4 Myths About Pregnancy and the Flu Shot

vrijdag 27 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Adriana Velez 10 hours ago

The question comes up every fall: Should pregnant women get the flu shot? On one hand, a flu shot could save your unborn baby's life. On the other hand, a lot of us feel squeamish about flu vaccines in general, even more so during pregnancy. What's in that thing, and should we really be getting vaccinated while we're pregnant? In fact, while vaccinations are up for most people, expecting moms are still very resistant. Only about half of pregnant women get the flu shot. So now doctors are working to get the word out: The flu shot is perfectly safe during pregnancy. Here's why.

It doesn't cause miscarriage. According to a study of pregnant women tracked between 2009 and 2011, women who were vaccinated for the H1N1 virus were no more likely to suffer a miscarriage than women who were not vaccinated.

It doesn't cause birth defects or affect birth weight. In another study of 4,191 pregnant women, vaccinated women were no more likely to deliver a baby with birth defects than unvaccinated women.

It doesn't cause premature birth. In one study, vaccinated women on average delivered their babies three days earlier than non-vaccinated women, but doctors are not concerned about this small difference. In another study, vaccinated women actually delivered later than unvaccinated women.

It doesn't cause complications. Yet another study shows that the flu vaccine is not tied to pregnancy complications like high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, or urinary tract infections.

Of course, you should still talk with your doctor before getting vaccinated. You may have some special concerns that make you an exception. But in study after study, doctors are not finding a risk for getting vaccinated during pregnancy.

Are you worried about getting vaccinated against the flu while pregnant?

Image via U.S. Army/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.  

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Jenelle Evans Is Crazy to Think She Can Prevent Teen Pregnancy

woensdag 25 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Maressa Brown 11 hours ago

For her relationship/custody/drug drama and more, Jenelle Evans is, in a word, infamous. But the Teen Mom 2 star apparently still believes she can be a role model for teens. She tweeted yesterday, "Wow! I got a lot of school appearances booked already! Can't wait to talk about Teen Pregnancy Prevention!"

Hrmmm, really? Jenelle Evans is going to school young, impressionable minds about steering clear of the path she took? Which lead her to MTV fame (or infamy, to be more specific, but still, I'm sure lots o' kids these days don't really care about the differentiation)? That said, I'm not seeing how any Teen Mom reality star -- or anyone who has become a "star" by having a teen pregnancy -- is the best person to get through to teens. But of all of 'em, Jenelle seems like the least likely.

Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but let's look at the facts: Jenelle doesn't have custody of her son, her mother Barbara does. She's battled drug addiction, has gone to jail and rehab, and has an estranged husband named Courtland but is currently in a relationship with New Guy Nathan. As far as we can tell, she hasn't had some huge turnaround and started living a completely upstanding, clean, mature adult existence just yet. So what makes her a good candidate to counsel teens on ... anything? Let alone the fact that it kiiiinda looks hypocritical, or at least nonsensical, for her or anyone in her position to tell them to not get pregnant when getting pregnant was what helped make her a celebrity.

Despite all of this, I appreciate that she's attempting to use her notoriety to accomplish something positive -- hopefully encouraging teens to use various forms of birth control, including but not limited to abstinence. Because if her "teen pregnancy prevention" talk is actually a completely unrealistic, moralistic scientifically proven-ineffective spiel on just saying "no" to sex, then it's an even bigger joke than it sounds.

How do you feel about Jenelle Evans preachin' to teens about teen pregnancy prevention?

Image via Jenelle Evans/Instagram

Click "Like" for the latest on the Teen Moms. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Maressa Brown

has enjoyed reporting and writing for a variety of entertainment and women's magazines and websites. More often than not, you'll find her blogging, hitting the gym, reading, researching something on her iPhone, laughing, chatting at an above-"normal" volume, or getting her caffeine fix.

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The Reason Behind 'Teen Mom' Mackenzie Douthit's Second Pregnancy Is Hard to Believe

vrijdag 13 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Jeanne Sager 16 hours ago

Ever since news leaked that Mackenzie Douthit is pregnant with baby number two, the Teen Mom 3 star has been fielding a lot of criticism. She isn't even 19! And her second pregnancy came before she and Josh McKee even got married!

Why would a girl who fought a hard fight with her mom to get herself on birth control to prevent a second pregnancy make a move so many are calling dumb? She's finally given the world an answer ... and, well, it's interesting.

Challenged on Twitter about baby number two, Mackenzie challenged her critics right back:

If a doctor told you your body would no longer be able to have babies after the age 21. And your married and 19. What would you do?

Well, when you put it that way ...

I can't say that the doctor's order to Mackenzie really makes that much sense to me. Generally practitioners don't begin putting an age limit on procreation until women are much older than the Teen Mom. She's 19, not 39.

More From The Stir: 'Teen Mom' Star Gets Engaged -- Thank Goodness!

But Mackenzie does have health problems, including type one diabetes, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that her doctor might have told her that she may have limitations on childbearing. It happens to women all the time.

