MetaFilter posts tagged with birth

Do babies born in January prefer tafeta?

Ruthless Bunny — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:40:46 -0800

Does getting lucky at the prom equate to more Winter Babies? What does that mean economically?

Let's Panic About Babies!

ocherdraco — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:27:34 -0800

Let's Panic About Babies! "Fortunately for everyone in the whole wide world, Alice Bradley and Eden M. Kennedy have created the only website that accurately explains the journey from morning sickness to third-degree tears to keeping that baby alive for a year–or more! LET’S PANIC ABOUT BABIES will serve as a salve to the mystery and degradation of this most female of challenges. Its authors may not have 'science' on their side, but what they do have is far more valuable: a heady mélange of female intuition, sentence-forming know-how, and the achingly vivid memories of their own gestational journeys and unending motherhoods. So join Alice and Eden as they tell you exactly what to think and feel and do on every one of your 2,681 days* of pregnancy. They know everything! * 'Science' would tell you that human gestation is actually, on average, 266 days. This is one of many ways in which science is terribly wrong." Alice and Eden help you make a birth plan:

Dear [primary caregiver], [vaginal expert] and various nurses/assistants whose names I will probably be screaming later on: I am so [random emotion] to have my baby born at [national monument]. I apologize in advance for any [adjective] names I call you during labor, such as [noun] or [adjective] or [adverb] [color] [sex organ]. I did not mean to say that your [family member] is [adjective]. I'm sure it/he/she/they is/are actually quite [euphemism]." ... Please note that I am not in control of my [emotion]. I may [verb] like a [member of the armed forces]. I may start singing songs about the [national holiday]. Anything is possible. If I [verb] things that are [adverb] shocking, or [gesture] you right in your [body part], I already said I was sorry. By reading this birth plan you agree not to press charges or file any lawsuits against me. No backsies.

Take that, realism!

anotherpanacea — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:54:03 -0800

Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? "...because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen."

Betcha can eat just one!

Ndwright — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:35:56 -0800

Afterbirth for Dinner (Time Magazine, NSFW or appetite) A firsthand account of the practice replete with video. Alleged by its practicioners to have medical benefits as well as being common in the animal kingdom, placentophagy has been covered by the BBC (SFW), though not with video. Not to be missed is the Geocities placenta preparation page including recipes for placenta pizza, placenta roast, placenta lasagna, and of course, placenta cocktails. Link to an actual preparer of placenta pills (Very NSFW) Previously

they come out the butt, stupid!

madamjujujive — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:14:43 -0800

Kinda sutra - a charmingly animated short in which people talk about childhood misconceptions about sex and childbirth. More on childhood sex misconceptions from Dan Savage 1, 2, 3. (pretty tame clip, but possibly NSFW) More on Kinda Sutra, which debuted this year at Sundance. See prior related posts: Classic underage misconceptions five fresh fish I used to believe - Stan Chin - not just sex misconceptions - but so amusing!

Good luck not dancing

2or3whiskeysodas — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:02:48 -0800

At Sammy's at 2016 Main, on September 8, a historic jam session occurred, an impromptu reunion of many of the city of New Orleans's finest musicians. Each player who walked in the door was much more than a mere musician that night -- they were an affirmation of life. Not only did their attendance indicate that they had survived the storm, but their collective presence also indicated that their music would survive, too.
The New Birth Brass Band (and friends) tears it the hell up in downtown Houston post-Katrina. The whole show is great, but if you're short on time, parts one and three are especially smoking.

999 Call Transcripts

roofus — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:01:11 -0800

JS (Aged 5) She can't wake up.
Operator No? Is she breathing? Can you see her chest go up and down?
JS I can see her shoulders going ... I can see her doing [Makes breathing noises]
Operator She's breathing, is she? But you think she's having a fit.
JS Yeah, I think she is and ... I don't know what to do.

6 transcripts of 999 operators helping people cope with emergencies: a mother giving birth alone, a 5 year old whose mother is fitting, a mother and son trapped in a house fire, a brother and sister resuscitating their father, a husband saving his choking wife, and a neighbour saving his friend with an amputated arm

More shark, less snark

wendell — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:18:58 -0800

Shark Virgin Birth! Praise Jawsus! (punchline stolen from Halcyon) Meanwhile, in Dubai, they're so rich they can focus their attention on Sammy the Shark, and a museum in Hawaii is trying to dispel fears raised by recent shark sightings with an exhibition titled "Megalodon: Largest Shark That Ever Lived". And if you always wanted a shark of your own, contact Big Al. Just remember the words of Alby Singer.

