Portugal has introduced a new law that will allow women to have an abortion up to the 10th week of pregnancy. However the new law has also imposed a three-day reflection period in which women will have to seek the procedure and grant doctors’ right to opt on moral grounds. The law will become effective from July 15. It is estimated that around 10,000 women in most of the Roman Catholic countries are hospitalized every year with complications arising from failed, illegal abortions. Portugal had rigid restrictions on abortion as compared to its neighboring countries but with the implementation of the new law Portugal will stand together with most of its European neighbors. For the law the Health Ministry had to really work hard and had spent months drawing up medical guidelines annexed to the law. As per the new law now the woman who wish to seek abortion will have a meeting with the concerned doctors, where she will be warned of all the possibilities of danger due to the abortion. After a three-day reflection period she can either get the abortion done free of cost at a public hospital or go to a licensed private clinic. After all the medical procedures she must visit a family planning session to get informed about contraception methods. The doctors are also given freedom to accept or reject the abortion cases and on unavailability of the doctor the hospital will have to give a woman access to a doctor elsewhere. In the previous law the women could undergo abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy only if her health was at risk and in rape case she was granted through the 16th week. On the other side if there was a case in which it was the only solution left to save the mother then there no time restriction. The government hopes that the new law will put an end to risky backstreet abortions . Image Source: Yahoo
A Woman has the final right to decide on abortion – Amnesty
In the war-torn region of Darfur, rape is an instrument of war. Women are deliberately targeted to score psychological points over their opponents. Can there be any doubt that it will be the woman assaulted who will decide whether she wants the child engendered by the act of rape. In Nigeria a woman seeking an abortion, even on very reasonable grounds, is meted out harsh punishment. In many South American countries, a pregnant woman is flatly denied permission for aborting the child even if her medical condition is such that delivery of the baby would certainly kill her. Matters like these have apparently led the human rights body Amnesty International to fight for the right of a woman to abort her child. But it is not for a blanket freedom to abort. It is to be only under certain conditions – 1. The pregnancy resulted from rape 2. Delivery of the child would risk the mother’s life 3. Pregnancy from incest All this sounds very fair and reasonable. It must have seemed so to the International committee of Amnesty International which voted unhesitatingly for the proposal in Mexico. It must have seemed right to the US chapter of the world body with 400,000 members when it gave it the green light. But the traditional supporters and financiers of the respected human rights body– the Roman Catholic Church has criticized the move, saying it had strayed from its commitment for human life. But rigid dogma of certain people should not impinge on a woman’s fundamental rights. As Kate Gilmore, the human rights organization’s deputy secretary general says: We have felt very keenly how passionately people feel on both sides of this debate. But we’re here to do what’s right, whether it’s unpopular or otherwise.
Morning sickness: Promises to keep breast cancer at bay
Women, grappling with morning sickness that is normally caused by the sudden increase in hormones during pregnancy, may now heave a sigh of relief, as a new study provides evidences that women with symptoms of morning sickness, which includes nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, may be far away from the risk of deadly breast cancer. Credit to bring these findings to the fore goes to Dr. Jo Freudenheim and her colleagues from the University of Buffalo in New York, who rolled it out at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research after interviewing around 1001 women with recently diagnosed breast cancer, ages 35 to 79. During this analysis, experts also took into consideration several factors, normally associated with pregnancy like high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, etc. More interesting is the fact that that greater severity and longer duration of the symptoms was associated with reduced risk of breast cancer. And this makes the findings of this study more plausible. Findings, leaping out of this study are really a balm to the women community, as breast cancer is fast becoming a common problem these days, especially among women. So, pregnant women, facing unwelcoming morning sickness should start taking it not as their foe but as their friend, as it promises their safety against breast cancer. Image Via: Reuters
‘Womb-on-a-chip’ offers new hope for women struggling to conceive
