Childbirth is no walk in the park, that's for sure. But for a majority of women, the experience is a positive one. We made need a little time to let the memory of painful contractions fade or for stitches to heal, but the rewards definitely outweigh the pain and stress.

But when complications arise, things might go a little differently. When a mother or child's life is threatened or heavy interventions are needed, the trauma of childbirth can linger long past Mom and baby going home. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a new study that found that post-traumatic stress disorder may be far more common in new mothers than previously thought, and some are wondering if screening new moms should be a regular part of post-partum recovery.

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Former model Carla Bruni has announced she wants kids. The new wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is keen to begin a family soon. Bruni, who is 40, has a seven year old son from another relationship and wants to provide Aurelian with a sibling if she's "young enough." Bruni and Sarkozy have been married less than a year.

Bruni also has a burgeoning career as a pop star to consider in addition to her duties as the President's wife. How will the beauty ever find time to be a mommy (again)? She has sworn off using fertility treatments to find herself in the family way, referring the matter over to a nature. AS we've all had rammed down our throats for ages, a woman's fertility begins a downhill course at twenty-seven (or so current wisdom holds).

Many women are having children later and later in life, and are therefore turning to the very thing Bruni is eschewing (at least in print) to become mothers. Being a model, pop star, or politician's wife--or all three--doesn't seem to be interfering with Carla's desire to add to her family. Will she become pregnant? Will she turn to fertility treatments? Only Carla (and mother nature) knows. Good luck to Carla and Nicolas!

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When Janna Mintz wanted to become a mother, she turned to her friend Kevin Zoernig for help. Zoernig agreed to donate his sperm, and through artificial insemination, a boy was born shortly after. Zoernig found himself caught up in fatherhood and the two soon worked out a visitation schedule. It was all going so well, that he agreed to be a sperm donor for Mintz a second time, and a daughter was born.

But when Zoernig wanted a voice in their children's upbringing, including where Mintz could live, things started to go wrong. Eventually, Mintz took Zoernig to court for child support, and after an eight year battle, the court ruled in Mintz's favor.

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For one thirteen-day-old baby, life is turning out to be no cake walk. A newborn brought into the world nearly two weeks ago by native Indian Priti Patel, who served as a surrogate mother, is stuck in India. Her would-be parents, Ikufumi Yamada and Yuki Yamada, divorced right before she was born.

Yuki no longer wants to adopt the child, but Ikufumi does. According to Indian law, however, children may not be adopted by single men. As a result, the newborn is living in India with Ikufumi 's mother, who is staying on to care for the newborn. The baby has yet to be adopted. Since she has no adoption papers, she cannot be issued a passport. And, because she can't get a passport, she can't leave the country.

Patel has also left the scene after serving as the surrogate. She is part of a process known as commercial surrogacy wherein couples who cannot have a child on their own provide the sperm and eggs to a surrogate mother, who carries the child to term and then is paid a fee for her services. The couple then generally adopt their child and are on their merry way. Not so much for the twelve-day-old, who at this point I don't think even has a name! What a sad state things are in when a little technical legality keeps a man from legitimately adopting his own child!

Pic by ayahthetiger.

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As the world will know soon enough if it doesn't already, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are debuting the pictures of their newborn twins today. Courtesy of People Magazine, who reportedly paid $14 million for the pictures, which will be given to a charity of the Jolie-Pitt's choice, the pictures feature mom and dad with the newborn twins and big sister Shiloh holding a babe.

Says Angelina Jolie about her ever-expanding family, which now clocks in at six, the brood is "chaos." She means that in a good way, of course, but how could it be otherwise with that many children in the house? I have one child with another on the way and sometimes wonder how I'm going to get through my day! Twins Knox and Vivienne join Maddox, Pax, and Zahara as well as Shiloh.

Jolie adds that despite the zaniness, she and the family are having a great time. She also claims her daughters Shiloh and Zahara have taken on the role of "little mommies" by helping change the twins and pick out their clothes. Perhaps she can give us some hints and tips on how to get the older kids to help out with the new ones!

Congrats to the couple, who are clearly delighted with their newest additions!

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Did you ever play with paper dolls? Perhaps you did when you were young. Perhaps, even now, you continue to collect them for nostalgia's sake, or to refrain back to your old days when you didn't have kids and were one yourself. Well, in the world of paper dolls comes along a set that is fun and humorous and possibly just a wee bit controversial: The pregnant paper doll.

The pregnant paper doll is intended as a gift for the mother-to-be who has a sense of humor and doesn't mind yet one more reminder that her waist is about to become a thing of the past. There's a doll and requisite set of clothes for each trimester, including what some women call the "fourth" trimester--you know, the one after the baby is born but you still feel and look ginormous? The first trimester offers a few tummy-bearing options and some strategic layering, while the third trimester offers sweatpants, a mu mu, and, oddly, a wedding dress.