The question is what would you do? If a doctor did tell you that you didn't have that much time left to have a baby, and you really wanted one?

Would you start going at it like rabbits just to make it happen, just to make sure that the opportunity doesn't pass you by?

Fellow Teen Mom 3 star Briana DeJesus joked that Mackenzie should "have sex til ur vagina explodes."

And, well, I get it. I'm a one and done mom here, and I feel so strongly that one is right for my family that I can understand how a woman might feel that she NEEDS two or three or whatever number seems "right" for her family. Sometimes you just "know" deep down what is right for you, and you do what you have to do to make it happen.

What do you think of Mackenzie's explanation? What would you do in her shoes?

Image via Instagram

Click "Like" for the latest on the Teen Moms. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

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A Drink a Day Before First Pregnancy Strongly Linked to Breast Cancer in Major New Study

dinsdag 3 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Kiri Blakeley 2 hours ago

I wish that all of these studies linking cancer and alcohol consumption had come out when I was in college. Not that I necessarily would have put down my wine cooler and read them. But, one can always imagine, right? Still, it seems like every time you turn around now, someone is telling you how bad drinking is for you. Can't we go back to that time when wine was supposed to make you live forever? What happened to that? That was fun, right? But anyway, we're in the downer years for booze -- when pretty much any drop of the stuff is going to send you into a premature grave. A new major study links alcohol consumption to breast cancer.

According to the study, drinking just one alcoholic drink a day -- one glass of wine after work; one beer with dinner; one shot of tequila before you get into bed (we all do that, right?) -- can increase your chances of getting breast cancer. Delayed childbearing can also increase your breast cancer risk. So you ladies who opted out of childrearing to party -- here's your comeuppance! I kid, I kid, but these studies are like after us, eh?!

Anyhoo, this research is the first study to concentrate on those drinking years between first menstruation and first pregnancy -- probably the time when most women drank the most. Except for those moms who began drinking like fish to ease the stress of motherhood. But don't worry, your bummer study will come at some later date.

These years are, of course, the drinking years for a lot of us -- high school and college. Your risk increased 11 percent for every six drinks per week. Which seems like a lot of breast cancer!

Researchers seem to think that breast tissue is more susceptible to environmental risk factors like alcohol before pregnancy -- because pregnancy causes cellular changes that make breast tissue less susceptible to cancer.

Scarily, a woman's lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is one in eight. That's a pretty big chance! Which apparently increases if you were a big drinker in your non-pregnancy years. Or even a moderate drinker. I mean, most women I knew in my teens and 20s didn't drink one drink a day -- but they certainly made up for it on the weekends!

The study concludes that women who haven't yet had their first pregnancy should limit their alcohol consumption to less than one drink a day.

Could the "healthy" beer a day habit my grandmother had for decades have contributed to her breast cancer? Hmmm. Hey, let's go back to that time when one drink a day was just fiiiiiine. 'Memba that?

Are you feeling as doomed as I am?

Image via Steampunk Family the von Hedwigs/Flickr

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Kourtney Kardashian Pregnancy Rumors Fly After Scott Disick Posts Pic of Bare Belly (PHOTO)

dinsdag 27 augustus 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Mary Fischer 3 hours ago

You know those rumors that are floating around about Kourtney Kardashian being pregnant with baby number three? Yeah, well, they're heating up even more now that Scott Disick posted a photo of Kourtney's bare belly to Instagram with the caption, "Looks like an angel."

Um, take a good, close look at the pic. Apparently some people are seeing a baby bump on Kourt -- but all I see is a ridiculously flat stomach that most moms would kill to have, especially after having two babies.

Hell, if that's what being pregnant looks like, then I wanna be pregnant too. Actually, scratch that -- if Kourtney appears to be expecting based on this shot, then I'm fairly certain I always look about six months pregnant to everyone around me.

I guess there is a chance that Kourt has another bun in the oven, but at this point, I don't think we should read too much into this photo, especially considering how pregnancy rumors seem to run rampant among the Hollywood crowd these days. Gah. Can't a girl enjoy a good meal without everyone assuming she's knocked up? (Choosing to savor a pizza in La-La land must be a real buzz kill when it results in a food baby.)

And if for some reason you are seeing a tummy bulge on Kourtney in this photo, take another look at the angle she's standing at. She's kind of hunched over with her back arched a little bit, which makes her stomach protrude forward. I suppose that can be easily confused with a baby bump (though her mid-section still looks flat as hell to me).

This one could really go either way, but for now, I'm going to go ahead and predict that Kourt is NOT preggo. She just happens to have a boyfriend who can't resist sharing photos of her bangin' bod.

Ok, your turn to weigh in -- do you think Kourtney is expecting?

Image via Instagram

Click the "Like" button below if you're Krazy for the Kardashians! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mary Fischer

is the writer behind The Mommyologist, and the mom of a future famous comedian. Her current loves include cosmopolitans, reality TV, and shoes that don't pinch her feet.

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