“US fares poorly in child welfare survey - The Guardian” plus 4 more

US fares poorly in child welfare survey - The Guardian
Duggars expecting No. 19 - Vindicator
Duggar brood still growing: No. 19 on the way - Delaware Online
14-year-old's pregnancy leads to charges against 20-year-old man - Gaston Gazette
PREGNANCY WITH A MONEY-BACK OFFER - Daily Express

US fares poorly in child welfare survey - The Guardian

Posted: 01 Sep 2009 07:49 PM PDT

GREG KELLER

AP Business Writer= PARIS (AP) â€" America has some of the industrial world's worst rates of infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and child poverty, even though it spends more per child than better-performing countries such as Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands, a new survey indicates.

The OECD, a Paris-based watchdog of industrialized nations, urged the United States to shift more of its public spending to its youngest children, under the age of six, to improve their health and educational performance.

The report released Tuesday, "Doing Better for Children," marks the first time the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has reported on child well-being within its 30 member countries.

The U.S. spends an average of $140,000 per child, well over the OECD average of $125,000. But this spending is skewed heavily toward older children between 12 and 17, the OECD survey showed.

U.S. spending on children under six, a period the OECD says is key to children's future well-being, lags far behind other countries, amounting to only $20,000 per child on average compared to the OECD average of $30,000, the survey showed.

"A better balance of spending between the 'Dora the Explorer' years of early childhood and the teenage 'Facebook' years would help improve the health, education and well-being of all children in the long term," the OECD said.

As a result, it says, infant mortality in the U.S. is the fourth-worst in the OECD after Mexico, Turkey and Slovakia. American 15-year-olds rank seventh from the bottom on the OECD's measure of average educational achievement. Child poverty rates in the U.S. are nearly double the OECD average, at 21.6 percent compared to 12.4 percent.

The rate of teen births in the U.S. is three times the OECD average, with only Mexico recording a higher rate among OECD countries, the report said.

Timothy Smeeding, author of "Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America's Children in Comparative Perspective," said America's troubles stem from a flawed mix of government spending and not enough help for the working poor.

"Most of what we spend is for health care, so there is less money to spend on income support programs, to keep the incomes of the poor up. We do spend highly on education â€" but it's off the charts on health care," he said by telephone from the United States.

Some European countries have public preschools and day cares, for example.

"The parents in Europe aren't as poor. They have universal health care, and it's understood that you have access to health care without recrimination. ... They have children when they're ready," said Smeeding, who also heads the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"A lot of kids born in our country are accidents," he said. "Young women need to learn to wait to finish their education, not have a kid at 18 or 19. And it is these poor, unwed mothers having most of the babies in the U.S."

Among other OECD countries, France, Germany, Britain and Belgium spend more on their children than the U.S., while Switzerland, Ireland, Australia and Italy spend less, according to the survey.

The countries that spend the most on early childhood include Hungary, Finland and the Slovak Republic, which each devote well over a quarter of all childhood spending to children under the age of six.

Britain also spends more than the OECD average on its children, and like the U.S., devotes most of this spending to its older children between the ages of 12 and 17.

But Britain is plagued by high underage drinking and teenage pregnancy rates. British teen drunkenness, as measured by the number of 13 and 15 year olds having been drunk at least twice, topped the charts at 33 percent, far above the OECD average of 20 percent and the 12 percent rate recorded in the U.S.

---

Associated Press Writer Rachel Kurowski in Paris contributed to this report.

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Duggars expecting No. 19 - Vindicator

Posted: 01 Sep 2009 08:53 PM PDT

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Michelle Duggar, the 42-year-old Arkansas mom of 18 and a soon-to-be grandmother, is pregnant again. Duggar said Tuesday that she took a pregnancy test on a whim and was shocked to see she was pregnant. Meanwhile, she is gearing ...

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Duggar brood still growing: No. 19 on the way - Delaware Online

Posted: 01 Sep 2009 04:43 PM PDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. No. 19 caught Michelle Duggar by surprise.

Join local moms discussing this story on MomsLikeMe.com.

The 42-year-old mom of 18 noticed that she wasn't losing weight even though she and husband Jim Bob were on Weight Watchers and her youngest child, 8-month-old Jordyn-Grace, was fussing while nursing. In the past, she found a fussy infant meant a change in breast milk that came with pregnancy.

So she took a pregnancy test. "And lo and behold, I was just pleasantly surprised that this was positive," Duggar said today. "I was just jumping up and down going, 'Thank you, Lord. Here am I 42, thinking my baby days are over and you've blessed us with another one.'"

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar live in Tontitown, Ark., and are featured with their family on TLC's "18 Kids and Counting."

The announcement of the Duggars' 19th child comes as their oldest, 21-year-old Josh, is about to become a father himself. Married last year, Josh and Anna Duggar are expecting their first child, a girl, on Oct. 18.

The grandchild whom Josh and Anna plan to name Mackynzie will be about five months older than her future aunt or uncle, due March 18.

Michelle Duggar said her health is fine and the pregnancy is going along just like the others with a decent bout of morning sickness.