The rate of infertility is going up all over the world and women are getting worried about their chances of conceiving. While there are many fertility treatments that offer hope to women who wish to see a baby in their arms, they are actually time consuming and add to the agony of waiting. The conventional IVF involves a lot of procedures like washing the eggs, moving embryos with the culture fluid causing failed treatment cycles due to changes in the temperature and acidity. Japanese scientists have come up with a new device called ‘womb-on-a-chip’ that speedens up the process of fertility treatment by churning out early stage embryos. The miniature device actually acts like an automated artificial womb where the embryos are grown until they are ready for implantation. In fact, the endometrial calls that nourish the embryos by releasing chemicals are also grown in the womb chip mimicking the happenings in the body. The chip is a device that is about two millimeters in which up to twenty eggs can be fertilized at a time. When tested on mice, it was found that the mice that were implanted with chip-grown embryos were more successful than the traditional IVF and developed healthy foetuses. Dr Matt Wheeler, from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who is also working on automated IVF, says It’s not just about more embryos surviving to be implanted, they also seem to be doing better once they are implanted. This method of treatment is yet to be tried on humans, but if successful, could bring smiles on thousands of women who are anxious to see their ray of sunshine. Image Source
Pregnant women get confused about diets
A recent survey reports that most of the pregnant women are unaware about which type of food and drinks they should consume during their pregnancy period. Approximately 60% females told that they don’t know — what foods to eat and what foods to avoid during their pregnancy, and which types of foods are safe to eat. Eatables which create some sort of confusion are cheese, shellfish, egg, tuna fish and peanuts. In spite of latest instructions from the Government to reduce drinking or even try not to have the alcohol consumption, 1 out of 10 women replied that they drank alcohol throughout their pregnancy period. The average increase in weight during pregnancy is 22lb to 33lb and female should raise their diet by about 300 calories per day. The survey of about 850 pregnant ladies or new mothers through out the nation discovered that 1 in 5 used to get the nutritional advices from their midwives on what type of food they should consume during their pregnancy period. 1 out of 10 females put on full responsibility related to their food intake confusion on their friends, says a report from Organix poll. Lizzie Vann, who founded – Organix, said that most of the females think about nutrition to a large extent when they become mom and have kids; they are mostly confused about what they should consume during their pregnancy. Popular foods which create confusion among pregnant women are: 1. Alcohol – The Health Department advises the pregnant females to quit drinking. If pregnant women want to drink, then they should not consume more than 10ml or 20 ml of alcohol, only for once or twice in a week, drinking more than this can adversely affect the health of your baby and can result in fetal damage. Try not to get fully drunk. 2. Caffeine – Caffeine intake to a large amount put bad effect on the health of baby. The Food Standards Agency or FSA suggests that females who are pregnant should not consume over 300mg of caffeine in a day. 3. Cheese – FSA suggested pregnant females to avoid the consumption of soft cheeses. The soft Cheese may be contaminated with bacteria known as Listeria that can result in causing miscarriage and premature births and they could raise the chances of listeriosis. Only consume cheese which are made from pasteurised milk. One can eat hard cheese. Processed cheese, cottage cheese & cheese spreads can be consumed with utmost safety while you are pregnant. 4. Shellfish – Pregnant women should try to avoid consuming oysters and shellfish if it is not cooked properly. In raw condition these eatables may contain dangerous bacteria and viruses, like salmonella & sometimes listeria too. Raw fish and shellfish are source of a parasite known as Toxoplasma which may cause blindness and brain damage in fetus. 5. Tuna – Women should consume almost all types of fish during pregnancy. FDA recommends that women should avoid eating king mackerel, shark, swordfish, and tilefish during their pregnancy. One should try to reduce the consumption of tuna. Don’t consume more than 2 tuna steaks in a week as they have high amount of mercury which might affect the nervous system of your child. Try also to consume oily fish only twice in a week. 6. Nuts – Pregnant women should also try to avoid the consumption of peanuts if there is any family history of allergic problems like hayfever or eczema. The reason is that the baby may be at greater risk of becoming a nut allergic. 7. Eggs – Try to avoid eggs if not cooked properly or if they are raw. When you have to cook the eggs than cook it until both the parts — white and yolk becomes firm, to have protection from salmonella.
Womb lollipops for to-be-moms!
