Who should be the one to cut the cord? Nobody, perhaps. Mary Cealleigh, a midwife educator from Texas, believes that leaving the umbilical cord attached after birth is healthier for the baby. "Babies' immune systems are going through huge changes at a very rapid rate when they're first born," Cealleigh says. "Not disrupting the baby's blood volume at that time helps prevent future disease." Those who have tried it say that ... Read More

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the birth rate in the U.S. has dropped with the recession, and many, many men are freaking out about it. In a nutshell, they fear that low birth rates will lead to an unsustainable inequality between the taxable work force and the social security-dependent elderly. After all, people are living longer and longer and, barring some sort of zombie apocalypse situation, this trend will ... Read More

Chinese couples that need a little help making a baby can now rely on the least sexy place on the planet—their local hospital—for passion (at a price).  The Songziniao Hospital in Wuhan city, Hubei province, hopes to encourage couples to procreate in their decked out sex rooms, which go for 880 Yuan (about $140 US) a night.   The rooms look like the kind of “love nests” you’d find in by-the-hour ... Read More

You thought your voting experience was painful? Check it: Galicia Malone, a 21-year-old from Dolton, Illinois, went into labor and somehow managed to vote before heading to the hospital. Her water had already broken by the time she reached her local polling station, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr.   “I wanted this to be a stepping-stone for my daughter,” Galicia, a first-time voter, said. Galicia, we salute you! ... Read More

A new study out of St. Louis confirms what all of us could have guessed: when given access to free birth control, women are less likely to have an unwanted pregnancy or get an abortion. More than 9,000 poor or uninsured women were given a choice of birth control methods available at no cost as part of the study conducted by the University of Washington in St. Louis on Thursday. The availability of free birth control led to only 4.4 to ... Read More