The late stage of pregnancy is a good time for a woman to begin thinking about methods of birth control for after the baby’s born. The sheer exhaustion of caring for a newborn may act as ‘natural birth control’ for a while, but eventually, passion will take over and you’ll want to re-connect with the parent of your new baby on a more adult level once again.

If you’re positive you don’t want anymore children’whether you just had number one, number 69 (the most babies ever born to one mother in history) or somewhere in between’tubal ligation surgery, having your ‘tubes tied,’ might be the way to go.

Why should the burden fall on the woman? Isn’t a vasectomy a simple, in-office procedure that your husband can have, while tubal ligation is major surgery?

Good points, but, according to the American Cancer Society, tubal ligation for birth control also may have health benefits in preventing ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer often falls in breast cancer’s highly-publicized shadow as a ‘woman killer,’ but it is, in fact, the eighth most common cancer overall, and the fifth leading cause of cancer death. Your chance of contracting ovarian cancer is roughly one in 71, but researchers think there may be a correlation with ovulation and the cancer. For this reason, taking birth control pills may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, as will tubal ligation for permanent birth control. The less times, over the course of your life, your ovaries release an egg, the less likely you are to contract ovarian cancer.

Most ovarian cancers occur post-menopause; in fact, half of them are found in women over the age of 63, so another good preventative measure is to continue with annual pelvic exams late into life. Additionally, keep your weight in check, as obese women are 50 percent more likely to die from the disease.

In the U.S. in 2008, the ACS predicts 21,000 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed, with 15,000 of those resulting in death. It’s time to bring this woman-killer out of the shadows and work to start preventing the disease.

]]> http://blogs.babiesonline.com/health/birth-control-may-prevent-ovarian-cancer/feed/ 1 http://blogs.babiesonline.com/current-events/the-baby-borrowers-birth-control-or-child-abuse/ http://blogs.babiesonline.com/current-events/the-baby-borrowers-birth-control-or-child-abuse/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:58:11 +0000 brit http://blogs.babiesonline.com/?p=3199

The Baby Borrowers premiered on NBC on Wednesday night. The premise of the show is to give teenage couples a real baby to look after, so they can find out exactly what it’s like being parents.

The supposed aim is that teenagers will watch the show, and realize that being a mom or dad is actually much, much harder than they think. This show is especially timely after the recent furore over the 17 pregnant teens in Massachusetts who had an alleged pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together.

The show is modeled after a British show of the same name, and it provoked controversy in Britain over the safety and well being of the babies and children involved. Critics likened The Baby Borrowers to “kidnapping” babies and expressed concern that permanent psychological damage would be done.

NBC say that while the show was filmed, nannies and paramedics were on the set 24 hours a day, the teenagers and babies lived in childproofed houses, and the babies’ parents were present and allowed to intervene for any reason. The teens will look after babies for 3 days.

I lived in Los Angeles when The Baby Borrowers was being cast, and the producers approached a Mom’s group I was a member of, looking for babies to be on the show. Would you volunteer your baby for a show like this?

The teenage girls wore fake pregnant bellies in the first show, and the teenage couple get their babies next week. Then after that, they will try looking after toddlers, teenagers and seniors.

Will you be watching this show? Do you think it will deter teenagers from becoming pregnant? Do you think any potential damage to the babies and children (and seniors!) used outweighs the social good? Or do you think the whole idea is horrendous?

And would you volunteer your child for a show like this? My mom friends, and me – we all said “no”. Actually, it was more like NO NO NO NO! What would you have done?

As reported here at the Babies Online Blog, teen pregnancy rates, nationwide, have dropped between 1990 and 2004. Abortions also dropped by 24 percent during the same time period.

Unfortunately, the optimistic 2004 stats were offset by a preliminary CDC report on 2006 births, which showed an increase in the number of teen pregnancies for the first-time in 14 years. In one Massachusetts school, the news is even more depressing.

In the past year, the teen pregnancy rate at Gloucester High School has more than quadrupled, with 17 young women pregnant. Time Magazine reported on this startling trend in the lower-income New England fishing town.

In the article, the school’s principal explained that several students requested multiple pregnancy tests, and seemed upset, rather than relieved, with a negative result. The epidemic is due, in part, to a ‘pregnancy pact,’ in which several friends under the age of 16 pledged to get pregnant and raise their children together.
When school officials and the high school clinic’s medical director advocated dispensing oral contraceptives without parental consent, however, they faced opposition from many people in the community.

My question: How will birth control pills help stop pregnancy if teenage girls are actually trying to get pregnant?

Perhaps the school should consider expanding their sex education curriculum to include spending 24 hours a day, every day for a week or more, with a colicky infant. I don’t know if this would change the minds of women in their 20s and 30s, who are truly ready to have children (although, having never been in that situation, it might!) But I’m pretty sure this scare tactic could help curb intentional teen pregnancy. If that doesn’t work, perhaps they could force the teens to pay for diapers for a year.

