“Kim Kardashian's Baby Woes - Limelife” plus 4 more

Kim Kardashian's Baby Woes - Limelife
Teen mom faces Sept. 15 hearing in dead baby case - San Jose Mercury News
Murder victim's wife having trouble with pregnancy - Trinidad Express
Stress, W.Va. culture big factors in high rate of pregnant smokers - Charleston Daily Mail
Fertility not affected after taking oral contraceptive pill - Stuff

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 11:36 AM PDT

She's Frustrated with Kourtney

Kim Kardashian complained recently when she headed out with her sister Kourtney Kardashian to go baby clothes shopping. Since Kourtney doesn't know the sex of the baby, Kim's had to stick to neutral colors--and it's making her crazy! Honestly, why would Kourtney bother with the intrigue, especially with persistent Kim bothering her about it?

"I found that really hard," Kim blogged. "I just wanted to shop for pink or blue, haha! I want Kourt and Scott to find out already!!"

Poor dear. It sounds like this busy shopper is going to have her work cut out for her, because all the time it takes pulling herself away from pink and blue will definitely affect her schedule.

Super shopper Kim also felt something else stirring inside besides irritation towards her sister, though. "I want a baby!!!!" she wrote. "OK, so maybe not right now, but I can't wait to be an aunt!"

Kim would be the most high-maintenance pregnant lady ever, don't you think? Yikes!

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Teen mom faces Sept. 15 hearing in dead baby case - San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 04 Sep 2009 10:27 AM PDT

HENDERSON, Nev.—A judge set a Sept. 15 evidentiary hearing for a 19-year-old mother accused of hiding her pregnancy and killing her newborn son.

Carmela Camero was being held Friday at the Clark County jail after an initial appearance Thursday in Henderson Justice Court.

Clark County prosecutor Vicki Monroe says Camero will face a murder charge.

Camero was arrested Aug. 26 after telling Henderson police she didn't know she was pregnant until she gave birth, and that she smothered the child because she feared her mother would kick her out of the house.

Police say Camero also left the body of her stillborn daughter in a trash bin at The Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip in 2006.

Camero was 16 at the time. She was not charged in that case.

———

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

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Murder victim's wife having trouble with pregnancy - Trinidad Express

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 07:00 PM PDT

SINCE the day Denise Ali learnt that her missing husband, Kareem Ali, was found killed in Arima, her unborn child has become more active in her womb, she said yesterday.

Ali, due to deliver the couple's second child in less than three weeks, said her husband would often touch her stomach during her pregnancy and the baby would move. Since Kareem Ali's body was positively identified on Saturday, the baby has been constantly kicking, she said.

"People say a baby could sense when their fathers are around them and the baby will always start to move from the time my husband touched my belly," she said.

Ali said the couple confirmed that their unborn child was a girl. The couple also have a three-year-old daughter.

The autopsy on the taxi driver, of Orangefield Road, Carapichaima, is expected to be done today. Ali said family members have advised that she not be present. But she wants to see her husband before the procedure is done.

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Stress, W.Va. culture big factors in high rate of pregnant smokers - Charleston Daily Mail

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 09:16 PM PDT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Rosa Lara remembers a doctor advising her not to quit smoking during her pregnancy because her baby was used to it.

Lara had been living in California at the time. Most of her sisters had smoked and did not seem to have issues with it, and no one had told her about the health risks associated with smoking while pregnant.

"My doctor never really explained to me what can be the consequences for my daughter," Lara said. "They said, 'Just try to slow down.' They didn't even ask me to really quit. . .One doctor told me I shouldn't quit because my daughter was used to the smoke."

Sometime after moving to West Virginia last year, Lara became pregnant again.

In March, she was referred to the state's Right From The Start program to learn more about how to have a healthy pregnancy.

The program connected her with care coordinator Janeen Masker, who visited Lara at her home in Charleston and talked with her about the health risks of smoking and how to quit.

A smoker since about age 14, Lara - now 34 - said recently she has not had a cigarette since March.

"Here in West Virginia they really take charge," Lara said. "It was just a big difference."

But West Virginia also has a culture more accepting of tobacco, health officials here say. That combined with overall stress from poverty, domestic violence or drug abuse are among reasons health officials give for why women smoke, including while pregnant.

"The cigarette is like an old friend," Masker, a registered nurse, said. "They've used it to help pull them up, feel a little bit better."

West Virginia's Right From The Start program provides in-home services to Medicaid-eligible pregnant women. The 20-year-old state program also helps women up to 60 days after they give birth and their infants up to 1 year.

Tobacco cessation is an important part of the program, as about 26.7 percent of West Virginia women reported smoking while pregnant. That 2007 figure from a recent state vital statistics report is more than double the 2005 national rate of 10.7 percent.

Smoking seems to be "almost entrenched in the culture," said Beverly Kitchen, a regional care coordinator for Right From The Start. It also can be a stress reliever for women in the program, she said.

"They're low-income," Kitchen said. "They don't have as many choices as a lot of other women do in West Virginia. . .a lot of them have had very hard lives."

Right From The Start provides home visits, a benefit that sets it apart from similar programs in clinical settings, said Jeannie Clark, director of perinatal programs for the West Virginia Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health.

"Since they go to the home they actually become the woman's friend," Clark said. "They gain their trust.' "

Lara credited her care coordinator, Masker, as the main reason she quit smoking.

"As soon as she walked into my house, she makes me feel that she's a part of the family, that she really cares," Lara said. "She's always there when I need her."

