plus 3, Joslyn James Says Tiger Woods Got Her Pregnant Twice - Post Chronicle

Joslyn James Says Tiger Woods Got Her Pregnant Twice - Post Chronicle
TV soaps decide use of birth control - IndiaTimes
Drinking milk during pregnancy may lower baby's risk of MS - PhysOrg
NO CHARGES: A Burlington woman who was accused of trying to end her pregnancy will not face any charges - WHO-TV

Joslyn James Says Tiger Woods Got Her Pregnant Twice - Post Chronicle

Posted: 15 Feb 2010 11:13 AM PST

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Former adult-film star Joslyn James says married U.S. pro golfer Tiger Woods got her pregnant twice during their alleged three-year affair.

James told TV's "Inside Edition" one pregnancy ended in miscarriage and the second in an abortion. She said she was involved with Woods from 2006 to 2009.

Woods, a father of two who is rumored to have had extramarital affairs with numerous women, has publicly apologized to his wife, Elin, and his fans for his infidelity. He has been keeping a low profile in recent months and reportedly underwent treatment for sex addiction at a rehab facility.

James said her first pregnancy by Woods happened when Elin was pregnant with Woods's daughter, Sam.

Asked if Woods demanded unprotected sex, James told "Inside Edition": "It was never talked about. It was never protected."

She went on to say she had planned to tell Woods about the first pregnancy, but miscarried before she had the chance. She said she didn't tell Woods about the second pregnancy, which she aborted, because she was afraid.

"Elin was pregnant with (their son) Charlie at that time. I just didn't want to ruin anything," she said.

James added not only did she not want to ruin her relationship with Woods, but she didn't want to break up his marriage.

"I feel bad for (Elin.) She didn't deserve this and she didn't deserve being humiliated," James said. (c) UPI

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TV soaps decide use of birth control - IndiaTimes

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 04:38 AM PST

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A new study has found that a fictional television drama maybe more effective in persuading young women to use birth control than a news-format programme on the same issue.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that college-age women who viewed a televised drama about a teen pregnancy felt more vulnerable two weeks after watching the show, and this led to more support for using birth control.

However, those who watched a news program detailing the difficulties caused by teen pregnancies were unmoved, and had no change in their intentions to use birth control.

Emily Moyer-Gusé, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at the University, said the results showed the power that narratives like TV shows can have in influencing people.

"A message that is hidden inside of a story may overcome some of the resistance people have to being told how to behave," Moyer-Gusé said.

"The impact that dramatized stories have on people's beliefs and intentions depends a lot on the individual viewers, and not just the message - but our results suggest the effect can be there," she stated.

Moyer-Gusé conducted the study with Robin Nabi of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The study involved 353 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 25. All of them watched one of two programmes that focused on the difficulties associated with unplanned teen pregnancies.

Half of the participants watched a programme developed by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy to be broadcast on Channel One - a news programme that airs in many U.S. high schools.

This programme used a news format, and profiled male and female teen parents. The overall message was that teen pregnancy makes life as a young adult more difficult.

The remaining participants watched an episode of the U.S. teen drama, The OC. In this episode, high-school students Ryan and Theresa faced the difficult consequences of an unintended pregnancy.

The programmes were pre-tested with other students, who agreed that they both had the same main message concerning the difficulties of teen pregnancy.

Findings showed that viewers who said they identified with the two main characters in The OC episode also felt, when contacted two weeks later, that they were more vulnerable to an unplanned pregnancy.

That, in turn, led to greater intentions to use birth control.

Before watching the programmes, participants completed questionnaires concerning how often they used some form of birth control if they were sexually active, and their intentions to use birth control over the next year.

Immediately after viewing the programmes, participants filled out questionnaires concerning how much they were emotionally involved in the programme, how much they identified with the characters, and other issues concerning their response to the programmes they viewed.

Two weeks later, they were contacted again and asked about their intentions to use birth control.

The researchers found that male and females had different responses to the programmes.

Watching the news-format programme had no effect on men's safe-sex intentions two weeks later.

But two weeks after watching The OC, men said they were actually less likely to follow birth control practices than they did before they viewed the programme.

