'Natural' birth is best?

Mothers who give birth naturally are more responsive to the cry of their baby than those who choose to have a Caesarean, American research suggests.

A research team at Yale carried out brain scans on 12 women two to four weeks after they had given birth - known as the early postpartum period.

Half had a Caesarean, the other half gave birth naturally.

The differences in brain activity were found in regions that not only appeared to influence a mother's response to her child, but also to regulate her mood.

It seems oxytocin, the 'love' hormone is a critical factor in the bonding process.

The researchers suggest that women who have caesareans should be encouraged to cuddle their babies straight after birth.

I think this is all a bit problematic. Sure we have known for quite a long time that oxytocin does a number of important things for birth and bonding. Yet, making sweeping claims on the basis of a sample of 12? Hmmm.

Anyone have a different experience? Did you have a caesarean? How was your bonding experience? Did you get to cuddle your baby straight away? If not, how long did you have to wait?

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7594282.stm

A look back at maternity fashion

As you can probably gather from reading my posts, I am a little bit obsessed with maternity clothes. As I've been writing and re-writing and then re-writing my thesis (which is due now in less than 8 weeks!) part of my work has been constructing a history of Australian maternity wear. And much to my surprise, there has been basically nothing written on the subject. For those of you in America, you have Pregnant Pictures written by Sandra Matthews and Laura Wexler. It's not a maternity clothing history but it is one of the most comprehensive collections of images of American pregnancy and a lot of you can learn alot about the history of maternity fashion just by looking at the images.

Anyway, I spent the better part of Friday at the State Library of Victoria looking at issues of the Australian Women's Weekly in a search for maternity fashion images. I was surprised to find that maternity fashion never featured in the magazine until the 1960s and even then it was not really until 1966 and more so around 1971 that maternity clothes were even considered to be 'fashion'. As in the image above, pregnant women were never really featured in advertisements together. It's actually hard to tell that the gals in the ad above are even pregnant. The A-line dresses that they are wearing are pretty mainstream when it comes to fashion of the time period and there is nothing distinctive about their dresses that says 'pregnancy'. For the most part, in the 1950s, pregnant women were only pictured with their 'husbands'.

I was surprised, however, to find a number of advertisements for stretch mark creams which suggests the body fascism directed at new mothers in the present day is actually not 'new' at all. 'Ugly' stretch marks have been marked as the bane of a mother's existence for quite some time now in the west. Also, lots of ads for maternity bras from Berlei which go on about 'saggy' post-baby boobs.

Naomi Watts: bump alert

Six months pregnant Naomi Watts was spotted out in NYC looking pretty fabulous. Love her dress!

Source: http://tinyurl.com/6rd2sz

Gwen S: post-baby

Gwen Stefani has made her first post-baby debut since having her Zuma two weeks ago. She was snapped on her way to a postnatal appointment in LA.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/news/gwen-stefani-debuts-post-baby-bod

J.Lo talks about pregnancy in Elle

J.Lo is featured in the latest edition of Elle in which she reveals a bit about her pregnancy:

On being pregnant and commissioning a book of photos of herself for Marc two weeks before giving birth: “I was like, How am I going to rock this moment of my life?... I felt very womanly. Marc was in a dream. He loved it.”

On not being able to get pregnant right away: “We knew nothing was wrong with either one of us—I had been checked, and he had kids already. I knew Something’s not ready here, in my head or in my life, and when it is, I know it’s going to happen.”

On first realizing she was pregnant: “I was sitting down doing hair and makeup and I felt a flutter. The weirdest little…flourish. My makeup artist said ‘What’s the matter?’ I didn’t say anything, but in my head, I was like, I have life inside me!”

On her pregnancy: “We came off tour and I said ‘I did the superwoman thing, I finished the tour—now I need you to take care of me. I love doing things for you; if I’m not cooking, then I’m picking out a shirt. But this is the first time in my life where I’m just going to be a little bit selfish. I don’t know if I’m going to have kids again, so I want it to be a beautiful experience. I don’t want to have any drama. I want to just be smiling every day.’"

More photos from the shoot: http://www.elle.com/coverstory/14295/jlo-fashion-jennifer-lopez-favorite-fashion-designer.html

Epidurals don't always work!

And I thought having a caesarean was bad with pain medication...

A woman in the UK is planning to sue her hospital for failing to give her proper pain medication during an emergency caesarean. After an epidural, Sarah Carberry, 27 says she could still wiggle her toes and feel her legs but her doctors said that was 'normal'. When they started to cut into her womb, she was quite understandably in agony.

Note to self: wiggling body parts before major surgery = not good

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2660774/Mother-sues-hospital-over-caesarian-birth-without-pain-relief.html

Atomic Kitten back to feline form

Atomic Kitten singer, Jenny Frost has shed all of her baby weight and then some but says she misses her pregnancy 'curves':

'I put on four stone when I was pregnant and had this great bottom. I loved it - for once, I had curves! I wanted to lose my baby weight , but I hoped I’d keep my bum. But that went and now I’ve got nothing to fill my jeans.'

And apparently she lost the weight through nutrition alone and 'never works out'.

Yeah right.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1051579/How-I-lost-FOUR-stone-Atomic-Kittens-Jenny-Frost.html