To Be Mom

Pregnant women who take vitamin supplements can reduce the risk of having an underweight baby. A study was conducted on over 8,500 women in Tanzania; half of them received vitamin supplements and the rest got placebos. The percentage of low birth weight baby was more among the placebo recipients when compared to women who took supplements. Babies of low birth weight are more likely to die young, have growth and learning difficulties and may later be prone to diabetes and heart disease. About 20 million low birth-weight babies are born each year, 96 percent of them in developing countries and the researchers suggested that all pregnant women in the developing countries take the vitamin supplements. In light of these findings, we recommend that multivitamins be considered for all pregnant women in developing countries, regardless of their HIV status says Wafaie Fawzi of Harvard University’s School of Public Health. Most developing countries provide prenatal iron and folate supplements to pregnant women free of cost but do not give vitamin supplements; the researchers say that by providing the vitamin supplements in addition to the iron supplements, the developing countries can reduce the percentage of low birth-weight babies in their countries.

Eating apples during pregnancy may protect children against developing asthma later in life; experts from the Netherlands and Scotland after tracking dietary intake by nearly 2,000 pregnant moms came up with this notion. During the course of study, they found that children of mothers with sufficient intake of apple had significantly reduced risk of developing asthma and childhood wheezing. However, the way apple consumption staves off asthma symptoms is still not very clear. Still, saying that it is quite a significant finding won’t be wrong.

More and more women are becoming career minded and hence they are opting to surrogacy. Keen to become mothers and yet not willing to put their careers on hold, these career-driven women have given a new twist to the concept of outsourcing. Dr Sunita Tandulwadkar, Chief IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) Consultant and Endoscopist at Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune stated, We have got two cases in the recent past of career women who opted for surrogate wombs so that there wouldn’t be any break in their careers. One is a 32-year-old woman based in Singapore. She has taken the surrogate woman with her to Singapore for delivery. The second is a woman based in South India and working in the IT industry. The budding trend is giving rise to numerous sociological issues, like, A. Are women trying to sidestep the challenge of bearing children? B. Has the pressure of balancing a home and career begun to take its toll? C. Do people believe that in an era of consumerism, everything can be bought? Well, if we talk about India alone, the cost of surrogacy is very less comparatively. Some have condemned it as ‘women outsourcing their motherhood’ but if we look at the other side, I feel that women are not doing any kind of offense in being a surrogate mother. After all, they are bringing smiles to childless families. Provided, that the health risks associated with the process must be meted out effectively. Also exploitation, which is linked with it, worries me.

A British woman’s longing for having a child of her own may never come true. The woman has been fighting a four-year legal battle to use frozen embryos fertilized by her former partner was disappointed again when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that she could not use them without the consent of former fiance. Natalie Evans was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she began taking fertility in 2000. She had to freeze six embryos in a fertility clinic as she underwent a surgery to get her ovaries removed. The couple split up in 2002 and Johnston, her former fiance wrote to fertility clinic with drawing his consent to use the embryos. The British lady then moved to the court seeking permission to have the embryos implanted in order to have a child. Under current British law, both the man and woman have to give their consent at every stage of IVF treatment. The grand chamber came to the conclusion as the consent was required from both parties thought it was a fair judgment to both concerned. The embryos however will remain in the fertility clinic until the legal fight is finally over after which they would be destroyed if Ms.Evans lost her final battle. As much as I respect the privacy of these individuals and their choices, I strongly believe that no woman should be denied the wonderful opportunity of being a mother to her own child.

