Oh dear... at this rate, Carla Bruni won't be as comfortable leaning forward as our super-fit, tight abs Sarah Palin when she reaches the 7th month of her pregnancy. What a shame.
Carla Bruni, last weekend (baby due in October)
Sarah Palin in March 2008 (baby due in May)
This video is old, but always entertaining. Sarah Palin should be made to eat her own words on a daily basis.
(H/T to Sleuth)
Now that Michele Bachmann is copying Sarah Palin, there's another film coming out, starring the two of them.
(H/T to LisanTx)
Perhaps Sarah should announce she's going to run sooner rather than later. The perks are good, at least for the spouses...
As it's a holiday weekend, I'll indulge in a bit of satire.
Sarah Palin is having trouble at home, having been upstaged by that copy-cat Michele Bachmann, not to mention the disappointment of a dismally attended joint book signing with her big daughter Bristol.
Now there's trouble further afield. Sarah's old friend President Sarkozy is not happy with his wife's appearance. Former model Carla Bruni was on the cover of the June issue of Elle magazine looking visibly pregnant. The baby is due in October and Carla is showing too soon!
Sarko went ballistic, stomped his little feet and was oveheard chastising his hapless wife: "Non, non, non! How dare you pose for Elle showing that bump? Haven't you seen the photo of my good friend Sarah Palin at seven months, looking trim, with a toned belly?"
Poor Carla. Sarko has a fiery temperament and is very image conscious. The guy carries a little box to stand on to look taller and doesn't allow Carla to wear high heels. It's all about him.
I don't know how he's going to deal with the progressing pregnancy. Carla is going to get bigger and bring further shame on the little guy.
Sarkozy rang Sarah again, trying to get some tips for Carla's abs and she was very gracious and reassuring. She told him to look at the photo taken on April 13.
"See? I looked big and pregnant, there's nothing to worry about. Don't blame your beautiful wife. You live in Paris and she can't go huntin and fishin and climbin and loggin like I can up here in Alaska, unless she goes climbin that tower you have there, built in honor of your founding fathers by the brother of the guy who gave us the statute of Liberty so the legal immigrants could find their way here to freedom. Or something like that. I looked flat because the lamestream media took my pregnancy out of context. Your wife looks beautiful (what a cow!)."
Sarko wasn't too convinced and devised a rigorous regime for Carla. No more pasta, only crunchwrap supremes, skinny lattes and Red Bull from now on. And she'll have to swim the Seine and climb the Eiffel tower at least three times a week.
He also asked Sarah to bring her bus tour to France. The French need educating about their history aussi, too. They know nothing about their founding fathers, merde alors! (To be fair, he didn't know about them either, not until Sarah set the record straight.)
Ok, then. I believe you were indeed pregnant with Trig. There must be some explanation for you being as flat as a board right up until March 26, then ballooning into a seemingly normal pregnant woman in the space of three weeks. Every pregnancy is different, holy crap!
Fine, so when you were 35-weeks pregnant you woke up at 4 am with a strange sensation down in your belly while in Texas, sat up straight in bed, then Todd phoned your doctor, even though you felt fine. You told her you absolutely didn't want to disappoint the folks at the conference, so she told you to take it easy. Hey, every doctor is different, and yours was quite able to perform telephone examinations, why not? Sheesh!
Now Sarah, run us through your labour again. No ums and uhs and ahs. You were in love with that precious child, please God don't let anything happen to this baby. Please God, protect him! Then you gave a very important kick ass speech while having contractions and embarked on the wild ride. Awesome!
Braxton-Hicks sounds awfully good, but leaking amniotic fluid is not a run-of-the-mill occurrence if not in active labour. Shoot!
You took two long haul fights, with a two-hour layover between them and traveled another hour by road to a hospital not equipped for risky deliveries. You did all this based on telephone examinations. Holy geez!
So you were up half of the night, kicked ass with your speech, traveled all day, arrived at the hospital quite late, then put on a drip to induce the birth and gave birth at 6:30 am. A couple of hours later, you grabbed your BlackBerries to communicate with your office, signed bills and did other government business, such as deriding your perceived enemies and controlling your fake responses to media articles. Wow! Holy crap!
The majority of women, most of them younger than you, are greatly inconvenienced by childbirth and have to take time off work, costing the economy millions of dollars. Unflippinbelievable!
Do share your secret of an exceptionally comfortable, rushed pregnancy and the easiest of all your labours and deliveries. Holy moly, do it for the good of America!
