“Meghan McCain to Levi: "Take Care of Your Baby" - US Magazine” plus 3 more

Meghan McCain to Levi: "Take Care of Your Baby" - US Magazine
Newsweek’s Cover Stories: Headless Health Care Debate in Topless Bar - Wall Street Journal
Knowledge is Power For Constance Marie - Celebrity Baby Blog
WakeMed to Expand Intensive Care Nursery to Include Private Rooms - dBusinessNews.com

Meghan McCain to Levi: "Take Care of Your Baby" - US Magazine

Posted: 16 Sep 2009 08:33 AM PDT

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Newsweek’s Cover Stories: Headless Health Care Debate in Topless Bar - Wall Street Journal

Posted: 16 Sep 2009 11:46 AM PDT

By Richard Turner

Shrieking, rather disturbingly, from a newsstand near you this week is Newsweek magazine's latest cover story, "The Case for Killing Granny." (It's about end-of-the-life care, "death panels," etc).

Last week, it was "Is Your Baby Racist?" (Nature vs. nurture and racial discrimination). This follows "Everything About Iran is Wrong" last summer, and, in February both 'We Are All Socialists Now" and "Radical Islam is a Fact of Life."

Now that Newsweek is a few months into its reinvention as a narrower-focused magazine with more weighty opinion pieces, less on-the-ground reporting, and a smaller, more targeted circulation—its cover lines are going sensationalistic.

The actual stories may be out of Foreign Policy, but the headlines are more like News of the World. (This even though newsstand sales are a very small percentage of the magazine's overall sales—this past summer in the 60,000-70,000 range out of a total of about 2.5 million.)

The newsmags have always tried to deliver attention-grabbing headlines, but this is different. Even two years ago, editors tempered the provocative cover line "Global Warming is a Hoax*" by attaching an asterisk which referred to small print ("Or so claim well-funded naysayers…").

Covers used to follow a few recognizable patterns. There were, for example, countless "new" covers: "The New Game of Retirement," "The New Solar System," "The New First Grade," "The New Keys to Women's Health."

There also were the juxtaposition covers, grafting together two reader-friendly subjects like family and health. "Steroids and Kids," "Exercise and the Brain," "Babies and Autism." Or "God & War." Editors used to joke that the ideal cover would be along the lines of "How the Dinosaurs Got Breast Cancer—and Found Jesus."

But that would probably be too tabloid-y.

Disclosure: the author worked as a writer and editor at Newsweek from 1996-2000.

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Knowledge is Power For Constance Marie - Celebrity Baby Blog

Posted: 16 Sep 2009 10:34 AM PDT

When she was still an expectant mother, Constance Marie did her homework — and then some! "I studied more for having a baby than I did for the SATs," the 40-year-old actress tells Us Weekly. "I took every single class you could possibly take; I took CPR…I took baby care…I read every book."

Although some moms are content to let instinct be their guide, Constance — who welcomed daughter Luna Marie, 7 months, in February — took a different approach. She explains,

"I did everything possible because I wanted every ounce of knowledge that I could possibly have."

It didn't take Constance long to learn "how many things trigger danger," and she says that together with fiancé Kent Katich, baby-proofing is high on their list of priorities. "We just keep anything that could poke her, pinch her, or hurt her — in any way — away from her," she explains.

The couple have already done their part to make Luna's immediate surroundings as safe as possible, however, with a top-to-bottom eco-friendly nursery. "In my research I found out that the nursery can be one of the most toxic rooms in the house, because the carpet is new, the paint is new, the furniture is new," she notes.

"There is stuff to worry about and you can make yourself crazy, but as long as you've taken every precaution that you possibly can, you can't do any better than that."

Click below to read about Constance's favorite family time and what she considers the best part of motherhood.

The couple's favorite family time is dinner. "Luna sits in the middle [of the table] on a changing pad, with a pacifier in her mouth," Constance describes with a smile, "looking to one side as Kent is eating, and then at me as I'm eating, and she sits there [sucking and staring]."

