“Your kids or mine? Parents save with baby-sitting swap - Houma Courier” plus 4 more

Your kids or mine? Parents save with baby-sitting swap - Houma Courier
Moms-to-be warned over use of foetal heart rate monitors - Science Centric
Moms-to-be warned of fetal home monitors - United Press International
Looking for a baby on the other side of 35 - East African Standard
Adventures in baby-sitting - Modesto Bee

Your kids or mine? Parents save with baby-sitting swap - Houma Courier

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 01:07 PM PDT

To make occasional date nights with her husband affordable, Iverson made a pitch to her new friends in Massachusetts: If you watch my kids, Ill watch yours.

Six months later, a baby-sitting co-op with four other families is flourishing, with each set of parents taking a slot in the rotation for a Saturday night, saving them the cost of a baby sitter. Iverson estimates shes saving $100 per month and gaining time for hikes and inexpensive dinners. As a stay-at-home mom, my job is to make the money stretch as far as I can.

As parents face reduced work hours, lower wages, layoffs and uncertainties stemming from the recession, a growing number of families are turning to baby-sitting swaps to reduce what they pay local teenagers and college students to look after their children.

To be sure, parents have partnered to share the load of child care for years, but the economy has broadened the appeal. Traditional baby sitters say business is down and some offer to work for lower rates to encourage parents seeking savings during the recession to use their services. But co-op costs can be hard to beat. Baby sitters often charge $10 per hour or more.

Gary Myers of Smart Moms Babysitting Co-op said the lingering economic downturn triggered a spike in requests for a free guide that his Tacoma, Wash.-based groups offers to parents seeking to set up new groups. Traffic on his Web site has also doubled.

Most moms have one or two people that are good friends, that are sitters, and a co-op is just like having 10 or 12, Myers said. The important things for a mom is that her kids are watched, and are safe and its a good care environment.

Co-ops sometimes are formed casually, among friends. But an increasing number are cropping up in online parent forums, local moms groups and through online postings on such sites as BabysitterExchange.com or Craigslist.com.

And while money is not exchanged, there is often a system of earning or spending points to ensure parents involved with various co-ops are treated fairly.

A sitting parent, for example, might earn one point per each child, with a sliding scale for more kids. Some co-ops offer extra points for baby-sitting late into the night, picking up a child or traveling to another home. Others restrict the number of points awarded after children fall asleep.

Mary Pugh, a stay-at-home mom of two and a member of Iversons co-op, said the creative arrangement has helped her avoid the hassle of finding reliable baby sitters and given her family financial breathing room.

Just that sense of relief that theres just one thing we dont have to budget for, we dont have to worry about, Pugh, 27, said. This is nice because we still have so many student loans and lots of things to pay off.

During a recent baby-sitting gig, Pugh had a small group, just her 3-year-old son, Jack, 1-year-old daughter, Marian, and 3-year-old Eva, whose parents dropped her off with a hot dog, apples and other snacks to tide her over for the 3 hours they would be away.

Pugh admitted she was initially intimidated by the idea of feeding, pacifying and playing with up to eight children in the co-op until 8:30 p.m., but she gave it a try.

The rules and restrictions on co-ops vary. Those among close friends can be informal, while others can be detailed, particularly regarding child safety.

Some require sitters to disclose whether there are guns or swimming pools in the home. Others require parents to indicate if a child has allergies, offer details for each kids bedtime routine, what it takes to calm them down if they cry and to disclose whether there are pets or smokers in their home.

Other co-ops require references and house visits, said Naomi Hattaway, a mother of three and member of a Cleveland-based group.

The group has rejected multiple applications because none of existing members could vouch for the applicants, said Hattaway, 33.

During the summer of last year, we probably had two or three new members each week that requested to join, said Hattaway, who says she saves at least $200 a month. People have used it more as the economy has gotten worse.

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Moms-to-be warned over use of foetal heart rate monitors - Science Centric

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 06:48 AM PDT

Mums-to-be are being advised not to use personal monitors (Doppler devices) to listen to their baby's heartbeat at home over fears that they may lead to delays in seeking help for reduced foetal movements.

In this week's BMJ, Dr Thomas Aust and colleagues from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral describe the case of a 27 year old woman who presented to their labour ward 32 weeks into her first pregnancy with reduced foetal movements.

She had first noted a reduction in her baby's activity two days earlier but had used her own Doppler device to listen to the heartbeat and reassured herself that everything was normal.

Further monitoring by the antenatal care team was not reassuring and the baby was delivered by caesarean section later that evening. The baby remained on the special care baby unit for eight weeks and is making steady progress.

