We've discussed fetal cookies and weird baby shower cakes before, but I got a really good laugh out of reading about the baby shower cake features on Cake Wrecks. (It's the second cake's story.)
I was feeling industrious a few weekends ago and tried to make some baby themed cookies. They'd be perfect for a baby shower, though I made them for a birth professional cookie exchange I'm going to this week. (I'll let you know if they're a hit or not.) On the baby shower forum, we'd had a discussion about some fetus shaped cookie cutters. Once I saw them, I knew I had to try them.
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I often talk to moms and dads about talking to their baby, singing and even reading to their baby while pregnant. We know that from about the midpoint of pregnancy your baby can hear you fairly well. Research has shown us that baby's can recognize voices they've heard during pregnancy at birth. And let me tell you, there is nothing that melts your heart like a newborn quieting and turning to look at you when you speak to them...
Now there is new research out that shows that baby's also acquire some early speak traits. That means that they cry in similar patterns to what they've been hearing, what researchers are calling the "mother tongue."
This study specifically looked at German and French babies born to parents who spoke those languages. As with typical French speaking patterns, the French babies cried with a rising melody and increasing pitch. The German babies had a falling pattern of cry.
French newborns tend to cry with rising melody patterns, slowly increasing in pitch from the beginning to the end, whereas German newborns seem to prefer falling melody patterns, findings that are both consistent with differences between the languages.
Just another reason to talk to your babies! How do you connect verbally with your baby?
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Source:
Newborns' Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language. Birgit Mampe, Angela D. Friederici, Anne Christophe, Kathleen Wermke. Current Biology - 05 November 2009
So you've read a lot of good pregnancy books and you think you've got it all under control. Maybe you've had a baby already and known your way around a birthing room. Here is a fun quiz to test your knowledge of pregnancy and birth. How well do you score?
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Photo (c) iStockPhoto
There are two antibiotics, commonly used to treat urinary tract infections (UTI) in pregnancy, sulfa drugs (brand names including Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantoins (brand names including Furadantin and Macrobid). They have recently been linked to some forms of birth defects including anencephaly (a fatal brain defect), cleft palate and heart defects. Though it is currently unclear whether or not the birth defects are caused by the medications in question. There are others that are still considered to be safer.
It is important to treat urinary tract infections in pregnancy to ward off preterm labor. The drugs used are rated by the FDA but not the safest grading, an A. But they have been used for years without studies as is common with most medications in pregnancy.
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Source
Krista S. Crider; Mario A. Cleves; Jennita Reefhuis; Robert J. Berry; Charlotte A. Hobbs; Dale J. Hu. Antibacterial Medication Use During Pregnancy and Risk of Birth Defects: National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(11):978-985.