The best part of motherhood, however, are Luna's toothless grins. "When she smiles it doesn't matter how much sleep I haven't gotten, it doesn't matter how poopy her diapers are, it doesn't matter anything because she loves me and I love her and I've never experienced anything like it," Constance raves.

Source: Us Weekly

– Missy

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WakeMed to Expand Intensive Care Nursery to Include Private Rooms - dBusinessNews.com

Posted: 16 Sep 2009 09:59 AM PDT

Triangle -

WakeMed to Expand Intensive Care Nursery to

Include Private Rooms

RALEIGH, N.C. (September 16, 2009) WakeMed Health & Hospitals has received approval to expand its neonatal Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) by 12 additional beds to a total of 48 beds. WakeMed Raleigh Campus is the only Level IV Intensive Care Nursery in Wake County, offering the highest level of neonatal intensive care. During this expansion, WakeMed will begin the process of converting neonatal beds to private rooms, which will allow parents to sleep in the room and care for their hospitalized infants.

Currently, care in our ICN is provided to babies in pods, which affords families more privacy than most ICNs and enables us to better control the light and noise to which premature infants are very sensitive, commented Elizabeth Rice, director of womens and childrens services. The new private rooms will allow us to control and customize the babies environment according to individual needs and also improve our ability to provide more family-centered care.

The 12 new private rooms will allow parents to be more involved in the babies care, encourage parent/baby bonding, and will ease the transition home. Several of the new private rooms will also be able to accommodate twins or triplets or more multiples, which will further enhance the family experience. The new private rooms will also improve infection control by enabling better isolation. Future plans include converting all neonatal beds to private rooms.

The need for these additional beds is great, commented Susan Gutierrez, manager of the Intensive Care Nursery. We are consistently running at or above capacity and as the region grows and multiple births become more frequent, we are seeing a greater need for neonatal intensive care services.

WakeMed last expanded its Intensive Care Nursery in 2003 when it added eight neonatal beds and 3,000 square feet. This newest addition will expand the nursery by 12,098 square feet at a cost of $8.9 million. The expansion will be accommodated by renovating existing space vacated during the move to the new 168,000 square feet new patient tower currently under construction on the WakeMed Raleigh Campus. The Intensive Care Nursery will be directly linked to the Childrens Hospital that will be on the fourth floor of the new patient tower and will be funded by the $20 million Just for Kids Kampaign. Community support is needed to make these two projects a reality. To learn more or to donate, please visit www.wakemed.org and select charitable giving.

In calendar year 2008, WakeMed treated 650 babies in the ICN. WakeMed is one of the largest providers of pediatric care in North Carolina with more than 142,000 pediatric patient contacts in 2008 alone. The new Childrens Hospital and Intensive Care Nursery expansion will enhance and expand the services that WakeMed can provide to children and increase much needed in-patient beds.

About WakeMed Health & Hospitals

WakeMed Health & Hospitals, one of the first hospital systems in the country, is a private, not-for-profit health care organization based in Raleigh, N.C. The 870-bed system comprises a network of health care facilities throughout Wake and Johnston Counties, including: a Level I Trauma Center and tertiary referral hospital and rehabilitation hospital in Raleigh, a community hospital in Cary, comprehensive outpatient centers and freestanding emergency departments in North Raleigh and Apex, seven outpatient rehabilitation sites, two skilled-nursing and outpatient facilities, a 100+-physician multispecialty practice, and home health services. The system includes accredited Chest Pain Centers and Joint Commission Primary Stroke Centers. Throughout the system, there are an additional 60 beds under construction and 41 newly approved by the state. WakeMed also provides management services for Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital in Dunn, NC. Centers of excellence include cardiac and vascular care, womens and childrens services, physical rehab, emergency and trauma, orthopaedics, neurosciences, home care and numerous wellness and community outreach programs. WakeMeds team of 7,000 nurses, technologists and medical support staff and more than 1,000 affiliated physicians serve the residents of North Carolina using the most advanced technologies and facilities to ensure the finest in health care. For more information, visit www.wakemed.org.

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