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We lift weights to build muscles, head to pilates class to tone them, and foam roll or use a massage gun to help relieve tension. But there’s a muscle that many women don’t know they need to pay attention to until something goes awry—the pelvic floor.
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Many moms feel scatterbrained, so it might seem counterintuitive that new research has found a link between pregnancy and breastfeeding and higher cognitive function later in life.
The findings, published by the Alzheimer’s Association, take on a special significance considering that women are disproportionately affected by dementia. Nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women, the reasons for which are not fully understood.
To explore the link between female reproduction and dementia, researchers analyzed data from more than 7,000 women who each were around age 70. The women gave information about their reproductive histories and underwent annual cognitive assessments for 13 years.
More cumulative time spent breastfeeding and pregnant was associated with greater cognition, verbal memory and visual memory, the researchers found.
More specifically, women who had been pregnant scored higher on cognitive ability tests than those who had never been pregnant. Women who had breastfed had higher cognitive ability scores and verbal memory scores than those who had never breastfed. These benefits were similar in scale to the impact that being physically active and avoiding smoking have on improved cognition, the researchers said.
The researchers said they now are delving further into the way certain reproductive histories may offer protection against cognitive decline.
“If we can figure out, as a next step, why those reproductive patterns lead to better cognitive outcomes in old age, then we can work toward figuring out how to craft therapies — for example, new drugs, repurposed drugs or social programs — that mimic the naturally-occurring effect we observed,” said the study’s lead author, Molly Fox, an anthropology professor at the University of California Los Angeles.
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Courtenay Harris Bond
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Why might healthy lifestyle choices wipe out 90% of our risk for having a heart attack, while drugs may only reduce risk by 20% to 30%?
On the standard American diet, atherosclerosis—hardening of the arteries, the number one killer of men and women—has been found to start in our teens. Investigators collected about 3,000 sets of coronary arteries and aortas (the aorta is the main artery in the body) from victims of accidents, homicides, and suicides who were 15 to 34 years old and found that the fatty streaks in arteries can begin forming in our teens, which turn into atherosclerotic plaques in our 20s that get worse in our 30s and can then become deadly. In the heart, atherosclerosis can cause a heart attack. In the brain, it can cause a stroke. See the progression below and at 0:35 in my video Can Cholesterol Get Too Low?.
How common is this? All of the teens they looked at—100% of them—already had fatty streaks building up inside their arteries. By their early 30s, most already had those streaks blossoming into atherosclerotic plaques that bulged into their arteries. From ages 15 through 19, their aortas had fatty streaks building up throughout them, but no plaques yet, on average, as seen below and at 1:15 in my video.
The plaques started appearing in their abdominal aorta in their early 20s and worsened by their late 20s, by which time fatty streaks had infiltrated throughout. By their early 30s, their arteries were in bad shape, as seen below and at 1:25 in my video.
But that’s just the abdominal aorta, the main artery running through the torso that splits off into our legs. What about the coronary arteries that feed the heart?
Researchers found the same pattern: fatty streaks in teens, early signs of plaque in early 20s that progress with age, and by the early 30s, most people already had plaques in their coronary arteries, as seen below and at 1:47 in my video.
Atherosclerosis starts as early as adolescence.
That’s why we shouldn’t wait until heart disease becomes symptomatic to treat it. If it starts in our youth, we should start treating it when we’re youths. If you knew you had a cancerous tumor, you wouldn’t want to wait until it grew to a certain size to treat it. If you had diabetes, you wouldn’t want to wait until you started going blind before you did something about it. So, how do you treat atherosclerosis? You lower LDL cholesterol through a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol—a diet that’s low in eggs, meat, dairy, and junk.
If we want to stop this epidemic, we have to “alter our lifestyle accordingly, beginning in infancy or early childhood. Is such a radical proposal totally impractical?” (Eating more healthfully? Radical?!) It would take serious dedication to change our behavior, but atherosclerosis is our number one cause of death. In the case of cigarettes, we did pretty well, slashing smoking rates and dropping lung cancer rates. And, yes, healthy eating is safe. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the largest and oldest association of nutrition professionals in the world, even strictly plant-based diets are appropriate for all stages of life, starting from pregnancy. (NutritionFacts.org is among the websites recommended by the Academy for more information.)
The title of an important study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology declares: “Curing Atherosclerosis Should Be the Next Major Cardiovascular Prevention Goal.” What evidence do we have that a lifelong suppression of LDL will do it? There is a genetic mutation of a gene called PCSK9 that about 1 in 50 African Americans are lucky to be born with because it gives them about a 40% lower LDL cholesterol level their whole lives. Indeed, they were found to have dramatically lower rates of coronary heart disease—an 88% drop in risk compared to those without the genetic mutation, despite otherwise terrible cardiovascular risk factors on average. Most had high blood pressure and were overweight, almost a third smoked, and nearly 20% had diabetes, but that highlights how a lifelong history of low LDL cholesterol levels can substantially reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, even when there are multiple risk factors.
