Posts Comments

Reconnecting With Your Birth Child

July 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
father and adopted children

Image via Wikipedia

A lot of young mothers give up their children for adoption because they simply can’t see themselves doing well by their kids if they keep them. When you think your children couldn’t possibly have a good life with you, it makes perfect sense to give them away so they can have a better life with someone else.

However, there are times when it may be in your best interests to reconnect with your birth child. You may want to let your child know that your family’s lineage has a particularly horrific genetic disease, or perhaps you want to be certain your child has grown up well. In some cases a mother may even want to see if they can actually have a relationship with their child, even though decades have passed. In some cases, however, there is too much bitterness in place for there to be such a realationship in the first place.

Building a relationship with someone of any kind is a challenge for everyone. In some cases a grown child will be happy to meet a new family they never even knew existed. They can learn all kinds of things about themselves beyond just their genes. Family is about a lot of things, and if there isn’t a feeling of bitterness with the grown child things can get a lot better. If you want to meet your grown child, there is a great reason to at least try. At that point it comes down to whether or not they want to meet you as well.

Filed Under: News, Personal Stories, Political Implications Tagged With: , ,

Should a Raped Woman Abort her Child?

July 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
3door ways

Image via Wikipedia

Nothing in this world is black and white. Every situation has an entire rainbow of different ways to look at it. While some people only see one way or another, two ways aren’t even scratching the surface. In the case of whether a raped woman should keep or abort her child, there are a lot of ways to look at it.

On the one hand, if she allows the baby that was produced by rape to live, it will benefit the cause of the rapist. One of the subliminal reasons why a rapist practices their namesake is to breed. While they might not be thinking about it at the time, having children is a supplementary result and potential goal of a rapist. When a child born from rape grows up, they will be more likely to become a rapist. It’s literally in their blood, after all.

However, one could also argue that every child deserves to live just as much as anyone else does. When a child is terminated without ever even having the chance to live, no one knows what sort of things he or she might have accomplished with a life. A rapist may also be a contender for the Nobel Prize in physics, for all anyone knows. The tough part about making such a decision as this one is in how many things no one can know. While benefiting a rapist is a bad decision, punishing a child for it’s birth father’s actions is another one.

Filed Under: News, Personal Stories, Pro Choice Tagged With: , ,

High Blood Pressure and Pregnancy

June 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Measuring blood pressure at home with en elect... 

Image via Wikipedia

High blood pressure is a medical condition that can occur in many women either before or during pregnancy. Treatment and monitoring during pregnancy is often necessary to ensure that this condition does not have negative consequence to the mother or the baby.

For women who are diagnosed with high blood pressure prior to pregnancy, the condition is know as chronic hypertension. In these cases, it is often necessary to continue to remain on medication as treatment. However, the specific medication may be changed or doses altered during pregnancy to ensure that there are not negative consequences for the baby.

In cases where the condition develops during pregnancy, it is usually referred to as gestational hypertension, toxemia, or preeclampsia. Treatment usually entails some form of medication to control the blood pressure during pregnancy. The specific medication will be selected by a health care professional and several options that are safe during pregnancy are available.

If left untreated, this condition can cause significant problems with the mother, baby, or placenta during pregnancy. In these cases, the placenta may detach causing problems with the pregnancy. Additional complications can include seizures in the mother or the baby, slow growth in the baby, or even kidney problems for the mother. Other treatments may include bed-rest for the mother in addition to anti-hypertension medication. Kidney function and additional ultrasounds may also be requested throughout the pregnancy to monitor this condition in both the mother and the baby.

This condition can cause severe complications with the pregnancy. However, if diagnosed, treated, and monitored correctly many women can go through their entire pregnancy without major problems.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Diabetes and Pregnancy

June 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A kit used by a woman with gestational diabetes. 

Image via Wikipedia

A common medical condition that is often addressed during pregnancy is diabetes. Two types of diabetes can occur with pregnancy. Pregestational diabetes occurs prior to the pregnancy and current treatment is adjusted if necessary for the pregnancy. Gestastional diabetes develops during pregnancy. However, many women can still have a safe and health pregnancy even with this condition.

For those women who do not already have diabetes, a routine simple glucose test is usually conducted between 15 and 18 weeks of pregnancy. This test is used to determine the possible development of gestational diabetes. Should the results come back inconclusive or demonstrating problems with insulin levels in the blood stream, a longer more detailed test may be ordered. Additionally, for women who have other risk factors such as a family history of diabetes, gestational diabetes with previous pregnancy, or who are over weight, testing may occur more often or earlier in the pregnancy.

