The already controversial BeautifulPeople.com, a dating site with a strict ban on ugly people, has taken this one step further, and this will surely be hotly debated again. It has recently launched a virtual sperm and egg bank for people who want to have beautiful babies. The Beautiful Baby service – which is also available to non-members – was created for people who want to maximize their chances of having good looking children.

This raises for me all sorts of disturbing issues. Who will decide what beauty is, for instance? And is not beauty a quality of the inner heart and of character as much as a visual phenomenon?

Managing director Greg Hodge said: “BeautifulPeople.com has launched a fertility introduction service to help members and non-members alike procreate.  There are no financial benefits for us in doing so – we are simply responding to a demand for attractive donors.  Every parent would like their child to be blessed with many fine attributes, attractiveness being one of the most sought after.  For a site with members who resemble Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie you can imagine the demand.” Since its creation in 2002, BeautifulPeople.com has become the world’s largest community of beautiful people with over 600,000 members from 190 countries.

Founder Robert Hintze added: “Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people.  But everyone – including ugly people – would like to bring good looking children in to the world, and we can’t be selfish with our attractive gene pool.”

In an attempt to explain this initiative, Jean Smith a cultural anthropologist said, “BeautifulPeople.com is doing what people are doing anyway, which is securing what they believe to be the highest level of genetic material they can, to ensure the best chance of success for their offspring. This service makes it easier for those who subscribe to the same ideal of beauty as those of ‘Beautiful People’ to find donors whom they perceive to supply appropriate genetic material.” As a testament to it’s success in helping attractive people meet, already, over 600 beautiful babies have been born to couples who met through the site, a fact which is attracting the attention of broody individuals and fertility clinics.

How the virtual sperm bank will work

The BeautifulPeople.com virtual sperm bank is a forum where members register and state their procreation interests.  A number of members already registered on the forum are married or in a relationship where for many reasons, an external donor is required.  Likewise, many men have been able to register to help infertile couples or single women to conceive healthy, attractive offspring.

There are many levels on which this virtual sperm bank can benefit the community.  As well as non-members, men and women within the BeautifulPeople.com community who are seeking more than romance or social interaction are able to use the forum as an additional facility where they are able to enter relationships, but with an upfront attitude to their family goals. Members wishing to donate will be able to access information on which clinics to contact and gather information on the donor protocol.

espite the seemingly conceited approach, there is a good side to this program. Dr Mohamed Menabawey, media director at The London Bridge Fertility, Gynecology and Genetics Center is positive about the BeautifulPeople.com donor service, “The removal of donor anonymity has created the massive UK shortage. The cost, confusion and damage of what many believe now to be failed anonymity legislation is there for all to see. It is manifested in the shortage of donor gametes and growing fertility tourism.”

BeautifulPeople.com member James Frederiksen is one of many singles who have used the fertility forum and expressed an interest in donating sperm. “I’m from Norway and it’s very common for young, healthy men there to donate sperm. There seems to be a shortage worldwide, being a BeautifulPeople.com member I wanted to do whatever I could to help others create beautiful babies.”

You may call this nepotism – we just adore ourselves too much that we just need in an extremely boastful way to flaunt it, or may be it’s just simple vanity – we can afford everything we want so why not a beautiful baby in tow as well, and lastly maybe we want to be like God and be able to control the physical attributes of our babies. Whatever reasons people may have for joining this program, it is best to remember that a baby’s entry into this world is a miracle by itself and that is enough reason to call all babies as beautiful!

I remain wholly sceptical of this initative and hope that others will be too. I think that it is misguided to select one aspect of beauty over another in this facile way.

Related articles:

• BeautifulPeople.com Launches Virtual Sperm Bank (newswire.ca)
• Dating Site Launches Online Sperm and Egg Bank for “Beautiful People” (mashable.com)
• BeautifulPeople Dating Website Now Selling Designer Sperm and Eggs [Dating Sites] (gizmodo.com)

“Our family of iPhone Birth Announcement apps for Your family”

ItsABoy! ItsAGirl! ItsTwins! ItsTwins2! ItsABrother! ItsASister! ItsAGranddaughter! ItsAGrandson! ItsANiece! ItsANephew!

For $1.99 you get the app and you can email as many birth announcements as you want. No Postage! Send it right from the hospital!

Makes a great baby shower gift!

Visit http://www.dawnkempf.com for more information

Nursing is one of the most noble professions. It requires a combination of dedication and passion to be a successful nurse. The work can be very tiring but also very rewarding. And to those who have dedicated their lives in service of others it is only appropriate that they be recognized and rewarded for their exceptional work. Four exceptional registered nurses have recently been awarded scholarships by the March of Dimes for graduate studies in the field of maternal-child nursing.

