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Pregnancy and Lactation Weekly Digest

For the Week Ending March 1, 2020. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is here and affecting tens of thousands of people worldwide. Learn about the potential risks to a pregnant woman and her baby here in The Pulse. We also have an extensive report written by one of our medical experts here.

“Freebirth”

It is clear by now that the internet promotes extreme and dangerous ideologies with its constant access to ever more radical misinformation. The freebirth community, which insists on home births and takes pride in refusing any kind of expert help with labor and delivery, is only one example. Read more here.

This is important for you because please, please, please get medical information from medical professionals with medical educations, not from Facebook groups.

Vitamin K

Babies generally get a shot of vitamin K within an hour after they’re born to prevent Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding, a not-as-rare-as-you-might-think condition in which newborns bleed enough to cause anemia, brain damage, and even death. And yet, some parents are now refusing the shot because–well, they think they have their reasons. Please read more here.  

This is important for you because see above.

I’d Rather Be Playing Golf

The USGA just gave new moms and dads just the flexibility they need; if they qualify to be in a USGA championship but can’t because they are busy with pregnancy, surrogacy, or adoption, they can postpone for a whole year! Read more here.

This is important for you because pregnancy and childbirth will change your body, and your game, whatever it may be; but it’s great when policies like this recognize that you’ll be back.

Artificial wombs

Don’t envision babies grown in tanks, a la Brave New World. Rather, envision preemies who can breathe and be sheltered from the harsh environment of the NICU in a setting more reminiscent of a real womb, where they should still be, than current incubators. Read more here and a The Pulse article in this topic here.

This is important for you because  regardless of whether this technology ever becomes reality, it is not likely to replace women.

The most popular article on The Pulse this week was Post-Partum OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder): Is That a Thing? Seems to be. Read it here.

Diana Gitig
Dr. Diana Gitig has a Ph.D. in cell biology and genetics from Cornell University, and has been writing about issues in biology – from molecular biology to cancer to immunology to neuroscience to nutrition to agriculture - for the past fifteen years. She has three teenaged children.

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