Growing up, Mother's Day was always about doting on my maternal grandmother. She wanted her brunch, or at the very least, a nice handmade Mother's Day card. My mother would always claim that she didn't care about the holiday, personally, we just needed to keep my grandmother happy.

To some extent, I share my mother's nonchalance about the holiday. (Perhaps to be totally fair, I would better describe my feelings as "Stupid over-commercialized holiday that can't possibly compensate for all societal gender inequity in one day but YOU'D BETTER GET ME SOMETHING NICE OR ELSE.") After all, while my life is not without its irritations, overall, it's pretty sweet right now. I get to work part time, my husband is an involved parent, and our sweet girl gives us lots of hugs and lets me know every day that she enjoys my company. One day of brunch and flowers is neither going to top that nor adequately compensate for 20 months of not quite enough sleep...

The New York Times reports today on a (supposed) trend toward pregnant women expecting an expensive gift from their partners following or near their delivery.  New fathers are apparently expected to provide expensive jewelry, new hot tubs, sculptures or other similarly lavish gifts to the new mother because of the "gift" she is giving him of carrying their child.

WHEN Jena Slosberg of Bedford, N.H., gave birth in March, she endured a labor that lasted 17 hours. But her discomfort was ultimately worth it, quite apart from the arrival of her daughter, Marin. In the recovery room, her husband, Paul, presented her with a pair of diamond earrings.

“I was on cloud nine,” Ms. Slosberg said. “It was the perfect present to make a frazzled, sleep-deprived, first-time mommy feel absolutely glamorous.”

She added, “I wonder what 17 hours of labor will get me next time?”

In a more innocent age, new mothers generally considered their babies to be the greatest gift imaginable. Today, they are likely to want some sort of tangible bonus as well.

November 30, 1997

The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers 38-28 on the way to Elway's first
Superbowl victory.

I looked like this, packing 11 pounds of baby, and gamely waited until victory was in hand to utter, with a crampy grimace, "I think we should go."

At 12:25 and 12:27 a.m. on December 1st, the twins arrived--weeks before their December 25th due date--making the family Christmas card with only days to spare.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Devon!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Ryan!

Earlier this week, I listened to a pregtastic podcast, something I've enjoyed during the course of my pregnancy, and I learned all about BOLD which stands for Birth on Labor Day.  The play, Birth, was written by Karen Brody.  The idea of BOLD is to use the month of September to educate people about the realities of childbirth in the US using this compilation of birth stories.  According to Karen Brody, BOLD has really taken off, this is only the second year and it has already expanded across the globe with showings in many major cities.

Despite PerezHilton’s news story that Cuban President Fidel Castro is dead, the Florida press sez he is probably still alive.

When I read Perez’s piece, I went to Granma, the Cuban newspaper, to see if Fidel had recently posted one of his famous hours-long speeches. He hadn’t. In fact, there was only this story about how 2,000 journalists worldwide gathered in Havana for the unveiling of a book on interviews with him. Hmm.

But I also know this “Castro is dead!” hysteria all too well. Like Perez, I am Cuban. Growing up in Miami, I can't begin to count how many times I have heard:

--“Castro has cancer!”

--“Castro gave a speech for only 10 hours versus 14 hours. He must have cancer!”

--“Castro hasn’t been out in days. He must be dead from cancer!”

The cancer rumor was rampant. It didn't matter. Each rumor was enough to send my family and I to Univision for hours at a time. I will believe it when I see CNN cover his (open casket) funeral.

A scare story: More women in the U.S. are dying in childbirth, according to an MSN article, which included the picture of a healthy, pregnant mom with her two sons. (The mother died a month later in childbirth.)

But once you read the story, you will realize that the actual death rate has risen by one a year from 12 per 100,000 births to 13 per 100,000 births. The article blames the rise in C-sections for the death due to blood loss and other complications related to the surgery. But the article goes on to say that states such as California and Montana have changed the way deaths are reported. Also, African-American women appear at greater risk due to high blood pressure and poor prenatal care. Obese women are also at greater risk for maternal death.

As for the woman in the picture, she actually died a day after delivering her baby vaginally. She died of a heart attack following massive blood loss. The doctor, who was not found legally responsible for her death, says he never conducted an autopsy -- a decision he now regrets.

I don’t doubt that c-sections -- or any surgery for that matter -- carry greater risks. And while 12 to 13 is statistically relevant, it seems to be a small number when you take into consideration all the other risk factors and the different ways deaths are reported. The headline was so much more frightening than the actual story.

Another health story: Women who are overweight are more likely to quit breastfeeding than their normal-weight sisters, according to Reuters. The study was conducted in Denmark where breastfeeding is nearly universal and the women receive plenty of social support.

Among women who were morbidly obese (body mass index of 40 or greater), 14.4 percent had stopped exclusive breast-feeding by the time their child was a week old, compared with 3.5 percent of normal-weight women. Throughout the course of the study, the likelihood of stopping breast-feeding rose with BMI.