These nurses are passionate about nursing and work tirelessly to improve maternal and infant health, according to the March of Dimes. “The March of Dimes is proud to help these nurses succeed and continue their nursing education,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes. “We hope these scholarships will help them achieve their goals of improving the health of women and babies.”

The March of Dimes Graduate Nursing Scholarship was founded in 1997 to recognize and promote excellence in the nursing care of mothers and babies. Each recipient receives $5,000 to continue their graduate maternal-child nursing studies. The four scholarship winners for 2010 are:

Amana Alcala-Moss, MN, RN, of Corvallis, Oregon, who is pursuing a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate in nursing at Oregon Health and Science University.  Ms. Alcala-Moss has been a nurse for 12 years and has worked as a mental health nurse practitioner, specializing in trauma and perinatal mental health. She is currently working with immigrant and refugee women from Latin American, Middle Eastern, and African countries suffering from psychological trauma.  She is multi-lingual, and plans to continue work in many countries around the world, including Spain, Morocco, and Mexico as well as in the U.S.

Kirsten Hanrahan, ARNP, DNPc, of Iowa City, Iowa, who is pursuing a doctorate in nursing practice at the University of Iowa.  Ms. Hanrahan is a pediatric nurse practitioner and has a long history of activism in neonatal nursing.  She has used her past positions as a staff nurse and now as a nurse practitioner in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to study methods of providing the best care possible for babies.  She investigated the effects of non-washable toys on premature infants in the NICU and developed and implemented an evidence-based protocol in her hospital which resulted in decreased infection rates.

Amy Starke, MPH, RN, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who is pursuing a master’s degree in nursing, specializing in midwifery, at the University of Michigan.  Ms. Starke has significant international experience, including work in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo and India.  She is currently working on a project in Liberia, West Africa, to help reduce maternal and infant mortality in that country.  The ultimate goal for this project is to develop targeted community-based interventions for severe pregnancy complications.  She plans to continue this international work in the service of women and infants when she completes her midwifery degree.

Leah Peterson, RN, SNM, from San Francisco, California, who is working toward a master’s degree in nurse midwifery at theUniversity of California at San Francisco. In addition to her schooling, Ms. Peterson volunteers in the “Women’s Community Clinic” where she serves women with free health care.  Since Ms. Peterson is fluent in Spanish, she is able to communicate with her patients in their own language, assuring that they have a full understanding of their health during pregnancy.  Ms. Peterson spent two years volunteering as a doula with AmeriCorps in Denver, Colorado, where she helped largely Spanish-speaking patients and she intends to work with this population after graduating.

Qualified applicants for the March of Dimes graduate nursing scholarships are registered nurses currently enrolled in a graduate program in maternal-child nursing at the master’s or doctorate level.  Applicants must be a member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the Association of Women’s Health,x Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, or the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. Applications for the 2011 scholarships will be available this fall on the March of Dimes website atwww.marchofdimes.com/scholarship, or by calling the March of Dimes at (914) 997-4609.  Applications are due January 15, 2011.

Related articles:

• Nurses launch public awareness campaign to promote the profession (newswire.ca)
• Everyone’s Going to Nursing School (digitaldoorway.blogspot.com)

It is said that 10 million babies need resuscitation at birth. In the U.S., they have made a memorandum with regards to this issue.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Laerdal Medical AS, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and Save the Children.  The objective of this Global Development Alliance (GDA) is to reduce newborn mortality by expanding access to high-quality, affordable newborn resuscitation training materials and devices, improving the competence of birth attendants to resuscitate newborns, strengthening health systems and promoting global commitment and resources for life-saving newborn care.

The GDA fits in directly with President Obama’s Global Health Initiative’s emphasis on maternal, newborn and child health, achieving significant health improvements through expansion of proven life-saving interventions, collaborating for impact with not just governments and development partners but also with the private sector, and an emphasis on innovation and promising new approaches to achieve results. “This GDA is unique in that it brings together a diverse group of organizations to respond to multi-faceted program needs that include training materials, equipment, systems strengthening, evaluation, and advocacy for increased national commitment and resources,” explains Lily Kak, USAID’s Senior Newborn Health Advisor.  Kak also emphasized that the founding group of partners would welcome partnership and collaboration with any organization that helps achieve the objective of reducing newborn mortality due to asphyxia.

Each member of the partnership will play a unique and complementary role that, together, will leverage their resources, creativity, and expertise to scale up newborn resuscitation globally. NICHD will support evaluation; AAP will help improve the skills of health providers and will provide royalty-free licensing to all partners of the Alliance to scale up their new evidence-based training curriculum “Helping Babies Breathe;” Laerdal will provide high quality, affordable resuscitation devices on a not-for-profit basis and will also improve resuscitation skills of health providers; and Save the Children will provide global technical leadership.  USAID will provide global technical leadership, strengthen systems, develop a community of practice, and support the rollout of newborn resuscitation through its implementing partners – Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), Health Care Improvement (HCI), HealthTech, the CORE Group, and other programs at the country level.

