plus 4, Pregnancy brought Velez to base early - Southtown Star

Pregnancy brought Velez to base early - Southtown Star
Study Data Does Not Show Comp Sex Ed Reduces Pregnancy or STDs - Student Operated Press
No-Nonsense Guide to a Naturally Healthy Pregnancy and Baby - Food Consumer
New Moon Actor Robert Pattinson Addresses Pregnancy Rumor - Deadbolt
Earthquakes and pregnancy - Examiner

Pregnancy brought Velez to base early - Southtown Star

Posted: 07 Nov 2009 11:53 AM PST

Growing up, Army Pvt. Francheska Velez was a 'fraidy cat' - horror movies and bugs gave her the willies.

"When she joined the Army that all changed -- in a good way," Velez's cousin Jennifer Arzuaga said. "She became stronger."

Army strong. The 2006 graduate of Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago served in Korea and most recently in Iraq, where she drove fuel tankers.

She made her father proud.

"She was the best I have. The light of my family," Juan Velez said of his only daughter. "She was living my dream -- to be part of the military, part of the United States. To be part of something. Just to give back to the United States because this is where we are from."

On Thursday, Velez, 21, was one of 13 soldiers killed and 30 wounded during an Army psychiatrist's rampage at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

She was due back from Iraq on Dec. 10 but came home early after she found out she was three months pregnant. Her family was planning to visit her in Texas next month.

But on Friday, there came a knock on the front door of the Velez family's two-flat in Chicago's Humboldt Park community. Army officers had tragic news.

"The hardest thing is to accept the reality that she is gone," Juan Velez said through an interpreter.

Velez had her father's electric smile, glorious dance moves and charisma that filled a room, family members said.

"This girl was full of life. -- She was a happy girl, and he took her from us," Velez's cousin, Sandy Rivera, said of the killer. "She was supposed to have the baby and everything was going to be happy. We were all waiting. It's not fair."

In high school, Velez joined ROTC and a dance team. She loved to dance, especially salsa. When they were teenagers, Velez and her cousins would make dance videos, pretending to be the Spice Girls.

"Dance was her passion before going in to the Army," her cousin, Yesenia Garcia, said. "She felt the music. She would enliven it. She would put her own flavor in it."

After graduation, Velez enlisted because she wanted to travel, get a degree and make something of herself, family members said.

"I tried to talk her out of it many times. I said, 'No you're crazy,' " Arzuaga said. "But once her mind was set that was it."

Once she returned stateside, Velez's focus was on being a good mom.

Juan Velez, staring into the distance from his front stoop, said he remembers the joy he felt when his little girl called with news that he would be an abuelo - grandfather in Spanish.

"It was happiness. I was full of joy," he said.

Velez planned to live in Texas during her pregnancy and raise her child there.

Now, "She'll never know what it's like to be a mom," Arzuaga said, trailing off in tears. "She just turned 21. She just turned 21."

In addition to her father, Velez is survived by her mother Eileen and brothers Juan Guiermo Velez and Andrew Velez. Services are pending.

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Study Data Does Not Show Comp Sex Ed Reduces Pregnancy or STDs - Student Operated Press

Posted: 07 Nov 2009 12:50 PM PST

Comment on this story, by emailing Judyth Piazza at comment@thesop.org or join the SOP friend network with your Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN or one ID account located on the front page of http://www.thesop.org.

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No-Nonsense Guide to a Naturally Healthy Pregnancy and Baby - Food Consumer

Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:37 AM PST

It's clear from numerous studies that pregnant women who suffer from dental disease have an increased risk of premature birth. One study found that the worse the gum disease is, the more likely a woman is to have a pre-term birth.⁶³Whilescientists are still studying the biological mechanisms, animal research has shown that periodontal infections impair fetal growth.

So what can you do to minimize the risk? A number of things. Recently, studies have shown a strong correlation between increased vitamin C use and healthier gums.

In one such study, researchers analyzed the vitamin C intakes and periodontal disease indicators in over 12,000 adults, and found that patients who consumed less than the recommended 60 mg per day (about one orange) were at nearly one-and-a-half times the risk of developing severe gingivitis as those who consumed three times the RDA (more than 180 mg).⁶⁴

And in a 2005 German study, people with gum disease who ate two grapefruit a day for two weeks showed significantly less bleeding from their gums.⁶⁵

Lack of vitamin C has also been linked to premature deliveries and preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, protein in the urine, and swelling due to fluid retention).^66,67Women with preeclampsia were found to have lower blood levels of vitamin C than women without the condition.

So my best recommendation is that you increase your consumption of vitamin C-rich foods. These include citrus fruits such as oranges and grapefruits, as well as kiwi fruit, cantaloupe, strawberries, tomatoes, cabbage, sweet red peppers, and broccoli. You should eat these foods fresh rather than canned, as canning destroys most of the vitamin C, and drastically reduces most of the other vitamins as well.