Best regards,
Regina
PS - Dear Sarah, I'm sorry about some of the language, I got a bit carried away...
*****
UPDATE
PPS - BTW, Sarah, where is Trig? The last time I remember seeing him was during your rousing speech to the Tea Party Express in Arizona. That was around October 22 last year. Eight months... Holy crap! You could have had another three rushed pregnancies in that time! I hope everything is ok with your precious child from God.
Love,
Regina
[Does anybody remember seeing Trig after October 2010? He didn't go on the America by Heart book tour, it was only Piper, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.]
I stand corrected. Trig was seen in February 2011 at the Ronald Reagan ranch. Thanks to all the readers with memories better than mine...
As the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy made her way into the launch event for her illiteracy foundation she had quite a task hiding the obvious.
The 43-year-old wore a fitted dark jacket with a navy shirt and trousers - the dark colours failing to disguise her obvious condition.
Here's Carla Bruni, photographed in March and a couple of days ago:
She's 3 months pregnant and should have no trouble hiding her bump. As a former model, we would expect Carla to have very tight abs.
Perhaps Carla should have asked Sarah Palin for some advice. Sarah had an optional bump, enabling her to appear completely flat at 7 months. If Carla managed to look like Sarah did in the photo below, nobody would suspect she's pregnant and she could have hidden it from the public at least for another 8 months!
Laura Novak and I had an e-mail conversation earlier and the subject was, inevitably, Sarah Palin and her strange stories.
We pondered what would have happened if she had stayed in Alaska, in relative anonymity, minding her own business as the governor of that isolated state.
The rumours about her pregnancy (and Bristol's) were already around in Alaska long before Sarah Palin appeared at the Republican convention, but I tend to believe that Alaskans were not terribly interested in it and the rumours were bound to die down.
As it happens, Sarah didn't blink and decided that she didn't want to be a big fish in small pond anymore. She wanted to swim in the big pond and rub shoulders with the rest of the big political fish. She said "yes" to McCain and dragged her whole family (plus a convenient fiance) into the public arena.
That was a mistake. People started to pay attention, to ask too many questions about this mythical creature from the frozen tundra. People noticed that some of her stories didn't make sense.
Had she stayed safely in Alaska, there would be no conspiracy theories, no dedicated blogs going through her record and her weird stories with a fine tooth comb. There would be no books written about her.
Sarah missed a second chance to go back to safe obscurity when she quit her job to become a multi-millionaire celebrity. She gave more material to bloggers, journalists and the tabloids. Bristol Palin also managed to secure a place in the spotlight and lies about anything with the same ease as her mother. Willow has just made the news on TMZ...
Now everybody is asking pesky questions about the Palins, as Sarah made them such a big part of her narrative.
The scrutiny won't stop, Sarah. You should have blinked!
[This is the original post I had written to link to Laura Novak's interview with a doctor who looked at CBJ's letter. It reappeared as a draft, so with a couple of edits, why waste it?]
It doesn't work that way! Why bother to have different shapes and sizes of pregnant mannequins? Why make so many items of maternity wear? A normal woman only shows a bump once and it lasts about one week. What a waste...
Sarah Palin is still doing her job of bashing president Obama on Fox News. Now her broadcasts have moved to the great outdoors and the chosen location has a landscaped garden, complete with a pretty artificial lake in the background. She's always animated when she mentions the president and in the new setting her hair is animated as well.
In her latest appearance there was a lot of blinking and lip licking.
Jason Easley commented on this recent round of Obama bashing on politicususa:
What Palin was insinuating with her little free and fair elections remark was that 2008 was not a fair election. Sarah Palin believes that the election was stolen from her by Barack Obama and his foreign money.
Inevitably, the other topic of interest is Babygate. David Wegel claimed that he contacted Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and obtained confirmation that Sarah Palin gave birth there, proving that all Trig Truthers are deranged and obsessed with with their theories about the pregnancy hoax. Does Weigel actually believe that all the bloggers who have been writing about this didn't think of phoning the hospital in the course of their investigations? After nearly three years he was the first person to get an answer out of them? How odd...
Of course Andrew Sullivan didn't fall for it and Phil Munger offered some local information that makes Weigel's claims look ridiculous.
Some bloggers are still intent in proving that Sarah Palin didn't give birth to Trig. It appears to be quite a difficult task and gives Sarah Palin an advantage: Until they actually prove something by producing cast iron evidence, she can chose to ignore their challenges urging her to prove otherwise.