A hand-held Doppler device assesses the presence of foetal heart pulsations only at that moment, and it is used by midwives and obstetricians to check for viability or for intermittent monitoring during labour, explain the authors. In untrained hands it is more likely that blood flow through the placenta or the mother's main blood vessels will be heard.

Following this case, they searched the internet and found that a foetal Doppler device could be hired for GBP10 a month or bought for GBP25-50. Although the companies offering sales state that the device is not intended to replace recommended antenatal care, they also make claims such as 'you will be able to locate and hear the heartbeat with excellent clarity.'

It is difficult to say whether self monitoring altered the outcome in this case, say the authors. But they now have posters in their antenatal areas recommending that patients do not use these devices.

Source: British Medical Journal

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Moms-to-be warned of fetal home monitors - United Press International

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 02:18 PM PDT

UPTON, England, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A British doctor warns mothers-to-be not to use personal monitoring devices because they may lead to a false sense of security and delay medical action.

Dr. Thomas Aust and colleagues at Arrowe Park Hospital in England told of a 27-year-old pregnant woman who presented to the hospital 32 weeks into her first pregnancy with reduced fetal movements.

The women had noticed a reduction in her baby's activity two days earlier, but said she had used her own Doppler fetal monitoring device to listen to the heartbeat and had reassured herself everything was normal. After monitoring the baby's heart, the child was delivered by Caesarean section. The infant has been treated in a special care baby unit for eight weeks and is making steady progress, Aust said.

The fetal monitors, usually used by midwives and obstetricians, are available for purchase online and some claim "you will be able to locate and hear the heartbeat with excellent clarity," the researchers said.

However, Aust said in untrained hands it is more likely that blood flow through the placenta or the mother's main blood vessels will be heard via the Doppler monitors.

The findings are published in the British Medical Journal.

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Looking for a baby on the other side of 35 - East African Standard

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 02:04 PM PDT

By Crystal Okusa

Scientific evidence and cultural norms have long cast a shadow on motherhood past the age of 35. Women who choose to have their first pregnancy at that age are warned of ridicule at best, and the likelihood of getting babies with Down Syndrome.

These women fear that they have drunk too much alcohol, smoked too much, taken in too many drugs, or pumped their bodies with too many contraceptives to be able to conceive and carry the pregnancy to term.

However, the dangers of motherhood past 35 have been overly exaggerated. Research has actually shown that if a woman has been living healthy, she can have a successful pregnancy at that late age. Of course, like any other system, the female reproductive system is likely to develop complications with age, as is explained by Dr Stephen Maina, a gynaecologist in Nairobi.

Abnormal baby

Says he: "A woman can conceive between the ages of 14 and 52, but the optimum health required for a womans body to conceive is enjoyed between the ages of 18 and 25. That is when the woman is most fertile. After the age of 30 fertility decreases, putting you at a high risk of having a baby with chromosomal disorders like Down Syndrome, a combination of mental retardation and physical abnormalities caused by an extra chromosome."

Research from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists shows that at the age of 25, a woman has about a one-in-1250 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome, while at age 30, the odds are at one-in-1000 and at age 35, at one-in-400. At age 40, a woman has a one-in-100 chance of having a retarded baby. Pregnant women at and after the age of 35 should, therefore, be offered meticulous prenatal care to diagnose or rule out Down syndrome.

Chromosomal abnormalities are the most common cause of miscarriage, which also increases with age.

"Apart from the babies being at risk, the mother is also at a higher risk of getting hypertension or diabetes as well as featuring of fibroids during pregnancy. She is also predisposed to placenta praevia- where the placenta lies low in the uterus, partly or completely covering the cervix, causing difficulty in delivering due to inelastic muscles," states Dr Maina.

There is also the risk of Intra Uterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) which results in pre-term delivery and thus, the risk of infant mortality.

Linet Nyambura, 40, got her first baby at 36. She narrates her ordeal.

"I was brought up in a huge family so I did not have the urge to get married or have children. After a while, my older and younger siblings left some went for further studies and others got married and I felt alone for the first time. At 31, I decided to fill the void by getting a baby and got married at 34, I had to give myself two years to finish my PhD. So at 36, when I was preparing to have a baby, I went to the doctor he diagnosed high blood pressure. I had to be on medication for sometime because of my age before I could be fit to conceive. When I thought the worst was over, I had a miscarriage at four months after I had travelled to the village," she remembers.

Her doctor explained that it was due to the chromosomal abnormalities. It was only after she tried again that she delivered a miracle baby girl. Says she "I would never try that again!" she avers.

Dr Maina dismisses as myth the issue of long term use of contraceptives making pregnancy difficult.

Contraceptives are safe

"Contraception does not really play a role in delayed pregnancy. However, there are attendant risks. If, for example, a patient using the Intrauterine Contraceptive Device (IUCD) gets an infection, she is at risk of having her fertility affected because the infection will affect the tubes and cause tubal pregnancies," he explains.