This near-90% drop in events like heart attacks or sudden death occurred at an average LDL level of 100 mg/dL, compared to 138 mg/dL in those without the genetic mutation. This means LDL can drop below even 100 mg/dL. Why does a drop in LDL cholesterol by about 40 mg/dL from a lucky genetic mutation lower the risk of coronary heart disease by nearly 90%, while the same reduction with statin drugs lowers it by only about 20%? The most probable explanation? Duration. When it comes to lowering LDL cholesterol, it’s not only about how low it is, but how long it’s been low.
That’s why healthy lifestyle choices may wipe out about 90% of our risk for having a heart attack, while drugs may reduce it by only 20% to 30%. If you’re getting treated with drugs later in life, you may have to get your LDL under 70 mg/dL to halt the progression of coronary atherosclerosis. But if we start making healthier choices earlier, it may be enough to lower LDL cholesterol just to 100 mg/dL, which should be achievable for most of us. That’s consistent with country-by-country data that suggested death from heart disease would bottom out at a population average of about 100 mg/dL, as seen below and at 5:21 in my video.
But that’s only if you can keep your LDL cholesterol down your whole life.
If you’re relying on medication later in life to halt disease progression, you may need to get your LDL below 70 mg/dL, and if you’re trying to use drugs to reverse a lifetime of bad food choices, you may not get to zero coronary heart disease events until your LDL drops to about 55 mg/dL. If your heart disease is so bad that you’ve already had a heart attack but you’re trying not to die from another one, ideally, you might want to push your LDL down to about 30 mg/dL. Once you get that low, not only would you likely prevent any new atherosclerotic plaques, but you’d also help stabilize the plaques you already have so they’re less likely to burst open and kill you.
Is it even safe to have cholesterol levels that low, though? In other words, can LDL cholesterol ever be too low? We’ll find out next.
Doctor’s Note
Didn’t know atherosclerosis could start at such a young age? See Heart Disease Starts in Childhood.
For more on drugs versus lifestyle, check out my video The Actual Benefit of Diet vs. Drugs.
Want to learn more about so-called primordial prevention? See When Low Risk Means High Risk.
Does Cholesterol Size Matter? Watch the video to find out.
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Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
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Unlike two other civil rights-related constitutional amendments that passed with bipartisan support over the past year, Virginia’s reproductive rights measure has faced intense debate at every stage, with every Republican in the legislature opposing it.
This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
A proposal allowing mid-decade redistricting of Virginia’s congressional maps that cleared the legislature last week may dominate debate heading into a spring special referendum, but a constitutional amendment on reproductive rights is poised to ignite similar fervor as the November election approaches.
Unlike two other civil rights-related constitutional amendments that passed with bipartisan support over the past year, Virginia’s reproductive rights measure has faced intense debate at every stage, with every Republican in the legislature opposing it.
In defending her amendment for the final time, Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, emphasized that advancing the proposal would ultimately leave the decision to voters across the state.
Ranging from fertility treatments to contraception access to the ability to obtain an abortion, “this amendment protects families’ entire scope of reproductive needs,” she said.
Boysko and several other Democratic lawmakers have described how women in states with abortion bans have died amid pregnancy complications. Those states have also seen an exodus of OB-GYN physicians amid uncertainty of treating patients who need abortions or miscarriage management.
Boysko grew tearful as she recounted stories and advocacy shared by constituents and people around the state.
Relatedly, Sen. Emily Jordan, R-Isle of Wight, struck a somber tone as she noted that “this is a difficult topic for a lot of people.”
On the opposite side of the chamber’s aisle — and in opposition to the amendment — Jordan unsuccessfully attempted to modify the proposal to explicitly spell out care for babies when born.
A sticking point for some Republicans has been concern that the amendment could be interpreted to allow abortion up to the “moment of birth,” though infanticide remains illegal under both state code and federal law.
Sen. Tara Durant, R-Stafford, also attempted for the second legislative session in a row, to reiterate existing parental consent laws. Democrats and legal experts said it is unnecessary. Under Virginia law, minors are required to have parental or guardian consent for an abortion unless they petition a judge for authorization.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, accused Republicans of employing delay tactics by pressing for their amendments to the amendment.
“It is a delay tactic,” Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockbridge, said on Friday, as he urged lawmakers to re-draft the amendment. Doing so, however, would restart the two-year process.
While not entirely a partisan issue at the national level, the issue has increasingly fallen along party lines in states. That dynamic, Virginia Wesleyan University professor Leslie Caughell said, helps explain why Democrats are moving quickly while they hold legislative majorities.
Though placing language in the Constitution is difficult, it is also harder to undo. With every other Southern state imposing deep restrictions or near-total bans, bolstering Virginia’s protections has become a priority for Democrats. Providers and abortion funds in Virginia have also seen a surge in out-of-state patients seeking care.
“I think everything that happened in North Carolina made activists on this really uncomfortable,” Caughell said.
In 2023, a member of the neighboring state’s legislature switched from Democrat to Republican, giving the GOP a veto-proof majority and paving the way for enactment of North Carolina’s current 12-week abortion limit.
