“HobNobMurfreesboro Announces New E-mail Newsletter for New Mothers ... - PR.com” plus 4 more

HobNobMurfreesboro Announces New E-mail Newsletter for New Mothers ... - PR.com
Board says no to day-care center - Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Emergency centre tells patients to wait in car - Scotsman
Indian woman fights for 'rape' baby - BBC South-Asia
Wilkinson 'will bring baby to Playboy mansion' - Digital Spy

HobNobMurfreesboro Announces New E-mail Newsletter for New Mothers ... - PR.com

Posted: 04 Sep 2009 05:19 AM PDT

Murfreesboro, TN, September 04, 2009 --(PR.com)-- HobNobMurfreesboro.com has recently partnered up with the Middle Tennessee Medical Center which is set to launch in October of 2010. This partnership is designed to help promote the awareness of the medical community and its advances in Murfreesboro, TN.

Expectant parents are faced with a bewildering range of pregnancy and parenting information, from books and magazines to the well-meaning advice of family and friends. To help parents sort it all out, Middle Tennessee Medical Center has launched the MTMC weekly parenting e-mail as a resource to guide them through their pregnancy and the first year of their baby's life.

The free, weekly e-mail newsletter offers the latest research and information in child development, health and learning and is customized based on their baby's due date. Parents can enroll via a simple, online sign up process and begin receiving e-mails messages at seven weeks gestation. During pregnancy, the hospital's messages include week-by-week information on fetal development and wellness tips. After the baby is born, the newsletter switches focus to the baby's first year with child development information, practical tips on baby care and other topics of interest to new parents.

"MTMC has been the hospital of choice for thousands of expectant parents," said Gordon B. Ferguson, MTMC president and CEO. "Our goal is to provide them the best possible patient experience and that extends beyond their stay at the hospital. We believe patients will appreciate our ability to support them in an innovative way, personalized by the hospital they have chosen."

Parents can receive emails up until their child's third birthday. The service also includes a breastfeeding module. Phase I of the service – pregnancy through the first year of infancy – is available in Spanish.

Parents can sign up for the email service online at www.mtmc.org/parents or when taking childbirth classes or a facility tour at MTMC. Parents can opt out at any time.

MTMC and Baptist Hospital, located in Nashville, Tenn. and a member of Saint Thomas Health Services, are both offering the new service to patients. Together, the hospitals deliver nearly 10,000 babies each year.

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Board says no to day-care center - Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

Posted: 04 Sep 2009 05:26 AM PDT

But the state's top five

elected officials will have the final say on whether a publicly funded day care should be built here.

By Jodi Rogstad
jrogstad@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE -- The Wyoming Business Council voted 10-3 Thursday to reject a grant application for $3 million to build a child-care center in the industrial park in east Cheyenne.

Many members at the board meeting in Kemmerer cited what they said is a longtime concern about using state grants to build day-care centers.

They said they want direction from policymakers.

One member quipped, "Life was easier on this board before child care."

Board member Karla Fiebelkorn of Gillette said she liked the project.

Supporters of the Laramie County Early Childhood Education Center say it would offer a nationally accredited curriculum and extended hours for shift workers.

But Fiebelkorn said this appears to be an education issue -- a departure from the council's mission to "make sure businesses are coming." Perhaps the Department of Education ought to take this up, she said.

Despite Thursday's vote, the final decision rests with the State Loan and Investment Board, which meets Oct. 8 in Cheyenne.

That panel is made up of the state's top five elected officials: the governor, the secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction.

Jackie Finch of Cheyenne described finding child care for her baby as "nothing but a nightmare."

Yes, there are openings in town, but she and other parents would "rather wait than put their infants in these centers."

She couldn't put her baby in the center that did meet her standards: It was at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base. This is the model for the Laramie County Early Childhood Education Center.

"When I saw it, I literally cried," Finch said. "It was beautiful. It had everything I think a parent would want."

Three owners of child-care centers spoke against the project.

"Many of us strive to be educators, not baby sitters," said Tracie Lowe, who owns Kiddie Korral.

She and other providers have curricula but not accreditation because that is too expensive, she said.

Lowe also said the Laramie County Early Childhood Education Center would only help 4 percent of children.

Her solution: Find a broad solution that works with existing centers, not against them.

Back in May the Business Council approved the grant. But at the June meeting of the State Loan and Investment Board several private providers said they couldn't compete.

The state board tabled the project and asked Laramie County and the Business Council to bring back more information about local day-care needs and improved communication with the public.

So the council commissioned a local update to a 2006 statewide study. It shows that supply now outpaces demand, and day-care needs won't grow as much as originally thought.

Based on that, staffers reversed support on the center Tuesday.

In response, more than a dozen community leaders called in -- a handful made the drive to western Wyoming -- to defend the project on Thursday.

They included representatives from Laramie County School District 1, Laramie County Community College, STRIDE Learning Center, the trio of Laramie County Commissioners, CLIMB Wyoming, a city councilwoman and the United Way.

Some questioned the data in the study as well as the Business Council's process.

Laramie County Commissioner Jeff Ketcham said ever since the State Loan and Investment Board tabled the grant, the Business Council has treated the county -- the applicant -- "like opponents instead of partners."

This isn't an issue of capacity figures, many said. It was a matter of providing quality care that would prepare children for kindergarten. It would also attract businesses and employees, which is part of the council's mission.