Injections like Depo-Provera, he says, do not have any such risk. For oral pills and injections, you only stop using it a couple of months before conception so that the body gets rid of the medicine and goes back to normal.

As to whether abortion can cause delayed pregnancy, Dr Maina answers "Yes" and "No". "If the abortion brought about complications then it may cause one to have difficulties in the future," he says.

Take the case of Emma Chebet, a 34-year-old lecturer. At 22, while in University, she got pregnant and had an abortion.

"I was still nave and my friends from campus took me to some random doctor who hurriedly performed the abortion because I didnt want my parents to know. Unfortunately, since this was a back street clinic, they did not run tests first to see if I was fit for the abortion. After the operation, I was in so much pain and I was bleeding so heavily that I had to call my aunt who then took me to hospital. The doctor found out that I had Chlamydia and thats why I had developed complications during the abortion. I got operated on and my uterus was removed. Im now married and have had to adopt a child because I will never get my own," explains Chebet.

Dr Maina advises that when a couple cant have a baby, before concluding that it is because of the wifes earlier abortion, they should check the husbands virility status first.

It is uncommon for abortion to cause pregnancy complications when it is safely carried out.

Fertility is also another factor associated with delayed pregnancies. Research has it that fertility starts to drop dramatically at the age of 35 and women wishing to conceive at this age should see a fertility doctor. If you have tried without success for six months, it is time to visit the doctor. There are a number of causes, such as irregular ovulation which manifests as irregular periods and stress. Irregular ovulation as the number one cause of infertility, but in most cases makes pregnancy difficult, not impossible.

Boosting fertility

Women with low fertility or whose partners have a low sperm count have a one-in-20 chance of getting pregnant. There are a number of ways to boost secondary fertility, such as changing the diet: high-fat dairy products boost fertility and low-fat dairy products decrease your chances of conceiving.

Dr Maina advises women to stop using left over eggs and keep within the optimum child bearing age to avoid complications with late pregnancies. Most studies show an increased risk of needing to deliver by caesarean section for women over 35, due to the likelihood of hypertension, diabetes and the risk of ante partum haemorrhage, caused by prolonged labour.

However, many women who have delayed pregnancy until theyre over 35 are surprised to find that, given generally good health, they are likely to have perfectly healthy babies.

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Adventures in baby-sitting - Modesto Bee

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 08:35 AM PDT

Forman-Brunell teaches the history of childhood and youth at UMKC and is the author of "Made to Play House" and editor of the book "Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia."

Here are excerpts from a recent interview.

Q. What spurred your interest in baby-sitting and its history?

A. I was revising my dissertation about the history of dolls and girlhood for publication and ran across a memoir of a girl, from about 100 years ago, who would wheel babies in perambulators, as they called them, to make money to buy dolls. Later while teaching at Princeton, I overheard a group of preadolescent girls at a pizza place talking about their baby-sitting activities. I was surprised to hear them talk about it in business terms, about how they were charging parents by the number of children.

I started to think about the connection between that girl at the beginning of the century and these girls at the end of the century.

Q. How are you defining baby-sitting and baby sitter?

A. For the purposes of this book, I defined baby-sitting as part-time work, for pay, by youth, typically away from the home. I didn't look at children taking care of siblings, or nannies or other adults.

In the 1920s, there was no term "baby sitter," but there was the phrase "minding the children" and then "child-minder." It was not until the late 1930s that the term "baby sitter" emerged.

Q. What changed starting in the 1920s?

A. Baby-sitting began to emerge because of a variety of social trends, the expansion of the middle class, declines in the birthrate and a rising desire among mothers and fathers in the 1920s for leisure and recreation. More teenagers went to high school, including girls, and did not enter the job market. And adolescent girls were also stimulated by a consumer culture and a new, self-styled teen culture.

Q. So that sounds like a good economic match, teens who need spending money and parents who need baby sitters.

A. One would think so, but there have been many undercurrents that make it not such a good match. For instance, adults typically look for somebody who's going to be fun with their children, responsible and reliable, and who's going to be inexpensive. The assumption has been that girls are going to be all of those things and that they naturally have an instinct to take care of children. And that's not necessarily true. When you interview girls about why they want to baby-sit, it's the money that generally motivates them.

Parents want to pay the least amount of money they can. The result is that, back to the earliest days of baby-sitting, girls have felt they were being gypped, especially when girls found out what boys were being paid to mow lawns - or what boys were paid to baby-sit. Boys are often paid more.

Also, developmentally, adolescence tends to be a period marked by greater self-absorption. So when it comes down to it, I'm not sure it's the best match at all.