In Virginia, Republicans have also put forward a range of abortion restrictions, from near-total bans to a 15-week cap that lacked exceptions for fetal anomalies — which are often not detected until around or after 15 weeks.
On other reproductive health issues, a right-to-contraception bill has twice been vetoed by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin — a point Boysko reiterated as the amendment advanced last week.
Reproductive rights groups in Virginia, along with physicians and volunteers, have coordinated as part the national Reproductive Freedom for All effort. Last year, a $5 million investment supported targeted initiatives ranging from canvassing to digital advertising in states such as Virginia, where Abigail Spanberger was elected governor.
Spanberger campaigned in part on supporting the amendment, though governors do not formally factor into its success or failure.
“I look forward to spending ample time in advance of the 2026 elections campaigning to make sure that people understand the importance of this constitutional amendment,” she told The Mercury last summer.
On the other side, SBA Pro-Life America supported Virginia-based anti-abortion groups last year through door-knocking efforts in key House of Delegates districts that were up for election.
Democrats ultimately grew their majority by flipping additional seats.
The abortion-opposing group “doesn’t have anything to share on the Virginia front at this time,” Communications Director Kelsey Pritchard said in an email, but the organization is monitoring Virginia among other states as it prepares to engage voters.
Virginians for Reproductive Freedom — which includes organizations like Repro Rising and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia — will likely ramp up public engagement events and advertising as the November elections approach.
Caughell said she is watching closely to see how Virginia’s constitutional amendment campaigns intersect with this year’s congressional midterm elections.
The measures — which include redistricting, reproductive rights, same-sex marriage rights and voting rights — arrive at a moment when Democrats may have an advantage, she noted.
Midterm elections are often a referendum on the party that controls the White House, Caughell said.
With Republican President Donald Trump in the White House, GOP majorities in Congress, and federal funding fallouts affecting states, the amendments championed by Democrats could also help drive down-ballot votes.
She also noted that abortion, as a distinct health care need, has become a more salient argument in recent years, alongside economic considerations and support for personal choice.
“We’ve expanded the parameters of our understanding of who this issue directly affects,” Caughell said.
Speaking with reporters outside the Senate chamber Friday, Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, emphasized that the work is not finished.
“It’s our responsibility to go out there and tell the voters this is what this means and help everybody understand what they’re voting for,” she said.
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LaDawn Black
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A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities — adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”Related video above — Stop Overpaying for Meds: Smart Ways to Cut Prescription CostsThe latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities — adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”
Related video above — Stop Overpaying for Meds: Smart Ways to Cut Prescription Costs
The latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.
It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”
While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.
A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.
But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.
One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.
Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.
The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.
Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.
When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.
Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.
In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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The cherry on top is a sarcastic call to action on his fake article: “Read my new interview with @thecut.” It doesn’t exactly scream “this essay isn’t about my wife and her custom ‘mother’ sweatpants.”
Tisdale French explained in her essay that she began feeling left out and uncool, echoes of her high school (not the musical kind, the learning kind) insecurities coming back to haunt her. “But I’m not in high school anymore,” she wrote. “I’m a mom.” She rationalized that she was setting an example for her kids by standing up for herself and letting her not-friends know that there would be no more mommy-n-me hangs for her, thank you very much. “Surely, it would have been easier to disappear without explanation—and that would have allowed all of us to convince ourselves that we simply ‘drifted apart’,” she wrote.
Easier, yes, and arguably better.
If you can afford to shell out for a $10.99 monthly HBO Max basic plan subscription—maybe even less if you take the time to track down a promo code, and even more affordable if you share a login—the indelible lessons of Big Little Lies are priceless. Not all friend groups share what Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, and Laura Dern do (murder secrets, very nice views of Monterey Bay). Every friendship looks different, and has a unique ingredient list for its glue. People come and go. In her original post, Tisdale French called the group “exactly what I needed at the time.” Now, not so much. And that’s fine. Seasons pass, needs change.
Psych studies have found that having friends helps us live—friendships literally decrease risk of death—and live better, happier lives. Young women in particular tend to rely on their friends for intimacy and support, more than men of the same age, according to one survey. Friends are important, there’s no doubt about that, but so is self-awareness.
High school sucks. Mean girl stuff sucks. Unfortunately, neither high school stuff nor mean girl stuff is exclusive to the adolescent stage of life. But here’s the beautiful lesson that comes with age and experience: You can’t control what anyone else does, but you can control how you react to it. This is something that’s as true for Disney Channel alumnus Hollywood moms as it is for us regular degular ones: Not all friendships last forever, no matter how fire the group chat once was.
Duff, so far, appears to be holding true to the ol’ “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” rule, not commenting publicly as of publication.
Tisdale French doesn’t seem to be in possession of that particular throw pillow either. “It didn’t exactly go over well,” she shared of the chat’s reaction to her departure announcement to the group via text: “This is too high school for me and I don’t want to take part in it anymore.” Shocking. No wonder we haven’t seen any of the alleged subjects sharing celebratory retweets of her essay, dredging up old drama.
