"pregnant" news and stories

Photo: Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

A "Top Chef" host has a little something in the oven -- and it's not a Quickfire dish.

Reps for Padma Lakshmi confirmed to Usmagazine.com that the former model, burger spokeswoman and Emmy winner is pregnant with her first child after a multi-year struggle with endometriosis.

The 39-year-old co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America earlier this year in an attempt to raise awareness about the condition in which uterine lining accumulates in other parts of the body, sometimes leading to chronic pain and infertility.

Lakshmi's three-year marriage to novelist Salman Rushdie ended in divorce in 2007 and the identity of the father has not been publicly revealed.

Often times, health advice falls into the "What do we make of it?" column. This can be especially true when it involves drugs such as alcohol and caffeine where people have predetermined biases or agendas.

So here's a potentially inflammatory article from the L.A. Times discussing a U.K. study considered to be "the largest and most rigorous...on low levels of alcohol or caffeine" during pregnancy. The first nine words of the title clearly state "Pregnancy has room for a little wine or beer" and goes on to point out that though children of women who drank heavily during pregnancy had the most problems, children of women who were "light drinkers" during pregnancy actually had fewer behavioral or cognitive problems by age three than children of women who abstained. [Important to note: Light drinking was defined as "not more than two drinks (a 4-fluid-ounce glass of wine or 10 fluid ounces of weak beer) on a single occasion and not more than two occasions per week."]

Thanks to the huge role the media plays in our daily lives, pregnant women now have way more to worry about than even ten years ago. Getting pregnant means you are suddenly victim to tons of fear-inducing claims and studies, each new one seeming to contract the last. Exercise! Don't over-burden yourself! Eat chocolate! Go easy on the fat!

And now, claims that a little bit of caffeine probably won't hurt you are challenged by a recent study in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology that suggests that women who consume more than 200 mg of caffeine (one small cup of coffee) a day are at a greater risk for miscarrying.

In the study, documented in a NY Times article, 1,063 pregnant women were interviewed about their caffeine intake. Out of the total, 172 women had previously miscarried. The rate of miscarriages was higher in those who consumed 200 mg or more per day (24.5% out of 164) compared to those who drank no caffeine during their pregnancy (12.5% out of 264 women).

But of course, miscarriage occurs for reasons other than caffeine, some which can't be explained away through a study. But I'd love to hear from women who were once or are currently pregnant (or their significant others) to get their take on this news. Do reports like this make you nervous? Do you drink caffeine now? If so, would this study make you think twice? Or do you eschew science in place of good ol' common sense?

Source

Pregnancy can affect you in weird ways. Cravings - including the famous pickles and ice cream combination - are not uncommon, though they are frequently for ordinary things, like candy bars. Candy bar cravings aren't a problem when you can dash out to 7-11, but when you live in Namibia, it can be a lot more difficult to get a Reese's.

Angelina Jolie reportedly had a crate of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups flown to her in Namibia, straight from the Hershey's factory in Pennsylvania, when she was unable to obtain any locally. Reese's are good, but are they that good? It must have been some craving - either that or she's planning to share with Maddox, Zahara and Brad.

Source

 Blogging Baby reported that pregnant Gwyneth Paltrow indulged in a Guinness beer while at a small BYO sushi restaurant in New York. The article they cited, in the NY Daily News, pointed out that "some experts recommend a little Guinness for expecting mothers, because of the brew's high iron content." Guinness might have a high iron content for beer, but at 0.3mg of iron per pint, it can hardly be called a "good" source of iron. The recommended daily allowance of iron is about 14mg for women and 11mg for men. An egg has 1.1mg of iron. A packed half cup of raisins has 2.5mg of iron. One cup of cooked spinach has 4mg of iron. If using Guinness as a source of iron is 5-month pregnant Gwyneth's excuse for downing a drink while dining, it is a poor one. At least her representative said that she didn't eat any raw sushi, sticking to cooked food instead.

Source