Not sure what comment the creators of the paper dolls had in mind when they decided to add that garb to the mix. Are they secretly (or not so much) hinting that pregnant women ought to get married? Maybe I'm just being overly analytical; after all they are just paper dolls. The only other thing I think is worth mentioning is that this is a kitchshy item that, while fun, will most likely just sit on the shelf. No mom-to-be is going to take time out of her busy nesting schedule to cut these out.

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When you're pregnant, chances are we do everything in your power to take the best care of your unborn little one as possibly. Many of us (try to) give up our bad habits and assume good ones, avoiding things and being cautious just in case. Things that seemed easy before we were pregnant get harder, and require us to pay more attention, which we generally give. And, I guess, some things we just take for granted. Like WALKING.

Yesterday I fell. Big time. I was looking in front of me rather than at the ground below and I was on my knees before I even knew I was falling. It hurt, a lot, and still does. My knees are bruised and I am pretty sure I sprained my wrist, but thankfully the rest of me is ok. Question is, how do I really know? Pregnant women, are prone to falls. Pregnant women tend to have less balance (after the fourth month) so we are cautioned to take things slower. We're also cautioned to wear flat shoes--not only because they're more comfortable than heels, but because it's easier to maintain what sense of balance we have without leverage.

That's all great advice, but what to do when you've already fallen? Well, if you have any control over the fall, make sure you avoid your belly. Also, take comfort in knowing that your womb is designed to keep your baby as safe as possible, so more likely that not, if you fall you won't have harmed your little one. Make sure everything feels "normal"--whatever that is to you--in terms of how you feel and what is going on inside there with your baby. Fetal kicks should be the same, etc. Of course check for bleeding. And, honestly, if you are even the least bit freaked out, just call the OB or go in for an appointment. Research on the web turns up little other advice other than to contact your doctor if you feel even the least bit out of sorts or in pain. Honestly, an extra trip to the doctor is well worth it, even if just for piece of mind.

Pregnancy silhouette by mahalie.

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Actress and break-out movie sensation Katherine Heigl is too busy for children. The Grey's Anatomy star, whose recent silver screen hits include 27 Dresses and Knocked Up, says she is far too busy to consider having kids.

The newlywed's husband, musician Josh Kelley, basically couldn't agree more. According to him he's even taken some time off touring to focus more on music. Once you're married, though, inevitably comes all the questions about when you'll be starting a family.

Like many, many women before her, famous and not, Heigl is spurring on the trend of having a baby later in life (if indeed she wants kids at all). With a career as full and successful as Katherine's, I can certainly understand putting off motherhood for a while. Or, maybe the experiences she had while playing a pregnant woman in Knocked Up scared her!!!

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Yes, hard to believe but also true. Well, perhaps not that hard to believe after all. I mean, hey, women are in the workforce now--even and especially while pregnant--and being a prostitute is a profession, so it's expected that somewhere down the line you're going to come across a pregnant prostitute, right?

The Kansas City police recently came across several pregnant prostitutes. They recently busted a prostitution operation at a Camden County hotel and arrested four women, three of whom were pregnant. According to police, they were acting on a tip that pregnant women were advertising the prostitution on the Internet.

The three ladies with child were six months, eight months and three months pregnant. Now, it was not clear to me if the gals were trying to sell sex with a pregnant woman or if they were just trying to sell sex and happened to be pregnant. Not that it matters. In Canada another, similar sting went down wherein twelve prostitutes were apprehended, two of whom were pregnant.

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Even when a parent is 100% sure that their family is complete, it can often be difficult to shut that door once and for all. But do you think that it's possible, at a very young age, to just know that children aren't for you? And is it healthy to take steps to prevent that from happening?

Roger touched on this subject with his recent post about young men having vasectomies to avoid accidental pregnancy. Over at Jezebel, the women get their turn. They've talked to a woman who is only 24, but "just knows" that she doesn't want children. She went through a new, non-surgical sterilization procedure called Essure, in which scar tissue is created in the fallopian tubes. Interestingly, she didn't tell her parents ahead of time, and her mother was...disappointed...to say the least. But the anonymous woman went on to say that not wanting kids is "an important fact about who she was, that couldn't be changed, and her parents didn't want to accept that."

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Is natural childbirth going the way of the dinosaur? Ask many new moms and a lot of doctors and midwives, and you may be surprised to find the answer is yes. Between increasing costs at hospitals, liability and the demand by insurance companies for medical professionals to take on more and more patients each year, thereby limiting the amount of time one can spend on an individual labor, the option for a natural childbirth seems to lessen by the day.

