Childbirth
A mother knows best. Except when she doesn’t.
Women are judged harshly on every aspect of childbirth and child raising, from vaginal versus caesarean birth to their chosen brand of organic terrycloth hat to the length of time spent breastfeeding.
In most cases, decisions are based on a combination of science, experience and personal preference, and the smug judgers should shut the hell up and worry about their own family.
Continue reading "When childbirth becomes deadly, then we can judge" »
When I gave birth to my second gorgeous son six weeks ago, the first question some asked when they heard our happy news was: “So are you going to try again for a girl?”
Umm, how about you give the epidural time to wear off and let me enjoy my beautiful, healthy baby boy before telling me that somehow my world is not complete because I have only produced babies featuring both an X and Y chromosome.
Admittedly I have only had two children of the same sex, not seven like Tumut couple Andrew and Jodi McMahon who appeared on 60 Minutes on Sunday night documenting their desperate bid for a baby girl.
Continue reading "Choosing your baby’s sex is selfish beyond belief" »
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Estiven says:
@winnie - like you, I am absolutely cceoinvnd it’s a boy. I have felt that way since the day we got the BFP. I’m only 7 weeks now so there is obviously no way we could know, and we want to be surprised at birth, but I am just cceoinvnd… Read more »
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ANON says:
Seems all the negative comments are coming from those with ‘one of each’ all I would say is mind your own business you cannot comment until you have experienced it. I give Jodi and her family a big pat on the back, to go and do what they done. And… Read more »
Nothing on this earth would entice me to have a baby at home.
Call me old fashioned, but I’m all for the protective womb of expert physicians and latest technology in a crisp white hospital environment. The risks are simply too great; the act of childbirth too unpredictable; the potential loss too devastating to contemplate.
And tragically, in South Australia we’re hearing all too much about risk becoming reality.
Continue reading "The real miracle of pregnancy isn’t childbirth" »
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Arcadia says:
There’s a problem of logic in Lainie’s article here: first she says the risks are too great to convince her to choose homebirth, then later she points out the risks are the same. Well, which is it? Or are you perhaps saying the risks are too great to ever attempt… Read more »
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Joanne Bennett says:
What is this “superhero feeling” referred to just because someone gives birth the way women have been doing it (without choice) for hundreds of thousands of years? If you want to feel like a superhero, perhaps you should see a psychologist and put off parenting until you have your insecurities… Read more »
Ninety-four year old actress Zsa Zsa Gabor’s ninth husband, Prince Frederik von Anhalt, reportedly wants her to have a baby using his sperm, a donor egg and a surrogate mother. Yes, he does. He visited a Beverley Hills fertility clinic for sperm analysis and blood work.
There have been no reports of him also having his head read; however, Gabor’s daughter, 64-year-old Francesca Hilton (a product of Gabor’s second marriage to hotel magnate, Conrad Hilton) has denounced the story as the latest in a string of wild publicity stunts by her seventh step-father.
And while the Gabor-Anhalts gallivant around celebrity baby clinics (if gallivanting is possible when you are just shy of a century, with a partially-amputated leg), my friend – a single mum of two young children – has announced that she has successfully battled cancer at the age of 38. Facing her own mortality, she had to put in place a plan for the care of her children, which involved her parents and her sisters.
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Katharine says:
Well said. What about cases where the woman in her 40s or 50s is married to a much younger man, eg in his 30s? You don’t see people mentioning that, either. If people react to older mums with disgust, why not the same disgust when older dads procreate? It’s hypocrisy. Read more »
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Jane says:
In reply to Sunny, well, my husband’s mother must have been a terrible, terrible role model for him. His mother had him at 18. My bogan husband and I were 31 and 29 respectively when we had our first child. Read more »
Save us from former Party leaders – particularly if they’ve got a memoir to spruik.
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has been suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome for years now. I was one of those dopes who admired him when he bounced onto the political scene – thirsty for someone with a bit of personality, a break from the beige. He railed against the ‘new political correctness’; he was a boofhead with a penchant for biffo, but he was fun.
Now he’s really jumped the shark and joined the conga line of suckholes who studied Post-Politics PR 101. The main rule of PPPR101 is simple: Court confected outrage at every opportunity.
Continue reading "Latham joins the conga line of suckholes" »
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Ulysses Elias says:
All you have to do to parent a child is ovulate or ejaculate. Any random moron can become a parent. If Latham has kids then the only difference between him and Gillard is that he has spawn to embarrass whereas Gillard only embarrasses herself. Read more »
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regn says:
An observation of Gillard’s personality and empathy as a result of choosing not to share her life with children and to base that choice on a carreer having a higher priority is a valid point. The comments supporting and disputing Latham’s observation by parents and non parents demonstrate it is… Read more »
Nicole Kidman has welcomed a new biological daughter via a ‘gestational carrier’, Princess Mary had her twins in a natural, four-hour birth and Miranda Kerr released a statement that she gave birth to her 9 lbs., 12 oz., baby in a long, arduous and difficult labour ‘naturally, without drugs or painkillers!!!’.
As a mum of three who has been through labour twice, I fully appreciate Miranda’s use of three exclamation marks to describe her drug-free birth.
Gosh, I give myself three for enduring it with drugs and scramble to find enough punctuation to describe the caesarean. One way you can’t sit down. The other way you can’t stand up.
Continue reading "Competitive childbirth - it’s ‘mum-upmanship’" »
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jevareemnen says:
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jbl floor speakers mortgage qualifier plus phone house page pro paper plates UGG ???? ?? ??????? divorce coaching single white female bedside crib notebook sales halo xbox pure encapsulations. dolphin accessories resident assistant UGG ??????? rivera hotel modern plant pots ocean kayak scrambler microsoft optical desktop… Read more »
Here’s a sobering little fact; Gen X women face a fertility crisis greater than any generation before them.
After receiving terrible advice from scores of feminists as well as their baby boomer mums, many thought it wise to delay motherhood for the sake of their careers.
Unfortunately your biological clock doesn’t care about your career, what car you drive or what your investment portfolio looks like.
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Sid says:
DG - we have far less power than we think, one day you will realise this. Read more »
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Sid says:
Some of you have no comprehension of the abuse some children suffer, and why this just turns them away from having their own children, knowing that they cannot keep them safe, no matter what you may like to think. Have a heart and realise some people suffer from an early… Read more »
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