Birth on Fifth

Incredible footage from a surveillance camera of a 33 week pregnant woman giving birth in an SUV in Fifth Avenue yesterday. She nearly made it to Mt. Sinai hospital until the baby started crowning about a block away. She went delivered one baby across from Central Park after a cavalcade of doctors and nurses came out to help her. Turns out she was pregnant with twins so they got her inside just before baby number 2 was born.

Self-induced abortion: life saver or health risk?

Today, a fascinating report from the New York Times describes a an unspoken tradition among Dominican women to perform their own 'abortion' using pills, herbal teas and other unconventional methods due to a wider cultural view of shame surrounding abortion, the use of condoms and denial about unplanned pregnancy.

A survey conducted by Planned Parenthood of 1200 Latinas in New York, San Francisco and Boston found "reports of women mixing malted beverages with aspirin, salt or nutmeg; throwing themselves down stairs or having people punch them in the stomach; and drinking teas of avocado leaf, pine wood, oak bark and mamon fruit peel." More recently, however, a number of Dominican women have been using misoprostol, an prescription drug that is approved for reducing gastric ulcers but induces miscarriage. Women often obtain the pills at pharmacies that are known to 'bend the rules' or from overseas. This is seen as the best available option to women who have no insurance, are not living in the country lawfully or who do not want to deal with the shame of pregnancy.

Women's health works, however, are concerned that women are not using these methods appropriately and might be risking their own health if using the traditional and over-the-counter methods incorrectly. Given the US abortion laws, some women are even being prosecuted for knowingly attempting to end their pregnancies. According to the NYT:

"In 2007 in Massachusetts, an 18-year-old Dominican immigrant named Amber Abreu took misoprostol in her 25th week of pregnancy and gave birth to a 1-pound baby girl who died four days later; a judge sentenced her in June to probation and ordered her into therapy. In South Carolina in February, a Mexican migrant farm worker, Gabriela Flores, pleaded guilty to illegally performing an abortion and was sentenced to 90 days in jail for taking misoprostol while four months pregnant in 2004..."

There seems to be widespread criticism of women who self-abort, mainly surrounding the idea that in causing themselves to 'miscarry' they turn abortion into a 'natural' process. I think we should be more concerned with helping women who can't afford to have an abortion with the appropriate tools to terminate a pregnancy rather than worrying about denial or what word is being used to describe such an experience. 'Miscarriage' or 'abortion', women should not have to continue with an unwanted pregnancy. In the case of these Dominican women, I think the consequences of having an unwanted child are more significant than the cost of having an abortion or 'miscarriage', etc.*

*This post is not intended to spark a heated debate as to the ethics of abortion. This is just my view and this is an old debate. Berating women who choose to have abortions is not productive and undermines the point of this post.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/nyregion/05abortion.html?pagewanted=2&em

Caesarean boom in New York

Scary.

New York City's cesarean section rate has increased by 24% over the past six years to an average of nearly 31%, and rates are on the rise at nearly every single city hospital, according to new data released by Choices in Childbirth.

Contrary to popular belief, caesar rates are not going up because of more 'elective' caesars or because more 'older' women are getting pregnant and are at greater 'risk' of complication. For instance, only 1 in 1600 caesars are 'elective. According to this new data, caesars are increasing from women across every age, race, and socio-economic status.

The most likely explanation seems to be that American birth is just getting more medicalised: women are less informed about alternative birth options and interventions are increasing due to fears of medical malpractice.

As a result Choices in Childbirth, a non-profit maternity education group in New York is urging NYC to create an online database providing info on all New York hospitals so women know their options when they are choosing a place and a method for birth.

Source: www.choicesinchildbirth.org
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/118284.php

A little pelvic thrust for a lot of money

Well, I have now seen the future and as I have said many times before, it is not good.

First, it was the bikini wax. Then it was the Brazillian. My friends, the maintenance of your vagina has just become more expensive.

Welcome to the era of the gyno spa. That's right ladies. GYNO-SPA. We're talking a gym for your vagina. And where else would you find one, other than New York City.

After seeing how successful (and profitable) teeth whitening chains had become, Dr. Lauri Romanzi, a gynecologist, decided to invest in pelvic fitness. In a 'spa' set up next to her clinic, she takes her clients through pelvic exercises which she calls the 'dental floss' of feminine fitness.

"At the spa, the signature treatment will be a $150 gynecological exam — in which a client contracts her pelvic muscles around Dr. Romanzi’s fingers — to determine by feel whether muscle tone is weak, moderate or strong."

The exercise consultation is especially being marketed to new mothers who need to tighten up. You can even get cosmetic laser treatments to tighten up the skin of your vulva *gulp*

Scared. I am very, very scared.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/fashion/03SkinOne.html_r=1&ref=style&oref=slogin

Liv Tyler on losing baby weight

I have always appreciated Liv Tyler's (daughter of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler) strong sense of self and relative disregard for the sweeping trends of mainstream celebrity. After having her son, Milo, with husband Royston Langdon, British rocker of the band formerly known as Spacehog (who I did see once in Chicago in a former life and I have the t-shirt to prove it, Liv basically dropped off the Hollywood radar. She jumped the LA ship back to the Village (Greenwich, that is) and lives in a pretty sick Manhattan brownstone with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker and a hefty handful of happily under-the-radar New York celebrity mothers.

When I was gallavanting around Manhattan last December I had this secret wish that I would randomly run into Liv or SJP as I stalked Magnolia Bakery and all the Village maternity shops. Alas, I came away with nothing but some deliciously sweet cupcakes and alot of photos.

Anyway.

Liv was profiled in the 10 June edition of the Sunday Herald sunday magazine. She has some refreshing things to say about being a mother and the pressure to lose weight postbaby (and she's not killing herself to be thin, almost 2 years since the birth of her son).

On the joys of motherhood:

"I love being a mum. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I think I had alot of anxieties about what it would be like to be the child of someone like me. I didn't grow up with nannies- I grew up with my mum, my aunt and my grandmother, and I was a little suspicious about what it would be like to go back to work and have a nanny look after Milo."

On her weight:

"I wasn't one of those women who just dropped pounds instantly when I was breastfeeding. Actually, I became so homely, I was ravenous for things like doughnuts and cakes."

On the media pressure to be slim:

"I can remember walking down the street one day when Milo was probably six or eight months old, and a photographer took my picture. I was wearing a very unflattering shirt and a pair of sweat pants, and when the picture appeared in a magazine, they ran a caption asking if I was pregnant again. When I saw it, I said 'I think the holiday is over.'"

How she tried to lose the weight:

"I did a million different things. I was on a strict protein diet and then a raw diet, and then colonics and fasting. And I did pilates, yoga and worked out with my trainer. I rode my bike, I ran, I tried everything under the sun. I have lost a good 4.5 kilos, and I feel great. But even though I'm a size 6 [Australian size 8], my back and shoulders are still broad, so there's no way I will ever be a size 0. I'm really quite sensible about all that".