To Be Mom

Latest policy changes have made it easier even for adoptive mothers to go in for paid maternity leave. And since 2005, approximately, 50 adoptive mothers have enjoyed the government-paid maternity.

Unlike previously, where they had to wait for some six months, adoptive mothers can now apply for leave about six weeks after the adoption process starts.

About 700 adoptions take place in Singapore each year. According to agencies, the entire process can take up to five to ten months for married couples. For a single parent looking for adoption, the entire process can take two to three years.

However, now with the new policy, the parents would not have to strain too much for the adoption.

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The government of Britain has given green signal to women in offering their eggs for stem cell and cloning research. Also, they would be entitled to compensation for costs incurred.

If women who are going through fertility treatment offer eggs, then they too would get discount while the others would be given US$500 for each fertilization cycle.

Some British experts are of the view that such a move would encourage many women in offering eggs just for the sake of monetary benefits.

While others, accused authorities of downplaying the health risks to potential egg donors.

Although, Britain has long permitted a practice known as egg-sharing, in which women get cheaper in-vitro fertilization treatments for donating eggs to other women hoping to get pregnant but donated eggs could never before be used for research.

I do not think that donating eggs for money is something that must be considered wrong. In fact, there are organ transplants or organ donation as well where transaction of money takes place.

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According to the Italian law, minor girls are not given any right in making decisions with regards to aborting their child or not. The decision is left entirely in the hands of the girl’s parents. As result, a judge in a recent case ordered an unwilling 13-year-old to have an abortion.

After the course of action, the 13-year-old allegedly went into frenzy, and threatened to commit suicide. However, she is now undergoing treatment.

Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Torino said,

The unborn baby is still a life and I defend life whatever the situation. Society must take of this child. I certainly oppose abortions but this case allows us to reflect on the situation. We have to take a step back and ask ourselves how this could have happened to a 13 year old girl.

Hey, what about the father? Do he and his parents have no say at all?

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I recently found out that out of 168 industrialized nations, the United States is 1 of 4 countries that does not provide paid leave for mothers and fathers. While employers are required to give time off, the US does not guarantee any such thing, thus, placing it behind a majority of the world when it comes to instituting family-oriented job policies.

On one hand, the US is publicizing the propaganda of anti abortion while on the other hand, they have forgotten to mandate a law that takes the financial worry of having a child.

Do we assume that the US is shirking away from the responsibilities, which it otherwise have towards the coming generation?

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Women who donate their eggs for stem cell research would get a compensation of $490.

This research would be a panacea for incurable diseases. Scientists are hopeful that it might be used to grow replacements for damaged tissue, such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.

Some researchers have postulated certain dangers associated with the donating process. As the drugs may increase egg production that can lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a potentially fatal condition in which the ovaries are unable to cope with the extra eggs released.

However, women who are interested in donating eggs must not be discouraged but it must be made mandatory on the part of the authorities to disclose the risks involved in the process.

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According to China’s lunar calendar, this month marks the Year of the Golden Pig. A rare zodiacal occurrence, the Golden Pig is considered an exceptionally fertile and lucky year, prompting concerns among health professionals over an imminent baby boom.

So in order to have an intelligent and healthy baby most of the people are rushing to have babies. This might lead to the fear of labor shortage.

In Shanghai’s hospitals, heavy-bellied women are lining up to see doctors. The city’s maternity beds are booked solid until March.

This could pose a serious problem later in the course of events like competing throughout life right from hospital beds to university seats.

So what’s more, China a country which is booming with skyscrapers gobbling the ever expanding cities. But beneath is a modern coating of traditional superstitions.

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Why there’s so much of hullabaloo over donating eggs? It’s completely a choice made by women themselves. One ethicist is of the view that eggs have become ‘commoditized.’ Well, when there is no hassle in donating organs like kidney, eyes, heart and so on then I don’t see there should have any kind of problem in donating eggs.

In 1996, women in federally monitored programs donated eggs just over 3,800 times. That number has risen steadily, to more than 10,000 in 2004, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control have compiled data.

Some do it to help relatives and friends or from a sense of altruism but others openly acknowledge money is a big factor in their decision, prompting critics to worry that they’re helping drive an unregulated market for human tissue.