If you have diabetes, blood sugar abnormalities, or other conditions that might limit your intake of citrus fruits, which are some of the foods highest in vitamin C content, you can supplement with vitamin C in the form of Ester-C. This form of vitamin C has been shown to absorb significantly better and faster than regular ascorbic acid.⁶⁸

But just how much vitamin C is enough? Dr. Linus Pauling, a leader in vitamin C research for many years and the author of a number of books on the subject, suggests that adults take at least 2 grams of vitamin C daily.

While that's well over the recommended R.D.A., Dr. Pauling states, "There is much evidence about increased health with 2 grams a day, and of course even more with 4 or 6 grams a day."⁶⁹

Other vitamins that play a role in improving your periodontal health include folic acid and vitamins A and E. In one study, patients with normal plasma folate levels ingested 2 mg folic acid or a placebo twice daily for 30 days, under double-blind conditions. The folate increased the resistance of the gingiva to local irritants, leading to a reduction in inflammation--even though plasma folate levels were unchanged.⁷⁰

Vitamins A and E have been linked to a marked reduction in periodontal inflammation during pregnancy,⁷¹ so be sure you get plenty of these in your diet.

Vitamin A is plentiful in beef and chicken livers, mangos, apricots, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, and kale.

Vitamin E-rich foods include mustard greens, chard, sunflower seeds, spinach, and almonds.

But along with loading up on these vitamin-packed foods, be sure you greatly decrease or stop your intake of sugary foods and sweets. Excess sugar in your diet worsens gum disease. Once eaten, sugar becomes gooey, sticks to your teeth, and is difficult to remove. It forms plaque, which, if allowed to remain on your teeth for even a short time, can cause dental decay and periodontal disease.⁷²

That's why my personal preference for optimizing oral hygiene is the use of a dental scaler, the instrument that dental hygienists use. It seems to be one of the most effective ways to remove the plaque and help prevent dental and gum disease.⁷³

This must be used carefully, however, as you could damage your gums and teeth otherwise. I also enjoy using a hydro-floss, a magnetic water pik, which can also remove scale on your teeth.

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New Moon Actor Robert Pattinson Addresses Pregnancy Rumor - Deadbolt

Posted: 07 Nov 2009 08:47 AM PST

New Moon Actor Robert Pattinson Addresses Pregnancy Rumor
by Larson Hill

After Twilight tabloid reports that had Robert Pattinson the alleged father of Kristen Stewart's baby, the latest Pattinson report takes the cake. As Twilight and New Moon continue to grow in popularity, the wacky tabloid headlines surrounding Twilight Saga stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart get weirder by the week. On Friday, New Moon actor Robert Pattinson sat down with MTV to talk the Twilight Saga sequel New Moon and the ridiculous Robert Pattinson headlines, especially the rumor about Pattinson himself being pregnant.

While in L.A. on Friday promoting New Moon at the official New Moon junket, Twilight star Robert Pattinson spoke with MTV about New Moon and how Pattinson feels about the crazy headlines. Amid the New Moon chatter, Robert Pattinson revealed his favorite Pattinson story was one that had him pregnant with his own Twilight love child.

"I like the story about me being pregnant," Robert Pattinson said with a laugh. "It was in some Australian magazine, on the front page!" As a sign that Pattinson is taking his Twilight Saga fame in good stride over the many crazy New Moon rumors, Robert Pattinson now laughs off the crazy Twilight tabloid trash. "I was like, 'Wow, that's just [insane],' " Pattinson stated. "And it's not even ironic. I don't even think the article [tried to justify it]; it was just a headline. The article was just like, nothing."

As for the Pattinson pregnant information, Robert Pattinson addressed the pregnancy rumor with a shocking admission, "I am, yes." Jokingly, tabloids can now verify that Robert Pattinson is pregnant with a baby. "Yeah, it's in my armpit because I'm hiding it from everyone."

So what's the craziest Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart headline you've seen online since Twilight?

-- Larson Hill

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Earthquakes and pregnancy - Examiner

Posted: 07 Nov 2009 09:59 AM PST

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All Californians are familiar with earthquakes; however, most women in the state are unaware of their effect on pregnancy. In May 2008, Wenchuan, China experienced a devastating 8.0 Richter scale earthquake. Gynecologists at Xijing Hospital (Xi'an, China) surveyed 170 women using a questionnaire, which inquired about symptoms of reproductive tract infection, menstrual disorders, satisfaction with sexual life, and desire for fertility. The researchers found that the rates of symptoms of lower genital tract infection were higher after than before the earthquake (50.0% vs. 26.5%), as were the rates for pelvic inflammatory disease (35.9% vs. 19.4%) and menstrual disorders (51.8% vs. 22.4%). Also, following the earthquake, the women's satisfaction with their sex life markedly decreased; 89.4% of them said they would not pursue a plan to become pregnant; and 67.1% said they would request pregnancy termination if they became pregnant. The author's concluded that their findings could help the formation of public health measures for women surviving large-scale disasters.

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