Should you develop diabetes during your pregnancy, there are several treatment options available to you. Treatment possibilities include, a special diet, exercise, insulin injections, some medications that are acceptable during pregnancy, or daily monitoring of glucose levels.

Usually complications for the baby occur within mothers who have pregestational diabetes. Althoughsome conditions can develop within the baby if the mother develops gestational diabetes. These include macrosomia, birth injury, hypoglycemia, or respiratory distress.

Prenatal care and treatment with a medical professional will help guide you through all areas of this condition including if it develops and how to treat it and monitoring the baby, which can help to ensure a healthy and safe pregnancy for you and your baby.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

What to Know About Teen Pregnancy

May 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
An infant 

Image via Wikipedia

There is more to teen pregnancy than just the end result—a baby being born to a young mother.  Consider the following:

A teen pregnancy can happen when the girl’s body is still developing and growing. And, because the baby gets its nutrients from the mother, this means the mother may be deprived. This can be serious, especially because one of the nutrients is calcium, which helps bones grow. Girls need all the calcium they can get, but in a teen pregnancy, some of that is being leached away to be given to the baby.

Further, pregnancy, no matter what the mother’s age, can have complications. Some of these, such as pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, can be life-threatening to adult women as well as teens, and can cause health problems down the road, for both adults and teens.

A teen pregnancy means a drastic change in the teen mother’s lifestyle. Two important questions need to be answered:

  • Will she terminate the pregnancy? If this is even an option, will she need parental consent? Can an abortion on a teen mother be performed in her state?
  • Will she keep the baby or put it up for adoption?

A good way to do this is to use TV shows that depict teen pregnancy to start a conversation. Then, you as the parent can state your opinion and listen to your teen’s. You may be surprised—simply discussing the ramifications of teen pregnancy may make your teen decide to wait until she is older to take on this responsibility.

 

 

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Adoption: What To Know When Putting Your Baby Up For Adoption

March 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Adoption is a huge and important decision a woman will ever have to make in her life. Whether she’s in a relationship, married or on her own, it’s a decision that many people struggle with.

When a woman decides about giving up her baby for adoption, it means that when the baby is born a parent, or parents, make the difficult choice to give their newborn child to another family to raise him or her. Most parents do this because they are unable to physically and/or financially take care of their child.

According to many reports, there are more than 1.5 million children in the United States who are adopted. The same reports also state that about 500,000 women are looking to adopt a baby.

There are multiple reasons why a person would consider putting up their child for adoption. The biggest reason is almost always because the birth parents believe that they can’t take care of the child the way a baby should be taken care of. For other women, getting pregnant when not married or at a young age, will cause them to give up their baby so that he or she could have a better life.

There are two types of adoption to choose from, open and closed. A closed adoption is where the birth parents will not have any contact what so ever with their child once the adoption is finalized. Someone at the adoption agency will also pick the best possibly family for the birth parents and the family won’t get any information on who is adopting their baby.

With an open adoption, the birth parents have the option of being able to meet with the family and have the chance to receive photos of their baby as he or she grows up. In return, the adopting parents are able to get the family and medical history of the birth parents.

Adoption is an important decision that many people are often facing. It’s nice an easy decision, it takes a lot of careful thought and planning… but it’s a choice that many mothers are facing.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Snowflake Babies

March 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many couples or single women choose in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a means of helping them conceive a baby. For some, IVF is a means to increase the chances of pregnancy in previously unfertile women. For others, it is a way to postpone having children until they are ready. IVF involves harvesting eggs from the (potential) mother and introducing sperm in a laboratory setting. It is possible for several dozen eggs to be harvested, which results in dozens of embryos being produced.

Normally, several embryos will be implanted in the mother per each in vitro attempt, as not all will result in a successful pregnancy. The additional fertilized eggs are cryogenically frozen and stored for future use by the same parents. When parents of these preserved embryos reach a point of having all the children they want, or decide to cease attempts at IVF, the frozen embryos are no longer of use to them. It is up to those parents to decide whether to continue to store the embryos or discard them.

Many right-to-life proponents regard discarding of embryos as the equivalent of abortion. Since they maintain that human life begins at conception (sperm fertilizes egg), destruction of embryos equals the termination of human life. To them, embryos in a frozen state are seen as children kept in limbo and denied the chance to develop naturally.

There have now been hundreds of live births to parents who “adopt” frozen embryos for implantation in the adoptive mother. These babies are called Snowflake babies. There is a push to encourage adoption of embryos to minimize the destruction of fertilized eggs.