For more information about USAID’s programs around the world, please visit: www.usaid.gov .

Related articles by Zemanta

• Technology Innovation Advances Newborn Screen Translational Research Network (prweb.com)
• U.S. names eight countries to get health aid (reuters.com)

As a mother, every moment spent with your baby is precious. But you also needs time to relax and this usually happens when your baby is asleep or is playing with his toys. To help mom get more time to relax without the need to put the baby to sleep, an innovative solution was created by a group of mothers and their very creative team of designers. 4moms recently launched their innovative mamaRoo infant seat. The mamaRoo has gone from being available in 200 stores to over 250, and 4moms say they are receiving reorders from retailers and good reviews from customers.

The innovative and award-winning mamaRoo was highly anticipated in the months before its launch, and is now exceeding expectations. Retailers are reordering at an unprecedented rate in order to keep units on their shelves, and customers are raving about the product in online forums and on product review sites.

“We couldn’t be happier with the response to the mamaRoo,” says Patrick Brady, Director of Sales at 4moms. “We’ve already sold thousands of units, and more orders come in every day. The best part of the product’s launch, though, is reading the all the Facebook comments, blog posts, and online reviews that our customers are writing. Parents and babies all over the country are loving the product, and we’re thrilled.”

About the mamaRoo
The only infant seat of its kind, the mamaRoo takes a unique approach to motion: it moves “like you do.” Parents don’t vibrate like bouncy seats or swing like swings. They bounce and sway, and so does the mamaRoo. Combining sleek, modern design with an innovative approach to motion, the mamaRoo offers parents a better option for soothing and entertaining their children. The mamaRoo won the JPMA Innovation Award in 2008.

Features: five unique motions, five nature sounds, adjustable speeds, toys inspired by classical artists, mp3 hookup, reclining seat, machine-washable fabric in six different colors.

Specs: weight limit 25 lbs. or until the child sits up unassisted, product weighs 14 lbs, six-month warranty. Not wanting to add batteries to landfills, the mamaRoo runs on wall power only.

Related articles:

• 4moms mamaRoo Infant Seat Wins The National Parenting Center’s 2010 Seal of Approval (prweb.com)

As a parent, you already have a lot of concerns as well as joys when your new baby enters the house. To add to this list is how to baby proof your house. You will remember when the realization hit you—parenting means relinquishing any sense of interior design for baby-proofing products that provide function with no form! Those days of immaculate housekeeping are now gone for the rough and tumble joy of having your baby as the center of your life! Somewhere between hideous rubber bumpers and stark-white baby gates, most parents come to accept that child safety must over-ride the chic home design (if you ever had it!) you may have enjoyed before perhaps the “it” couple became the cute little family.

Not any more! Jamboo Creations is introducing a line of products that simultaneously merges stylish interiors and plush baby-proofing! Jamboo’s debut product addresses one of the greatest areas of concern for child safety at home: The sharp-edged area around the fireplace hearth, which also happens to be a major focal point for entertainment and family gatherings. The founders of Jamboo Creations and parents of a vivacious 4-year-old, Gina and Bill Maguire, have blended the elements of design and safety into one unique and creative baby-proofing solution, with HearthSoft™, by Jamboo Creations- the first fireplace hearth cover that accomplishes two clever and essential objectives:

1. Add a safe layer of protection for your child or loved one (including those with disabilities) around the hard surfaces and sharp edges of the fireplace.
2. Create an attractive home furnishing piece that enhances the look and usability of any room, using durable, easy-to-clean and flame-retardant designer fabrics.

“When our son, Jack, was born, we scoured the internet and mass-market baby product stores for something more attractive and practical than those standard rubber corner covers, “says Bill Maguire, co-owner of Jamboo Creations. “After ending every shopping trip disappointed and empty-handed, my wife went to work creating the perfect hearth cover for baby. The response from our family and friends let us know that this was a vastly-needed product from which any family with a fireplace could benefit.”

The company name is an acronym derived from combining the initials of Gina and Bill’s son, Jack Allen Maguire, who the couple affectionately calls “Boo”…thus, Jamboo Creations.

About HearthSoft

The patent-pending, durable, lightweight HearthSoft unit is custom-tailored to fit any hearth and decor and goes directly from shipping box to the fireplace hearth, with no assembly required. Zippered entries further enhance the convenience factor, allowing for easy cleaning when necessary. In addition, the padded skirt folds effortlessly underneath for easy storage in a closet or under a bed. The top pad of the HearthSoft contains 2” of dense, flame-retardant polyfoam that is wrapped in Dacron. The skirt contains 1” of dense polyfoam. Available in 12 colors, HearthSoft’s unusual hearth shapes and custom fabrics to fit any décor are also welcome, as part of Jamboo’s commitment to bringing safety and style to any interior design specifications.