"It's about options for parents and business and workforce development," said Rod Hottle, interim director of the Early Education Partnership board.

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Emergency centre tells patients to wait in car - Scotsman

Posted: 04 Sep 2009 08:33 AM PDT

One couple who arrived with their ill baby at the urgent care centre at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, were kept waiting in their vehicle for more than an hour for a doctor to become available.

Managers at the centre said the ar

rangement met hospital trust policy and national guidance on dealing with suspected swine flu cases.

But Janis Usakovs and his wife Lelde said they felt badly treated after being told to wait in their car with their 13-month-old son, Gustavs, who had a high temperature and was feeling lethargic.

The couple called a doctor and were told to take their son to the centre for an appointment at about 6:30pm on Sunday.

Mr Usakovs, 26, said: "We arrived at about 6:25pm and were asked if we had a car.

"(We were] then asked whether we could wait there, because they were so busy and didn't have space for us inside. We saw two other couples with babies waiting in their cars.

"I asked how long it will take for us to see a doctor, and the man said he did not know and that they were very busy.

"Mr Usakovs said they eventually saw a doctor at 8pm.

Officials said it was an exceptionally busy bank holiday weekend and health services were working to limit the risk of spreading swine flu.

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Indian woman fights for 'rape' baby - BBC South-Asia

Posted: 03 Sep 2009 05:24 PM PDT

The story of a pregnant teenager has been making the headlines in India.

Lakshmi (not her real name) is 19 years old, but her mental age is said to be only around eight.

She became pregnant after allegedly being raped in a government-run care home, and the state authorities petitioned the local courts to allow them to carry out an abortion.

Their contention was that she wouldn't survive the trauma of childbirth, and that she wouldn't be able to take care of a baby.

That court ruled that an abortion should go ahead.

But then came the twist - her lawyers and several disability rights groups appealed to the Supreme Court. It overruled the original judgement - allowing her to have the baby she said she wanted to keep.

'Clothes for the baby'

Today, Lakshmi lives in a different government-run home in Chandigarh.

At first glance, she seems like a shy girl with a lovely smile whose answers are monosyllabic and barely audible.

Lakshmi had told the high court in Chandigarh that she wanted to keep the baby.

When I asked her if this was so, her answer was the same: "Yes."

So I asked her if she had ever looked after a baby before.

"Yes," she replied again.

One of the women in the Nari Niketan, the care home where she was allegedly raped, had a baby and Lakshmi said she fed him milk with a spoon and cleaned him up when needed.

Lakshmi was found two years ago wandering the streets of Chandigarh and placed in Nari Niketan.

She was allegedly raped earlier this year and a guard of the care home has been arrested and is awaiting trial.

I asked her nurse if Lakshmi ever talked about what had happened to her.

"At first she was ashamed. When no one knew about it, she didn't talk about it. But now everyone knows and she talks non-stop about her baby.

"And when anyone comes to visit her, she asks them to bring new clothes for the baby. She wants a swing as well."

However, medical professionals who examined Lakshmi said she could not look after a baby. Psychologists say she suffers from "mild mental retardation" and has a low IQ.

Moral questions

"After consultations we thought that since she's mentally challenged, an orphan and has been raped in a government institution... it would be in her interest to have the termination," says Prof Raj Bahadur, director of the Government Medical College in Chandigarh and the man in charge of the shelter where Lakshmi lives.

But Lakshmi's lawyer, Tanu Bedi, disagrees.

"Can we say just because she has a low IQ, anybody can decide for her and against her specific wish to have an abortion, which has the medical complications and problems for all times to come for her health? In my view it would have been a judicial rape."

The Supreme Court agreed with Ms Bedi. In its ruling, the court said: "Nature will take care of the orphan mother and child."

There was plenty of outrage at the Supreme Court's decision.

Many questioned whether the law courts were the place to decide such moral and ethical cases.

Lawyer Anupam Gupta fought the case on behalf of the state government. He says even the local judge raised the issue when the case came before him.

"On the very first day when the matter came up before the chief justice, he appeared reluctant to interfere. This is your baby - he wasn't referring to the foetus of course - but in a more metaphorical sense. He said this problem is of your making, don't come to the high court."

But, Mr Gupta says, "because Lakshmi had been allegedly raped while in the state's custody, the authorities had no choice. They had failed to protect her and so approached the court to make a decision on what to do."

'Arbitrary'

The National Trust for the Welfare of persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Mental Disabilities - a government organisation - has offered to take care of Lakshmi and her baby.

It has offered to put her in an independent home, either in the southern city of Bangalore or closer to Chandigarh.

"There she will be able to blossom and develop her life skills," says Poonam Natarajan, who heads the trust.

"The IQ score is very arbitrary in our country. The whole world is only talking about her as eight years old. But she's 19 years old, so her life experience is very different.

"Everyone has the capacity of evolve, the capacity to grow if in the right environment. But somehow in the minds of people when it comes to mental retardation, it's static.

"That is a medical concept that we have to challenge."

A decision on when and where Lakshmi will be sent is to be taken soon.

At the shelter, Lakshmi is looking forward to being a mother - her baby is due in December.

"I want a baby girl," she tells me shyly. And as I prepare to leave, she says: "Please visit me again."

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