"I am just so grateful that I have good health thus far and I'm just enjoying playing with my kids every day," she said. "I don't take that for granted one bit. I still have a lot of energy left."

They're soliciting name suggestions for the new baby, who will join their family of 10 boys and eight girls. The Duggars' 18 children all have names starting with the letter J and include two sets of twins. Along with Josh and Jordyn-Grace, the family includes: Jana and John-David, 19; Jill, 18; Jessa, 16; Jinger, 15; Joseph, 14; Josiah, 13; Joy-Anna, 11; Jeremiah and Jedidiah, 10; Jason, 9; James, 8; Justin, 6; Jackson, 5; Johannah, 3; and Jennifer, 2.

The Duggars live in a 7,000-square-foot house in northwest Arkansas, where they manage commercial real estate property. They say they'll keep welcoming more children as long as Michelle is able to have them.

Michelle Duggar says they're recognized regularly thanks to the TLC show.

"We feel like it's just an opportunity to encourage families to enjoy their children, enjoy children while they have them and realize that they are a gift from God," she said. "That's our prayer. This is an opportunity to just encourage others to value family and just enjoy the time you have with them."

On the Web

www.duggarfamily.com

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14-year-old's pregnancy leads to charges against 20-year-old man - Gaston Gazette

Posted: 01 Sep 2009 04:36 PM PDT

Teen pregnancy leads to statutory rape charge

A 14-year-old's positive pregnancy test led to a statutory rape charge against a 20-year-old Gastonia man, according to an arrest warrant.

The teenager visited a doctor in early August and was told she was two months pregnant, according to the affidavit. The girl allegedly had sex with the man at the Mid-Town Motor Inn two months before the pregnancy test.

The teen burned pregnancy confirmation papers given to her by the doctor so that her mother wouldn't find out, the affidavit narrative states.

Cesar Eduardo Salinas, 20, of Gastonia has been charged with statutory rape/sex offense.

He was held on a $50,000 secured bond.

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PREGNANCY WITH A MONEY-BACK OFFER - Daily Express

Posted: 01 Sep 2009 04:00 PM PDT

Couples can download the information to their computers for a clearer read out and can also consult DuoFertility's medical experts online.

ALTHOUGH the device has not yet undergone a full one-year clinical trial, eight women out of 60 became pregnant during a three-month test of DuoFertility for ease of use and practicality. A full trial is ongoing.

So confident are the makers of DuoFertility they are offering couples a "moneyback guarantee" until the end of September. Anybody who uses the device according to the instructions and does not become pregnant within a year will have the 500 purchase price refunded.

"With other fertility monitors, women have either to take a daily urine sample to identify hormonal changes or wake up very early every morning and manually measure and record their BBT to identify the tiny temperature change associated with ovulation, " says Dr Oriane Chausiaux, chief scientific officer at Cambridge Temperature Concepts, inventors of DuoFertility. "These kits are inconvenient and far less accurate than our device.

"DuoFertility measures body temperature automatically throughout the day and night, taking about 20,000 measurements while the user sleeps, so eliminating the possibility of human error.

Unlike traditional BBT thermometers, DuoFertility's measurements are not affected by outside factors such as interrupted sleep patterns, stress or alcohol consumption.

This means it can pinpoint the rise in temperature that occurs after ovulation much more quickly and accurately."

Research has shown that many women have no idea when in the month they are most fertile. Around one couple in seven has problems conceiving and for some the reason will be that they have simply got the timing of their love-making wrong.

A study carried out for Clearblue, which makes pregnancy and fertility testing kits, showed that two women in three do not realise there is only a small window of opportunity - the day of ovulation and up to two days before and after - during which they can conceive each month.

Another survey showed that a third of women think they ovulate during their period (it is about 14 days earlier) and a fifth believe there are more than 21 fertile days in a month.

Marie took her temperature every morning for about two years to help her and husband Mirco plan when to have intercourse.

"I would think about it every evening before I went to bed and first thing in the morning when the alarm went off, " she says. "It made me feel very stressed and anxious.

"We had been trying for a baby for a long time on and off. I had three early miscarriages and after that we went back on contraception because I was afraid to become pregnant again in case I lost the baby. Once we started trying again and nothing happened the doctor gave me hormones to help me conceive but I did not want to take them long-term and I stopped after a few months.

"This spring I went back on the waiting list for the fertility clinic at the local hospital and started using DuoFertility at about the same time. Once I put the sensor under my arm I forgot about trying to become pregnant and relaxed more.

I am sure that made a difference. After about three months I became pregnant."

Not everybody shares Marie's - and the company's - optimism. Fertility specialists tend to discourage temperature monitoring and are lukewarm towards fertility predictors generally, though a successful trial of the new device may in time change their minds.

"People don't need gadgets, " says Jane Knight, fertility nurse specialist at the Zita West Clinic. "The way to maximise your chances of conceiving is to have sex every two to three days throughout your cycle."

DuoFertility: 01223 437 001/ www.duofertility.com