Others have chosen to focus on the Wild Ride and use Sarah Palin's own statements about her labour and delivery of Trig to question her judgement.
Delivering in small hospital without NICU: For a full term baby with no known problems, this is fine because most babies and mothers do well. The equipment and personnel to resuscitate a baby would be there and the baby could be stabilized and transported to hospital with a higher level of care. However, when there are known problems with the baby, it makes no sense to take unnecessary risks that the baby will need immediate intervention that cannot be provided in community hospital.
Sally and Chuck Heath pose with Trig in one of the rooms of a delivery suite at the local community hospital a few hours after his premature arrival
Despite the happy outcome, the wild ride puts Sarah Palin on more dangerous ground than challenging the whole pregnancy. She has mentioned "Trig Truthers" in some of her speeches, but has never addressed the "Wild Ride Skeptics."
Sarah Palin is going to make a speech on May 3, addressing a crowd connected to special needs. I doubt that she will refer to her brave and selfless journey from Dallas to the Valley, when she took all necessary steps to ensure Trig's safe arrival...
Prof Scharlott remarked that the ADN has little room for independent journalism, as they receive a considerable amount of money from the state of Alaska as part of their revenue.
Sarah Palin had a "shrine" on the ADN when she was governor. Readers could follow their hot governor as one would a film star, they could send in their own photos with Sarah, it was really neat. Sometime after Sarah quit on Alaska, the shrine became redundant, but it made a comeback after she turned into a national celebrity. The state already contributed to the ADN's revenue when the shrine first appeared, so it was paid for. Now it generates hits and the state is still paying for sympathetic coverage of Sarah Palin. Plus ça change...
The so-called journalists who recovered their memories after three years and are now offering their first hand testimonies of the existence of Sarah Palin's pregnant belly appear to have been made an offer they couldn't refuse, a nudge they couldn't ignore...
Other journalists jumped on the anti-truther bandwagon, including the very liberal Guardian, from the UK. I can't work out what went on there, but the author of the article (a woman) accused Trig truthers of misogyny. This woman didn't look into any of the material offered by the bloggers who have been discussing the story for the past three years, or she would have noticed that the female contingent is very strong. Women were the first to doubt Sarah Palin's account of her pregnancy and labour with Trig. Is she accusing a vast number of women of misogyny?
It seems that the liberal media bias is a myth. They're not biased at all. It's matter of not being independent, of having to take their orders from those who have the power to jeopardize their livelihoods. It's a form of subtle, disguised censorship.
Or perhaps they're just lazy.
There are notable exceptions, of course. All is not lost and the truly independent thinkers will continue to ask awkward questions...
[The illustration above used to mean "See no evil, ear no evil, speak no evil." These days, not wishing to see, hear or speak the inconvenient truth seems more appropriate.]
I heard from my doctor friend. She has no interest in Sarah Palin and had not seen any of these photos before. The conversation was on Facebook. I sent her a first message asking for her medical opinion (admitedly, my friend is not an obstetrician, she's an endocrinologist):
Regina:
"In your medical opinion, how far along in her pregnancy would you estimate this woman is in each of the photos? She's 44 years old, in her 7th pregnancy (4 live births and 2 pregnancies that ended around 12 weeks)?"
Cecilia:
"According to the photos, I have the impression she's not pregnant at all. I can't see any evidence of a pregnant belly and the little there is in the first photo would be perfectly normal for a woman who gave birth four times, even if not pregnant."
I then sent her this photo:
Regina:
"This woman announced her pregnancy between photos (1) and (2), saying she was seven months pregnant. Eighteen days after photo (3), she was photographed again and had a big belly. What do you think?"
In the same message, I gave a brief description of the wild ride:
"35 weeks pregnant: The woman was 4,900 km from her home town, attending a conference. At 4am, she woke up with a strange sensation down in her belly, with contractions that felt different from the usual and was leaking some fluid. She rang her doctor back home and said she wasn't going to change her plans and would go ahead with a speech at 1pm the next afternoon. The doctor said ok.
After the speech, she boarded two planes for four-hour flights , with a two-hour layover in between, then drove another 45 minutes to a small hospital which was not equipped for complicated births.
The woman had tests at 12 weeks and knew the baby had Down syndrome. The doctor induced the birth and the baby was born some time later, five weeks premature.