Frozen embryos have a long shelf life. At least one woman gave birth to a healthy Snowflake baby that had been frozen for 20 years. Scientists believe frozen embryos may be viable for 50 years or more! Imagine that happy someday when your granddaughter gives birth to her own aunt or uncle. It’s possible.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Finding Ways to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

February 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Before you can find the ways to prevent teen pregnancy, you’ll need to know about the risks involved to having a baby at such a young age. Some of the risks include poor grades, being a single parent, being young and not being able to financially take care of a child.

There are ways to prevent teens from having sex. Speak openly about what could happen if they have unprotected sex when they’re not ready. Kids need good role models in their lives and you could be that person.

Reports show that teens with a close relationship with their mom and dad will be less likely to be sexually active during their high school years. While they don’t think you should be best friends with your kids, it’s important to have a great relationship with them. The worst thing you can do is ignore the subject and not avoid the topic of sex; be open and honest with your kids.

When talking to your kids about sex, discuss a plan if they’re put in a situation they’re uncomfortable with. For instance, if your daughter feels like she’s getting pressured from her boyfriend to have sex, have her make up an excuse to get out of the bad situation. Hormones start kicking in when you’re a teenager and your kids should learn how to reduce their feelings of wanting to have sex.

While you want your kids to wait to have sex, that’s doesn’t always happen. Most kids have sex due to peer pressure or because they feel like they should since they’re in a relationship. If they’re going to have sex at least teach them about safe sex.

Be open and honest with your kids about sex and teen pregnancy. Don’t avoid or dance around the subject. If you’re open and honest with them, they’ll be less likely to have sex while in high school.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Signs of a Teenage Pregnancy

February 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you suspect that your teenage daughter may be pregnant there are signs of pregnancy you should look out for. While everyone knows missing a period is a telltale sign this can be difficult to pinpoint. More than likely a teen does not use the same bathroom as the parents and/or will not freely admit to the parents that they have missed a few cycles. Other warning flags or a combination thereof are fatigue, irritability, mood swings, disrupted sleep, different eating habits and odd food cravings. Many of these signs of pregnancy can not only be attributed to pregnancy but they can also be attributed to being a teenager. This is why it is extremely important for the adults in this situation to tread lightly.

If you suspect that your teenage daughter is pregnant then you must approach the situation delicately. As a parent must remember that if you decide to go to her about the situation, there are one of three scenarios that may occur. First, there is a possibility that you are mistaken. Second, the child may be pregnant but not even realize it. There are certain signs of pregnancy that many teenage girls either are unaware of or disregard altogether. Third, the child may be pregnant and trying to hide it from you regardless of the cost.

If you have a pretty open relationship with your teen you may ask them outright if there is any cause for concern regarding a pregnancy. Even if they say no, make sure they are not sexually active since that is the only way you can be sure they are not pregnant.

If talking about the subject with your teenage makes you uncomfortable then remember to go into the situation with an open mind and veer towards empathy. If the child is pregnant then the best way to deal with the decisions that need to be made is with love, empathy and openness rather than hostility.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Selective Abortion

January 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The majority of abortions are the result of an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy creating a crisis for the mother. These would include anything from teenage pregnancy, already having too many children to care for, and women who feel they are too old to have a baby.

Therapeutic abortions are performed primarily out of concern for health issues that would make it dangerous for a woman to carry a baby.

Selective abortions represent the smallest percentage of abortions performed in the United States. Gender Selection abortions may be performed when parents want a child of a particular gender. Many Asian and Third World countries encourage this for cultural and economic reasons. In the U.S., however, many states are disallowing abortions for reason of gender selection.

Pre natal testing for Down Syndrome has been available for decades. With advances in technology, many congenital illnesses and deformities can be diagnosed at an early stage of pregnancy. In addition to Down Syndrome, identifiable congenital conditions include Cystic Fibrosis, club foot, cleft palate, spina bifida, and heart defects. Parents may elect to selectively abort babies that will have lifelong disabilities

The technology of IVF (in vitro fertilization) has helped countless women conceive children they desperately want. However, the nature of the procedure can involve fertilizing dozens of eggs and implanting up to a dozen or more of these, in the hope that one or two will survive. On those occasions when too many fetuses survive the implantation, there is good reason to elect to have some of them removed. Multiple baby pregnancies present problems such as health risks to the mother and premature births with the associated likeliness of low birth weight, underdeveloped lungs, and developmental disabilities.

In many cultures, girls are aborted or allowed to die in the belief that girls are less valuable than boys. Someday, those boys will go searching for wives – and, thanks to selective gender abortion, there won’t be enough girls to go around.

Filed Under: News Tagged With:
« Older Posts