Need help for your pelvic floor muscles? Perhaps you are like me - having children has wrecked havoc on my pelvic floor muscles. And I constantly forget to do my kegel exercises, only being reminded of this after a big sneeze. Well… wearing heels can help this! Good news it, you don’t have to wear stilettos! Apparently, having the feet at a 15% angle provides women with a good a posture as flat shoes while providing the best exercise for those special muscles. Do you think this is a valid survey, or just a bunch of men trying to convince us to wear sexier shoes? (btw - the shoes in the pic are Louboutins, my dream shoe! someday…)

Acupuncture can help those who are TTC. There are no scientific tests to this non-traditional practice, although they did run some tests with different groups of women undergoing fertility treatment and it seems as though acupuncture can help the chances of conceiving. It is one of those “It can’t hurt, it is relatively easy enough and inexpensive, so why not try it”

I had acupuncture treatments when my third child went overdue. It was amazing how fast and hard my contractions came when they put these needles in the webs of my hand and twisted them. She arrived the evening of the third daily treatment, but unfortunately I cannot say it was the treatment or the fact that she was 6 days overdue. It did put my mind at ease that I at least was doing something (short of castor oil) to get her out!

Genetics over environment for obesity. In researching twins, doctors have determined that genetics have a much greater impact on children’s weight than environmental factors. They weigh it at 77% genetics, 23% environment. This does not mean that some people are doomed from birth to be obese, but it can explain why some people have a harder time with their weight. And all that tempting fatty food surely does not help. “Genetics” should never be used as an excuse for bad lifestyle decisions. In the end, it is still the responsibility of the parent to instill good eating habits in their children to give them the best start at life, whatever their weight is.

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.”

October is SIDS Awareness Month. For the latest on SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), including information and advice for new and expecting parents, research on SIDS prevention, and support for grieving families, check out First Candle, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for SIDS prevention.

Hope for Short Cervix Preggos: A new study published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology concludes that vaginal treatment with a progesterone gel may reduce the risk of preterm birth, and improve overall infant outcomes, in women with short cervices. For this study, 46 women at high risk for preterm delivery because of short cervix were followed. Half were treated with PROCHIEVE 8%, half were given a placebo. Of the treated group, one in six newborns was admitted to the NICU after birth, vs. one in two of the placebo group. Furthermore, of the babies whose moms received the progesterone gel who were admitted to a NICU, the average stay was one day, vs. two weeks for the babies in the placebo group.

TTC Superstitions… On Oprah yesterday, Halle Berry talked about her lengthly quest to get pregnant: “I’m sort of superstitious, so I saved all of the negative [pregnancy] tests in a drawer…Don’t ask! I don’t know why, but I did. … After about 35 tests, we finally got a positive test.”

Gain Weight, Get a Boy? A new study of 220,889 women who had successive pregnancies between 1992 and 2004 finds that an increase in body weight from the beginning of one’s first pregnancy to the beginning of a second seems to increase the chances that the second pregnancy will produce in a boy baby. “The results are provocative because few biological factors are known in humans to influence the chances of either conceiving or carrying to term a baby boy or girl. Our study suggests that maternal nutritional factors might play a role,” said Eduardo Villamor, assistant professor of international nutrition at HSPH and lead author of the study. However, the researchers caution against gaining weight in order to try to influence the sex of a baby. “Weight gain before pregnancy carries significant risks to the mother and the baby, and should not be practiced to influence the odds of having a boy,” said Villamor. “Other factors of which weight gain is only an indicator could be at play here.”

Good News for Barry White: A new study published in the journal Biology Letters finds that men with low-pitched voices have more offspring than those with higher-pitched voices. Previous studies have shown that men with low voices have more “reproductive success” because women tend to find them more attractive, dominant, and healthy-sounding. Men, meanwhile, have generally been found prefer women with higher-pitched voices, finding them to sound younger, more subordinate (hmmmmm…), and healthy than women with low-pitched voices. For this current study, the researchers looked at the Hadza of Tanzania, who have no birth control. Of these people, the men with low-pitched voices had more children than their high-talking peers.

Dumb Move: Former Australian cricket champion Shane Warne reportedly blew his last chance to save his newly-reconciled marriage because of an errant text message. Mr. Warne sent the following electronic missive out from his cell phone: “Hey beautiful, I’m just talking to my kids, the back door’s open.” The message that came back: “You loser, you sent the message to the wrong person.” It was from his wife.

Yet another medical study has been conducted. This one considers the effect of second-hand smoke on a woman’s chance of miscarriage. The results are in, and apparently women who were exposed to second-hand smoke as a child are 80% more likely to suffer a miscarriage than their peers who came from a smoke-free home. They are not exactly sure what causes this, but tobacco does contain chemicals thought to harm reproductive health.

Hmmm. This one could be a good topic for the Thanksgiving dinner table. I could envision a drumstick being thrown when dad lights up a ciggie after the meal and daughter bursts into tears telling everyone at the table about how she suffered X many miscarriages the past year and now realises it is “all daddy’s fault”.

