I was completely unaware that November was Premature Awareness month, until Mrs. Flinger’s post today. In fact, I didn’t know such a month existed. Premature birth is the leading cause of death among newborns. I feared that Nia would arrive too early, and I would be pained to see her struggling to breathe. But this child didn’t want to come out. She was a week overdue. Go here to find out more info on premature births here in the U.S.
Just found out today that the mark on Baby 2.0’s face is impetigo. We believe it began as an insect bite and became infected. I didn’t know much about the infection until now. Here’s more info for mothers, because it is a common skin infection amongst kids.
A trial version of an HIV vaccine will be launced in South Africa the BBC reports.
Three thousand HIV negative men and women who are sexually active will be immunised in the four-year study. An international team of researchers, led by experts from the US, will oversee the trial of the vaccine, created by the drug company Merck…The test vaccine has already been through trials for safety and immune response in the Americas, Africa and Australia. It does not contain live HIV, so cannot cause infection, but does contain copies of three HIV genes. The hope is that exposure to these genes prompts an immune response in the body so that cells containing HIV virus would be recognised and destroyed. [Read more…]
This is great progress but I just have one question. Wouldn’t the effectiveness of the vaccine need to be tested by having the participants come in contact with the virus? We don’t want that. The article informs us that “everyone will receive advice on how to practise safe sex.” But do they really want everyone to practice safe sex, because if no one gets infected how do you test the vaccine? Things that make you go hmm?
Today I was reading the magazine, Lamaze Parents. In the “President’s Letter” section of the mag, Raymond De Vries, PhD pointed out the distinction between the phrases women use when they are going to give birth. He “studied maternity care in the Netherlands where one-third of women give birth at home.
There I learned that while we who speak English say, “I am having a baby,” in Dutch the expression is, “I am getting a baby.”…When we “have” a baby, we are inclined to arrange the experience to suit our needs. But when we “get” a baby, both the baby and the birth are gifts we are given. Like all gifts, they offer us the chance to be surprised, to be thankful, and to learn a little bit more about who we are.
I found this entire passage relevant to a growing trend in our society–that of scheduled c-sections for non-medical reasons. I’m all for a woman’s right to choose, but I don’t understand why so many women are choosing this option. I don’t think people understand that this is major surgery, and with this surgery comes a longer recuperation time.
I love the idea of saying For me, it is more appropriate to say, “I am getting a baby” rather than “I am having a baby.” Even though this can be a stressful and challenging time in a woman’s life, “getting” a baby is a precious gift; an experience that no man can ever have, and not even all women can, or will, have. The article only mentioned these two examples but I would love to hear from women (or men) of other cultures about how one would say this in their respective language.
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