Do we measure up?

Some kids will be tall, some short, that’s the way it goes.  Does it matter?  Sort of.  As it turns out, the average height of  is meaningful in all kinds of ways.  American kids were the world’s tallest until the 1960s, today, children in the Netherlands lead the growth charts.  In other words, when pregnant women have access to prenatal health care and children, too, have access to quality, affordable health care, healthy food and playtime outside, those kids grow to their fullest height.

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A pediatrician in Florida is giving preggo patients experimental hormone treatments in the hopes of preventing their future daughters from becoming lesbians.This isn’t quite what I had in mind when I suggested that more drugs should be tested on pregnant women.

The hormone, dexamethasone (also called  “dex”), has not been shown to be safe for pregnant women or their unborn children. The FDA hasn’t approved it for use in pregnant women, but a few researchers think it shows promise in preventing “ambiguous genitalia” in babies: genitals that are neither clearly male nor female.

Maria New and her colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine are taking it a step further, and experimenting to see if the drug can prevent lesbianism in girl babies. They also hope to “help” girls grow up to be wives and mothers. Their dream is to find a cure not only for queerness, but also for an “abnormal” disinterest in babies, marriage and “women’s work”.

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The MOTHERS act has become part of the Senate’s health reform bill. This law, if passed, provides for education and screening about post-partum depression and related mood disorders.

Supporters of the bill believe it will help to lessen the stigma about maternal mood disorders and get more women the help they need. Opponents claim it will provide the pharmaceutical industry an insidious mechanism to push dangerous. Continue reading »

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Want to have a doula or labor coach to assist at your birth? Interested in drafting a birth plan with your partner? Don’t have your baby at the Aspen Women’s Center in Provo, UT.

The center has posted a sign in their entryway that reads:

Because the Physicians at Aspen Women’s Center care about the quality of their patient’s deliveries and are very concerned about the welfare and health of your unborn child, we will not participate in a “Birth Contract”, a Doulah Assisted, or a Bradley Method delivery. For those patients who are interested in such methods, please notify the nurse so we may arrange transfer of your care.

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Hey insurance companies and care providers — want moms to get better prenatal care? If a recent study out of Harvard School of Public Health is to believed, all it takes is $100 cold, hard cash.

Inventive health insurance provider Culinary Health Fund, out of Las Vegas, offered pregnant moms $100 upon delivery of their baby if they received prenatal care in their first trimester and regularly thereafter. Interestingly, they offered participating OB’s and midwives $100 as well.

What they found was that between 1999 and 2001, the program reduced its members’ risk of delivering a low birth weight baby by 39 percent. It also cut the need for NICU care and reduced health care spending in the first year of life by $235. Membership in the Healthy Pregnancy Program jumped from 14 to 76 percent.

Prenatal care is a big commitment, one that — you’d think — requires a deep desire for a healthy birth and healthy child, rather than dreams of a $100 payday. I’d be curious to know whether the huge increase in participants was actual due to mothers being motivated by money, or improved education and awareness on the part of the provider. After all, $100 goes pretty fast when you’re a new mom. But $100 a patient adds up when you’re a busy clinic.

What do you think about the idea of paying moms-to-be for their prenatal care?

Photo:  jenn_jenn, Flickr

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