About half as many women worldwide die from pregnancy, childbirth and related complications compared with two decades ago, according to United Nations estimates released Wednesday.
The declining numbers of maternal deaths -- from 543,000 in 1990 to 287,000 worldwide as of two years ago -- were cheered by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, UNICEF and the World Bank, which jointly issued the report.
But a global goal of reducing maternal deaths by 75% from 1990 to 2015 remains distant in some countries where progress has been slow or nonexistent.
By The Los Angeles Times, 05/16/2012
For the first time in 20 years, U.S. health officials have lowered the threshold for lead poisoning in young children.
The new standard announced Wednesday means that hundreds of thousands more youngsters could be diagnosed with high levels of lead. Too much lead is harmful to developing brains and can mean a lower IQ.
"Unfortunately, many, many more parents will be getting bad news," said Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a Maryland-based nonprofit focused on hazards to kids in homes.
By NPR, 05/16/2012
Joanne Beauregard is nothing so much as she is a mother. When she and her husband had trouble conceiving, Joanne quit her job as an accountant to focus full time on getting pregnant. When she did, she chose to give birth at home, without pain medication. Then, for months, Beauregard sat on the couch in her Denver-area living room, nursing her infant from sunup to sundown. She nursed much of the night as well, since the baby slept in bed with Beauregard and her husband Daniel, a software engineer. You can read the full article here (please note you need to be subscribed to Time Magazine.
This article and the cover photo have sparked a lot of controversy and debate within the parenting community - we have uploaded some of the responses as news.
An increasing number of children are swallowing the button batteries that power everything from remote controls to musical greeting cards and can burn a hole in a child's esophagus in less than two hours.
By TODAY Health, 05/14/2012
Two months ago, Jackie Sherrill of Grove City, Ohio, was sitting on her couch when her 20-month-old toddler, Morgan, who was sitting beside her, suddenly reached over. In an instant, Morgan, who had a bottle in her mouth, tumbled off the couch, crashing into an ottoman as she plunged to the floor.
As she wiped away her daughter's tears, Ms. Sherrill noticed that Morgan had a broken tooth and a cut mouth, damage from the hard plastic bottle she had been drinking from. Morgan didn't suffer any long-term harm, but it was then that Ms. Sherrill decided to begin transitioning her daughter from bottles to normal cups.
"I never would have thought that a child could get hurt from a bottle," said Ms. Sherrill. "It's something comforting to them. That's not one of the first things you think about when you're giving a kid a bottle."
By The New York Times, 05/14/2012
At the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, a popular destination for women hoping to preserve their fertility by freezing their eggs, Dr. William Schoolcraft, the founder and medical director, has started to notice something different: more of the women are arriving with company. "I see these patients come in, and they're with two elderly people, and I'm like, 'What the hey?' " Dr. Schoolcraft said. The gray-haired entourages, it turns out, are the parents, tagging along to lend support — emotional and often financial — as their daughters turn to the fledgling field of egg freezing to improve their chances of having children later on, when they are ready to start a family.
By The New York Times, 05/13/2012
Pregnant and overwhelmed with the preparations for your baby's arrival? We have come up with a comprehensive list of essential products and equipment to make your life easier.
