Homebirth is 'old school'

Time magazine has a story about home birth in the US in the current edition. While seemingly praiseworthy of the move towards birth at home, I was annoyed to read this sentence:

"Old-school birthing is back in style, with well-read women forsaking obstetricians for midwives and epidurals for warm baths."

Referring to home birth as 'old-school' suggest that it's antiquated or primitive or that women are foresaking a 'modern' life. Silly women! The article devotes about one paragraph to the positive aspects of homebirth but the rest of the article basically reads like a cautionary tale to women who would 'dare' to deviate.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1830388,00.html

Men don't have babies on their own

Headline: "Adam Sandler Expecting Second Child"

Does anyone else find this headline odd?

He has a wife. She is expecting their second child.

Sources: http://www.hiphop-elements.com/article/read/4/25215/1/
http://www.usmagazine.com/node/13387
http://www.usmagazine.com/node/11647

Stephanie Tanner: very preggo

Jodie Sweetin, famous for her role as Stephanie Tanner on Full House and a once raging meth addiction, is very pregnant and due in April. Shamelessly posting her first sonogram images on celeb gossip site TMZ, this is one of the first photos of Jodie visibly pregnant. According to US magazine, Sweetin says "It’s a scary thing but I’m kind of scared of how much bigger I’m going to get!"

Oh and apparently she and her husband aren't going to name their baby girl after 'any fruits or electronic devices'.

Phew!

Source: http://usmagazine.com/full_house_jodie_sweetin_due_in_april

Trista Sutter bounces back...only to bulge out?

Oh Trista Sutter (T.Sutt, in the spirit of J.Lo)....she's back in the 'news' (and I use that term lightly) in an Us magazine 'Exclusive' splashing her bounced-back-from-baby body on this week's cover. It was only in October that I wrote about Trista's mission to be slim by the new year. Here's a little reminder: http://babybumpproject.blogspot.com/2007/10/trista-sutter-wants-to-be-skinny-sigh.html

Wanting to be 'two sizes smaller' and back into her size 26 Hudson jeans, it looks as though T.Sutt has dropped 30 lbs of her baby baggage and is proud to tell everyone that she can't go to sleep at night until she's done about 5,000 sit ups. Blah Blah Blah.

This is the kicker. Us, in their infinite and highly unethical wisdom (just consider that yesterday breaking news' headline' was that Britney Spears was drinking orange soda), has decided to publish T.Sutt's 'exact' diet and exercise program for all of those mothers who can't wait to beat their bodies into submission because they are afraid their husbands will be forever repusled by a little belly fat.

I find it even more amazing that given the whole 'exclusive' is about how happy T.Sutt is about getting back to her 'sexy' self, the story ends with the mention that she is already trying for a second baby! Honestly! What is the point? I'm sure she's is happy being a mother but what why on earth would she go to such extreme lengths to lose weight if she is just planning on being pregnant immediately following her miraculous transformation?! T.Sutt also goes on about how happy Ryan is with her 'new' body...so if she was so worried before about her relationship won't getting pregnant again bring her back to the same body anxious place?

I don't get it.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/exclusive_baby_trista_debuts_her_shocking_bikini_body

Hot Mamas?

Us magazine has yet another slide show documenting various celebrities and their pregnant/post-baby metamorphoses asking: Do these stars look sexier pregnant?

Hmm...I don't know about sexier...perhaps just slightly less skeletal?

Of pregnancy, Heidi Klum says, "You have to indulge in food, but I've never really had that big of a problem to lose the weight afterwards."

We know, Heidi. Trust me. We know.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/hot_mamas_100107

Britney's 'bad' mothering according to Us

Seriously, when did Us magazine become the authority on parenting? It never ceases to amaze me how what once was a fairly daggy celeb rag selling copies only for its good photos has become the American celebrity goss mag hovering on the same plane as People. Today, emboldened by its market share of gossip hungry twenty and thirty-something urban women, Us derives some perverse delight in castigating Britney Spears for everything she has done 'wrong' which according to the editors is 'bad mommy behavior'. Who writes this rubbish? As I said in my last post, when are people going to leave Britney Spears the bloody hell alone? Why is it that we have to constantly rehash the car seat incident, the falling over that nearly caused her to drop the baby. Some of the slides in the Us gallery show Britney going out with her family minus the children. When did it become illegal to leave the kids at home with the nanny? What really gets me going is this antiquated notion that 'good' mothers must be selfless at all costs. Today, the cultural expectations placed on the shoulders of mothers are so heavy that doing your best is not good enough anymore; motherhood entails a set of behavioral guidelines that women must follow and against which they are judged. I find it really interesting that Britney always seems to be the target of this 'bad' mother discourse particularly when most photographs of Spears show her with her children. How often do you see other celebrities with their children regularly?

To view the slideshow: http://www.usmagazine.com/britney_baby_drama