Related articles:

• Time To Baby Proof The Home (mamasbagoftricks.blogspot.com)

Babies are truly amazing! It’s fascinating to document their development inside a mother’s womb. It’s heart stopping to watch them being delivered and enter the world after nine months. And it’s wonderful to watch them grow up and fill our hearts with joy and laughter. To celebrate this marvelous creation, Discovery Health is showcasing a whole week full of astounding baby stories. This July, Discovery Health delivers viewers an infusion of world-premiere programming from its signature event, BABY WEEK.  This latest edition showcases the riveting, real-life drama of babies born under extraordinary circumstances through six captivating specials and the network’s next breakthrough series, NICU.  From Monday, July 12, through Friday, July 16, baby-themed programming will air each night in primetime, with premiere programs beginning at 9 PM (ET/PT).

BABY WEEK welcomes the arrival of NICU, an original 10-episode docu-drama series that goes behind the scenes of top national neonatal intensive care units, showing the day-to-day care required to sustain the smallest of lives.  Premiering Thursday, July 15, at 10 PM (ET/PT), NICU follows real families as they experience the rollercoaster of emotions that come with having a premature baby.  The series also features doctors and nurses from leading hospitals in Baltimore, San Diego andCleveland, as they work around the clock to ensure the survival of their tiny patients.  Subsequent premiere episodes of NICUwill air weekly throughout the summer on Thursdays at 10 PM (ET/PT).

BABY WEEK also features six of the buzzworthy, gripping and occasionally bizarre one-hour specials that originally made the event so popular with viewers.  STRANGE PREGNANCIES details the most extraordinary and unheard-of delivery stories ever highlighted on television—including a woman with two separate uteri experiencing concurrent pregnancies.  Later in the week,BORN ON A BAD DAY profiles women giving birth under the worst possible circumstances—from hostage situations to natural disasters.  All six BABY WEEK specials need to be seen to be believed.

The following is a full rundown of all-new premiere programs:

• STRANGE PREGNANCIES

Every woman experiences pregnancy differently—but for these women, their pregnancies are unusual and downright bizarre.  This hour-long special focuses on three extraordinary pregnancies, from a woman with two functioning uteri, to a woman facing a rare and risky form of ectopic pregnancy, to a 56-year-old woman bearing triplets—for her daughter!

• A BABY TO SAVE OUR SON

Is it ethical to use one child to save the life of another?  Three-year-old Charlie has a rare genetic blood disorder—and without a bone marrow transplant, he could die before his seventh birthday.  This hour-long special follows Charlie’s journey and the difficult decisions his parents face in order to save their son’s life.

• BIG BABIES

This hour-long special follows the journeys of four obese, pregnant women as they struggle through the final weeks of pregnancy with supersized babies.  Showing the world through their eyes—along with the prejudices and challenges they face—BIG BABIES also records the crucial first months of their overweight infants’ lives and considers what the future holds for our supersized infants.

• TOO MANY BABIES? THE FIRST 16 MONTHS

Last spring, America fell in love with the Jones family and their five unexpected “blessings.”  Now, as they prepare for the next stage in their whirlwind lives, TOO MANY BABIES? THE FIRST 16 MONTHS will show the Joneses in a whole new light.  This hour-long special brings viewers behind the scenes in the quintuplets’ first year with never-before-seen footage and catches up with all that’s current in their ever-changing world.

• BORN ON A BAD DAY

BORN ON A BAD DAY presents the true and remarkable tales of moms giving birth during natural disasters and other precarious situations.  From a woman who delivers a baby during a hostage situation in the maternity ward, to a mom who delivers by flashlight during a tornado, viewers will be amazed by these incredible tales—and by the babies who survived them.

• THE 10 MOST UNBELIEVABLE BIRTHS

This hour-long special celebrates the most dramatic pregnancy and delivery stories ever told on Discovery Health.  The dynamic real-life obstetricians from the network’s hit series DELIVER ME, Drs. Alane Park, Yvonne Bohn and Allison Hill, lead us through an hour filled with harrowing and heartwarming tales of human reproduction.  The 10 shocking stories include a young woman who didn’t realize she was pregnant until she delivered, a transgendered couple who accidentally conceived against all odds and the extraordinarily rare birth of double identical twins.