If it was childish behavior Tisdale French was hoping to cut out of her life, we have some bad news: This is all high school, and there isn’t even a musical to hum along to this time.
Representatives for Ashley Tisdale French and Hilary Duff did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
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Kase Wickman
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Pregnancy has a way of bringing existing relationship issues to the surface. Things people manage to ignore, like money, sex, and family expectations, tend to show up once a future baby enters the picture.
Sometimes those red flags appear in private, and other times, they show up in public, with a witness.
One Miami ultrasound tech says she watched one of those moments unfold in real time during a routine appointment, and what she noticed sparked a discussion online about fertility, consent, and the way blame gets assigned when a pregnancy doesn’t look perfectly mutual.
TikTok creator Natalie @natalieavni shared the story in a video that’s since pulled in more than 1.6 million views. In the clip, she explains she was scanning a patient who had just found out she was pregnant.
“I’m scanning a patient, and she’s newly pregnant,” Natalie says. As she looks at the ultrasound, she notices something unusual. “I see that her ovaries are very plump with follicles,” she explains, adding that it looked “kind of like as if she took medicine to ovulate.”
Because the patient was new, Natalie says she didn’t have much background information to work with. So she asked a straightforward question. “By any chance, did you take any medicine to ovulate?” she recalls asking.
The patient responded quickly. “No, this happened on our own. We were barely trying,” Natalie says the woman told her. Natalie remembers responding with a polite reaction. “Oh my god, how exciting.”
That’s when she says the tone in the room shifted.
According to Natalie, the woman’s partner repeated the phrase back in a sarcastic tone. “OK, yeah, how exciting,” he said. Natalie says the moment didn’t feel playful or joking. She points to the patient’s reaction as the reason. “Her face turned, like, literally red,” she says.
Natalie explains that she adjusted how she spoke next, making her congratulations very specific. “I am so happy for you,” she says she told the patient, emphasizing the word “you.”
“The biggest [red flag] and wish I could say so much more bc she doesn’t deserve that,” she added in the caption.
While some viewers agreed with Natalie’s reading of the situation, others took the story in a very different direction. In the comments, several people questioned whether the woman had taken fertility medication without her partner’s knowledge.
“Hmmm is it possible she did take the medicine to trap him?” one commenter asked.
Another wrote, “So SHE was trying not him.”
Others pushed back hard on that framing. “People saying she ‘trapped’ him… as a person whose dad decided fatherhood wasn’t for him—I guess the ‘trap’ doesn’t work?? HELLO?” one commenter wrote. “It’s the woman who is responsible for the entire pregnancy.”
As the discussion grew, people began sharing their own moments where a partner’s reaction to pregnancy felt telling.
One person recalled, “Going into my C-section, the nurse told my husband to give me a kiss before the surgery. He said, ‘I’m good.’ I started the divorce process two weeks postpartum.”
Another shared a quieter but equally stark memory. “My coworker offered that his wife was pregnant…I responded ‘congrats, are you excited.’ He said ‘no.’ I literally didn’t know what to say after that.”
@natalieavni The biggest ? and wish I could say so much more bc she doesn’t deserve that ? #ultrasoundtech #pregnant #babydaddy #obgynlife #ultrasound ♬ original sound – Natalie | That Ultrasound Tech
The phrase “baby trapping” was mentioned repeatedly in the comments, with some users treating it as a genuine and common concern. On Reddit, people have shared stories where partners admitted to lying about contraception.
For example, one user wrote that his wife of 15 years later confessed she had stopped taking birth control before an unplanned pregnancy. “The reason she gave was that she was afraid that nobody else would love her or support her like I did,” he wrote. “I honestly don’t know how to wrap my head around it.”
But focusing only on those anecdotes leaves out a much larger and more documented issue.
Research shows that reproductive coercion often goes in the opposite direction. An article published in the William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice found that a quarter of women who called a domestic violence hotline reported having a partner who pressured them to become pregnant, told them not to use contraception, or forced them to have unprotected sex. Sixteen percent also reported that their partner removed condoms during sex.
Those behaviors directly impact reproductive autonomy and are widely recognized as a form of abuse.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Natalie via email for additional comment.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
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Ljeonida Mulabazi
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Friday that she is expecting her second child next spring.
“The greatest Christmas gift we could ever ask for – a baby girl coming in May 2026,” Leavitt wrote in an Instagram post.
“My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother,” she wrote. “My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for the blessing of motherhood, which I truly believe is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth.”
Leavitt also said in the post that she was grateful for President Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles for their support “and for fostering a pro-family environment in the White House.”
Leavitt and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, welcomed their first child, also named Nicholas, in July 2024. In an interview with “The Washington Post,” she said she went back to work three days after giving birth in response to the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary and previously served as the press secretary for Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign.
In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to incumbent Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.
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Suze Lopez holds her baby boy on her lap and marvels at the remarkable way he came into the world.
Before little Ryu was born, he developed outside his mom’s womb, hidden by a basketball-sized ovarian cyst — a dangerous situation so rare that his doctors plan to write about the case for a medical journal.