The way I see it, a miscarriage is a really sad event. I know. I had two of them and both still pain my heart. But the fact is they do happen. It is estimated that up to 40% of conceptions result in loss. And I do understand how heartwrenching TTC can be. But although it is really tempting as a woman to blame yourself for something you should or should not have done - the best thing is to live your life as healthy and happily as you can and the rest is out of your hands. (And if need be, fortunately due to medical advances, doctors can help to increase the odds of pregnancy success.) The past is the past - look forward to what you can do to help your children and the future generations!

This one happened to catch my eye, because recently on the MomSquawk boards, we enjoyed a lively debate over smokers’ (and non-smokers’) rights in public places. And I wonder how much this information would have weighed into the debate…

Posted by Meganlux

We received this friendly heads up from the good people at March of Dimes about a new free booklet they have available for folks planning to have a baby:

Getting ready for pregnancy isn’t only about your physical health. The March of Dimes wants you to be prepared emotionally and financially, too, when you welcome your wonderful baby into the world! What you and your partner do to get ready before you’re pregnant will help your baby get the best possible start. March of Dimes is offering its “Are You Ready?” booklet free of charge, thanks to a generous grant from First Response. It is packed with healthy tips and answers the many questions surrounding your emotional, physical and financial well-being before becoming pregnant.

You can order your free booklet here. And you get a discount coupon for a First Response pregnancy test to boot!

It can’t hurt to get some input from these folks. Or you could just be like my husband and me. Our preparations went something like this:

Husband: Are you sure we’re ready to have kids?

Me: What do you mean? Everyone does it. How hard can it be?

Sending lots of baby dust to you TTC ladies.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Borat Baby! Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Borat, Ali G, and a host of other identities, will soon add a new role to his repertoire: Dad. He and his longtime girlfriend, Australian actress Isla Fischer, confirmed that they are expecting a baby this winter.

Obesity Clues? A new study published in the Medical Journal of Australia finds that overweight, single mothers are more likely to have children with weight problems. Parenting style, which has been implicated in the past, does not appear to be a factor, the study concludes. The researchers hope this finding will allow for better targeting of obesity prevention efforts.

Home Fertility Test: Fertell, a “his and her” at-home fertility screening kit, is now available to consumers. The test has two parts - one to test the number of motile sperm in a man’s semen sample, and another to measure a woman’s level of follicle stimulating hormone (determined via a urine sample stick), which is thought to be indicative of egg quality.

Well, I had an April baby. No one told me I’d be setting him up for academic struggles by conceiving him in the summer.

But that’s what Dr. Paul Winchester, Indiana University School of Medicine professor of clinical pediatrics, found when he looked at the math and English test scores of over 1.6 million Indiana students. The students’ performances were “distinctly seasonal” with the worst scores coming from those children who were conceived from June through August.

Dr. Winchester believes that pesticides and nitrates are to blame:

“The fetal brain begins developing soon after conception. The pesticides we use to control pests in fields and our homes and the nitrates we use to fertilize crops and even our lawns are at their highest level in the summer…Exposure to pesticides and nitrates can alter the hormonal milieu of the pregnant mother and the developing fetal brain.”

Dr. Winchester notes that his study did not find direct proof that pesticides and nitrates are the culprits, but he says the data “strongly support such a hypothesis.”

Of note: Nitrates and pesticides have been found to lower thyroid hormone levels, and hypothyroidism in pregnancy has been linked with lower cognitive scores in offspring. (I have hypothyroidism, too…my poor son!)

Apparently, babies conceived in the summer are also more likely to be born prematurely.

Dr. James Lemons, a colleague of Dr. Winchester’s, sees this research as having a potential monumental impact:

“I believe this work may lay the foundation for some of the most important basic and clinical research and public health initiatives of our time. To recognize that what we put into our environment has potential pandemic effects on pregnancy outcome and possibly on child development is a momentous observation, which hopefully will help transform the way humanity cares for its world…”

I admire Dr. Lemons’ optimism…but do you really suppose if such a link is confirmed that we’ll significantly alter how we do agriculture in this country� Seems to me we’ll just get to work on a pill to counter the ill effects.

I wonder, if I had read this study back when I was trying to conceive, would I have taken the summer off?

Posted by MommaSteph.

Go, Halle! Actress Halle Berry announced that she is determined to get pregnant by the end of 2007. The 40-year-old actress is dating model Gabriel Aubry, 31. If they can’t conceive naturally, Ms. Berry notes, they will adopt.

Recall News: Johnson and Johnson is recalling all bottles of Agent Glacier Mint and Bubble Blast flavors of Listerine Agent Cool Blue plaque-detecting rinse because of possible contamination by microorganisms. Company officials note that the risk of illness is low except for people with weakened immune systems. Full refunds are offered. For more information, consumers can call 888-222-0249 or visit the company information page. (Thanks, Amy, for the link!)

Wacky media news: A study out of the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation found that in large metropolitan areas where city newspapers tend to print recipes for very high calorie desserts, the percentage of obese residents is higher than in cities where more modest dessert recipes are disseminated.

Baby Bump Watch: Actress Salma Hayek and her now fianc fashion mogul Francois-Henri Pinault announced through her publicist that Ms. Hayek is pregnant with the couple’s first child.

IVF and Asians: Fertility researchers have found that women of Asian descent are apparently 29% less likely than Caucasian women to conceive through IVF. The reasons for this disparity are unknown at this time, but the researchers note that genetics may be a factor, or possibly consumption of mercury through a heavy seafood diet.