"Hee hee hooo": breathing no good when it comes to birthing outcomes

A new Swedish study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reveals that antenatal breathing classes have no measurable benefits. Couples that were taught relaxation techniques, massage and breathing fared no better than couples who were enrolled in standard antenatal classes. The researchers thought that relaxation techiques and breathing would help couples with the stress during birth, lower rates of epidural use and more pleasurable birthing experiences overall. They found, however, that the experiences in both groups were largely identical.

Professor Philip Steer, BJOG editor-in-chief, said: "The findings of this study are contrary to what many of us would expect."

"The lack of benefit from psychoprophylactic techniques is disappointing, and suggests that parents' experience of childbirth is affected more by their personality and previous psychological orientation than by the relatively limited training that is possible during pregnancy. An alternative view is that standard antenatal classes are 'good enough' and therefore represent an effective use of limited resources

What are your thoughts? Did any of you use breathing or relaxation techniques during your labour?

OctoMom and other bits and pieces

Sorry it has been a few days, what an insane week. Teaching is exhausting at the moment so I apologise for silence on my end.

Anyway, I made it to Clunes (a small mining town near Ballarat) this past weekend where a number of antiquarian and second hand booksellers fill every available building in the town with books. I'm always on the look out for great pregnancy/maternity/motherhood stuff and this year I found a huge stack of Australian Women's Weekly mags from the 50s and 60s with some amazing ads for maternity clothes, infant formula and other hilarious enticements for women to really learn to love ironing. I will be scanning some of those images and posting them soon.

In other news, interestingly, it turns out that Nadya Suleman is getting into a bit of hot water over her continual 'exploitation' (in the eyes of California state law) of her babies as she has been contracting them out for photographs and other appearances. Turns out she might be in breach of child labour laws. Attorney Gloria Allred has filed a petition to appoint a guardian for the babies' estate, basically a party that will protect the financial interests of the babies.

"Rather than chose to provide her children with a normal life, their mother, Nadya Suleman, has chosen to commercially exploit them," Allred said. "We believe that the babies are entitled to remuneration since most of the compensation appears to be use of their images."

The goal, she added, is "to be sure that the babies receive their fair share of payments" and that their payments "be placed into separate accounts for them and preserved for them as required by law."

According to California law, when filming or photographing children, a nurse and credentialed studio teacher must be present and children -- ages 15 days to six months -- also can only be at the place of employment for two consecutive hours (between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. or between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.). Infants can't work any more than 20 minutes each day.

Looks like OctoMom just walked into a whole lot of trouble...