Just 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen instead of the uterus, and those that make it to full term “are essentially unheard of — far, far less than 1 in a million,” said Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of labor and delivery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, where Ryu was born. “I mean, this is really insane.”
Lopez family via AP
Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse who lives in Bakersfield, California, didn’t know she was pregnant with her second child until days before giving birth.
When her belly began to grow earlier this year, she thought it was her ovarian cyst getting bigger. Doctors had been monitoring the mass since her 20s, leaving it in place after removing her right ovary and another cyst.
Lopez experienced none of the usual pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, and never felt kicks. Though she didn’t have a period, her cycle is irregular and she sometimes goes years without one.
For months, she and her husband, Andrew Lopez, went about their lives and traveled abroad.
But gradually, the pain and pressure in her abdomen got worse, and Lopez figured it was finally time to get the 22-pound (10-kilogram) cyst removed. She needed a CT scan, which required a pregnancy test first because of the radiation exposure. To her great surprise, the test came back positive.
Lopez shared the news with her husband at a Dodgers baseball game in August, handing him a package with a note and a onesie.
“I just saw her face,” he recalled, “and she just looked like she wanted to weep and smile and cry at the same time.”
Lopez family via AP 
Shortly after the game, Lopez began feeling unwell and sought help at Cedars-Sinai. It turned out she had dangerously high blood pressure, which the medical team stabilized. They also did blood work and gave her an ultrasound and an MRI. The scans found that her uterus was empty, but a nearly full-term fetus in an amniotic sac was hiding in a small space in her abdomen, near her liver.
“It did not look like it was directly invading any organs,” Ozimek said. “It looked like it was mostly implanted on the sidewall of the pelvis, which is also very dangerous but more manageable than being implanted in the liver.”
Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal-fetal specialist in Utah not involved with the case, said almost all pregnancies that implant outside the uterus — called ectopic pregnancies — go on to rupture and hemorrhage if not removed. Most commonly, they occur in the fallopian tubes.
A 2023 medical journal article by doctors in Ethiopia described another abdominal pregnancy in which the mother and baby survived, pointing out that fetal mortality can be as high as 90% in such cases and birth defects are seen in about 1 in 5 surviving babies.
But Lopez and her son beat all the odds.
On Aug. 18, a medical team delivered the 8-pound (3.6-kilogram) baby while she was under full anesthesia, removing the cyst during the same surgery. She lost nearly all of her blood, Ozimek said, but the team got the bleeding under control and gave her transfusions.
Lopez family via AP 
Doctors continually updated her husband about what was happening.
“The whole time, I might have seemed calm on the outside, but I was doing nothing but praying on the inside,” Andrew Lopez said. “It was just something that scared me half to death, knowing that at any point I could lose my wife or my child.”
Instead, they both recovered well.
“It was really, really remarkable,” Ozimek said.
Since then, Ryu — named after a baseball player and a character in the Street Fighter video game series — has been healthy and thriving. His parents love watching him interact with his 18-year-old sister, Kaila, and say he completes their family.
Ahead of Ryu’s first Christmas, Lopez described feeling blessed beyond measure.
“I do believe in miracles,” she said, looking down at her baby. “God gave us this gift — the best gift ever.”
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A woman said that her exact Chipotle order not arriving at her door led her to take a pregnancy test. The strangest part? That pregnancy test was positive.
In a video with over 12,300 views, Sheridan Serrano (@sheridanserrano) explained how she discovered she was pregnant with her now seven-month-old child.
“[I] took a pregnancy test because Doordash delivered the wrong Chipotle order, and I thought it was weird how much rage it filled me with.” According to many commenters, “pregnancy rage is real.”
So, is it true? Or is the evidence that you feel heightened anger at the start of a pregnancy anecdotal?
Pregnancy anger is a real symptom that occurs with some women, correlated with their fluctuating hormones. Many women experience first-trimester “pregnancy rage,” but others experience worsening depression and anxiety. Hormonal changes can be a direct sign of pregnancy, as some women experience pregnancy depression. They lose interest in day-to-day hobbies or activities, feel easily agitated or overwhelmed, and have increasing worries or anxiety about their baby.
Rage can also be a symptom of pregnancy depression. Overstimulation and agitation are common for many pregnant women. It may not be pure rage, but a combination of environmental and hormonal factors that make them feel more fatigued, withdrawn, and generally overwhelmed.
One commenter shared an example from her pregnancy, saying, “Before my positive test I had the weirdest reactions—random fury, sudden fatigue, bloating that made no sense… Then came the vomiting and the HG spiral. My body was so depleted afterward, I didn’t even feel like myself.”
Another added, “When I found out I was pregnant, my husband sat me down and said, ‘Babe, I don’t wanna be mean here, but are you getting ready to start? You’re so mean and angry, and I’m wondering if your PMS is just really bad.’ At the time, it pissed me off, but after thinking for a second, I was like, ‘you know what, I am kinda angry for no reason. I looked at the calendar and realized I hadn’t started yet. [Two] weeks later I took a test and well… I was pregnant. [Three] weeks later I found out I was having twins. [My] husband said it was double the anger.”