Ask any pregnant lady and she will tell you how sometimes they feel an urge to eat specific things or taste some specific flavor. The urge is pretty great and here is another way out, the Womb lollipops. Yeah! The name tells you all. These lollipops come in a variety of flavors like chamomile, lavender, ginger, red raspberry leaf and peppermint, which make them perfect to keep near especially when you are going to be a mom. These lollipops are safe too as they are natural, dye free, preservative free. They are even specified as non-GMO, making them completely pure and natural. Perfect as a gift too! Source: Greatgreenbaby
Eating the right amount of fish helps pregnant women
Here’s some health watch for the pregnant woman. If you are pregnant, you are not supposed to eat too much fish. The right amount and right kind of fish does matter when you are pregnant. At least, that’s what the Food and Drug administration(FDA) in U.S. recommends. The advice has been issued by the FDA in collaboration with the EPA. As per guideline, pregnant women should eat no less than 12 ounces of fish per week.Although, no upper limit has been set yet.The fish types include salmon, tuna, sardines and Mackerel. Scientists believe that eating fish is a great way to gain the omega three fatty acids. However, no guideline has been set by the Center for Disease Control or the CDC.The CDC did investigate this issue before the EPA/FDA. There seems to be a little contradiction between the CDC and the FDA studies. I am not sure which one I should trust more. If you are not a fish eater, try walnuts, flaxseed oil, and leafy green veggies. These food items provide the omega three fatty acid besides the fish products. All I know is, there’s something fishy about the fish related studies. Image credit: MSN
Heavy moms who shed pounds still have big babies
Heavy moms face big complications during pregnancy. A recent study conducted on various obese moms, suggests that heavy moms are at a greater risk of delivering big babies. Study suggests that plus-size women face various health-complications and their chances of delivering big babies are too high, even if they loss excess weight before pregnancy. Plus-size diabetic women are at an even grater risk of delivering big-cesarean baby. Stress, thyroid problem, low metabolism, backache, excess labor pain, high blood pressure, and low self esteem are generally observed in heavy moms during pregnancy. Study suggests that normal weight women or slim women are likely to have safe pregnancy. They deliver a normal body-weight babies, but bad news for all those heavy moms is that even though they loss excess pounds before their second or third pregnancy, they are at a greater risk of delivering abnormally big babies. In heavy moms or plus-size women, there is excess stress to loose weight before pregnancy. Heavy moms desire to have a healthy normal baby, but even though plus-size women shed excess weight, they deliver big babies. Plus-size women sometimes may have normal pregnancy with no complication, but higher percentages of heavy moms are at great risk of delivering big babies. Prevention and healthy practice is the foremost step in controlling body weight. A good health practice is- Always maintain a normal body weight so as to avoid not only complications during the pregnancy, but also to avoid various other health risks. Regularly do breathing exercises, yogic asana, go for a morning walk, eat a balanced and healthy diet, and avoid junk foods.
Egg-Freezing: Women can now become ‘Mothers’ of their Grandchildren
The first thought that crossed my mind after reading this news was – How would the mother be related to her grandchild? Would she be a mother or a grandmother? And would the conceiving mother of the baby be the baby’s real mother or her biological sister or brother? Well, you could keep thinking the whole day and come up with weird relation combinations. Now, this would be one of the rare cases of relationship disorder or in better terms, mayhem. For the first time in medical history, a Canadian mother has frozen her eggs to ensure that her seven-year old daughter would be able to give birth, in case she turns infertile due to a genetic disorder. Melanie Boivin has probably not spared a thought for the baby, if a baby is born through the eggs that is, who would find relating to her kith a tall order. However, the choice of accepting the eggs is left to Melanie’s daughter, Flavie Boivin. The egg-freezing procedure is not new. Prior to undergoing chemotherapy, cancer patients have the choice of freezing their eggs due to the risk of menopause. Doctors say that 85 percent of the eggs survive freezing and 40 percent of them have a chance of a live birth. Disorders like Turner’s syndrome often leave women infertile, but with healthy wombs. So, they can use donated eggs to give birth. The Egg-freezing procedure has presented opportunities not only for the infertile but also for women who are averse to the idea of marriage. And even women, who find a partner late in life, can freeze their eggs earlier and use it to give birth when they feel they are ready. Via: yahoo
Planning to conceive? Take folic acid to prevent serious birth defects
A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. How true! Every mother wishes to be blessed with a healthy child. A baby is born healthy when mothers take care of their own health even before they conceive. Did you know that seventy percent of serious birth defects called neural tube defects (NTD) can be prevented by taking folic acid daily? These defects are formed during the first four weeks of pregnancy. This means, the defects are formed even before you know that are pregnant! That is exactly why you should be taking folic acid even before you get pregnant. How does folic acid prevent birth defects? Folic acid is a naturally occurring B vitamin that helps a baby’s neural tube’the part of a developing baby that becomes the brain and spinal cord’develop properly. It is advised that women take the folic acid supplements before and during early pregnancy when the neural tube is developing. 400 micrograms/day is the recommended dose for women though it might be increased if you were at a risk in your earlier pregnancy or if you were anemic. Folic acid in natural resources: While’s it’s good to take folic acid in the form of supplements, try to consume foods that are rich in folic acid like spinach, lentils, asparagus, black beans, peanuts, sprouts, broccoli and lettuce. So, take care of your health in advance and enjoy you pregnancy without worries. Image Source