Related articles:

• Baby Week on Discovery Channel (beliefnet.com)
• Kate Plus 8 at Discovery Cove (atomiurl.com)

For parents who have experienced the convenience that diapers have brought to their busy life, it is hard to make the switch to cloth diapers and go through all the necessary laundry and mess. But a new survey from DiaperShops.com reveals that parents’ attitudes towards cloth diapers are not necessarily fixed. Specifically, the survey shows that some parents say they would be willing to switch to cloth diapers once they discover that cloth diapers can save them a considerable amount of money. Environmental issues are also a big concern, with some parents saying they would be willing to switch to cloth diapers when they learn just how long disposable diapers take to decompose in landfills.

In tough economic times it’s no surprise that more budget-strapped parents are switching to cloth diapers to save money. In fact, a new online survey out today conducted by Harris Interactive for DiaperShops.com, a leading online cloth diapering boutique, reveals that one-third (33%) of parents who use disposable diapers say they would be “extremely” or “very likely” to switch to cloth diapers after learning that cloth diapers could save them $2,000 over the course of their baby’s diapering years.

However, just because parents say they are willing to switch doesn’t mean they are. The survey found that only approximately one in ten parents (9%) with children in diapers (ages 0-2 years) use or have used cloth diapers. This number represents a substantial minority of the parenting population.

Kelly Wels, the founder of DiaperShops.com, says this study exposes a knowledge gap among American parents. “It is true that cloth diapers can save a family $2,000 and more over the course of their baby’s diapering years; that said, it’s evident from this survey that parents don’t know just how much is at stake by switching to cloth diapers,” she says.

Environment, Diaper Rash Top Concerns for Parents
One-third (33%) of disposable diapering parents say they would be “extremely” or “very likely” to switch to cloth diapers after they learned how disposable diapers negatively impact the environment. Experts say disposable diapers take 250-500 years to decompose in a landfill and more than 27 billion diapers end up in landfills each year.

Other key findings from the DiaperShops.com and Harris Interactive survey include:

• Moms are more likely than dads to switch to cloth diapers out of concern for the environment. Sixty percent of moms say they would be likely to switch to cloth diapers for environmental reasons, while only 49 percent of dads were likely to do so.
• Moms are more concerned about diaper rash. Almost 30 percent of moms say they would be “extremely or very likely” to switch to cloth diapers if it could ease or eliminate diaper rash. Only 19 percent of dads say diaper rash is a reason to switch. (Note: This survey was conducted just prior to the firestorm surrounding diaper rashes alleged by parents using Pampers Dry Max for their babies.)
• Dads like the convenience of washing diapers at home. Forty six percent of dads who use disposable diapers for their babies say they would be “extremely likely” to switch to cloth diapers after learning that cloth diapers can easily be washed at home with only 2-3 extra loads of laundry per week. In comparison, only 35 percent of moms say they are “extremely likely” to switch for the same reason.
• Convenience is the number one reason for choosing disposable diapers. Of the 91 percent of parents with children ages 0-2 who currently use disposable diapers, an overwhelming majority (85%) cite convenience and ease of use as the main reason for their choice. Sixteen percent choose to use disposable diapers because they think that cloth diapers are more expensive.
• Financial reasons for using cloth diapers are greater for parents in the Midwest. In fact, 68 percent of parents say they would be “extremely,” “very” or “fairly likely” to switch to cloth for financial reasons. Compare that to 55 percent in the Northeast and 52 percent in both the South and the West who say they would switch to cloth diapers to achieve financial savings.

“Cloth diapering has been a growing phenomenon among today’s modern parents, especially when parents have done their homework to learn about all of the easy-to-use cloth diapering options like FuzziBunz®, Happy Heinys, GroVia, Kissaluvs, BabyKicks and bumGenius,” said Wels. “However, even though these options exist, this survey reveals that there is a significant misinformation about cloth versus disposable diapers.”

Tereson Dupuy, the founder of FuzziBunz® and mother of the modern cloth diaper, agrees, “To solve this knowledge gap, we need conscientious parents to take an active role in learning about their diapering options and finding what truly works best for them by taking into account cost, health of baby, convenience and style. Cloth diapers have come a long way and are nothing like the diapers of yesteryear!”

Related articles:

• Choosing Organic Cloth Diapers (pregnancychildbirth.suite101.com)
• My Experience with Cloth Diapers (bethstedman.com)
• Just One Thing: Green Your Baby’s Diapers (abcnews.go.com)
• Peace of Mind Is A Luxury You Deserve (amominredhighheels.com)

An SMS campaign was recenly launched to help improve the general health of mothers and babies. It cleverly uses text messaging technology as the most convenient way of communication and the easiest way to reach a large and varied class of recipients.