@sheridanserrano Little did I know 3 days later I’d start throwing up all day every day for the next 16 weeks & eventually get diagnosed with HG? #pregnancy #positive #hyperemesisgravidarum ♬ original sound – Sheridan Serrano
While pregnancy rage can be one indicator that you’re expecting, it should also be watched once aware of hormone fluctuation. According to some studies, pregnancy rage can make mothers more likely to experience mental health decline and placental abruption.
It’s always good to chat with a clinician about worsening anger or general mental health changes. While it’s expected to experience some hormonal fluctuations, increasingly hostile or “moderate to severe” anger can increase the likelihood of mood disturbances later on.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Serrano for additional information.
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By Ernie Mundell HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, Nov. 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Women who stop taking a GLP-1 weight loss/diabetes medication just prior to a pregnancy appear to be at higher odds for excess weight gain and complications while pregnant, new research shows.
As the study authors pointed out, potential risks to the fetus of using a GLP-1 while pregnant remain unclear, so current recommendations advise discontinuing the drugs prior to or during a pregnancy.
However, doing so may bring about its own hazards, concluded a team from Mass General Brigham in Boston.
“Additional studies are needed on the balance of pre-pregnancy benefits of GLP-1s with the risks associated with interrupting them for pregnancy,” said study senior author Dr. Camille Powe. She’s a Mass General Brigham endocrinologist and co-director of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
According to study lead author and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Jacqueline Maya, the use of GLP-1s by women “has increased dramatically.”
Speaking in a hospital news release, she said the study focused on how GLP-1 “discontinuation affects weight gain and outcomes during pregnancy.”
To do so, the researchers tracked the medical records of almost 1,800 pregnancies cared for by the Mass General Brigham healthcare system between 2016 and 2025.
Most of these pregnancies occurred among women with obesity.
Outcomes for women who had received a GLP-1 prescription “within three years before and up to 90 days after conception” were compared to women who had not gotten a GLP-1 prescription during that time.
Differences in outcomes were significant.
Women who’d stopped the drugs prior to a pregnancy had an average weight gain during their pregnancy that was 7.2 pounds higher than women who hadn’t used a GLP-1, the researchers said.
The GLP-1 group also had a 32% higher odds that the amount of weight they gained while pregnant was unhealthy.
As for complications, women who’d discontinued a GLP-1 prior to pregnancy had a 30% higher risk of developing diabetes while pregnant, a 29% higher risk of blood pressure issues during pregnancy, and a 34% higher risk for preterm delivery, the study found.
The team saw no differences when it came to risks for high or low birth weight or Cesarean delivery.
Because the study was retrospective in nature, it couldn’t prove that GLP-1 discontinuation caused any excess in pregnancy risks, only find associations.
Still, Powe said the findings might put women with obesity in a quandary when debating whether to use a GLP-1 prior to a pregnancy.
“We need to do more research to find ways to help manage weight gain and reduce risks during pregnancy when stopping GLP-1 medications,” she said.
Find out more about how GLP-1 medications work at the Mayo Clinic.
SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release, Nov. 24, 2025
Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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The best maternity dresses don’t just see you through your pregnancy, but after you’ve given birth too. That’s what three Glamour editors on maternity leave found, anyway.
If you’re anything like us you’ll likely prioritise comfort over style throughout each trimester, reaching (and re-reaching!) for the best maternity leggings, favouring stretchy maternity jeans and wearing your maternity nightwear whenever you can get away with it.
That being said, maternity dresses are actually just as comfy and are, in fact, so much simpler to wear. A throw-on-and-go outfit when you’re too busy creating life to think about what looks good together? Sign us up.
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Over the nine months that you’re carrying your baby, your body can change in ways you may never have thought possible. And while you might’ve written off maternity clothes altogether, assuming you can eke out the wear of your usual wardrobe staples, let us gently inform you that while possible for some of your looser pieces there may be a lot that you’ve outgrown. And that’s entirely normal, there’s no shame in it whatsoever. The great news, though? A lot of the maternity dresses that we’ve road-tested aren’t actually labelled ‘maternity’ at all; they’re very much versatile enough to be worn pre- and postpartum.
Yep. Some of our favourite e-tailers have caught on to the need for multi-purpose maternity frocks, and their selections are growing daily – you can now find anything from casual day dresses to office appropriate pieces, and even dresses for a night out (tee-totalling and tearing up the dance floor until 2AM aren’t mutually exclusive, after all).
Plus, many of our favourite high-street brand’s websites have specific ‘maternity’ sections, which makes shopping for new maternity dresses a lot easier when your mind is distracted by pelvic floor exercises and hospital bag packing…
Senior Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, Commerce Photo Editor, Neamh Randal and, freelance Fashion Editor, Charlie Teather, have all become first-time mums over the last few years, and – alongside, you know, prepping for one of humankind’s toughest physical feats and the subsequent life-altering reality of a tiny new human to care for 24/7 – rediscovering how to dress a body that was changing every single day posed a real challenge.
