I believe due to the financial incentive (c-sections earn the doctor lots more money than an uncomplicated vaginal delivery), the rate in the US is not going to drop any time soon.

It might be that it is different for each woman, and I can confirm it is different for each birth. With my first, it felt like I was tensing muscles in the front (near my bladder like VivLeRock said), and with my second it felt more like having a really forceful babie-sized poo. When the time comes, you sort of forget…

One of those athletes, competing at the 2012 Olympic games. It's not worded clearly, but I looked it up, and Ms. Semenya did compete at the Olympics that year, so that would be my guess.

Don’t worry, and don’t waste time making apologetic goodie bags for strangers. Just pack snacks, toys, soothers, whatever it is that your kid likes - and ignore any passengers who give you the stink-eye.

Yes, a group in Japan did that. Generally speaking, North American anti-vaxxers are not quite so smart - to put it nicely. They genuinely believe having their child die of polio, or measles, or any one of the many otherwise eradicated diseases would be better than having a child who maybe has autism (that only gets…

I believe the "joke" is about how a black person's hair might look like the fuzzy part (called the loop) of a velcro fastener. It isn't funny, just racist.

That may backfire, when those who don't die act as hosts for mutated viruses, then they inevitably come back to the civilised world to seek out things they've had to live without... like flush toilets, or a really good cup of coffee - then they kill everyone they made contact with. It might just be better to force all…

You do realize babies aren't born already vaccinated, right? And there are adults who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons - not because they are too stupid to grasp the rather simple science behind the effectiveness of vaccines.

Here’s the thing about anti-vaxxers, they don’t learn how wrong they are even when faced with the reality that people die as a direct result of their stupidity. There's a family of anti-vaxxers from Canada, who decided to go on vacation in Asia, and their kid brought home measles (a really shitty souvenir that he…

If you want to die from preventable diseases, go right ahead and do that. But stay the hell away from other people, and keep your unvaccinated children out of school and away from any public spaces where other children might come into contact with their germs - or don't be a complete moron, and get vaccinated.

Even if you DO have a uterus, you should only be making decisions about your own - and not preventing other women from seeking necessary medical care (whether that is an abortion or something else to do with someone else's reproductive system).

The guy who assaulted the child was acting-principal on that day. Had the teacher sent the girl to the principal's office, she would have been beaten in the privacy of the office, not in the hallway where cameras could capture the whole thing. So a very tiny silver lining here is that the child has proof that this…

That sounds less like male-oriented design, and more like plain bad design. Who puts an oven (that presumably gets really hot) anywhere near a fridge (which needs to stay cool to keep your food from spoiling)? Anyone who dares to criticize you for burning yourself on that oven, is an idiot.

It wasn’t even the teacher with the allergy who assaulted the kid. It was a school administrator, who was acting-principal on that day.

Oh my goodness, even in Canada they tell us (expectant mothers) not to get too aggressive with our demands in our birth plans. Like it’s fine if you write the lights must be dimmed and the room must be kept unbearably warm... it doesn’t mean the hospital will accommodate the request, and that the doctors & nurses…

Don’t apologize for the essay, I really did have a different understanding of birth plan. Here in Canada, it’s more a statement of what you want to happen, what interventions you are comfortable with, what silly random things (like music you want played during the delivery) or the people you want present in the room et…

Ask for the test anyway, because you need to know even if this doctor says she “can’t do anything about it”. Maybe at your next appointment, you could bring your partner and get him to ask what was meant by that statement. Maybe this OB is anti-choice, or maybe she is legally bound to follow some anti-choice policy?…

You may daydream about doing something horrible to their food, but then you wake up and realize you still have rent and food to pay for, so you don't risk losing your only source of income over something as petty as one asshole customer who couldn't even pretend to be decent.

Hooray for baby! It might be a bit early to talk about birth plans. Wait until you know who is going to be there for the birth (an OB/GYN or a midwife?) before you make firm plans about what you want. Also, if you can get a doula, I highly recommend it. They are very helpful at advocating on your behalf, if you are in…

It was one of the few links provided in this very article, where it was stated that a female teacher witnessed some kind of assault that necessitated her throwing herself on top of the child to shield the child from the grown man. No adult would throw themselves on top of a child like that, if the administrator had…