Three days later, the woman went back to work, taking the baby with her and was filmed with the baby, showing him to the world and her colleagues."
At this stage in our exchange, Cecilia thought I was pulling her leg:
"This story is absurd. If the membranes had ruptured and she was leaking amniotic fluid without going into labour there could be serious consequences for this woman and the baby. If she was having real contractions, considering that it was her fifth baby, she would have delivered in the middle of her speech, if she made it to the conference room at all!"
There have been opinions by doctors and other medical professionals posted on various blogs. None of them bought the story as told by Sarah Palin. Cecilia gave up trying to be serious about it and couldn't be bothered to give answers to specific questions. She thought the whole thing was ridiculous and didn't merit a considered medical opinion.
Not only is Sarah Palin completely different from all other pregnant women, but her doctor seems to be quite unique as well.
People who try to defend Sarah Palin's actions say that each pregnancy is different. I agree, women's experiences vary enormously. Where Sarah Palin and her doctor deviated from the accepted norms (however unique each pregnancy may be) was by having an attitude which counted on certainties, leaving no room for any unexpected developments. They didn't consider any eventualities that didn't fit their plans.
The general consensus, based on statistics, is that labours get shorter with each pregnancy. There are exceptions, of course, but doctors only find out that a patient was an exception after the fact. The expectation is for a short labour in a fifth pregnancy, which was Sarah Palin's case. Neither Sarah nor her doctor could have known that she would fall outside the accepted statistics before the actual labour concluded. Any advice given by her doctor over the telephone would have been guided by her experience, that a fifth labour is faster, unless she had a crystal ball and knew beforehand that her patient was to become an exception.
Sarah Palin herself relied on her previous experiences to justify her actions: None of her four babies had been early. But Trig was 5 weeks early, which proves that not every pregnancy goes according to plan.
I know four women (personally) whose best laid plans went awry. One minute they were not in labour at all and in a very short time they had a baby in their arms.
A former neighbour called a maternity ambulance and gave birth outside her house, in the parked ambulance. I was pregnant with my second son at the time and the commotion in the middle of the night filled me with trepidation about my own fate (My first labour had lasted 20 hours. The second lasted 3, from my first contraction to my son's first cry - thankfully, in a hospital).
Another had her second baby in the car, on the way to the hospital, delivered by her husband. They called their little girl Carina, an anagram of "in a car."
A good friend gave birth to her third baby in the hospital car park. But the most dramatic story was that of another friend, who had no time to call anyone: She gave birth to her daughter on the kitchen floor, 3 weeks early, while her two-year-old little boy was taking a nap.
All these women had other plans, all of them thought they had time. None of them had a strange sensation down their bellies or leaked anything, giving birth 20 hours later. They had no warning signs at all. Sarah Palin had strong signs that labour was imminent - Todd called her doctor in the middle of the night, remember?
But at 4 a.m., a strange sensation low in my belly woke me and I sat up straight in my bed.
It can’t be, I thought. It’s way too early. Moments later, I shook Todd awake.
“Something’s going on.”
Desperation for this baby overwhelmed me.
Please don’t let anything happen to this baby. It occurred to me, once and for all. I’m so in love with this child, please God, protect him!
After all my doubts and fears, I had fallen in love with this precious child. The worst thing in the world would be that I would lose him.
What made her behave the way she did? She was desperate for her baby. So why didn't she get checked by a real life doctor in a hospital 10 minutes away from her hotel? How could she predict, with all certainty, that she wouldn't go into full labour before she reached Mat-Su Regional Medical Center? How could her doctor check whether her cervix had started to dilate over the phone? How could her doctor be so certain that Sarah had time to make her way back to the Valley, when that prediction went agaisnt all the statistics regarding the length of a fitfh labour? She had decades of experience delivering lots of babies...
Labour is not predictable. Doctors and midwives give advice to their pregnant patients not to stray too far from their chosen hospital in the last weeks of their pregnancies. Are they paranoid? Don't they know that labour can "let up" long enough for women to make their way to the hospital, that it's perfectly possible to make a relaxed journey involving two 4-hour flights, a 2-hour layover and a 45 minute journey by car before their patients can be induced at leisure? Don't they know that leaking amniotic fluid and having contractions that feel "different" don't constitute labour? Why are there so many alarmist, irresponsible websites giving women the wrong advice?
We didn't invent Sarah Palin's account of her labour with Trig. Her version of the events is documented in her own voice. She wrote about it in her book. We didn't write the press release saying that she had gone into labour in Texas. We only used logic and common sense and thought things didn't add up.