That was probably because men reported they didn't like the program as much as women did, and didn't identify with the characters, Moyer-Gusé said.

Women had a different reaction to the programmes. The news-format programme had no effect on their intentions to use birth control.

But those who watched The OC episode were more likely to report in two weeks that they planned on taking steps to prevent pregnancy.

The findings revealed some of the underlying mechanisms that made the TV drama persuasive to many women viewers.

"Many of the women participants were able to put themselves in the place of the characters and sense they could end up in a similar situation if they weren't careful," Moyer-Gusé said.

Feeling vulnerable was the key to accepting birth control practices for the women in the study.

"One of the reasons why some people avoid safer sex behaviors is because they feel invulnerable - they have this optimistic bias that nothing bad will ever happen to them," she said.

"But if you vicariously experience a bad result happening to you by watching a narrative programme, that may change behaviour in a way that is difficult to achieve through a direct message," she explained.

Participants, particularly women, were more likely to be persuaded to use birth control if they felt the programme they watched didn't have an overt safe-sex message.

Most people didn't think The OC episode was preaching the use of birth control, but those who did were much less likely to increase their intentions to use birth control, the findings showed.

In addition, those who reported that they reacted to the characters in The OC as if they were friends were also less likely to see an overt message in the show, and were more likely to accept birth control practices.

Moyer-Gusé emphasized that the results don't mean that men aren't persuaded by narratives such as TV dramas.

"The show we chose happened to connect less with the men. But if we picked another topic or another show, I believe a narrative programme could also be persuasive to male viewers," she said.

While these results suggest persuasive messages might be better received by people if they are wrapped up in a story, Moyer-Gusé cautions that it isn't always that simple.

As the different reactions of men and women in this study showed, a lot depends on the individual viewers and not just the message.

"The problem with using stories to persuade people is that people can interpret them in different ways. You don't always get the results you expect," she added.

Their finding has been published in the current issue of the journal Human Communication Research .

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Drinking milk during pregnancy may lower baby's risk of MS - PhysOrg

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 02:41 PM PST

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Drinking milk during pregnancy may lower baby's risk of MS

February 9, 2010

Drinking milk during pregnancy may help reduce your baby's chances of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) as an adult, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.

The study involved 35,794 nurses whose mothers completed a questionnaire in 2001 about their experiences and diet during pregnancy with their nurse-daughter. Of the nurses studied, 199 women developed MS over the 16-year study period.

Researchers found that the risk of MS was lower among women born to mothers with high milk or dietary vitamin D intake in pregnancy.

"The risk of MS among daughters whose mothers consumed four glasses of milk per day was 56 percent lower than daughters whose mothers consumed less than three glasses of milk per month," said Fariba Mirzaei, MD, with the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. "We also found the risk of MS among daughters whose mothers were in the top 20 percent of vitamin D intake during pregnancy was 45 percent lower than daughters whose mothers were in the bottom 20 percent for vitamin D intake during pregnancy."

"There is growing evidence that that vitamin D has an effect on MS. The results of this study suggest that this effect may begin in the womb," said Mirzaei.

Fortified milk, fatty fish such as salmon and exposure to sunlight are the most important sources of vitamin D.

Provided by American Academy of Neurology (news : web)

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NO CHARGES: A Burlington woman who was accused of trying to end her pregnancy will not face any charges - WHO-TV

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 09:03 AM PST

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AP Staff Writer

11:06 AM CST, February 10, 2010

NO CHARGES: A Burlington woman who was accused of trying to end her pregnancy will not face any charges

Prosecutors say they won't formally charge a Burlington woman who was accused of trying to end her pregnancy.

Twenty-two-year-old Christine Taylor, a mother of two, says she was falsely accused after a Jan. 19 incident in which she fell down the stairs of her home.

Taylor told The Des Moines Register that she believes the personal views of medical workers and police played a part in a decision to accuse her of attempted feticide.

After reviewing the case, Des Moines County prosecutors says they have decided not to formally charge Taylor.

Lynn Paltrow of the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women says transforming some mothers' difficult and painful circumstances into a crime would make every pregnant woman "vulnerable to criminal prosecution."