Keystone Mercy Health Plan, the largest Medicaid managed care organization in Pennsylvania, has partnered with The Maternity Care Coalition and the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB) Coalition, to launch the Philadelphia text4baby campaign. In supporting the new initiative, Keystone Mercy plans to educate and encourage the use of the service to its Wee Care prenatal program members. Text4baby is a free National Program, mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health by providing pregnant women and new moms with detailed health tips, via SMS text message, to assist them in caring for themselves and their children. The program, which was launched nationwide in February 2010, has nearly 35,000 enrollees, including 1,042 participants in Pennsylvania.

Women sign up for the free service by texting “BABY” (or “BEBE,” in Spanish) to 511411. Each woman receives three, SMS text messages every week, timed to their due date or baby’s age, up to the child’s first birthday. Messages include subject matter geared toward nutrition, immunizations, labor and delivery, car seat safety, breastfeeding and mental health.

Keystone Mercy Health Plan, through its support and collaboration with text4baby, plans to promote the initiative among its more than 5,000 Wee Care prenatal program participants. Similarly to the text4baby mission, Wee Care is a program devoted to educating pregnant women and new moms on health information and available services. The most notable health series, through the Wee Care program, is the community baby shower events, where Keystone Mercy Health Plan, goes into its members communities and provides important prenatal care information and screenings. Over the last three years, Keystone Mercy has also collected and donated newborn essentials to Wee Care members.

Commenting on text4baby, Dr. Eric Berman, chief medical officer, Pennsylvania Managed Care, Keystone Mercy Health Plan said, “We are very excited to assist in presenting this new, innovative program to our members and to expectant and new mothers throughout the City of Philadelphia. More than 11,000 babies were born to our members last year, and it is our job to ensure that we continue to provide the best in health services, to both mother and baby. This program helps us reaffirm our commitment by communicating health tips and information about the child’s development, between prenatal visits.”

About Text4Baby
Text4baby is made possible through a broad, public-private partnership that includes government, corporations, academic institutions, professional associations, tribal agencies and non-profit organizations. Founding partners include HMHB, Voxiva, CTIA – The Wireless Foundation and Grey Healthcare Group (a WPP company). Johnson & Johnson is the founding sponsor, and premier sponsors include WellPoint, Pfizer and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. U.S. government partners include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense Military Health System. The mobile health platform is provided by Voxiva and free messaging services are generously provided by participating wireless service providers. Implementation partners include BabyCenter, Danya International, Syniverse Technologies, Keynote Systems and The George Washington University. MTV Networks is a media sponsor.

Related articles:

• Health Net Partners with text4baby: An Unprecedented Public-Private Partnership Addressing Rising U.S. Infant Mortality Rate (eon.businesswire.com)
• Text Messaging in Healthcare (womenshealth.suite101.com)
• First Free Nationwide Mobile Health Information Service Developed by Voxiva Now Available to Promote Maternal and Child Health (eon.businesswire.com)

Pregnant mothers and dentists are both hesitant to carry out dental procedures and may needlessly withhold or delay treatment of pregnant patients because they fear injuring either the woman or the fetus – or because of fear of litigation. Prenatal and oral health providers are sometimes limited in providing oral health care during pregnancy because they lack understanding about its impact and safety.

With the recently published Journal of the California Dental Association which is an expert guidance on dental care during pregnancy, health care providers now have evidence-based guidelines to emphasize the importance of pregnant women maintaining good oral health care and the safety of providing appropriate treatment during pregnancy as published in the June .

“Oral Health During Pregnancy and Early Childhood: Evidence-Based Guidelines for Health Professionals” was developed by a panel of state and national medical, dental, and public health experts who reviewed scientific literature and recent research on the relationship between oral disease, treatment and pregnancy outcomes.

The guidelines, which contain clinical recommendations tailored to specific health professionals, are intended to assist health care practitioners in private, public and community-based settings in understanding the importance of providing oral health services to pregnant women and making appropriate decisions regarding their care.

“Despite the multiple benefits of dental care for mothers and their babies, many women have nagging concerns about its safety during pregnancy,” said Lindsey Robinson, DDS, chair of the California Dental Association Foundation, which convened the panel in collaboration with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX. “We hope these guidelines put to rest some of those worries and make dental treatment a recognized staple of prenatal care.”

The panel concluded that prevention, diagnosis and treatment of oral diseases, including dental x-rays and the use of local anesthesia, are highly beneficial and can be undertaken during pregnancy with no additional fetal or maternal risk when compared to the risk of not providing care.

Specifically, studies show there is no evidence relating early spontaneous abortion in the first trimester to dental treatment. The panel also found that preeclampsia, a challenging condition in the management of pregnant patients, is not a contraindication for dental care. Additionally, control of oral disease in pregnant women has the potential to reduce the transmission from new mothers to their infants of the pathogenic bacteria that causes dental disease.