[I'm posting the Wild Ride again for easy reference. You don't need to listen to it again if it insults your intelligence!]
As my friend Cecilia said, this story is absurd. Useful links:
The information below is not new to the people who have been following Babygate for over two years, but I thought it would be interesting to have it all in one post, just in case an adventurous, independent journalist learns to google.
Salon, Politico and the Huffington Post have declared the story debunked, but as far as I know, the "biggies" haven't said anything yet. The NY Times and the Washington Post havent touched it, have they?
I wonder if there are any Woodwards and Bernsteins left out there. My fear is that journalism in the US may have moved into the corporate world and we will never see anything like Watergate again.
It must be very frustrating and frightening for Americans to feel that what used to be taken for granted - a media that had an important role in keeping politicians accountable for their actions - may now be a thing of the past.
The media focused on the conspiracy theory element of the story. Perhaps we should stop trying to prove that Sarah Palin didn't give birth to Trig. Let's accept that things happened exactly as she described in the "Wild Ride" audio and in Going Rogue. Geoffrey Dunn's article, rejected by the Huffington Post, was not based on conspiracy theories. His approach was to question Sarah Palin's decision to embark on a long journey by air after the onset of labour.
Perhaps we should abandon the conspiracy theory and act as people concerned about the poor example Sarah Palin set for pregnant women through her actions.
Reporter: Just a clarification – you flew commercial Alaska Airlines?
Palin: Yeah, yeah.
Reporter: And did -- This was something else I think I heard your father say I just wanted to clarify. Did you have to hide your pregnancy because you were so far along?
Palin: Well, you know I never felt nor do some people say I ever looked like I was that far along, um, so no purposeful way or need to hide that I was pregnant. Um, some, I know that some airlines would have uh, some hesitancy on letting maybe a nine month pregnant person get on board but it wasn’t nine months so, um, it was…
Reporter: And you didn’t tell them you were feeling something when you came back on the plane?
Palin: No need to because I wasn’t feeling at all like I was in labor in fact, you know I wasn’t one or maybe two contractions an hour that felt just like Braxton Hicks which I’d been having for months. That doesn’t constitute labor, so… Fox News:
While the vast majority of women heed airline rules against flying during the last four or five weeks of pregnancy or comply with requirements about providing a medical certificate from a doctor, some manage to conceal their condition or lie about how far along they are so they can get where they want to go.
Since 2007, babies have also been born aboard planes flying from Chicago to Salt Lake City; on a domestic flight in Malaysia; and on long-haul flights from the Netherlands to Boston, from Hong Kong to Australia, and from Germany to Atlanta.
But even when gate attendants question how pregnant a passenger is, they usually have no choice but to let the woman fly if she says she has not reached the airline's cutoff date and is showing no sign of physical distress, said Dr. Fanancy Anzalone, president-elect of the Aerospace Medical Association in Alexandria, Virginia.
"The rules now are based on honesty and (the idea) that a pregnant mom is going to protect her unborn," Anzalone said.
Gov. Palin's opted to board a jet from Dallas in April while about to deliver a child. Gov. Palin, who was eight months pregnant, says she felt a few contractions shortly before she was to give a keynote speech to an energy summit of governors in Dallas. But she says she went ahead with it after her doctor in Alaska advised her to put her feet up to rest. "I was not going to miss that speech," she says.
She rushed so quickly from the podium afterwards that Texas Gov. Rick Perry nervously asked if she was about to deliver the baby then. She made it to the airport, and gave birth hours after landing in Anchorage to Trig, who is diagnosed with Down Syndrome. "Maybe they shouldn't have let me fly, but I wasn't showing much so they didn't know," she says.
Airlines rely on an "honor policy" when it comes to enforcement, so it's the passenger's decision to notify agents that she's expecting and how far along she is. Ticket agents won't mention travel restrictions unless asked, so inquire about them when you book your seat.
All airlines recommend you consult your physician before travel at any time during pregnancy. Play it safe by getting a "permission-to-travel" letter from your doctor. You won't — and shouldn't — get one if your pregnancy is considered high-risk. Be sure to take your due date into consideration on the return trip, too. And before you plan a cross-country or international flight, remember how you'll feel squeezed into a seat for hours.
