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There was a recent story about a California woman who recently gave birth, bringing the number of total children in her family to 17. Wow! Some people may find that really horrible, but I have to say that I thought the children that they interviewed had great attitudes. One of them said that at least they don’t get bored. I can’t imagine rasing that many kids on a maintenance worker’s salary, but, apparently, they manage. They live in a seven room house, but it is unclear whether that refers to the number of actual rooms or the number of bedrooms.

I found out another interesting fact from this article. The Census stops counting when households reach 7. That means as far as the census is concerned, my family is now as big as it will ever be.

ACOG NEWS RELEASE

For Release: November 30, 2005
Contact: ACOG Office of Communications
(202) 484-3321
communications@acog.org

Vaginal Birth Not Associated With Incontinence Later in Life

Washington, DC — Contrary to the belief held by some, vaginal birth does not
appear to be associated with incontinence later in life, a new study has found.
The study, published in the December issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology,
found that incontinence was more strongly related with family history.

An estimated 30-50% of adult women suffer from urinary incontinence, and
vaginal delivery is often considered to be the major risk factor for stress
urinary incontinence. While 62% of urogynecologists previously surveyed
would support performing elective cesarean deliveries to prevent
incontinence in the long term, the benefit of this practice has not been proven.
Risk factors for incontinence include body mass index, hypertension, and
integrity of the pelvic floor, all of which tend to run in families.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York
studied 143 pairs of biological sisters. All of the women were at least 45 years
old and postmenopausal. All but two pairs of sisters were Caucasian.
However, one sister of each pair was nulliparous (no deliveries) and one was
parous (at least one vaginal delivery). The women answered questionnaires
and underwent clinical testing to measure incontinence.

The researchers found that the rate of incontinence was 47.6% for nulliparous
women and 49.7% for parous women, a statistically insignificant difference.
They did discover, however, that 63% of the pairs shared continence status
(i.e. either both were continent or both were incontinent). The researchers say
that their findings run contrary to the conventional wisdom that nulliparity
protects against incontinence and are similar to findings from their earlier
study of nuns who had never given birth and yet still had high rates of
postmenopausal incontinence.

While further research is needed to determine if there is a genetic component
to incontinence, the researchers say that this study indicates that family
history is more strongly associated with incontinence than a history of vaginal
delivery.

Contact: Gunhilde M. Buchsbaum, MD, University of Rochester Medical
Center, Rochester, NY, at gunhilde_buchsbaum@urmc.rochester.edu.

# # #

Everyone knows that changes in cabin pressure during takeoff and landing can cause pain inside your ear; adults are often advised to chew gum and parents are advised to give young children something to eat or drink to help alleviate the pressure. For babies, the recommendation is that they either nurse or suck on a bottle or pacifier. But while some poor woman was trying to fly home with her 7 month old baby, she was repeatedly asked by a flight attendant to stop nursing and wait until the plane landed where she could feed in the terminal. When the woman tried to tell the attendant that it was her legal right to breastfeed her child on the plane, the attendant responded that it was “company policy”. Apparently they would rather disturb the other passengers with a screaming baby than risk having a nursing baby offend those seated nearby. You can read about it here.

Illinois’ governor has asked that junk food be banned in elementary and middle schools (apparently it’s okay for high school students). The state Board of Education has responded by proposing guidelines that consider the nutritional content (i.e. percentage of fat, calories, etc.), rather than the category of food. Under this proposal, whole milk would be banned but baked chips would be allowed. Do I really even need to comment on this, or are you all thinking what I’m thinking? You can read more about this “excellent” plan here.

A recent study published in Pediatrics says that women still need more support to continue breastfeeding past 4 weeks. So, is the support not available, or are women simply unaware of the opportunities for support? Are there no La Leche League groups near these women, or is that to inconvenient or intimidating? Why do 32% of women not even attempt breastfeeding? You can read more about the study’s findings here.

The government says yes. Environmentalists aren’t quite so sure. Government spokesmen say that the waters of Lake Ponchetrain are about as good as they ever are– is that supposed to be reassuring? You can read more about it here.

Kellogg’s is proposing substituting a special (read messed around with and no longer anywhere close to its natural state) soy oil in its products to eliminate trans-fats from its cereal, crackers, and other products. While in theory this sounds like a good idea, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be until we discover that low linolenic soy oil causes cancer or heart attacks or strokes or any number of conditions that can kill you. By the way, Monsanto is behind this new wonder oil, so that’s enough to give me pause. Instead of requiring food companies to eliminate trans fats, how about if the FDA requires them to make food that is actually, well, food– not some weird concoction that is more suitable to use with a chemistry set than the dinner table. You can read more about Kellogg’s plans here.