When you make the decision to have no more kids, you have plenty of different options on how you can make sure that you won’t wind up pregnant again. There are surgeries for both women and men that will effectively end the chances of another pregnancy, but before you jump into something permanent you should consider a few things:

1. Are you sure? Post-pregnancy hormones can make you say and do a lot of wacky things, and I know from personal experience that I uttered the words, “I’m never doing this again” more than once just because I was so incredibly tired. If you think there may be a chance that you’ll want another baby someday down the road, don’t take any drastic steps.
2. Are you both sure? If you are in a committed relationship, this should be a mutual decision. One person shouldn’t bully the other person into ending the baby-making. It should be something that you both agree upon.
3. Are you quite young? I knew that I was done with having babies after my second child, but by that point I was already in my thirties. Had I made the same decision in my early twenties I may have had to convince my doctors that yes, I was absolutely sure of this decision. As you get older life is inevitably going to change, and so will your wants and desires. If you’re relatively young then you may want to hold off on anything permanent.
4. Talk to your doctor. There may be a bunch of different options available to you, some of which may be semi-permanent yet completely reversible if necessary. After all, there is more to this than vasectomies and hysterectomies.

Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with making a decision to not have any more kids. It can be a painful decision, but if you’re anything like me you will also find it to be quite liberating.

Only 17 and she has already brought 7 children into this world. Her name is Pamela Villarruel and she lives in Argentina.

Pamela delivered her first child, a boy, at 14. She got pregnant again a year later and delivered 3 girls. Another pregnancy followed and she again delivered 3 girls just days before her 17th birthday. Each pregnancy occurred with a different partner and both sets of triplets were non-identical. 7 kids in 3 pregnancies! And all these without IVF, hormone therapy or any other form of assisted reproduction.

She probably holds the record for having the most number of kids among girls of her age.
In addition, two times triplets which are fraternal or non-identical are a rarity. This means that she has produced 3 eggs which were all fertilized. It is not clear whether the triplets were conceived all at the same time or were conceived through superfecundation or superfetation.

After her second pregnancy, Pamela?s mother wanted her tubes cut but this was not allowed because she was (and still is) underaged. Instead, she received contraceptive injections. However, one missed shot and the second set of twins were conceived. It is not so clear what precautionary measures she is currently taking against further pregnancies since according to Argentine laws, she has to wait till she’s 21 to have her tubes cut.

Doctors call her a ?scientific rarity.? I say she is an extreme case of teenage pregnancy gone out of control. She is also a victim of failure of certain countries, cultures, and religions to face issues of teenage sex and contraception.

But I really wish her and her kids all the best.

Source:

Sunday Mirror UK, 30 March 2008

AOL News

It has been joked that Natural Family Planning(NFP) is the most expensive method of birth control as it costs around $250,000 to implement. Why $250,000? $250,000 is the amount of money that the US Government statisticians have calculated as the cost to raise a child until the age of 17.

To be truthful, all methods of birth control, save abstinence, have a failure rate. The failure rate is the number of women using the method that became pregnant anyway. Your doctor is the best source of information regarding birth control, failure rates, and other family planning concerns you may have.

When I was in my early 20?s, I tried the pill. I didn?t like it and actually had some severe complications that required surgery. I tried other methods and had some allergic reactions. Because of my experiences, I began my quest for ?natural? family planning. Armed with a book from the local library, I started the grand experiment?and became pregnant?several times.

Why do I share my embarrassing failures with blog readers? I truly have a great desire to warn others of my mistakes and experiences to help them make informed decisions. Make no mistake, I am thrilled with my children, and I wouldn?t change anything, but if I decided to use NFP now, I?d make sure that I did a little more research!

One thing I discovered was that NFP is actually a pretty complex method requiring a significant commitment of time and self control for both partners. Firstly, the couple must abstain from sexual intimacy during a woman?s fertile times. Secondly, there is a certain amount of work required to determine when you are fertile which means monitoring your temperature and watching for other signs of fertility. Some of these signs may not be so easy to interpret. Some of the tests may just not work with your lifestyle. For example, monitoring your temperature is an important part of NFP as your temperature is affected by your fertility level. Women are instructed to get a basal temperature first thing in the morning before getting out of bed as this is a true basal temperature. I found that it wasn?t always possible to take my temperature before getting out of bed in the morning?at least when you have other children that need to be tended to in the early morning hours. I also found the method to be complex to understand. For example, if I am running a fever, then what?

