Pregnancy

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Baltimore cannot require faith-based pregnancy counseling centers to post disclaimers noting they won't assist clients in receiving abortions or birth control. The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court's ruling that the ordinance was unconstitutional - drawing praise from Catholic leaders who had opposed the ordinance and a defense of the law from MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake, its original sponsor.

The reviews are lukewarm at best for "What to Expect When You're Expecting," a movie loosely based on the hot-selling book series by Heidi Murkoff. Charming moms-to-be, including Anna Kendrick and Cameron Diaz, deal with the emotional and physical challenges of pregnancy, while their significant others, including Chris Rock, act boorish. Here are excerpts from reviews: -- Los Angeles Times: As Murkoff knew and mined so well, there is a lot of nature-made comedy to be found in the discomforts of distended bodies, raging hormones and altered relationships.

In her commentary on teen pregnancy ("Teen pregnancy is poverty's offspring," April 16), Susan Reimer perpetuates the justification that poverty is the primary reason teens engage in sex and become pregnant. This begs the question: Why, when we have always had poverty, did we not see the rate of unwed teen mothers in the past that we witness today? I grew up in a section of Baltimore City that had its share of immigrants, blue collar workers and other individuals who would be considered poor by today's standards.

An appointment with a pediatrician Thursday was a "big relief" to Katie Bauer, whose seven-month pregnancy with rare "momo" twins was at first confusing and then exhausting. "It's all behind them, these guys are doing just fine," Dr. Joseph A. Garcia said after he finished immunizing Nolan and Brooks Bauer, identical boys who developed in the same fetal sac, exposing them to dangers not encountered during most pregnancies. The boys were born Feb. 13. Babies like Nolan and Brooks have at least one chance in 10 of dying during the last weeks of pregnancy or the first month after birth — so Garcia's upbeat assessment at two months was an important milestone for the Perry Hall family.

There is good news - and some familiar bad news - in recent research into the stubborn question of why our babies have babies when it is such a spectacularly bad idea for both mother and child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that teen births have hit an all-time low. In 2010, there were 34.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, a 9 percent drop from the year before. What makes this news even more welcome is that the birthrate among teens ticked up in the mid-2000s after 20 years of declines, and researchers were at a loss to explain why. Researchers are cautiously attributing the decrease to the public service campaigns that urge kids to delay sex for a while, and then to use contraceptives the first time and every time.

Middle-aged Hollywood stars and their newborns may make it seem like a fountain of youth has been discovered for women's fertility. But researchers at Yale University School of Medicine  say these stars may be giving women the wrong perception.  Many women don't realize the consequences of delaying motherhood, the researchers found in a study published in the recent issue of Fertility & Sterility . They have unrealistic expectations...

"When is everything going to go back to normal?" - Roger Sterling Raise your hand if you were ready for Fat Betty? Or Don's new secretary being named Dawn? Or (what I'm guessing) is the first-ever Rolling Stones-potential-bean-commercial idea. Yeah, me either. How random was this episode? Betty was the star. So let's start with her, or "#FatBetty" as she was hashtagged immediately on Twitter. To accommodate January Jones' pregnancy while filming began on Season 5 (and probably to give her a better storyline this year)

Your editorial, "Rush to judgment on birth control" (March 7) completely misses the point on this issue. Rush Limbaugh's lack of judgment aside, this is not about access to contraception. The real sticking point is the Obama administration's presumption in mandating that Catholic institutions' health insurance plans must cover contraceptives, even though that runs directly counter to those institutions' core religious beliefs. Birth control pills are readily available at Walmart or Walgreen's at less than $10 per month for generic brands, so access and affordability are hardly an issue.

Maybe it's time we change the name of the birth control pill. What Rush Limbaugh doesn't understand is that women are not always about men. The so-called "pill" has been out for over 50 years now, and we aren't going to give it up. It changed our lives. We are in control, and it's not always about not getting pregnant. It really should be called "the regulator," or perhaps the "health pill. " There are many benefits for going on this course of medicine. We can control our periods (something men don't understand)

Population increase is a natural sign of political health. By that measure, Baltimore has been sick a long time. Six straight decades of depopulation have reduced the city by a third. Seeking not only to halt this bad case of "the dreaded shrinks" but reverse it, the mayor has set the modest goal of increasing the city's population by 22,000 people in 10 years. The "experts" assert that immigration is the key to a population rebound. Today's demographers might do well to consult the granddaddy of demographic prognostication: the 18th century French political philosopher Montesquieu.