This year's winners of the Ig Nobel prizes are a bumper crop of wild and crazy SCIENCE!, featuring sword-swallowing, knuckle-cracking, benefits of cow-naming, pregnant women NOT tipping over, a household use for giant panda poop (take that, Packham), diamonds made from tequila, a brassiere that can be used as TWO gas masks, "Ireland's Worst Driver", Icelandic banks, Zimbabwean currency, and a 'Peace Prize' earned by hitting people over the heads with beer bottles (and comparing the effects of empty vs. full bottles) (related inquiry)
posted by wendell on Oct 2, 2009 - 23 comments

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." [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Aug 19, 2009 - 63 comments

William Saletan has been writing about abortion for a while. In Slate he recently discussed the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion, and Supporting Parents Act, and some hard line pro-life groups resistance to this bill. Doug Johnson, the National Right to Life Commitee's legislative director responds stating that the bill is a "prop in a political charade" to "provide camouflage for pro-abortion politicians". Saletan tears holes in Johnson's stated objections, calling out the NRLF's unstated objection to contraception.
posted by garlic on Aug 3, 2009 - 260 comments

Does it cause hairy palms? (No, that is a myth.) Will it make you go blind? (No, though zinc deficiency can be detrimental to one's vision, and semen contains a small amount of zinc.) Are you going to hell for it? (Maybe, maybe not.) But what if it helps with conception? (well, the men doing it, anyway)
posted by Navelgazer on Jul 9, 2009 - 20 comments

"Every day I talk to people who have always been against abortion, . . . who are having an abortion. Or I talk to people who are pro-choice, [yet are] freaked out by [having an abortion]." Many women you know [have had an abortion]. Odds are, they never said a word about it to you. "We need to discuss the complex feelings of women who've had abortions." While many women experience only relief after an abortion, others may grieve for the lost pregnancy."Why flatten the decisions around abortion to just abortion?" [more inside]
posted by cybercoitus interruptus on Jul 1, 2009 - 184 comments

Sixteen states already have laws [PDF] related to abortion ultrasounds . Eleven more states have recently introduced bills that demand that a woman who wants an abortion be forced to look at the ultrasound, while a doctor describes what she is seeing. All of these bills are because the legislators believe that adoption is the only choice a woman should make. This essay, On Living Pro-Lifer's Choice for Women, explores the difficulties faced by birth mothers who choose that path.
posted by dejah420 on Mar 17, 2009 - 505 comments

The Youngest Parents by Jocelyn Lee. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Feb 24, 2009 - 25 comments

"I don't think it's our job to tell them how many babies they're allowed to have." The woman who recently gave birth to octuplets already has six children. Multiple births increased 29% from 1995 to 2005. Why? What are the risks of multiple births? Despite the risks, some people WANT a multiple birth. If you are pregnant with more than one child, how should you prepare? How do you care for all those kids? What if you decide you don't want to have them all? A personal story of selective reduction. A personal story of having triplets.
posted by desjardins on Jan 30, 2009 - 192 comments

Evangelicals are very good at articulating their sexual ideals, but they have little practical advice for their young followers. Social liberals, meanwhile, are not very good at articulating values on marriage and teen sexuality—indeed, they may feel that it’s unseemly or judgmental to do so. But in fact the new middle-class morality is squarely pro-family.

The New Yorker discusses the red-state/blue-state divide in attitudes about premarital sex, sex education, and teen pregnancy: Red Sex, Blue Sex.
posted by Who_Am_I on Oct 31, 2008 - 153 comments

What to Expect When You're Aborting: I'm 23. I'm knocked up. And I don't want to keep it. You can fuck yourself, Judd Apatow.
posted by Rumple on Aug 22, 2008 - 189 comments

Your unborn child as produce - You'll never look at chard the same way again.
posted by Ogre Lawless on Aug 20, 2008 - 49 comments

Cuckhold Pregnancy: the ultimate expression of a lifestyle. Being deceived into raising another man's child would be a nightmare for most men. For other's, it's the ultimate hot fantasy. Taking it to the extreme of having your wife bear another man's child is a suprising (to me) twist on the Cuckhold fantasy. Interestingly, it seems to dovetail with another sexual fetish previously discussed on Metafilter. Oh yeah, NSFW !!!!
posted by echolalia67 on Aug 4, 2008 - 83 comments

Jamie Lynn's Reproduction Rap A slightly educational, slightly ridiculous look at where babies come from.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Jul 12, 2008 - 34 comments

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town.
posted by swift on Jun 19, 2008 - 209 comments

Oh, mighty warrior 'twill be quite a task...Greg Allen reminds us what the mid-century phrase "kill the rabbit" is really all about.
posted by ericbop on Mar 18, 2008 - 14 comments

The history of the home pregnancy test kit. via the NIH History Office
posted by Rumple on Mar 9, 2008 - 6 comments