I have known couples who found that NFP worked for them. They felt that it brought them closer as a couple, and were willing to make the sacrifices needed to make the method work. All of the women, it should be noted, who had success with this method had very regular cycles. Most of the couples took classes on NFP, which also seemed to help the overall effectiveness of the method as well. Without exception, all of the couples using this method were in a committed relationship and honestly had no negative thoughts against pregnancy, nor did they have any significant health issues which would compromise their health or the health of their child if they became pregnant. In other words, if the method failed and the woman became pregnant, it would not have been a crisis.

Have you tried NFP? What have your experiences been? Would you recommend this method to other women?

The Ortho-Evra patch was introduced in 2001 in a blaze of advertising hyping the benefits of the patch over the pill. The patch contains hormones similar to those in the contraceptive pill, except that they are absorbed through the skin. Patches are worn in a four-week cycle. A patch is worn for a week at a time, then replaced, for three weeks. After a patch-free week, the cycle starts again.

It’s supposed to be more convenient, easier to use, and deliver a more consistent dose of hormones than the pill. Campaign group Public Citizen says that the patch also puts women at more risk of blood clots and a range of other side effects, than using the pill.

Public Citizen are calling the FDA to remove the Ortho-Evra patch from the market. The FDA have changed the labeling of the patch several times to add warnings. The label changes came after studies showing that women using the patch are up to two times as likely to suffer from blood clots than those using the pill.

Several law suits have been filed by women and families of women who say they have suffered blood clots – oftentimes fatal – caused by the Ortho-Evra patch. Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical company who manufacture Ortho-Evra, have been settling several cases out of court before they went to trial, presumably to avoid adverse publicity in the face of growing concerns over the patch. One tragic case involved a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl who had only been using the patch for six weeks before suffering fatal blood clots in her lungs. Johnson & Johnson settled out of court with the girl’s family for $1.25 million.

Studies have also shown Ortho-Evra users are more likely to suffer side effects like breast discomfort, painful periods, nausea and vomiting, and reactions at the patch site, compared to those who used the pill.

Johnson & Johnson say that Ortho-Evra users find it easier to use the patch, and use it more reliably than the pill, so it is a more effective contraception method than the pill. They also say that the risk to individual patch users is very small – around 3-5 women in 10,000 will suffer a blood clot, compared to 1 in 10000 in women who don’t use hormone-based contraceptives.

Public Citizen say the extra risk is simply unacceptable, and Ortho-Evra should be withdrawn within the next six months. Do you agree? You can sign their petition to the FDA at NotMyPatch.org.

Have you used Ortho-Evra? Did you suffer any side effects? Should it be banned? Or do you enjoy the benefits and think they outweigh the risks?

Choosing birth control is hard. And for new moms, especially breastfeeding moms, it’s even harder. With all the warnings in the news lately, it makes moms wonder what’s the best choice for them.

A growing number of mothers are turning to an all-natural method, called Natural Family Planning, or NFP.

If you charted when you were trying to conceive, you already know how to do it. The same charting methods of tracking your basal body temperature, and especially cervical fluid, are used to determine when you ovulate, and around ovulation, you abstain, or use a barrier method.

The premise is, there are only a couple of days during your cycle when you can get pregnant. You ovulate once in a cycle, and the egg lives at most 2 days. Before you ovulate, and after the egg has gone, then you cannot get pregnant.

This method has some wonderful advantages. It’s almost free, it needs nothing more than pen and paper, an optional thermometer, and a couple of moments of your time a day. It’s very eco-friendly – no pill packets, and no peeing out synthetic hormones and turning all the local fish into 3 eyed hermaphrodites (kidding). There’s no medication so it’s very compatible with breastfeeding. It’s also compatible with faiths that disapprove of birth control. There’s nothing to interfere with lovemaking when you are not ovulating, and many couples feel that the advantages outweighs having to abstain or use condoms for a couple of days mid-cycle.

Disadvantages are that the method takes some time to learn. You really need to understand the principle if it’s to work, and you will probably have to chart several cycles before you’ll feel confident you won’t get pregnant. It took me several cycles to start understanding my chart, but now it takes literally seconds a day. You’ll also need the discipline to chart every day – but it’s barely any more work than popping a pill.

I use this method because I don’t want any more artificial hormones, foreign object or implants in my body. A bonus for me is that I now have a greater understanding of what my body is doing every cycle, and it’s pretty awesome what your body actually does! Another neat advantage is that once we decide to try for No. 2, we’ll know exactly what day to go for it!

My bible of Natural Family Planning, which explains everything you need to know (and also a must read for anyone trying to conceive, women with questions about their cycles, and just about anyone with a womb) is a book called Taking Charge of your Fertility, by Toni Weschler.

It’s everything you’ll need to know about NFP, and a must read if you are interested in following this method. There were several places in this book where I exclaimed – so that’s why that happens! Or that’s why I feel like that! I highly recommend it.