Your unborn child as produce

Ogre Lawless — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:30:55 -0800

Your unborn child as produce - You'll never look at chard the same way again.

Harvey Dent, eat your heart out.

auralcoral — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:25:17 -0800

"Baby Lali with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday."

Heavy on trivia, slowly presented.

blue_beetle — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:30:35 -0800

Did You Know 2.0 (Youtube 08:19) Facts about education, population, globalization.

Amazing Birth

alms — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:50:59 -0800

Amazing Birth (NSFW). One link youtube post, requires login for age verification, but it's worth it.

Lifelike robot helps train doctors in delivering babies

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:09:38 -0800

Noelle can't stop giving birth.

It's your Birthday, it's your birthday, it's your birthday--yay!

hadjiboy — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 07:29:51 -0800

Janmashtami: A celebration of Lord Krishna’s Birth.

All nude all week. Oh, and giving birth live online.

nanojath — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:15:19 -0800

Ana Voog is spending the week nude online (NSFW, duh). Former leader of the long-standing Minneapolis Pop-Rock band The Blue Up? Rachel Olson reinvented herself as Ana Voog and became one of the first to put herself under near constant home surveillance online with her Anacam (wacky flash, NSFW). This August will mark her tenth anniversary online, making hers (by her own reckoning) the longest running home cam on the internet. To celebrate she's spending the week naked. Did I mention she's 35 weeks pregnant and planning to give birth online?

"Pregnant in America." Oh, my.

kmennie — Fri, 04 May 2007 23:32:05 -0800

Pregnant in America. A trailer from a documentary ("coming 2007") about contemporary US birth practices, which may not be best practices. The politics make for interesting reading. See also: Monty Python's The Miracle of Birth.

If you're pregnant this will give you something to do

konolia — Thu, 03 May 2007 07:04:43 -0800

virtual labor

Perinatal Hospice Programs

brain_drain — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:29:21 -0800

Living With a Dying Baby. "Families can choreograph their child’s very brief life with their family . . . Sometimes they may have a matter of minutes, so they decide beforehand who can hold the baby, who will cut the umbilical cord, who will hold the baby when you know he is going to die."

Second Aid?

serazin — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 20:35:24 -0800

Beyond First Aid: How to handle being pepper sprayed, How to help a woman who is giving birth, How to suture, How to survive a gunshot wound, etc.

sharing the stupid

Tryptophan-5ht — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:26:58 -0800

Globally, there are about 105-107 boys born for every 100 girls. I was led to believe this was because men do stupid things that get themselves killed/injured. I wonder if this theory accounts for those times when men do something stupid that gets women killed/injured. (youTube link: video of a really stupid idea getting two women bruised up. If you laugh, it means you're going to hell.)

When I'm bad, do I still get to blame my brothers and sisters?

notmtwain — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 02:45:26 -0800

The New "Science" of Siblings An amusing article from Time magazine by Jeffrey Kluger which reports that your siblings have more influece on your personality than any other group-- parents, peers, spouses, children, etc. My ex-wife thinks I'm sarcastic, combative, insensitive, etc. Do I get to blame my brothers and sisters for this now? Another article on this issue "The Science of Siblings". Apparently, they could have made me more likely to be gay too.

I just love how the baby peers out.

thebabelfish — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 09:47:13 -0800

How Babies are Made in Germany. A book for children. (Possibly NSFW.)

obstetric fistula

kliuless — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 21:12:36 -0800

Outcasts in Their Own Villages "More than one million young women with the condition are scattered throughout the so-called fistula belt that stretches across the southern hem of the Sahara from Eritrea to Mali. Because of their severe incontinence and smell, many have been ostracized by their families and villages and live by themselves or with fellow fistula sufferers. They are the lepers of the desert." [also see]

Haughey

digaman — Mon, 02 May 2005 07:30:43 -0800

Good luck, blessings, positive thoughts, and an early mazel tov to Mathowie, Kay, and Fiona!

Girls, Girls, XXs...

lilboo — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:34:13 -0800

Girl Power or: Partnership status and the human sex ratio at birth: a paper by Karen Norberg

Could the sex of a child be influenced by the status of the parents' relationship at the time of conception? In a sample of 86,436 births in the United States, we find a small excess of sons among births to parents who were married or living with an opposite sex partner before the child's conception, compared to births to parents who were not. This is the first evidence that household arrangements can affect the human sex ratio at birth, and could explain the fall in the proportion of male births in some developed countries over the past thirty years.

(Data published on FirstCite registration required) via The Economist

(special note for mathowie: No word yet as to whether or not those single moms can also reliably produce offspring with an astigmatism.)