What happens when oral sex leads to pregnancy? Apparently, this can happen 2.5% 0% of the time, although in this case, the father, Dr. Richard O. Phillips is claiming the mother, Dr. Sharon Irons secretly kept the sperm to artificially inseminate herself. He sued for emotional distress (as well as theft, though the theft charge was thrown out); Sherry Colb has written an interesting article on the bizarre case. [Colb previously on MeFi]
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me on Jan 24, 2008 - 138 comments

Best Cities to have a Baby Portland Oregon tops the list. Not surprisingly Detroit didn't fair so well
posted by Tablecrumbs on Jan 23, 2008 - 49 comments

Noelle can't stop giving birth.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jan 3, 2008 - 34 comments

Wombs for rent: "Anand's surrogate mothers, pioneers in the growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly 40 babies. More than 50 women in this city are now pregnant with the children of couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women earn more than many would make in 15 years."
posted by mr_crash_davis on Dec 30, 2007 - 134 comments

Resolve.org is a site devoted to providing support, both emotional and practical, to people struggling with infertility issues. The immediately apparent benefits to visiting would be their informational documents and errata, but of at least equal value are the bulletin boards where you can talk with other people dealing with infertility, whether it's for the sake of venting, chatting or just to have someplace you can go where you don't have to hear the words "well, adoption isn't so bad..."
posted by shmegegge on Sep 17, 2007 - 66 comments

The ethics of infertility: After taking fertility drug Clomid, Ryan and Brianna Morrison conceived sextuplets. Their religious beliefs steered them away from undergoing a selective reduction procedure in favor of bringing all six fetuses to term. Four of their newborns have died; the remaining two are in critical condition. This mother of multiples says that while she's grateful that insurance and Medicaid covered her million-dollar hospital bill, her "quest to have a family resulted in a significant drain on society's resources."
posted by lalex on Jul 2, 2007 - 136 comments

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.
posted by kmennie on May 4, 2007 - 46 comments

Outstanding collection of 18th century obstetrical models at the Anatomical Museum in Modena, Italy. NSFW, the teratology section at the end is especially gruesome. [via]
posted by bobobox on Mar 15, 2007 - 25 comments

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."
posted by brain_drain on Mar 13, 2007 - 66 comments

The Shape of a Mother There are a lot of sites out there that document the changes a woman's body goes through during pregnancy. The goal of Shape of a Mother (picture-heavy, NSFW) is to document what also happens afterwards. Women from all over the world submit stories and pictures of how their bodies changed after giving birth and how it affects their self-image. From the site's creator: "It occurred to me that a post-pregnancy body is one of this society's greatest secrets; all we see of the female body is that which is airbrushed and perfect, and if we look any different, we hide it from the light of day in fear of being seen."
posted by LeeJay on Oct 14, 2006 - 53 comments

Forever Pregnant. The CDC has released guidelines for improving the "preconception health" of all women of childbearing age whether they plan to have children or not. From the the WaPo article: "among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control." So ladies, don't even think of touching the litter box. You know, just in case.
posted by kimdog on May 19, 2006 - 121 comments

"I can give up smoking at any time, but I don't find it affects my pregnancy."
Oh yeah, this expectant mother is also 12 years old.
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus on May 12, 2006 - 99 comments

Eloysa Vasquez, a 37-pound woman with osteogenesis imperfecta (the "brittle bone disease"), has given birth to a premature, but otherwise healthy, son. OI is the disease affecting the actor Michael J. Anderson, most famous for his roles as "The Little Man from Another Place" in Twin Peaks and Samson in Carnivale. Children with OI experience so many broken bones that their parents are frequently suspected of child abuse.
posted by feathermeat on Feb 11, 2006 - 58 comments

A happy young couple excited to start having children sit and wait the results of a pregnancy test. Some midweek fun.
posted by keijo on Aug 16, 2005 - 28 comments

When I was Garbage by Allison Crews at age 17, teen mother advocate and activist. "I had become garbage, worthy only to sit in my isolated desk and cry to myself and throw up in a dirty bathroom stall. I was a pregnant teenage girl."
Allison died recently aged 22. She was active in girl-mom.com, an online and in life support and education network for young mothers.
"To radically accept and defend a woman's right to choose, we must acknowledge the multiple ways that women come to make reproductive choices. By marginalizing teenage mothers, even within the feminist community, we are failing to recognize the realities of countless women and their children."
There's a report of her funeral and a website has been set up to collect memories for Allison's 7 year old son. {Allison's LJ} All of this comes via BitchPhD - her entry is also worth reading. (previous semi-related MeFi)
posted by peacay on Jun 21, 2005 - 50 comments

Britney's Smear. Staff at Hot 89.9 Morning Hot Tub team spent two weeks touting what they claim is the First Response home pregnancy test Britney Spears used to determine she was carrying husband Kevin Federline's baby. GoldenPalace.com, an online casino known for its aggressive marketing, beat out 800 other hopefuls with a bid of $5,001.
posted by fandango_matt on May 4, 2005 - 15 comments