I thought the human species that had long back entered into the modern scientific era, until I learnt that till date decisions like conception of a child are influenced by astrological developments. Yes, this is true. Off lately the sale of condoms and other contraceptive measures in Korean convenience stores has dropped suddenly, which means an increased number of couples are looking forward to plan their babies. The big reason behind this sudden development is the fact that 2007 is the year of Golden Pigs, which comes every 600 years. According to soothsayers and fortune tellers, children born in this year will lead a wealthy and prosperous life…so many a couples are getting into the groove of making rich babies. This implies the condom companies will have to bear the burnt of this astrological development until April, which will be an end to the conception spree, coz babies conceived till April will be born next year in Feb which marks an end to the auspicious year of pigs. Sounds interesting….so if you are also planning to start off with your family do it now…or else the golden opportunity will strike after 600 years. Read More

Cholesterol supplement may act as an antidote for would be mothers who are at a risk of damaging their growing fetus by alcohol consumption. A protein called Sonic Hedgehog (SHH), which is responsible for the development of nervous system, head, face, heart and limbs are all affected by fetal alcohol syndrome. SHH is only active when bound to cholesterol, and alcohol is known to affect cholesterol levels. When the researchers introduced zebra fish embryos (since zebra fish and humans share the same set of proteins controlling early development) to low concentrations of alcohol, they observed that the embryos had normal amounts of SHH, but expression of the genes it controls was reduced, leading to defects resembling fetal alcohol syndrome. The embryos also had lower cholesterol levels, suggesting that SHH had been deactivated. However, the birth defects were prevented after the embryos were fed with cholesterol supplements. Image Read

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has urged the federal courts to let enforcement of a parental notification bill that was enjoined shortly after it was signed into law in 1995. The Parental Notice of Abortion Act requires doctors to inform a patient’s family member 48 hours prior to carrying out an abortion on an unmarried minor. The requirement can be put aside if the doctor decides that the case is a medical emergency or if the patient obtains a judicial bypass. The law has remained unenforceable since 1995 when the Illinois Supreme Court refused to issue rules for obtaining a judicial bypass and a federal court ruled that the law could not go into effect without such rules. Women’s rights groups, however, are troubled by the developments since the act would ‘make it very difficult for young women to access reproductive health services…’ Image Read

Caffeine during pregnancy does not have a direct impact on the fetus’ growth however it might have other side effects. Meanwhile, doctors have added that it seems to disprove that ‘caffeine intake can lead to low birth weight and perhaps preterm delivery, but it’s only one study’ and have advised to reduce the ‘consumption of stimulants during pregnancy and have as healthy a lifestyle as possible.’ Previous studies have also shown that caffeine consumption raises the possibility of a stillborn baby or babies who die in the first year of life. These women may also be more likely to suffer a miscarriage. Thus, a study was conducted on more than 1000 women who consumed at least three cups of coffee per day and were less than 20 weeks pregnant. Participants were divided into two groups, one receiving caffeinated instant coffee and the other receiving decaffeinated instant coffee. Among women drinking caffeinated coffee, 4.2% of infants were born prematurely, and 4.5% were small for gestational age, against 5.2% premature births and 4.7% underweight in the decaffeinated group. Hence, the doctor asserted, ‘We have no reason to believe that coffee is a necessary food item for pregnant women. I think it’s wise that they should be a little cautious, but, in any case, if a pregnant woman gave birth to a low birth weight baby, it’s highly unlikely that this was the case.’ Image Read

A crusade has been initiated by Bebac, a non-governmental organization that would safeguard and respect the moral and civilized rules for treatment of pregnant women in Serbia. Bebac has postulated that nearly 65% pregnant women are frequently discriminated in the country. Very often, they have to conceal their pregnancies from their superiors as they are subjected to discriminatory questions such as ‘are you pregnant’, during job interviews. The organization has laid ten points with practical problems faced daily by pregnant women, also the important elements of realization of their basic human rights. According to the code of conduct, pregnant women will never be discriminated, humiliated, degraded or pressured in the work place or when seeking jobs. In addition, they would be protected from stress arising because of physical and psychological violence. Image Read

Not only mother but father too plays an important role in the formation of baby’s brain during the nine months. Lately researchers have postulated that if would-be mothers experience some kind of stress caused by their partners, it would negatively influence the baby. A researcher asserted, ‘ we found that if the woman had a partner who was being emotionally cruel to them while they were pregnant, it had a significant effect on their baby’s future development. It really shows that the partner has a big role to play.’ Although, environmental and genetic factors are particularly responsible for child’s development but maternal stress too is associated with it. According to experts, this is caused by high levels of stress hormone cortisol crossing the placenta. Image Read