Trained registered nurses or licensed social workers serve as designated care coordinators for the program, Clark said. They are assigned to clients based on specific needs, and they live and work in the same community and know what local resources are available, she said.

For example, if a woman has medical problems, like gestational diabetes or depression, she likely would work with a nurse, Clark said, and if she is facing more social problems, like needing shelter, food or clothing, a social worker would help her.

"You don't have to come to us; we come to you," Clark said. "You don't have to spend your gas money going to an appointment. We say this program is to help you stay healthy during pregnancy."

About 3,300 pregnant women qualify and participate in Right From The Start in West Virginia over a year, Clark said.

More could qualify because about 50 percent to 60 percent of babies born in West Virginia are Medicaid-eligible, she said.

The National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute and George Washington University are in the middle of a four-year study of Right From The Start's Smoking Cessation and Reduction In Pregnancy Treatment program, or SCRIPT.

"Since this is such a large problem with smoking in pregnancy, we were looked at by the National Institutes of Health to see what we're doing with the program so that all Medicaid smokers that enroll in Right From The Start could have the opportunity to participate in this smoking cessation program," Clark said.

SCRIPT is an evidenced-based smoking cessation program recommended for pregnant women, Clark said.

"We've conducted focus groups to ask them what works for them to help them quit," Clark said. "This is not just a program where they tell us they've quit.

We confirm their quit rates with carbon monoxide monitors."

Smoking while pregnant could lead to many health problems, Clark said, including babies with low birth weight or lower IQs due to decreased oxygen during pregnancy.

Smoking around babies also has been linked to sudden infant death syndrome, she said.

"Not all babies are affected the same," Clark said. But "you have severe issues surrounding smoking and pregnancy."

Lara said her older daughter, Dhamar, now 3 1/2, was often sick as an infant and now has a speech disability and behavioral problem. Lara now blames the smoke exposure.

Her younger daughter, Jhaneman, who was born in July, seems to be more alert and calm, she said.

"I'm really afraid she'll get sick," Lara said. "But she seems very healthy. She's right on track."

Pregnancy is a good time to help women quit, Masker said.

"They are highly motivated," Masker said. "Most of them at least decrease their smoking."

But many are at risk of starting up again after the pregnancy, Masker said.

"Most people that stop smoking have to stop many times before they stop for good," Masker said. "They get really stressed; they think of that good friend, that cigarette."

Lara, who said she had previously smoked just once or twice a day, still gets the urge but is more aware of the health issues now.

"I'm not going to say that I would never do it again," Lara said. But "if I ever become pregnant again I don't think I would ever smoke."

With women facing roller-coaster emotions, hormonal changes and exhaustion after giving birth, Masker tells women that they may be tempted to go outside and sneak a cigarette when the baby is napping.

But she tells them, "It's like going outside and spraying yourself off with Raid and then holding your newborn baby."

"Besides the nicotine, we now know there's over 4,000 harmful chemicals in cigarettes," Masker said, including acetone, arsenic and cyanide. "That's just a good visual for them to think of."

Right From The Start works with the state's quit line service, which provides telephone counseling and nicotine therapy such as patches, gum and lozenges.

Besides smoking cessation, care coordinators with Right From The Start also help clients get transportation for their doctor's appointments, Clark said.

They also follow up on the doctor's appointments and refer clients to other community services, including supplemental nutrition programs like food stamps and WIC.

Empowerment is the end goal, Clark said.

"These woman often have been reliant on Medicaid or some type of social support for a long time, and they become apathetic because they've tried to do better and can't help themselves," Clark said. "The main goal is to empower the women so that when we're finished with Right From The Start they're self-sufficient."

For information about Right From The Start call 1-800-642-8522 or 304-558-5388 or visit the Web site www.wvdhhr.org/rfts.

To contact the West Virginia Tobacco Quit Line, call 1-877-966-8784.

Contact writer Michelle Saxton at michelle.sax...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4843.

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Fertility not affected after taking oral contraceptive pill - Stuff

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 07:36 PM PDT

By LOUISE HALL - SMH

Taking the oral contraceptive pill does not affect a woman's ability to fall pregnant after she goes off it, with four in five women falling pregnant within a year, a study has found.

German researchers said neither the length of time the pill was taken nor the type of hormones used had a bearing on pregnancy rates after contraceptive use.

The results, published in the US journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, form part of the European Active Surveillance Study on Oral Contraceptives, which followed almost 60,000 European women for five years, with the starting point between 2001 and 2004. Of these, 2064 women explicitly stated that they stopped using the pill because they wanted to fall pregnant.

Overall, 21 per cent were pregnant one cycle after stopping contraceptive use. After three cycles, the rate of pregnancy had increased to 45.7 per cent, and at one year (13 cycles) 79.4 per cent were pregnant.

Of the one in five women who did not fall pregnant in the first 12 months, 45 per cent did so in the second year (26 cycles) after stopping the pill, giving an overall success rate of 88.3 per cent.

The researchers, who received funding from a pharmaceutical company, said rates of pregnancy were reduced in women older than 35 and in smokers.

The researchers, from Bayer Schering Pharma and ZEG-Centre for Epidemiology and Health Research in Berlin, said women who had been using the pill for a long time did have a slightly lower rate of pregnancy than those who had used it for a short period, but this was due to the effect of age, not long-term contraceptive use.

"Because of their high efficacy, there is a perception by some women that the use of oral contraceptives may be associated with an impairment in fertility after their discontinuation," they wrote. "These findings suggest that previous oral contraceptive use does not negatively affect the rate of pregnancy."