We didn’t want to lose our personal style identities, but we also wanted to celebrate and not just ‘disguise’ this incredible moment in our lives. And if we were finding this balance hard to strike, after working our whole adult lives in the fashion and magazine industry, we figured others must be too. So, we made it something of a personal/professional mission to compile the ultimate maternity fashion guides. If for nothing more than for us to refer back to if/when we ever do this pregnancy thing again, because (spoiler alert) baby brain is no joke, people…
The number of bump-friendly dresses out there is rather overwhelming. So, Elle, Charlie and Néamh, who are all currently navigating life with their tiny humans, trawled through high street and specialist brands to find the most stylish maternity dresses at every price point. They considered fit, style, value for money and longevity postpartum.
From long sleeve stretchy dresses for casual days to drop-waist midis for nights out (because, yes, you can still hit the town with bump in tow) and a feathered mini dress to pack for your babymoon, they’ve brought you the best selection of maternity dresses out there. See a handful of their favs below, and the rest if you keep scrolling…
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Clare Kilcullen always wanted to be a mother, but when she went through early menopause in her 20s, she wasn’t sure how that would happen.
“[I thought] it would probably be an egg donor, but then in my 30s, I still hadn’t met the right person, so I decided to go and do it on my own,” Kilcullen told CBS News.
In July, Kilcullen gave birth to her daughter, Marlowe, thanks to a frozen embryo donated by a couple from Canada.
Embryo donation is gaining in popularity. Frozen donated embryo transfers in the United States nearly quadrupled from 2004 to 2019, according to a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. It’s estimated there are currently more than 1 million frozen embryos in the U.S. — many from those reluctant to discard them after they are done with their cycles of in vitro fertilization.
“Most people usually keep them in storage in case they change their mind later,” said Dr. Richard Paulson, a fertility specialist at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
In 1986, Paulson was part of a team that reported the first successful birth from a frozen embryo in the U.S.
“We’ve been trying to get embryo donation off the ground for a very long time,” Paulson said. “It’s very complicated to do, because of logistics, because of legal issues, because of the fact that the parents probably were not tested for genetic disease.”
But one company is working to make embryo donation more accessible.
Kilcullen met her donors through Empower With Moxi, a platform using the power of the internet to facilitate embryo transfers between people who want to know something about each other — donors with frozen embryos often left over from IVF and recipients such as Kilcullen.
“It’s not like they’re sitting on a clinic waitlist where just the next available embryo is theirs,” said Gina Davis, a genetic counselor who cofounded the company. “There’s really some choice about, do we kind of align? Are our families similar? Do we have similar values?”
Kilcullen said she had a meeting with her embryo donors over Zoom, which felt “like the biggest job interview” of her life.
The donors ended up giving all 10 of their embryos to Kilcullen.
“I had some reservations knowing that she wasn’t genetically mine, and would that feel any different? But no, the minute she was placed on my chest, it was, yeah, the best thing ever,” Kilcullen said.
Gina Davis and her husband had 17 remaining embryos after their own fertility journey. At the time, she said she had to use Facebook to find someone to donate the embryos to due to limited options.
“When I first started thinking about donating my embryos, most of the programs throughout the country were basically anonymous. The model had been really closed, that you would just donate your embryos and you don’t know where they go,” Davis told CBS News. “We thought children deserve to know their genetic origins, and their families deserve to know a little bit more about their origin story.”
The idea to remove anonymity from the embryo donation process has given Kilcullen exactly what she needed when deciding how to become a mom.
“I just really wanted Marlowe to grow up knowing who the genetic family are, and it’s an extended family, which I think is beautiful for us and for them. They’ve entered that world as my child, but they were made with love from theirs,” Kilcullen said.
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By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Nov. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The United States has received another barely passing pregnancy health grade from the March of Dimes after another year in which 1 out of 10 babies were born prematurely.
It’s the fourth consecutive year the nation has received a historically low D+ grade, the March of Dimes said in its 2025 Report Card.
The national preterm rate remains at 10.4%, which means that nearly 380,000 babies were born prematurely in 2024.
That rate is among the highest of all developed nations, the March of Dimes said.
“As a clinician who has seen how much is possible when we get it right, these data are deeply frustrating,” Dr. Michael Warren, the March of Dimes chief medical and health officer, said in a news release.
“We have known about risk factors for preterm birth, including prior history or preterm birth, chronic disease, and unequal access to care, for years,” Warren said.
In the report card, the March of Dimes noted that:
Racial disparities are worsening, with preterm birth rates among Black moms nearly 50% higher than the overall rate.
Disparities also exist among women covered by Medicaid, who have a preterm rate of nearly 12% compared to under 10% for women with private insurance.
Fewer than 25% of pregnant women did not begin prenatal care in the first trimester — the fourth straight year of decline.
Conditions that contribute to premature births continue to increase among pregnant women, including high blood pressure by 6% and diabetes by 8%.
Infant mortality remained stable at 5.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, with more than 20,000 babies dying before their first birthday in 2023.
