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Feeling more frazzled than festive? When you hear kids talk about how much Christmas traditions mean to them, you'll realize that all the effort you make this time of year really pays off!
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Parents, policymakers, business leaders, and the general public increasingly recognize the importance of the first few years in the life of a child for promoting healthy physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Nonetheless, many children face deficiencies between ages 0 and 5 that can impede their ability to develop to their fullest potential.
Their findings indicate that a body of sound research exists that can guide resource allocation decisions. This evidence base sheds light on the types of programs that have been demonstrated to be effective, the features associated with effective programs, and the potential for returns to society that exceed the resources invested in program delivery.
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Approximately 82% of respondents indicated support for programs that teach students about both abstinence and other methods of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Similarly, 68.5% supported teaching how to properly use condoms. Abstinence-only education programs, in contrast, received the lowest levels of support (36%) and the highest level of opposition (about 50%) across the 3 program options. Self-identified conservative, liberal, and moderate respondents all supported abstinence-plus programs, although the extent of support varied significantly.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that US adults, regardless of political ideology, favor a more balanced approach to sex education compared with the abstinence-only programs funded by the federal government. In summary, abstinence-only programs, while a priority of the federal government, are supported by neither a majority of the public nor the scientific community.
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Pediatrics Adolescent Medicine - Sex Education - Abstinence
» Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
References
[PDF] US teenage pregnancy statistics The Alan Guttmacher Institute
[PDF] Sex education in America NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll
Struggling babies born after just 22 weeks' gestation should be allowed to die, but everything should be done to support babies born after 24 weeks, an independent ethics panel announced today. For babies born between 23 and 24 weeks, doctors, parents and nursing staff should come to a mutual decision about whether or not to resuscitate, the researchers say.
There are only anecdotal reports of babies surviving after fewer than 22 weeks in the womb. At that time, babies have just a 1% chance of survival with intensive care and are almost certain to suffer severe disability, the researchers say.
After 23 weeks’ gestation, a baby has just a 16% chance of surviving with intensive care, and a 64% risk of serious disability. At 24 weeks, survival is 44%, but by 25 weeks, the survival rate is 63% and risk of severe disability is 40%.
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Premature Babies - Weeks Gestation - Medical Ethics
» New Scientist
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US Reaction: In 1985 Congress amended the laws governing support for child abuse and neglect programs to mandate that all infants born in the United States receive medical care. No matter how sick or disabled, all newborns, according to what became known as the Baby Doe law, must be treated. That is what makes the just-issued report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in England so startling.
» MSNBC
THE STUDY "Beautiful Parents Have More Daughters: A Further Implication of the Generalized Trivers-Willard Hypothesis," published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
While Kanazawa's methods seem rather subjective, it is theoretically possible that—if physical attractiveness really does increase the reproductive success of daughters more than sons—natural selection could find a way to make better-looking people more likely to have daughters. Potential parents will always run up against uncertainty, however. "I can't predict the sex of any one child," says Kanazawa. "I can't say that if you're tall and geeky and beautiful then it's two against one and boy wins."
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Beautiful Parents - Attractiveness
» Discover
In the U.S., one of the richest countries in the world, the number of babies born too early keeps going up--and with all their medical savvy, doctors can't figure out why. Today nearly 13 out of every 100 births are premature, an increase of 30% over the past 20 years.
Part of that rise is due to the advent of modern fertility treatments, which caused a sharp jump in the number of twins, triplets and higher multiples--most of whom are born early. But it turns out that 83% of preemies in the U.S. are singletons whose prematurity can be caused by any number of factors, including bacterial infections, ruptured membranes, cervical abnormalities, high blood pressure, stress, inflammation and the effects of smoking and alcohol consumption.
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Preterm Births - Fertility Treatments - High Blood Pressure
» Time Mag
How fertility advances could allow women to take over the boardroom.
The revelation by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine that women in their 50s can cope with the stresses of parenthood as well—or as badly—as anyone else has again raised the prospect that the experience of women such as Dr. Patricia Rashbrook, who this year became the oldest new mother in Britain at the age of 62, will become increasingly common. That seems unlikely for now. Treatments are expensive, unreliable, and imperfect: Both Dr. Rashbrook and Adriana Iliescu, said at age 66 to be the world's oldest woman to give birth, needed donated eggs.
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Parenthood - Fertility - Biological Clock
» Slate Magazine
For millions of sleep-deprived mothers around the world, this woman's findings could be a miracle! Priscilla Dunstan, a mom with a special gift, says she's unlocked the secret language of babies.
Neh="I'm hungry"
Owh="I'm sleepy"
Heh="I'm experiencing discomfort"
Eair="I have lower gas"
Eh="I need to burp"
Those "words" are actually sound reflexes, Priscilla says. "Babies all around the world have the same reflexes, and they therefore make the same sounds," she says. If parents don't respond to those reflexes, Priscilla says the baby will eventually stop using them.
Priscilla recommends that parents listen for those words in a baby's pre-cry before they start crying hysterically. She says there is no one sound that's harder to hear than others because it varies by individual. She also says some babies use some words more than others.
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Baby Language - Newborn Baby
» Oprah
Families feel they have lost confidence in their child-rearing skills. Many parents have lost confidence in how to bring up their children properly and feel inadequate, isolated and unsupported in coping with the pressures of modern family life, the government has warned.
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Raising Children - Modern Family
» The Observer (UK)
As mothers and fathers we are constantly told how complex this 'job' of parenting is. Through parenting magazines, society's anxiety about teenagers' behaviour, parenting classes and television programmes such as Supernanny and The House of Tiny Tearaways, we are bombarded with advice and prescription about how to do better.
However, acquiring the knowledge to be a successful parent does not have to be so painful and confusing. Drawing on the Family and Parenting Institute's experience of research into parenting and families, the basic ingredients for happy family life and confident, socially responsible teenagers can be distilled into the following seven steps...
» Search Baby-Specific Tags: Parenting - Child-rearing
» The Observer (UK)
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