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Strollerderby
How do you know when it's time to get pregnant?
Should I have a baby?
It’s a question probably every woman asks herself at least once. Straight or gay, married or single, housewife or high-powered lawyer: At some point, we all look in the mirror and wonder if we should be getting pregnant right about now.
For some of us, it’s an easy question. We’ve always wanted kids and can’t wait to conceive. For others, we just asked that question because our mother asked for the 10,000th time, and the answer is still no.
For most women, though, it’s more complicated. There are pros and cons to having a baby. Even if you know you want kids, choosing the right time can be a torturous dance of weighing variables: Where are you at with your career? Do you need to finish grad school first? Should we have a baby before or after we buy a house?
If you’re not sure whether or not you want kids, the issue is even more complex. You might wonder if you’re really cut out to be a mom at all.
There’s one thing that cuts through the knot of indecision: baby lust!
I don't mean to be rude, but Tina Fey, you have it all!
What’s the rudest question you can ask a mom? When she plans to lose the baby weight? Whether she’s breastfeeding? When she plans to get her kids under control? Whether she’s the mom or the grandma?
Not even close, according to Tina Fey. The brain and face behind NBC’s “30 Rock” writes in this week’s New Yorker that the rudest question you can ask a mom is this: How do you juggle it all?
The second rudest question? Continue reading »
Surprise!
Everyone knows that as a woman ages, her chances of getting pregnant decreases. This scientific fact has proven to be a double-edged sword for me. I was born in 1969, the day after my mom turned 41, so I’ve never put too much stock in broad-sweeping conclusions when it comes to conception as it relates to age.
Yes, I must have put some stock in it. After all, I opted against a vasectomy after my triplets were born despite the fact that neither my wife nor I wanted any more children. Why did I opt against it? Simple. Caroline was 38. And as I stated earlier, everyone knows that as a woman ages, her chances of getting pregnant decreases. Throw in the fact that Caroline had needed the help of hormone shots to conceive our other four children? We figured we were good to go.
What’s that saying about making God laugh? Something about telling Him your plans?
Men's nutrition matters too
My husband always wanted more of a role in baby prep — diet, exercise, something that he could do to contribute to a healthy pregnancy. My OBGYN and I used to laugh at him — silly husband, it’s me, the mom who makes the difference, right?
But recently evidence is gaining that men do have a role in predicting the health of their baby, beyond the obvious genetic transfer.
For example, last year researchers showed that, through chemical tweaks to the sperm, a man’s diet (not his genetically-coded weight, but his health habits as an adult) could affect his offspring.
And this week, a study by a group at the University of Auckland suggests that taking antioxidant supplements may improve a man’s sperm quality. In fact those who took the supplements were 4 times as likely to get their partners pregnant. Here’s more: Continue reading »
"Is that your transparent attempt to ask if I battled infertility?"
Turns out, other people’s twins aren’t everybody’s business. (Other people’s triplets aren’t either.)
But moms of twins will tell you, that’s not common knowledge. Walk down the street with your same-aged kids and suddenly your reproductive health is fair game.
A new Mompetition video by xtranormal — these are the folks who brought you the hilarious “Why I Can’t Make Mom Friends,” — features the two robotic-sounding moms hitting all the highlights in the lows of good manners.
Twins and bonus Triplets video after the jump: Continue reading »
A Korean spa treatment is picking up some steam in the United States.
Hot crystals or stones pressed into the back, and orange blossom body wraps were once seen as innovative spa treatments. But these days, spa offerings have expanded beyond the privilege of spending hundreds of dollars to have someone scour off dead foot skin using ginger peel and nutmeg.
In Korea, chai-yok, or vaginal steam baths, are taken by many women at the end of their periods because of the belief that they reduce stress, fight bladder and kidney infections, clear hemorrhoids and regulate menstrual cycles. And the baths are picking up steam in the United States because of another supposed benefit: aiding infertility.
A blend of mugwort tea (used in Eastern medicine to balance female hormones), wormword (an antimicrobial cooling herb, also popular in Eastern medicine) and other assorted herbs are boiled in a pot while naked women crouch over open-seated stools. Neither herb has been widely used in or researched by Western medicine. But that’s not stopping a handful of spas in the United States from adding chai-yok to their treatment menus. Continue reading »
Try this at home: getting pregnant
Would you knock yourself up if you could? Leave the man (and the mess) right out of the equation and just *poof* make a baby?
One of our editors dug up this great essay from 2008 on little known facts about sex. Among them, some worms can reproduce themselves.
So can some women. At least, they can with a little help from a test tube full of donor sperm and some lube.
There’s a term for solo reproduction: parthenogenesis. Early feminists were fascinated with the idea. One, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, wrote a book about a whole nation of women who reproduced spontaneously, with no men involved.
Today, for lesbian mamas or single ladies looking to have babies on their own, it’s just a simple choice. The DIY approach is faster and cheaper than going the full fertility clinic route. If you’re not having any fertility issues, you can do it at home yourself, often successfully.
I’ve tried this at home.
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Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
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Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
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Katherine Stone 
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