“This year’s report card shows that while we remain stalled in our progress on preterm birth, we are also losing ground in other critical areas of maternal and infant health,” Cindy Rahman, president & CEO of the March of Dimes, said in a news release.
Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Pacific Islander moms die at two to three times the rate of White moms during and after pregnancy, the report card said.
“Our country is stuck in a maternal and infant health crisis where too many families are being forgotten,” Rahman said. “We must confront the systemic inequities that leave families of color and those covered by Medicaid at higher risk, improve access to early prenatal care, and tackle the growing burden of chronic disease — because every mom and baby deserves the chance for a healthy start.”
The 2025 March of Dimes Report Card can be read here.
SOURCES: March of Dimes, news release, Nov. 17, 2025; March of Dimes Report Card, 2025
Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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(CNN) — On April 9, 2020, after Shirley Scarborough made her daily call to a prayer line, she went to work and got another call: from the police department in Richmond, Virginia. Her youngest daughter, Francesca Harris-Scarborough, had been killed the night before.
Police had found the 31-year-old’s car still idling. Scarborough’s daughter, who was three months pregnant, had been shot twice in the heart.
“I wasn’t ready for it. I lost control of everything,” Scarborough said. “Everything went blank.”
Francesca was part of a terrible trend in the United States: Homicide is the No. 1 way pregnant women die, research has showed, but a new study finds that they are even more vulnerable than other women of childbearing age when there’s a gun involved.
The study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at more than 7,000 homicides of women of childbearing age between 2018 and 2021. Pregnant women were found to have a 37% higher firearm homicide rate than women who weren’t pregnant, and more than two-thirds of pregnancy-associated homicides involved firearms.
The presence of a firearm is known to be a key risk factor of intimate partner homicide. The new study showed that every 1% increase in state-level firearm ownership was associated with a 6% increase in all-cause homicide and an 8% increase in the firearm-specific homicide rate in pregnant women, even after adjusting for other factors.
“Even incremental increases in firearm availability may contribute to measurable increases in homicide risk in pregnant women,” the researchers wrote.
“It was really not surprising, if you think about it, that if firearms are more available, then that certainly it does increase your risk of homicide in general,” said study co-author Dr. Lois Lee, a senior faculty adviser in the Office and Health Equity & Inclusion and an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. “So you could imagine, if you take away or at least decrease the number of firearms, then there would likely be many fewer deaths during pregnancy.”
“And unlike medical conditions, which, yes, we do have many medical advances and can save many lives, but in some ways, those conditions are much less preventable, like eclampsia and sepsis,” Lee added. “This is predictable and potentially preventable.”
The highest proportion of homicides in pregnant women was among those 20 to 24 years old. Among women who weren’t pregnant, it was ages 25 to 29. Most homicide victims were Black, whether they were pregnant or not.
“Those findings suggest that these risks of homicide during pregnancy are shaped not just by individual factors but by broader systems of inequity and structural racism,” Lee said. “So it’s not just a solution at the individual level that’s needed, but there needs to be urgent change at a policy level, as well.”
The study authors recommend safe storage laws and domestic violence firearm prohibitions.
Although most states prohibit people with final protective orders from purchasing or possessing firearms, such laws should be expanded to require people to surrender their firearms even when there’s an emergency protective order on the books, said Dr. Kelly Roskam, director of law and policy at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, who was not involved with the new research.
“Usually, the first stage of that order process is often the most dangerous time for individuals experiencing intimate partner or family violence, since it is usually the first indication that an individual is going to be separating from an abuser,” Roskam said.
Roskam said the most successful gun surrender laws also have strong follow-up. She points to a program in King County, Washington, that created a multidisciplinary team of prosecutors, law enforcement and court administrators who serve on a regional domestic violence firearm unit. It scours court documents and databases to make sure every individual involved in a domestic violence offense gives up every firearm.
According to King County, firearms are used in domestic violence homicides more than all other weapons combined in Washington state.
“They really show respondents that they are very serious about ensuring this firearm relinquishment compliance. And since they have started doing this, they have been recovering a much larger number of firearms from these protective orders,” Roskam said.
Scarborough has been working on her own programs so more women are spared her daughter’s fate. She created a nonprofit called Cry Loud, Spare Not, Speak Up that’s dedicated to empowering women affected by domestic violence and abuse in Virginia.
In reading her daughter’s journals after her death, Scarborough said, she realized that although her daughter was successful and seemed happy, she had confidence issues that began when she was younger. Scarborough also started a program for girls ages 12 and up to cultivate self-esteem and grow their confidence. Scarborough also wrote about her own experience in her memoir “Shattered But Not Destroyed A Mother’s Journey from Heartbreak to Hope.” She said she hopes it can help readers find strength and purpose, even when life is at its most difficult.
Each year, near the anniversary of Francesca’s death, Scarborough hosts another empowerment program for girls and women called “I Am Enough, I Know My Worth.”
“This way she will never die. We can always try to help somebody,” Scarborough said. “Her death has really been my teacher. It’s changed my life. It will never be the same.”
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