Two stories cropped up today from CBC news, and virtually every commentator to these stories was disgruntled to some degree. One is on funding for Planned Parenthood,

Canada will fund an organization that provides family planning services around the world — but only in countries where abortion is illegal in most cases, CBC News has learned.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda has decided to approve a proposal by the International Planned Parenthood Federation to provide sex education and contraception in five developing countries.

…and the other concerns funding for maternal and child health projects.

Canada has selected 28 maternal and child health projects to share $82 million in funding between now and 2016, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Tuesday.

The money was committed in the G-8 Muskoka Initiative, 15 months ago. It brings the total allocated under the fund to almost $740 million for projects in Africa, the Americas and Asia.

What are your views on these proposals?

If you’re in Halifax and are interested in promoting prenatal care for women and families, then this event is for you (anything that is pro-birth is a worthy cause in my book).

On Sunday, October 16th, 2011 the Nova Scotia Doula Association (NSDA) and IWK Health Centre Foundation will be hosting the 1st Annual Walk, Rattle and Stroll for Birth. Our goals are to raise awareness about the importance of prenatal, birth and postpartum support for women and their families and raise funds to benefit the NSDA and the IWK Women’s and Newborn Health Unit.

Welcoming a new life into the world brings a lot of change within a family. Research shows that doula care reduces family stress, improves health outcomes and reduces healthcare spending. This will be a fun-filled family event that helps to create healthier communities in Nova Scotia, right from the start.

Parents shouldn’t have to apologize for giving birth to their children. While this story is one of strength and community, I dislike the apologetic tone of the article (though I’m happy to see adoption mentioned as a positive option for couples). I hope the parents of this baby don’t feel like anyone blames them for not knowing their child would be born without an immune system, because no one should.

With no immune system, your body is completely susceptible to every virus or illness. For four-month-old Brayden Vaters, this is reality. […]

“This whole thing was just such a shock to us,” said Adam Vater, Brayden’s father. “I’ve never even heard of this disorder before.”

Brayden ‘s parents Adam and Megan are both carriers of the genetic disorder and were completely unaware until their first child, Brayden, was born.

“The mutation is on a gene from both of us,” Adam says. “It was a one of four chance of Brayden getting the full blown immune deficiency.” […]

Since learning this, Adam and Megan say they have decided not to have another child, but will consider adoption and other means of growing their family.

“That’s just something we don’t want to put another baby through,” said Adam. “There was no family history of it. So there was no reason to check if Brayden might have it, or even if one of us had it because there’s been no sign of this before.”

…comes legislation for babies with heartbeats. Read more here,

The bill would require a doctor to check for a fetal heartbeat and inform the woman. If there is a detectable heartbeat, an abortion would be prohibited unless there was a risk of death or major injury to the woman’s health. Supporters believe the bill would block tens of thousands of abortions, as a fetal heartbeat can be typically heard around the sixth week of pregnancy, and sometimes as soon as three weeks’ gestation.

If you’re pregnant, trying to conceive, or think you might be pregnant, there’s a new study you should be aware of.

The risk of miscarriage may be higher among women who take certain anti-inflammatory drugs in early pregnancy, a new study suggests.

The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs in the study included ibuprofen such as Advil, naproxen, diclofenac, and celecoxib (Celebrex), some of the most common medications used during pregnancy, according to earlier research.

Just to be safe, I’m going to switch out the Advil in the medicine cabinet for aspirin.

Pro-choice groups want “safe and legal”, right? Well, maybe not that safe. From The New York Times,

The Virginia Board of Health on Thursday approved a set of regulations for abortion clinics that abortion rights advocates say could result in the closing of a number of the state’s more than 20 clinics. Supporters of the measures say they will make the clinics safer.

[…]

In a statement, the Family Foundation, an anti-abortion group that promoted the measures, called the approval, “a significant pro-life victory,” and said that “Virginia’s abortion centers now face the choice of either spending their profits on meeting standards or no longer doing abortions at their facilities.”

Just take a moment to ponder that last line.

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Andrea adds: As I’ve said before, “safe, legal and rare” comes down to “legal” for many an extreme abortion advocate these days. When you scratch just the tiniest bit below the surface, this becomes clear. And yet they still get off with the stranglehold on “women’s rights” rhetoric. Boggles the mind.

Nearly 73% of Canadian mothers work outside the home, and many of them struggle to find a work/life/parenting balance. But one company has been successfully giving women more flexibility for 125 years. I’ve never purchased Avon, but I might just get myself a bottle of Skin-So-Soft to mark the occasion (I could use it anyway, the mosquitoes are murder this year).

‘I was a stay-at-home mum,’ says Rebekah. ‘I was really shy at first. I didn’t think I would be able to knock on a stranger’s door, but my confidence grew and I began to think, “If I become a sales leader and recruit my own team, I could earn a full-time wage from this.” And it just grew and grew. Avon has taken me beyond my dreams.’

Few companies are able to inspire such loyalty in their workers, but then this isn’t the usual kind of employment: reps are ‘independent’, earning commission on sales (20 per cent on orders over £78 and 25 per cent on orders over £148) and working the hours they want. (The ‘start-up’ fee to become a rep is £15.) Some of the women in the arena work only a few hours a week – not just to earn a little extra money, but because of what they perceive to be the social side of being a rep (many talk about how their customers have become their ‘friends’). One or two say that their ‘dream come true’ with the company has been the ability it has given them to ‘come off benefits’.

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Andrea adds: I’ve been surprised by the number of Avon-style events I’ve been invited to lately, for skin products, kitchen stuff, clothing. These are always events led by women for women and to me it speaks to the reality that most moms do not want to work full time, 9 to 5, when they have kids. (Which is why I’m against provincial daycare schemes of any and all kinds: they force women into one mould and solidify a lifestyle most parents do not want, that of the two-parent, full-time working household.) 

From BBC News,

A flash mob to highlight fetal alcohol problems has taken place in Aberdeen city centre.

The event at the Trinity Centre was part of a UK-wide “Pregnant Pause” flash mob.

The National Organisation on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS-UK) stunt took place at 09:09 – on 9 September – to mark the nine months of pregnancy.

Participants placed a balloon up their tops and then froze for exactly nine minutes, before moving off.

On November 8, Mississippi voters will decide when personhood begins.

(CNN) — Voters in Mississippi will be given a chance to decide whether life begins at conception, a controversial abortion-related ballot initiative that the state’s highest court has refused to block.

The Mississippi Supreme Court late Thursday allowed Measure 26, also known as the Personhood Amendment, to appear on the state ballot November 8. The decision was a rejection of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and abortion-rights groups.

The 7-2 ruling said those groups had not met the legal burden required to restrict the right of citizens to amend the state constitution. […]

The measure would amend the constitution to extend “personhood” to the unborn, likely rendering abortions illegal in the state if upheld.

From CBC News,

The Wetaskiwin, Alta., woman convicted of infanticide for killing her newborn son, was given a three-year suspended sentence Friday by an Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench judge.

Katrina Effert was 19 on April 13, 2005, when she secretly gave birth in her parents’ home, strangled the baby boy with her underwear and threw the body over a fence into a neighbour’s yard.

She silently wept as Justice Joanne Veit outlined the reasons for the suspended sentence. Effert will have to abide by conditions for the next three years but she won’t spend time behind bars for strangling her newborn son. […]

“Naturally, Canadians are grieved by an infant’s death, especially at the hands of the infant’s mother, but Canadians also grieve for the mother.”