If question of money is related to the issue, then the same must go for organ donation as well.

A decade ago, Dr. Joel Brasch, a fertility specialist in the Chicago area, had to work hard to recruit five or 10 young women for his own practice’s donor pool but not anymore.

I don’t see any harm in donating eggs, after all donors will continue to offer their eggs whether it’s for major stem-cell research or for childless couple.

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Pregnant moms should stay away from environmental chemicals, to be found in products like plastics and pesticides, because exposure to such chemicals may turn an unborn child more susceptible to obesity in its later life.

Prof. Frederick Vom Saal, of Missouri-Columbia University expounded this view after he found that mice exposed to bisphenol-A (BPA) before birth doubled their body weight in seven days and remained obese throughout their adult lives. On the basis of this finding, Prof. Von has exhibited the view that not only our calorie intake determines our body weight or BMI but exposure to such chemicals can also function as a significant determinant of obesity by altering the way our genes function.

Exhibiting the view that how exposure to such chemicals may turn unborn kids more susceptible to obesity Prof. Vom remarks:

Certain environmental substances called endocrine-disrupting chemicals can change the functioning of a fetus’s genes, altering a baby’s metabolic system and predisposing him or her to obesity...individual could eat the same thing and exercise the same amount as someone with a normal metabolic system, but he or she would become obese, while the other person remained thin.

This fact is really cogitable, especially because in the recent years obesity in both kids as well as adults has emanated as pharos’s serpent. More worrying is the fact that obesity hasn’t come alone but diseases like diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure have also thronged with it. Therefore, it becomes quite important to look into this finding quite seriously so that a potent solution to obesity could be chiseled out. Interestingly, previous studies have also dubbed chemical exposure harmful for both mother as well as unborn kids. Here is a wrap up-

1. What you need to know about environmental hazards in pregnancy

2. Chemical exposure during pregnancy and oral clefts in newborns

3. Chemical Exposure During Pregnancy

4. Is it safe to paint during pregnancy?

5. Pregnancy: Is Chemical Exposure Dangerous for My Baby?

6. Effects of Perfluorooctanoic Acid Exposure during Pregnancy in the Mouse

7. Male Pesticide Exposure and Pregnancy Outcome

8. Chemical Exposure During Pregnancy

Image credit: Snof

Via: Telegraph

Adverse outcomes in the next birth are more common among women who deliver their first child by cesarean section than those who deliver their first child vaginally.

The findings have been based on data collected between 1998 to 2003 for the second pregnancies of more than 8000 women who previously underwent cesarean section and more then 27,000 women who earlier delivered vaginally.

The survey postulated that the risks of a whole host of problems including bleeding, prolonged labor, malpresentation, ruptured uterus, and emergency cesarean, were significantly higher among women who delivered by cesarean section in their first pregnancy than among women who first delivered vaginally.

Infants in the cesarean group were also more likely to small for gestational age, low birth weight or stillborn, compared with infants in the vaginal group.

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Most of the crisis pregnancy centers in the U.S. are working to end abortion. Deborah Wood, the CEO of Asheville Pregnancy Support Services in Asheville, North Carolina helps pregnant girls in providing emergency housing if their parents threaten to throw them out.

Free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds are done too, if required.

The women are shown the images of ultrasound of their fetus, through which they can relate themselves. The technique helps in creating a bond between the two and in most of the cases, women have, averted the idea of aborting their fetus.

Much of the antiabortion movement remains focused on changing laws, tightening restrictions one by one, state by state. But Wood and her team talk of changing hearts. They are part of a whole other strategy that is more personal and more pastoral, although to some people it’s every bit as controversial.

Hillary Clinton has called abortion a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women and talks about improving education and access to birth control so that abortion becomes a right most women never have to exercise.

The latest trend according to Wood is to convert pregnancy centers into health clinics that offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. What they will not offer is referral for birth control. Married clients wanting information on contraception are referred to their own doctor.

Now the question emerges, would this personal and more pastoral technique be instrumental in reducing the number of abortions. After all, the goal of caring people - eliminating all abortions - will require a radical transformation of society.

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