Robinson hopes the guidelines will encourage prenatal care providers to fully integrate oral health into the care of their pregnant patients. “Pregnancy is a teaching moment for expectant mothers who should be encouraged to include dental hygiene and treatment in their prenatal care for their own health and their baby’s well-being,” Robinson said.

Related articles:

• Pregnant Women Need Dental Checkups, Too (livescience.com)
• Good oral health is essential during pregnancy (physorg.com)

“Our family of iPhone Birth Announcement apps for Your family”

ItsABoy! ItsAGirl! ItsTwins! ItsTwins2! ItsABrother! ItsASister! ItsAGranddaughter! ItsAGrandson! ItsANiece! ItsANephew!

For $1.99 you get the app and you can email as many birth announcements as you want. No Postage! Send it right from the hospital!

Makes a great baby shower gift!

Visit http://www.dawnkempf.com for more information

For a community to work, members must help each other out in times of need. Wealthy members have greater responsibility to help out and contribute to members who are struggling to make ends meet. Baby Buggy®, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to delivering essential baby items to New York City families in need, recently held its 4th annual Baby Buggy Bedtime Bash, presented by Target®. The eagerly anticipated sold out event raised $383,000 and was attended by more than 1000 parents and children.

“New Yorkers never disappoint, and they always support fellow New Yorkers in need,” said Baby Buggy Founder Jessica Seinfeld. “Families need Baby Buggy now more than ever – our sites are reporting a 15% increase in need over this same time last year. Many parents who already depend on Baby Buggy are now unemployed and forced to make difficult choices between things like paying rent, or buying medicine versus purchasing a crib or buying diapers. Thanks to our generous corporate sponsors and supporters, the money raised at this event will mean fewer parents having to make painful choices in how they provide for their children.”

Target was lead sponsor. Additional sponsors were Aveeno Baby®, Nickelodeon, Delta Children’s Products, Natural Care by Danny Seo, Lansinoh, Rosie Pope Maternity, MeeGenius! and Skip Hop.

The Target tote gift bag contained up & up™ hand sanitizer, up & up baby sunscreen, Aveeno Baby Daily Moisture Lotion, Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo, Delta toddler hangers, Cleanwell, HIT Entertainment DVD, Sprout Coloring Book, Observer Playground, MeeGenius! Postcard, Lansinoh Clean & Condition Cloths, Rosie Pope Maternity bib, Gruber Photographers coupon & free passes to SoulCycle and Citibabes.

ABOUT BABY BUGGY

Baby Buggy®, founded in 2001, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing New York City families in need with essential equipment, products and clothing for their infants and young children. With an extensive network of community-based organizations, Baby Buggy has donated over 4.1 million items to thousands of children. www.babybuggy.org

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Everybody loves the beach! With the summer vacation already within reach, it is nice to start drawing up images of your would be escapade. Sunshine. Seashores. Sandcastles. These words may conjure up the perfect summer vacation in your mind. But add a small child to the picture, and you may be worried that your time in the sun will be anything but relaxing. Not so, says, Heather McGehearty of Babysafetravel.com. “Like most family travel,” she says, “A bit of planning can ensure safe fun in the sun for the whole family.”

McGehearty suggests that planning for a beach trip starts with packing. Her must-have items include:

• Sunscreen: Children’s delicate skin can burn in as little as ten minutes without protection. Water and sand reflect UV rays, making the need for sunscreen even greater. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that all children — regardless of their skin tone — wear sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.



Image by dericafox via Flickr

• Water: Don’t assume you’ll be able to find good drinkable water at the beach. Carry it yourself and save a few dollars. Even better, carry filtered tap water and save the environmental cost of producing bottled water. Keep your kids hydrated by making sure they drink every hour or so.
• Towels and Blankets: Stash a few extra towels in case some get wet or sandy, and a blanket to stretch out on. A Tuffo water-resistant blanket can keep the family dry, even on wet sand.
• Sunglasses: Look for glasses whose lenses offer 100% UVA and UVB protection, and are comfortable enough that kids will keep them on.
• Sun Hats and T-shirts:In Australia, they say “Slip, slop, slap.” Slip on a t-shirt, slop on the sunscreen, and slap on a hat. By keeping your kids protected from the sun, you’ll ensure them a more comfortable time now, and a reduced risk of skin cancer later.

Once you’re at the shore, plan to be especially vigilant when your children are around water. Don’t let them swim in areas without a life guard, and make sure to teach older children how to fight undertows (by swimming parallel to the shore). If you’re’ going to a remote area, check the tides, and be especially careful around logs, and cliffs.

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If you want to know about being thrifty then go ask your mother and she will give you a tip or two on how to save money. It seems that having a youngster ignites a mother’s sense of thriftiness. To support our Moms a website was recently launch that would give your tight budget a break. This week we see the launch of Mum.com, a new low cost baby website. The concept behind Mum.com is simple, sell a small range of branded baby products cheaper than anybody else, deliver excellent customer service, and provide better value for money for the 3.6m UK mums who shop online each month.

