First U.S. Baby Born After a Uterus Transplant

TIME reported that, for the first time in the United States, a baby was born to a woman who had a uterus transplant. The birth took place at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. TIME protected the privacy of the woman and her husband in order to protect their identity. This was the first birth of the hospital’s ongoing uterus transplant clinical trial. The women who participated in the trial have absolute uterine factor infertility (AUI). This could mean that their uterus is nonfunctional or is nonexistent. Some of the women in the program have Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) which causes the … Continue reading

Reasons Parents Should talk to Their Teens About Pregnancy

It might be uncomfortable, but it is important that parents talk with their teens about pregnancy. Having that discussion, in a non-judgmental way, can inspire a teen to really open up and ask the questions that are on their mind. It can also help build trust between you and your teen. That’s important if you want them to come to you for answers about pregnancy in the future. Make sure you speak with your daughters and your sons. The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is high. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate among countries that … Continue reading

The Truth About Your Diet During Pregnancy

One of the assumptions I made about pregnancy prior to becoming pregnant is I’d have a diet-related Get out of Jail Free card.  I knew that there are certain foods it’s best to avoid, but I thought at least I’d have a free pass to eat, well, not quite as much as I wanted, but to feel a bit more guilt-free about evening ice cream binges. That turned out not to be the case at all.  First off, the whole “eating for two” thing isn’t true.  At most, you should eat for one and a quarter.  In addition to that, … Continue reading

More Fun Pregnancy Symptoms: Leg Cramps

In the middle of the night a few weeks ago I woke up with a terrible pain in my leg.  I cried out about it, and immediately began trying to rub and move my leg.  My more-than-half-asleep husband drowsily watched me do this.  He watched me try to bend my leg, to rub it, to put weight and hobble around the room on it.  When I made it to the bathroom he followed me, and asked me if I thought I was just having Braxton-Hicks.  In my leg.  Now we know that if I go into labor in the middle … Continue reading

Insurance Blog Week in Review – May 6 -12, 2012

Once a week, the Insurance Blog Week in Review gives you a brief description about everything that hit the blog in the past seven days. There could be anywhere between twelve and fourteen different blogs appearing in that amount of time. What did you miss? Here is your chance to “ketchup”. Oregon has Insurance for Growers of Medical Marijuana It is similar to a crop insurance policy. This specialty type of insurance is to provide some protection for people who are growing marijuana that is going to be used for medical purposes. It provides some finances to help if the … Continue reading

USCCB Responds to White House Blog about Birth Control Coverage

The White House posted a blog that described the facts about birth control coverage, insurance, and religion. Now, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has responded to that blog, by giving their interpretation of what it says, and their opinions about it. Clearly, the battle about birth control coverage is continuing. Recently, the White House posted a blog called “Health Reform, Preventative Services, and Religious Institutions”. This blog provides the facts about insurance coverage for birth control. I believe that this blog post was intended to give clarification to the rumors that people have been spreading across the internet … Continue reading

Miscarriage Myth

I once had a someone tell me that it didn’t matter how many biological kids I had because I have so many spiritual children to look after and care for. Needless to say, I doubt the words would be considered comforting to someone who just suffered a miscarriage… or even someone who hadn’t. Miscarriage is an extremely sensitive subject for many parents, moms and dads alike. Interestingly, a new report just published in Current Biology is trying to set the record straight on the cause of miscarriages. The research reveals that roughly 40 percent of all fertilized eggs are lost … Continue reading

Pregnancy After Age 50

In one of my favorite movies, Father of the Bride Part II, Diane Keaton and Kimberly Williams play a mother and daughter who conceive around the same time and give birth on the same day. Keaton’s character, Nina, suspects menopause, so it’s assumed that she must be in her fifties. In the US, giving birth beyond age 50 is fairly rare, but it happens more than it used to due to fertility treatments, which allow women of “advanced maternal age” to use the eggs of younger women. Pregnancy in the sixth decade is extremely risky. Surprisingly, risk increases significantly between … Continue reading

New Pregnancy Test Detects hCG Sooner

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “two week wait.” Who are we kidding, if you’ve ever tried to conceive, you lived (or died) for those two weeks. The phrase is a little misleading however, since it implies that most of us actually wait for two weeks after conception to take a pregnancy test. When I was trying to get pregnant, I joined a forum with some other women on the same ovulation schedule and some of us would start testing daily just seven days after ovulation. For the most part, testing so early and so often was a waste of money … Continue reading

Picture of a Marriage

Yesterday Mick and I had a day date and went to the movies to see ‘Revolutionary Road.’ It is a movie about a marriage. So often we hear that it is women who want to talk out their problems and men who don’t listen. In this case he often wanted to talk about the problems but the wife didn’t want to talk about the problems they were experiencing. The crowd, with the exception of a few brave men like my husband, was predominately female. A collective gasp ran around the theater like a current of electricity when he raised his … Continue reading