Instead of having a regular old labor, complete with the uncertainty of when the baby would arrive and lots of pushing and pain, more and more women--and their care providers--are getting C-sections. Celebrities like Posh Beckham have helped speed the plow in the C-section trend by making no bones about scheduling the birth of her three sons. The woman has a career to think of and I simply can't imagine her having ten extra minutes for her water to break, can you? Celebrities opting for this surgery--and, uhm, yeah, it's considered MAJOR SURGERY--have paved the way for making it a norm for regular folks too. Women are also opting to get epidurals to ease the pain of childbirth as their doctors increase the use of pitocin and other drugs to jump start a labor. Pitocin can increase the pain of childbirth, too, so when the doc gives one more often than not a woman gets an epidural too. Many feel this process causes problems which then leads to more C-sections.

Other celebrities, like Ricky Lake, are spearheading the movement of natural childbirth. Lake had her baby at home with the help of a midwife. And there are many women who prefer to go about it the non-medicalized way, without drugs or a scheduled C. Problem is, they're finding it harder and harder to do so. I don't want to get into a discussion of whether or not it's "right" to have a natural birth, a C-section or an epidural any more than I want to discuss whether expectant mothers should be playing Metallica or Brahms during labor. What I do think warrants discussion is how we as women can preserve the right to have our babies the way we want to have them, and not bowing to the demands of the insurance business or doctors who act out of fear of malpractice suits.

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Actor Mark Wahlberg has vowed not to sell the baby pictures of his new child-to-be. Marky Mark is putting a stop to any offers from magazines before they even get started, insisting he will not be selling his baby photos like so many other celebrity parents have of late.

The actor is expecting his third child with girlfriend (and perhaps soon to be wife) Rhea Durham, who is due in September. He is already father to two other children with Durham, Ella, who is four and Michael, who is two. I don't recall Mark pimping out pictures of either of them to the tabloids either!

Wahlberg wants to keep the birth and his family private, which is a welcome refreshment to the baby picture overload we've been experiencing lately, our fascination with which is borderline disgusting! Rumor also had it that new mom Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban would not be selling pictures of their new daughter, Sunday Rose. Perhaps there is a new celebrity parenting trend afoot?

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While Michelle Duggar is only just working on number eighteen, a woman in British Columbia, Canada has already dropped her eighteenth kid. The forty-four-year-old Romanian immigrant gave birth to daughter Abigail, weighing a healthy seven pounds, twelve ounces. She joins her nine sisters and eight brothers ranging in age from twenty months to twenty-three years.

Livia Ionce and her husband Alexandru emigrated from Romania in 1990 and now live in the Western Canadian province. "We never planned how many children to have. We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life," said Alexandru.

Apparently, this latest addition to the team makes Mrs. Ionce the most prolific mother in British Columbia in the last twenty years. And, she's got the Duggars beat -- that's certainly an accomplishment.

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Smoking is a hard habit to break, there's no doubt about it. In fact, according to USA Today, only 10 to 20% of people who try quitting succeed. But expectant mothers have a reason to quit smoking that goes beyond their own health -- smoking during pregnancy is linked to ectopic pregnancies, placental problems, and low birth weight. And according to the American Cancer Society, those potential health issues are reason enough for many pregnant women to kick the habit, even if only temporarily.

Up to 45% of expectant moms who smoke quit cold turkey, especially notable since nicotine products like patches and gum aren't recommended for pregnant women. That's the good news. The bad news is that the stress of new motherhood often causes those same women to return to their smoking habit after their baby is born -- up to 80% of moms start smoking again within a year of giving birth. Post-partum depression, stress, weight loss, and partners who smoke are often named as reasons women return to the habit.

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In an almost cyclical pattern, just as the furor of one celebrity couple having twin babies, another announces they are expecting a double dose of joy.

This time the superstar parents are Rebecca Romijn of Victoria Secret and Sports Illustrated modeling fame and current regular on Ugly Betty, and Jerry O'Connell, swooned over by many since his Stand By Me days and more recently, his parody of Tom Cruise.

The expectant parents were married a year ago in a quiet ceremony in Los Angeles. This will be the first children for either of them, but if they have any questions about the care and raising of twins, they could ask :

• Geena Davis
• Marcia Gay Harden
• Julia Roberts
• Patrick Dempsey
• Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony
• Nancy Grace
• Marcia Cross
• Dennis Quaid
• Al Pacino
• Cheryl Tiegs
• Denzel Washington
• Patricia Richardson
• Chuck Norris
• Cybil Shepherd
• Donald Sutherland
• Jane Seymour
• Ray Romano
• Mel Gibson
• Corbin Bernsen
• Michael J. Fox
• Ron Howard
• Ingrid Bergman
• Lance Armstrong
• Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie

Apparently there is something going on with that Hollywood water!

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