Strollerderby : reproduction

Kids Explain How Babies Are Made

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

In this entertaining (if a bit overdone) video about the outrageous myths kids believe about the way babies come into the world, a man admits that he used to believe "pregnancy particles" were floating in the air. "I was nervous many times," he says. "I thought I might get pregnant." Another man admits that he used to think anything he put his penis in would get pregnant. After testing out this theory on a tree in his backyard, he was turned off to sex for years.

The video is worth watching to the end, for the adorable kids who explain their own—much more accurate—understanding of the miracle of life.

What baby-making myths did you believe as a child? At what age do you think kids are old enough to learn the truth about reproduction?

Photo: SodaHead

Vatican Issues Advice: Have Babies! Unless You're Infertile!

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:57:00 GMT

So, a group of celibate male senior citizens has come out with a list of rules that women who want to have sex and/or children should follow. Not shockingly, those rules are at odds with almost all the women's actual normal practices, as well as how they live their most intimate life choices. I'm speaking, of course, of the Vatican, which just issued a sweeping pronouncement on sex and reproduction, including reiterating the church's longstanding opposition to contraception and advanced reproductive technologies -- in other words, we want you to have lots of babies! Unless, of course, it's hard for you to have babies, in which case, don't seek medical help!

I guess the priests' line of thinking is that both contraception and IVF are in essense "playing God," because each is an instance of human beings stepping in to make choices -- for sperm and egg to meet, or not -- that until fairly recently have not been choices left up to human beings to make. And yet, what's a more egregious example of paying God than to reach into someone else's life, home, and marriage and tell them how to live?

If their real motivation is to nurture and grow a loving family of Catholics, I'm afraid they're pretty much messing that up. What better gift can you give your IVF child than to choose a religion to raise her in that doesn't denounce her very existence?

I'm not a Catholic, but I have friends who are. Some are bound to the church by generations of tradition and habit, while others have sought the more liberal aspects of a faith that has at times led the fight for social justice. But for the women I know, Catholic and not, who have struggled with infertility or any other aspect of their reproductive lives as women, the pronouncements of this group of old men sound anything but wise, moral, or holy.

More by this author:

Is This Baby Obese? Aussie Mom Says No
Baby Nearly Starves to Death, Diluted Formula to Blame
Grandmother’s Right? Or Totally Obnoxious?
Health Scam: Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag

Photo: Riccardo De Luca/Associated Press

Gender's Up to Five-Year-Old Hermaphrodite, Not Parents

JeanneSager — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:35:00 GMT

Their child is a boy . . . and a girl. And as far as the Colombian courts are concerned, the 5-year-old hermaphrodite's parents do not have the right to sew the child's vagina shut and remove an ovary to allow for normal development of the penis and testicles.

Born with both female and male sexual organs, the youngster has been raised as a boy since birth. That's why his/her (I'm not being sarcastic, I really don't know quite which to say) father has been pressing for the right to schedule the surgery. But the court says at 5 it's too late for the parents to be making the decision - it's up to the child. I'd tend to agree - especially in light of the stories I've heard from the transgendered community over the years about the first time they remember feeling like they were in the "wrong" body. But what if the child chooses wrong?

Kids, by their nature, love to role play. Until adults start putting ideas in their head that somehow their behavior is abnormal (ugh), little boys will parade around in their sister's tutu or announce themselves as "Dora" today. The same goes for girls who might one day insist they're a boy, the next they're a girl, and back again. It can be a phase or it can be a sign of things to come. So how do you let a 5-year-old make this kind of decision?

The Intersex Society of North America, a non-profit advocacy group for the "intersex," actually advises against surgeries for children with both male and female reproductive organs - unless medical intervention is necessary for a child's health. Interestingly, they do advocate "gender assignment," essentially treating the child as one sex or the other from birth. In this case, the family has done that, choosing to treat their child as a son. But the ISNA says that has to be done after doctors do a complete evaluation to determine which gender the child is more likely to identify with as they grow up. Although it can't be 100 percent (think about the numbers of people seeking gender reassignment surgery), they say there are some markers within the body that give a general sense of how the rest of the body will develop.

Makes sense to me, and clears up a portion of the worry about letting a 5-year-old make such a huge decision. If doctors can say the body is developing one way or the other, and a child has significant support from the medical community (including counselors), this kind of decision should rest in the body of the person who will have to live with the results. Even if they're 5 years old.

Image: Mother Jones

Part I: Why Parents of Girls Have it Better

Supreme Court to Father: No, You Can't Circumcise a 13-year-old

Government Seizes Newborn from Mentally Disabled Mom 22 Hours After Birth

Five-Year-Old Catches STD From Dad's Towel?

Do Doctors See Young Women as Baby Machines?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:30:00 GMT

The New York Times unwittingly opened up a can of worms when they wrote about a recent report on the health risks of sharing prescription drugs. The warning was targeted mainly at women of child-bearing age, since drugs can pose a risk to a developing fetus. Many women commented on the article, but not because they cared a whit about the health issues discussed.

