Clijsters slams pregnancy rumour with panache at Oz Open

Oh if only all famous women responded to unsolicited uterus updates like tennis pro Kim Clijsters.....This little tidbit from Melbourne made my day:

Here's the story: David Cup coach Todd Woodbridge texted one of Clijsters friends, Rennae Stubbs speculating that Clijsters was pregnant again, specifically: "She looks grumpy and her boobs are bigger."

Stubbs told Kim about th e text and as Woodbridge interviewed Clijsters on court after her second round win over Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro at the Australian Open, Clijster's decided to get Woodbridge back...(you can watch the deliciously mortifying footage here)

"You thought I was pregnant," Clijsters said.

Woodbridge, turning a deep shade of purple, shot back, "Well, I guess we've got to ask, are you?"

Clijsters said that no, she wasn’t, but that wasn't the end of it. She read out the text to the crowd:

"You said: 'She looks really grumpy and her boobs are bigger!'"

Woodbridge was mortified, saying: "Well that's the end of my TV career, so thank you very much."

I just love this. While women have alot of reasons to absolutely hate celebrity mums for all of their money and seemingly easy lives, I have to say that the unsolicited uterus speculation really gets to me. It's no one's business to ask a woman if she's pregnant and a million other inappropriate reproductive questions. Clijsters was absolutely correct in making this clear to a man who had no business inquiring about her body based on stereotypes (I mean seriously, 'looking grumpy' could describe most working mothers around the world on any day).

GOLD.

This and that!

OMG. You are probably so cross with me for disappearing for a week without warning. Well, let me tell you, it's been one busy week for me and pretty slow week for pregnancy news. I'll save the details for another day and get on with what I do best. Here is a smattering of things on my radar:

So, I'm amused to see the US News and World Report's 7 Strategies for a Successful Maternity Leave. What I find particularly funny (or perhaps ironic?) is that strategising about your maternity leave is really only necessary when you actually have maternity leave. Even more amusing is the tip to 'Find Good Child Care' while you are on maternity leave. If any woman here in Melbourne actually waited until her baby was actually born to work on childcare, no one would have care until the kid was three. Ladies here get on the waiting lists at the first whiff of pregnancy.

And if this isn't a cautionary tale, I don't know what is, in spite of the researcher's warning that the research should not be used to prevent women from choosing to terminate their pregnancies. I can just see the pro-life lobby falling over themselves to find a way to use this new 'risk' to challenge choice.

Australian obs are pissed off with Health Minister Nicola Roxon after accusations that they have been raising their fees as much as 20% by taking advantage of the existing Medicare safety net. Come January, however, Roxon is cutting them off when Medicare refunds are capped. According to new reports, the increase in charges helped turn obstetricians into millionaires with the highest earning 10 per cent of obstetricians now earning $1.8 million a year - $1.1 million of which comes from Medicare. Perhaps another reason to go with a midwife!

And finally, while I'm happy that Kim Clijsters made such a spectacular 'comeback' to tennis this week winning the US Open, I'm annoyed (again) that the fact that she is a mother somehow makes this astonishing victory more astonishing. Clijsters is a great player; why are our expectations so low for women when they rebound from motherhood?