Brands include Philips, Fisher-Price, Cosatto, Tommee Tippee, and Tomy. Prices are checked regularly against leading online retailers, price comparison websites, the Amazon Marketplace and eBay resellers. The founder of Mum.com, Andrew Campbell, came up with the idea for a low cost baby website after the birth of his first child, “Buying bulky items like pushchairs, cots, and nursery furniture is expensive, so we shopped around for the best deals. We didn’t have a strong preference for particular brands but we did want good quality at the cheapest possible price.”

And to celebrate their launching, Mum.com is having a contest to their customer who can you think of another word that is both a palindrome and onomatopoeic. Mum is one of only a few words in the English language that is both palindromic and onomatopoeic. A palindrome is a word that reads the same forward and backward. Examples include madam, civic and radar. An onomatopoeic word sounds like the object or action it describes, for example, woof, bang, and click. A 100 pound gift certificate will be given to the first correct answer pulled out of the hat on 7 September 2010. Entries must be sent via the Mum.com competition page.

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Being a new parent is stressful, but understanding the individual routine of your baby alleviates much of the worry. By logging a baby’s daily activities — everything from feedings and naps to crying and diaper changes — parents can become attuned to their child’s personal life rhythm. That’s where BabyBubbles, a new award-winning iPhone app from developer Michael Kaye, can help.

BabyBubbles is a media-filled journey through your baby’s life. Simple interactions with the app through its unique user interface let parents log events, add video, audio, and photo attachments or notes, share moments in baby’s life with friends and relatives, and view charts and statistics generated from the collected information. The intuitive and fun user interface of BabyBubbles makes it easy for parents to log the daily progress of their newborn.

Kaye was inspired to create BabyBubbles when his friend Nicola Jackson gave birth to her baby boy, Balthazar. To quote Kaye, “I was fascinated to discover the importance of keeping track of every feed along with all the other things a new baby does and so wanted to turn a complicated task into something that was quick, simple and fun. The aim is to save parents time and give an insight into their baby’s habits and routines and save them much needed time.”

After testing BabyBubbles, Jackson noted that “Using BabyBubbles meant I could put away my endless scraps of paper and start getting some really useful information. Everything from how much milk my baby had throughout the day to looking back over a whole week to see which time of day and night he was sleeping and waking – quite invaluable when trying to establish a routine to suit both mummy and baby.”

Of course, parenthood is more than just keeping track of diaper changes and baby feedings. It’s also capturing that first smile in a photograph, or letting friends and relatives experience your joy through social networking networks like Facebook and Twitter.

While in early development, BabyBubbles was a 2009 App Star Award Runners-up award winner. App Star Awards are awarded to brilliant upcoming apps by Appsfire in partnership with Appli Store and Le Web Paris.

Fun and useful features of version 1.0 of BabyBubbles include:

• A unique and simple interface featuring bubbles that signify key events in baby’s day.
• Adding photos, movies, and audio of your baby to the timeline.
• Automatic charting of feeding, sleep, and diaper totals per day, as well as feed and sleep patterns.
• Sharing life events with the world through Facebook and Twitter integration.
• Room for more than one baby for parents of multiples.
• Secure backup of all BabyBubbles information to any Mac or PC.
• Localized in English, German, and Dutch.

Device Requirements:

• iPhone, iPod touch (photo, video, and audio functionality may not be available for iPod touch users)
• Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later
• 4.5 MB

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Parents want their children to be unique and they jump start this uniqueness by giving their babies interesting names. We all know someone that has an interesting name, but how many people do you know with the name Strawberry Field or Blanket? Crazy names attract a lot of attention, but do they cause actual harm? Does a kid with the name R2D2 get beaten up more often than a kid with the name Faye or James? The answer is not clear, which is why the authorities in Sweden do what they can to protect a child from being abused because of his name.

Apparently in Sweden all baby names need to be approved by the local tax authority. Creative names such as Adolf Hitler, Google, Fish and Chips or Q are a few of the names that didn’t make the cut. Last week, a priest from Germany was asked to baptize a new born and was shocked to hear that the parents wanted to name their son Beginners Luck. It turns out that the father, a newbie at www.casino.com, played his first online casino game the day his son born and won GBP6,560. When asked about the winning, he commented, “I got lucky twice in one day. I hope this is a sign of bigger and better things to come”. The parents will call their son Beagle for short.

Finding a name that would fit your baby and you is a very confusing but important task that parents need to go through before and after the birth of your newborn. Parents must choose wisely as both the parent and the child  would have to live with their decision for a long time  or until the child is of legal age and decides to change his name to want he feels suits him best.

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