Rather, they were outraged that the danger of sharing prescription drugs was framed as specifically problematic for women of child-bearing age. “Not all women are “pre-pregnant,” one reader wrote. “We are more than our uteruses!” Another wrote that she was “tired of being thought of only as a breeding machine who should be regarded as ‘pre-pregnant’ at all times.”

While I am completely sympathetic to these sentiments, I don't quite understand the outrage these women felt toward this particular article—if you don’t want have to kids, ignore the warning. Enough women in their twenties and thirties do want to have children that it only makes sense to issue warnings to this age group about how to avoid cause harming to fetuses.

That said, I definitely think that many doctors inappropriately view women as “pre-pregnant.” An OB-GYN once said to a happily childless, 30-year-old friend of mine, “Now go out there and make some babies!” Needless to say, my friend got a new gynecologist.

Image: svmomblog.typepad.com

Baby Smell, Delicious But Dangerous?

Amy Kuras — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:06:00 GMT

Ahhh, baby smell. That intoxicating combo of powdery, sweet, clean scent with a slight edge of milk breath makes just about everybody who even vaguely likes babies sigh in delight.

Well, turns out the shampoos, lotions and powders that create that delicious aroma are possibly bad for babies. See, many baby products are full of phthalates – chemicals that can hurt their reproductive potential later in life. More than 80 percent of the babies in a University of Washington study were found to have phthalates in their urine after exposure to baby shampoo, lotion or powder.

What's new about the study is that it shows babies are likely to absorb phthalates through the skin, rather than orally.
Most people are exposed to phthalates, but even those with the most exposure are well under accepted safe levels. However, one of the concerns about them is the effect of constant exposure over a long time, instead of a specific amount.

Studies are underway to reassess safe levels of the chemicals in humans. While they are no longer believed to cause cancer based on current research, current studies focus on endocrine disruptions such as testicular cancer, lowered sperm count and metabolic disorders, which can show up decades after exposure.

The U.S. National Toxicology Program recently issued reports on six different phthalates, which classified the potential risk to human reproductive and developmental health as "minimal" or "negligible." However, the European Union has already banned phthalates in soft toys designed for children younger than three to chew on.

Photo: ABC News

Laydees Rule Reproduction

Kelly Mills — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:01:00 GMT

You know how there's those horrible t-shirts for expectant dads expressing pride in having fast sperm and so on? It turns out that women's plumbing might actually make the final call in the mating game. Researchers are looking at female reproductive systems, and finding some things that they say explain female promiscuity in some species. The findings could also have implications in IVF and cloning and so on. They looked at the oviducts of pigs (we are kinda like pigs) and found that a series of changes occur when the presence of sperm is detected. Basically the oviductal environment changes to store sperm and get it to the egg safely. That's right: Females call the shots. Mmm hmm.

And how does this apply to tramping around? Well, there may be some selection of optimal sperm that goes on as well. If the presence of different sperm is detected, the top quality stuff might be chosen over the lower grade versions. Bottom line is that the female reproductive system has been relatively ignored in the competition side of procreation, and of course it probably plays a bigger role than was suspected before.

Oh, and IVF? Check this from the lead author: "The female reproductive tract is a very highly organized and regulated system," Fazeli explained. "With IVF, the embryo can develop into an adult, but the question remains: 'Are we doing the fine-tuning right'? We are not sure if what we are doing, based on differences between in-vitro and in-vivo fertilization, is creating health problems for these babies." I think the lesson is clear. It never pays to ignore the lady parts. Ever.

Reproductive Tourism

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:08:00 GMT

Suz Redfearn wrote a beautiful piece on her experience with IVF and 'reproductive tourism' for The Washington Post Magazine this weekend. At 39 years old she and her husband had had several unsuccessful attempts at in vitro fertilisation when she read about a doctor in South Africa that had a great reputation in the United States. His name was Dr. Paul le Roux and he was known to have a very good success rate, a good bedside manner and very reasonable prices.

Redfearn and her husband Marty flew all the way from Northern Virginia to South Africa to see if Dr. le Roux could help them conceive a baby.

You see, a lot of American women are starting to travel abroad for IVF treatments. Even with the travel expenses it can be considerably cheaper than having the procedure done here in the U.S. According to Redfearn couples are flying all over the world to places like Argentina, Greece and Ukraine to save big money getting pregnant.

It is a great article and I won't tell you if her trip to South Africa paid off or not, but maybe for those of you out there who are currently going through infertility treatments reproductive tourism is something you might want to look in to.

World's First IVF Baby Conceives Naturally

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 03:42:00 GMT

Louise Brown was the first baby born to parents using IVF. Lesley Brown gave birth to her in 1978. She and her husband, John, had been trying to have a child for nine years when they decided to try IVF. IVF was a new procedure at the time, and back then they called her 'the world's first test tube baby'.

Just before Christmas, Louise gave birth to a child of her own. He was conceived naturally, and the parents are thrilled. Her younger sister (the 40th ever IVF baby) was actually the first woman to ever give birth that was conceived in virto.

It is estimated that more than a million children have been born since 1978 using In vitro fertilisation, including a lot of people who are very important to me. I don't think it is very P.C. to call them 'test tube babies' these days, but I'm still happy to hear that reproductive medicine has done it right.