Posted: 22 Dec 2009 11:14 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US general based in northern Iraq defended Tuesday his tough punishments for soldiers who get pregnant or impregnate a fellow soldier and said fears the new rules could result in courts-martial were unwarranted.

"I see absolutely no circumstance where I would punish a female soldier by court martial for a violation... none," Major General Anthony Cucolo told ABC News. "I fully intend to handle these cases through lesser disciplinary action."

The Stars and Stripes military newspaper reported that seven US soldiers, including three men, have already been punished under Cucolo's November 4 policy statement. They received letters of reprimand that will not remain in their permanent military file.

Under his new rules, which have unleashed a fiery debate, violators are threatened with criminal charges or even a court-martial. They apply both to women who get pregnant and men who get female soldiers pregnant, even if the couple is married.

"How dare any government say we're going to impose any kind of punishment on women for getting pregnant," National Organization for Women president Terry O'Neill told ABC. "This is not the 1800s."

Cucolo defended his decision as a means to help guard against the loss of valuable female soldiers. US troops get sent back home if they become pregnant. Cucolo currently commands around 22,000 soldiers in northern Iraq, about 1,700 of whom are women.

"I need every soldier I've got, especially since we are facing a drawdown of forces during our mission. Anyone who leaves this fight earlier than the expected 12-month deployment creates a burden on their teammates," he said in a written statement.

The United States, which currently maintains a military force of some 115,000 in Iraq, plans to reduce its footprint to 50,000 by the end of next August ahead of a full withdrawal of all troops by the end of 2011.

"The high operational tempo combined with the hazardous duty faced by Task Force Marne soldiers make it necessary to restrict certain activities in order to maintain good order and discipline and ensure optimal readiness," Cucolo explained in his general order that lists two dozen other banned activities.

The soldiers under his command are also barred from any sexual contact with Iraqi or other non-American nationals who do not belong to coalition forces.

They are forbidden from spending the night with anyone of the opposite sex, unless the couple is married, cannot convert people to their faith, enter a mosque without orders or be in possession of drugs or alcohol.

The Pentagon says a commander can impose such rules to personnel under his command.

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Aspirin During Pregnancy May Help Preemies - YAHOO!

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 09:44 PM PST

TUESDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) -- The children of women who take low-dose aspirin during pregnancy because they are at high risk for delivering prematurely might have fewer behavioral problems at age 5, new research suggests.

Obstetricians sometimes give low-dose aspirin to pregnant women who are apt to have such complications as fetal growth restriction (when a fetus doesn't grow properly in the womb) or preeclampsia (high blood pressure that's dangerous to both mother and the fetus), said Dr. Ashley Roman, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Medical Center. Roman was not involved in the research.

In the study, French researchers used data on 656 children born before 33 weeks of gestation to 584 women from nine regions in France. A full-term birth is at 40 weeks' gestation. The women had a history of placental vascular disease, fetal growth restriction, chronic hypertension, and renal or autoimmune diseases.

About 21 percent of the women took low-dose aspirin during pregnancy.

At age 5, children whose mothers had taken aspirin were slightly less likely to have behavioral difficulties or hyperactivity, though the results were not statistically significant, according to the study.

In addition, the babies whose mothers had taken aspirin faced no increased risk for death, cerebral lesions or cerebral palsy.

One of the fears of giving aspirin to women during pregnancy is that aspirin interferes with platelet function, which is important for blood clotting. Because of that, it could raise the risk for brain bleeds in already susceptible premature infants, Roman said. The study found no increase in the risk for brain bleeds.

"This study is important because it helps reassure both us as the physician and patients that giving low-dose aspirin is not associated with a higher risk of problems in the baby," Roman said. "Not only is it not associated with problems right after the baby is born, but it's not associated with problems down the road."

The study findings are published online Dec. 21 and in the January print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Still, much remains unknown about the role of aspirin in pregnancy, including exactly how well or why aspirin works, Roman noted. One theory is that fetal growth restriction might be caused by tiny blood clots in the placenta, and aspirin helps blood flow between the placenta and the fetus. Low-dose aspirin is also taken by adult men and women at risk for heart attack and stroke.

Dr. Michael Katz, senior vice president for research and global programs at the March of Dimes, said the study is intriguing, but the findings are too preliminary to be of much help to women or their physicians. Many women in the study were also given other drugs, including corticosteroids, and it's unknown how much that affected the outcomes.

"Aspirin is quite a remarkable drug, acting as an anti-inflammatory and interfering with platelet function to stop clotting," Katz said. "But how that translates into helping fetuses may be beyond speculation at this point."

"Behavioral difficulties," as cited in the study, is a broad term that could encompass everything from excessive temper tantrums to learning disabilities to hyperactivity to autism, he said, each of which could have very different underlying causes.

"It's hard to imagine a single intervention [aspirin] would deal with hyperactivity and all of those neurobehavioral problems," Katz said.

Still, he added, the findings are worth following up. "Anything you can do to help premature babies is worth pursuing because, for many, it's a desperate situation," Katz said. "And if they are right, it's a very inexpensive way of dealing with it."

Premature babies are at higher risk for neurological problems, including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, and hearing and vision problems.

More information

The March of Dimes has more on premature birth.

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U.S. General Backs Off Pregnancy Policy - New York Times

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 09:37 PM PST

BAGHDAD (AP) — A United States general in Iraq who listed pregnancy as a reason for court-martialing soldiers said Tuesday that he would never actually seek to jail someone over a pregnancy, but that he wanted to underline the seriousness of the issue.

Last month, Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo issued a policy that would allow the court-martialing of soldiers who become pregnant and their sexual partners. But he appeared to back away from the policy in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, saying that it was intended to emphasize the problems created when pregnant soldiers went home and left behind a weaker unit.

"I have never considered court-martial for this; I do not ever see myself putting a soldier in jail for this," said General Cucolo, who oversees American forces in northern Iraq. But because pregnant women automatically go home, their units are left short-staffed, he said.

The general commands a force of 22,000 soldiers, which oversees northern Iraq. He said 1,682 of those soldiers were women.

His ruling applies only to troops under his command. He said women who were raped would not be subject to the order.

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