CNN.com - Delivery debate: Vaginal or C-section?
(CNN) -- More women are choosing to have Caesarean sections instead of vaginal births, according to a report released Monday, and their decisions, together with doctors' cooperation, has become a contentious subject among obstetricians, politicians and feminists
And to top it off, the picture with this article shows a mom bottle-feeding her baby.
Midwifery: July 2003 Archives
This is national Natural Family Planning Week (July 20 to July 28, 2003). Has your parish mentioned it at all? I went to mass Sunday in a different parish than usual, and I noticed that the priest included a petition in the Prayer of the Faithful for "an end to contraception, abortion, and euthanasia".
Women Ovulate Once per Cycle
New Canadian Study Supports Natural Family Planning
Another interpretation of the same data quoted in the news media (see several comments below and on several other blogs).
--“Of course, for pregnancy to occur, not only does there need to be an actual ovulation – not just follicular development – but there also must be a host of other factors present, including cervical secretions and an appropriate luteal phase during which the egg- if fertilized—will implant itself in the uterine lining,” says Dr. Arevalo. --
Rachel at HMS blog has some excellent suggestions for pregnant women during heat waves. I second every one of her suggestions.
Over at HMS blog is an interesting thread on rape and pregnancy prevention. The discussion centers around the use of high doses of female hormones to disrupt the menstrual cycle and prevent ovulation (and hence fertilization). This is one of the mechanisms of action of the so-called morning-after pill (aka emergnecy contraception or ECP). However, there are several mechanisms by which these medications act. One is that they disrupt the menstrual cycle. Dependant upon where in the cycle the hormones are given, they can prevent ovulation, delay ovulation, or have no effect on ovulation. They can disrupt the formation of the uterine lining so that implantation cannot occur (very early chemical abortion). They also cause thickening of the cervical mucous and can make sperm penetration difficult or impossible (however, that is not protective after rape, as the mucous is either present or not present at the time of insemination, and fertile mucous transports sperm pretty rapidly to a waiting egg, whereas infertile or no mucous is pretty much a death trap for the sperm).
I am not near my NFP texts right now and don't remember exactly what the transport and survival time is for healthy sperm in fertile mucous - Is there enough time that disruption of ovulation would be the actual mechanism of action for pregnancy prevention?
I don't think we really have enough knowledge on some of this to endorse any specific post-facto method of preventing pregnancy in rape victims (that is not abortifacient).
One thing that few people realize is that there are really very few days of fertility in every cycle, the recent University of Saskatchewan study notwithstanding. The problem for NFP is iidentifying those days with enough precision to make behavioural recommendations. The likelihood of conception related to a single incident is variable dependant upon the time within the menstrual cycle, which is data that can be teased out of the ECP studies - the reason these pills seem to be so effective is that most of the time the women weren't in their fertile days anyhow!
Billings Ovulation Method comments on the article below.
Women may ovulate more than once.
I have a few questions on this - for one, I want to know how they defined their terms. My perception is also that it is an attempt to discredit NFP - and I wonder about that also.
BTW - I am still on the road - currently in Memphis TN visiting my oldest daughter.