Why some women kill for a baby.
"Most often women do this to fool the husband, and they don't want to break the spell, and there comes a time when they need to go get a baby."
posted by grabbingsand on Dec 20, 2004 - 56 comments

Your Health and Happiness in Pregnancy - a lovely pamphlet from 1978. From A Little Pregnant.
posted by SuzySmith on Sep 29, 2004 - 8 comments

Grin And Bear It, Woman! Think Of England! Caesarean births in the U.K. should be severely curtailed, say the medical mandarins. Germaine Greer says, in a cracking column, that the new guidelines are misogyny pure and simple. Is it just my impression (think of American Pie-type teenage movies; advertising; "guy lit") or are hatred of women and beery, bozo celebrations of indifference to the feminine sex on the up and up?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Apr 28, 2004 - 64 comments

Recharge Your Ovaries? Would it be better to have babies in our 60's? What if we could eliminate menopause? Is this just another instance of the dawn of agelessness?
posted by ewkpates on Mar 10, 2004 - 7 comments

Can't wait to see your new baby? Now you don't have to. Umm, but maybe it's better to be patient.
posted by alms on Sep 9, 2003 - 12 comments

The Visible Embryo. "This spiral represents the 23 stages occurring in the first trimester of pregnancy and every two weeks of the second and third trimesters. Use the spiral to navigate through the 40 weeks of pregnancy and preview the unique changes in each stage of human development." via The Eyes Have It, which sadly looks as if it hasn't been updated since February, but still has much of interest to offer.
posted by jokeefe on Jul 27, 2003 - 13 comments

Boy pregnant with little brother. Well, sort of.
posted by xmutex on May 1, 2003 - 46 comments

Sending the pregnant to fight Saddam: The dramatic rescue of GI Jessica brings up the issue [preemptive post justification]. This article has a nice historical overview of women's role in the military, in the form of a time-travel dialogue between today's soldier and a Vietnam era grunt.
posted by hairyeyeball on Apr 3, 2003 - 22 comments

I've known a number of women who have miscarried. It is something that happens frequently, but not something that seems to be discussed very much. In this article at Salon, Heather Swain describes her experience.
posted by tranquileye on Mar 11, 2003 - 16 comments

A 32,000 year old etching on an ivory mammoth tusk is linked to the constellation Orion which may have been used as a primitive "pregnancy calendar" designed to estimate when a pregnant woman will give birth. The oldest known drawing of a star pattern, it was created by the mysterious Aurignacian people about whom we know next to nothing save that they moved into Europe from the east supplanting the indigenous Neanderthals.
posted by stbalbach on Jan 26, 2003 - 17 comments

Reach in and touch someone. Having a baby? Have money to burn? Think a video of your baby's ultrasound would just be so passe? Novint Technologies has developed a system that will let you "touch" your unborn child -- or at least a 3D ultrasound image of it.
posted by zztzed on Nov 30, 2002 - 3 comments

Pregnancy test results are not considered part of confidential medical records. Why, you say? Because the cops wanted to find out who dumped an abandoned baby, and subpoenaed Planned Parenthood's records to see who had gotten positive pregnancy test results recently. The rationale for the judge's ruling? "...the records aren't medical records because the staff who provide pregnancy tests aren't required to be doctors or nurses."
posted by beth on Jul 18, 2002 - 14 comments

"I just can't believe that I'm having a baby." The yearbook at Pinellas Park High School this year included a 12 page spread about teen pregnancy and highlights some students and their experiences with staying in school while pregnant. Some see it a step in educating students about the issue, others see it as a glorification of teen pregnancy. Having had an older sister almost not finish high school because of a pregnancy, I'm all for education, but is the yearbook the appropriate place?
posted by turacma on Jun 11, 2002 - 38 comments

Getting the Girl. The NY Times Magazine ran a great article awhile back on the emotional and societal consequences of being able to choose the sex of your baby. In the US, the ratio for the overall population is 0.96 males for every 1 female. But it has been changing over time and there's some controversy as to why this is.
posted by euphorb on Apr 11, 2002 - 10 comments

Avoiding Wrongful Birth Lawsuits , ob/gyn's in France have decided just to "not know" about problems before birth. So, no more ultrasounds. Original wrongful birth thread can be found here.
posted by dwivian on Jan 10, 2002 - 4 comments

Woman Pregnant Twice. An Italian woman is due to give birth in a hospital in Rome this week to a baby girl - before returning three months later to have triplets. If both deliveries are successful, it is thought that this will be the first such case in history.
posted by tpoh.org on Nov 12, 2001 - 17 comments

No longer getting Knocked up! Teens are not getting knocked up... as much. Why do you think that is?
posted by aj100 on Jul 25, 2001 - 21 comments

True or not?! One of the weirdest things I've ever seen on the web. I was sure this was a hoax and kept digging for confirmation and never found it.
posted by norm on Nov 3, 2000 - 11 comments