Caesarean = rape?

Image credit: www.caesarean-art.com

As we all know, the caesarean rate (emergency and elective) has risen dramatically over the past decade in most of the industrialised world and 'natural' childbirth has become something of a vestigial organ.

For many women, a caesarean is not only painful but also traumatic. Somehow birth has become only about a healthy outcome and not necessarily about the process or the woman actually giving birth. There is now a growing subculture of women who compare their caesarean births to rape given the lack of control they felt they had over their bodies, the antagonism of hospital staff towards their birth choices and of course, feelings of violation. Recent articles about birth rape are linked to the story of an Arizona mother, Jessica Szabo, who wants to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) but is being refused by her local hospital. The hospital argues that all VBACs must have an 'elective caesarean'. In fact, she's so mad that she has written the following message on her minivan:

"Page Hospital enter my body without my permission ... sounds like rape to me!"

There is even an anonymous website devoted to caesarean-inspired art evoking the trauma and pain some women associate with the procedure. Truly haunting (see above).

What do you think?

Foetal fascinations

So, I'm sure all of you pregnant gals out there have been wondering how you can commemorate your foetus' first photo more spectacularly than just shoving the thing in your purse and yanking it out for every person that notices that you're pregnant.

How about a turning your ultrasound image into a decorative canvas? Or a personalised ultrasound postage stamp? Or, my personal favourite: CUFFLINKS.

Has the world gone cuckoo? Cufflinks? Seriously?

I think I need a little lie down.

Baby bumps on the catwalk

Hello, again. Excuse my absence, I've had a serious case of essay-marking-itis. Basically, that entails me sitting in an office for 12 hours a day marking essays until my hands crumple with fatigue from typing.

Anyway, looks like pregnancy chic was making it big at Paris Fashion Week....

Singer Roisin Murphy, who also happens to be 7 months pregnant, wore the peach coloured tutu (above) to a Paris fashion show. It was designed by Victor & Rolf.

Speaking of wacky pregnancy fashion, Jean Paul Gaultier created a pregnancy corset for pregnant British model Jourdan Dunn.

Um, not so sure about the pregnancy corset but definitely not so much on the tutu.

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Heidi does pregnancy covered in chocolate

Oh Heidi. It appears that the Kluminator not only has an entire book devoted to her beauty, Heidi revealed on Ellen that she also appears naked and pregnant and dripping in chocolate sauce.

The model, snapped by famous photog Rankin, said:

"We were doing our normal shoot and afterwards he said, 'Let's do some pictures for the book.' I said, 'I would love to be covered in chocolate.'

"So someone ran out to the store and got, like, I think, seven or eight of those squirty chocolate things and they just squirted it all over me and he took the photo.

"It was yummy... especially when you're pregnant."

Wondering how she got the chocolate off? "I licked half of it up."

Oh and weirdo Ellen gave Heidi a pair of baby high heels because she's convinced Heidi is having a girl. Um, me no likey.

Moral panic Friday

So, here's a game I like to play that I call 'how to ruin your baby's life before it's even born'.

Just go to Google News and type in 'pregnancy' and see what headlines you get:

• Smoking in pregnancy risks psychotic children

• Obese women have higher risk of giving birth to baby with heart defect

• Stillbirth in first pregnancy raises risk for subsequent pregnancy

• Anti-depressants pregnancy risk

I actually miss the days when a news search about pregnancy immediately brought up fluffy stories about celebrities and maternity clothes.

Porn star beauty tricks, post-baby bodies and beautiful cervixes

A bit of a recap of the week:

Well, Jenna Jameson has actually started a blog in which waxes on the benefits of being 'totally tan' all the time and tips for quashing stretch marks:

"Well, like most women, the thought of huge cherry red slash marks running the length of my pubic bone to underboobs, was enough to make me cringe. I had seen and heard many different methods to ward of stretch marks, but I never knew of any that were tried and true."

Now, she just needs to do something about that midriff top.

Elen Pompeo has debuted her 2 weeks post-baby body and is taking a little break from Grey's.

For those of you that actually care about The Hills, Spencer Pratt is whingeing about how Heidi is trying to get pregnant and now he's afraid to have sex with her. Poor little muffin.

Oh and have you ever wondered what your cervix looks like after you've had a baby? A student midwife and doula has started the Beautiful Cervix Project and she has taken some amazing and very generous photos that will blow your mind.