Heidi Klum: foil fashion

Heidi Klum is looking very um...shiny? Sort of looks like tin foil and I'm not sure that's a good look. Love it or hate it?

P.S. Have you joined The Baby Bump Project Facebook group? Big contest coming up soon --- only fans are eligible to enter!

Sex selection in US

A controversial article in the New York Times suggests that sex selection is happening in the US among Chinese, Indian and Korean American families. Researchers argue that they have found significant statistical evidence to show that there is most likely a preference for sex selection, IVF and sperm sorting or abortion:

"In those families, if the first child was a girl, it was more likely that a second child would be a boy, according to recent studies of census data. If the first two children were girls, it was even more likely that a third child would be male."

Now, it is dangerous and potentially racist to suggest that certain groups of people are deliberately using abortion for to have more baby boys. But, according to Columbia University economists, among American families of Chinese, Korean and Indian descent, the likelihood of having a boy increased to 1.17 to 1 if the first child was a girl. If the first two children were girls, the ratio for a third child was 1.51 to 1 — or about 50 percent greater — in favor of boys.

While sex-selection is not illegal in the US, it is surprising to find that some fertility clinics actually target Asian Americans in their advertisements. For example, The Fertility Institutes, with clinics in California and New York, which does not offer abortions, has openly advertised its services in Indian- and Chinese-language newspapers in the United States.

Baby monitors from the future

Introducing the latest baby monitor from Philips, that among other things, promises that you will 'always feel connected with your baby'.

This, my friends, is a machine from the future and I'm not sure it is good.

In effect, the thing allows you to look after your baby without having to go into its room. It has a temperature/humidity sensor, it plays lullabies, has a nightlight and allows you to talk to your baby through the in-built microphone. If your baby makes a noise, the mobile unit lights up and your are promised 24hrs of continuous cordless monitoring. I don't know about this. Sure, baby monitors are a nice convenience of the modern world but I think we have come to a strange place if parents are now totally satisfied that their children are safe and sound as long as they know the temp/humidity in the nursery are appropriate or if the baby isn't making any discernible noise. How busy can you possibly be that the 'demands of parenting' (as the advert suggests) prevent you from checking in on your baby?

Weird.

Doritos girl on quitting exercise

Former Doritos girl, Ali Landry, has admitted to People that after giving birth to her daughter in 2007, she waited two years to begin exercising again.

nstead of hitting the gym, Landry, 34, relied on a home-delivery meal service to drop her pregnancy pounds. "I lost the majority of the [post-baby] weight pretty fast doing that," Landry said at Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS A Time for HeroeBlogger: The Baby Bump Project - Create Posts Celebrity Carnival in L.A. recently. "But I have to say, it was that skinny fat when you don't work out, and you're not toned."

Her feelings changed, however, when she was cast to appear on the celebrity sports competition show, Superstars:

"When I got the paperwork for Superstars, and I saw they asked what size swimsuit I wear, I had a hot flash, nearly broke into cold sweats and hired a trainer immediately."

"They, I think, put me in the best shape of my entire life. I am in shock that I have [definition] in my stomach after having a baby – I didn't even know that was possible," she says. "Hopefully, that will be encouraging to all the women out there who don't feel so good about their body after a baby."

Not sure why her story would be inspiring. In fact, it just reconfirms that even though Landry was happy not rushing to 'get her body back', as soon as she was going to go back to work she was pressured to drop her weight.

Bah.

Pole-dancing and baby bumping

"And next, I'm going to come out with a pregnancy stripper-pole workout."

You may as well give up on life now.

You can check out Kendra's burgeoning baby bump here

The girl next door has been getting around

Looks like one of the girls next door is knocked up, Kendra Wilkinson, 23, one of the stars of the Girls Next Door set at the Playboy Mansion. She now has a new show called Kendra which is a show about her relationship with her fiance, NFL star, Hank Baskett:

The ex-bunny from Hef's harem has announced on her blog that she is pregnant:

"hi everyone!!!! so the rumors are true…i am pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hank and i were beyond excited when we found out the news and ive been dying to tell all of you but we were waiting for the perfect time to do it. im sorry if you heard it first elsewhere…that’s not how i wanted it to happen, but im so glad its out in the open now.

i honestly still cant believe that soon hank and i are going to have a little athlete running around the house. seriously, the first thing this kid is going to see when its born is a football hahahahaha. do you think hank will let me dress the baby in a chargers jersey??? lololol."

According to People, the Hef is 'very happy' that is pregnant.

If any of you have watched the show, KW isn't the brightest bulb but she's highly entertaining. I don't know how she'll make it as a mum but I can say one thing, she needs to relax with the overzealous punctuation.

Discover 'pink or blue' with a 10 minute test

Man. Everyday I think of look for things to write about for this blog, I think to myself that pregnancy is getting way too complicated.

Not only can you now find out if you are pregnant about 2 minutes after conception, have 3D ultrasounds set to lullaby music and wear organic cotton birthing wraps during labour, thanks to the brains trust at Intelligender, now you don't even have to wait to find out the sex of your future child at the second trimester ultrasound.

The Intelligender Gender Prediction Test (US$34.95) claims that you can know the 'gender' of your fetus within 10 minutes as early as 6 weeks after your first missed period through a simple urine test.

Firstly, the name of the test is actually incorrect. Sex and gender are two different things. Sex is a biological category* (male or female) and gender refers to the social constructed characteristics that make us male or female (masculinity or femininity). The company has clearly confused these definitions purposely as a way to sell women on the idea of the test as being a "fun, affordable way to discover pink or blue."

The fact that the test even exists says alot about the developed world: not only can we not wait to 'see' our foetuses until they are born given the preponderance of entertainment ultrasounds, now, as the company claims, women 'need' this test because it "bridges the curiosity gap between conception and sonogram." Seriously, since when have women been unable to wait 16-18 weeks?! Considering pregnancy is 40 weeks, 18 weeks seems like a drop in the water.

If this isn't a worrying example of immediate gratification of needs, I don't know what is. What concerns me the most about this product is 1) that if women are testing for 'gender' at 6 weeks, how will this early knowledge affect those women who have pregnancies that end in miscarriage? It seems like this might be another way that women can feel even more devastated and disappointed if their pregnancy ends in loss. 2) What awful things can happen in terms of sex-selective abortions? The fact that this product is not going to be available in India or China suggests that there is already an existing undercurrent of worry about how the product might be misused. In fact, this only gives people more, legal and socially sanctioned opportunities to abort 'undesirable' girl foetuses.

Of the gender test, I say FAIL.

*not according to Judith Butler, but that's another more complicated story.