-eclampsia, or pregnancy-induced hypertension, affects between six and eight percent of all pregnant women. The cause is not known.

Be Happy with Your Hoo Hoo: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued a warning against “designer vagina” surgeries (discussed in an earlier MomSquawk post) that are billed as a way for a woman to “enhance her look” or revirginate as a gift for her husband (but where do you put the bow?):

Many gynecologists say the majority of such procedures aren’t backed by solid scientific studies. They say potential risks, including infection, scarring, nerve damage and loss of sensation, outweigh possible — if any — benefits.

“To do this for cosmetic reasons, and to say it will improve sexual fulfillment is totally absurd,” says Thomas Stovall, past president of the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons and a clinical professor at the University of Tennessee at Memphis.

Let’s talk about sex for a moment. I can list several “facts” about men and sex, but are any of them actually accurate about my husband or yours? Jay Dixit of Psychology Today examines some of the more common notions:

1. How often do men really think about sex?

Here’s a hint: It’s not every seven seconds. In fact, in a self-reported survey, less than half of men said they thought about sex even once a day! (I do call shenanigans on the 4% who said they didn’t think about sex even once per month, though. Uh-huh.)

2. Men want sex more than we do - a lot more (right?).

Well, yes, but it’s not really fair to hold that against them. New research shows that the instant a woman enters a secure relationship, her sex drive begins to plummet. Four years in, a German study found, fewer than half of women wanted regular sex. And after 20 years, only 20 percent did. In contrast, a man’s libido is apparently unaffected by whether (and for how long) he’s in a stable relationship. I’d be curious to see whether that libido suffers with the addition of children to the mix!

The third myth has to do with average size, and the fourth is HIV-related - I’ll let my curious readers explore those on their own, as they’re perhaps not quite as on-topic as the others.

The fifth and final “truth about men” deals with the length of the average encounter. Most couples do the deed in three to ten minutes - a far cry from the average of 40 minutes portrayed by the entertainment industry. Perhaps “minute man” isn’t as much of an insult as I thought, at least not when stacked up against reality. (I wouldn’t advise using it in conversation with any male you care about, though.)

Posted by Sunshining.

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.

Real World Mama: Actress Jacinda Barrett (The Last Kiss) and her husband, actor Gabriel Macht, are expecting their first child later in the year. Ms. Barrett first rose to fame as part of MTV’s Real World set in London.

CPSC News:  Congressman�Bobby Rush (D- IL) is pushing for an investigation into the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s response to reports from parents about the dangers of Magnetix toys.  Apparently, the CPSC had received many complaints about aspirin-sized magnets falling out of the toys, but they took no action until 2005, when a Seattle-area toddler died. (If swallowed, magnets can work together to create a life-threatening bowel obstruction.)  Check the CPSC site for more information on the Magnetix recall.

Sex Negative:  A new study in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence finds that teenage boys receive conflicting information on sex from parents vs. peers and the media.  While friends and popular culture tend to focus on the perceived positives of sexual freedom, parents tend to address the risk of pregnancy and the efficacy of abstinence, and not much else.