Alaska Airlines — 800/426-0333 Domestic: No restrictions International: No restrictions
Generally speaking there is no cause for concern when it comes to flying during your third trimester. However, it is important to discuss your trip plans with your general practitioner before you book your flight. If you booked your flight early on and you find out you will be in your third trimester during this time it is recommended you try to reschedule your flight times as soon as possible. This is especially important if your flight time corresponds with 35 weeks and beyond in your pregnancy because many airlines will refuse boarding at this time. Plane travel can be stressful and worrying and labor mid-flight would not be ideal. Make sure you check with your chosen airline for pregnancy admittance regulations, some of them may even refuse boarding for pregnant women under 35 weeks.
It is generally advised that even though you may be enjoying a healthy and normal pregnancy you do not fly within your third trimester just to be safe especially in your final month.
Your doctor will refer you to an appropriate medical professional for the duration of your holiday so make sure you get their contact details and keep them with you at all times should anything happen. You will also need to take your prenatal chart with you which will have all your pertinent medical data on it.
Finally, make sure you reserve a plane seat that is on the aisle and as close to the middle of the plane as possible. This will make sure your ride is as smooth and comfortable as possible and will also make it easier for you to get up mid flight to walk around and visit the bathroom.
Even if you're enjoying an uncomplicated pregnancy, it's best to avoid flying (or any travel far from home) during your final month because you can go into labor at any time. The chance of premature labor is the main concern of pregnant women traveling by air during their third trimester, Douglas says. "It's essential to have a medical contact at your destination," she says. Douglas also states that a mom-to-be should make sure her health insurance is valid and will cover her newborn before she leaves home. "You don't want to be unsure, especially if you're in a strange or new location." Decreased air pressure during flight may slightly reduce the amount of oxygen in your blood, but this isn't likely to cause problems if you're otherwise healthy. Likewise, the radiation exposure associated with air travel at high altitudes isn't thought to be problematic for most business or leisure travelers. There's a caveat for frequent fliers, however. Pilots, flight attendants and others who fly often may be exposed to more radiation than is considered safe during pregnancy. If you must fly frequently during your pregnancy, discuss it with your health care provider. He or she may limit your total flight time during pregnancy.
Circa March 4: Los Angeles to Anchorage Circa March 7: Anchorage to Fairbanks Circa March 9: Fairbanks to Anchorage Circa March 11: Anchorage to Juneau Circa March 14: Juneau to Anchorage Circa March 27: Anchorage to Juneau Circa April 15: from Juneau to Dallas April 17: from Dallas to Anchorage
And, uh, he wasn’t due for 4 or 5 weeks later and um, while I was at energy conference I felt perfectly fine but uh, had thought maybe a few things were starting to progress a little bit that perhaps there was an idea there that he might come early.
Well not contractions so much because I had Braxton Hicks contractions for months as every pregnant woman does, and nothing real painful but just knowing that, um, it was feeling like, I may not um, be able to be pregnant a whole another four or five weeks knowing that it would be not a bother to call our doctor and let her know.
Going Rogue:
But at 4 a.m., a strange sensation low in my belly woke me and I sat up straight in my bed.
It can’t be, I thought. It’s way too early. Moments later, I shook Todd awake.
“Something’s going on.”
Later that afternoon we entered a packed house at the energy conference, where I’d speak on the urgent need to tap conventional supplies and innovate on stabilizing renewable sources.
Big laughs. More contractions.
Then I introduced everybody to Todd, Alaska's "First Dude," who, instead of sitting at the head of the table, was standing at the back of the hall, giving me the "get on with it, let's keep it short this time" look and practically holding the door open for our quick exit to the airport.
The audience graciously gave me a standing ovation. Then I handed the mic back to Rick and walked off the stage. "Hey," Rick drawled over the sound system with a chuckle, "we're not finished with the program!" I turned around, smiled, waved, and kept moving. "I know you're pregnant," Rick said, joking into the mic. "But don't tell me you're going off to have the baby right now!"
Infections. Like other organ systems, the immune system of a premature infant does not function as well as that of older kids or adults. This places preemies at risk for contracting infections (especially viral ones) after discharge.
Expect to live quietly with your preemie at first. Because their immune systems are still developing, preemies are susceptible to infections. Therefore, you need to take some precautions. Visits outside the home should be limited to the doctor's office for the first several weeks, especially if your baby is discharged during the winter months.
Because doctors' offices commonly have several kids with viral infections, try scheduling your appointment as the first of the day or request to wait in an examining room instead of the main waiting area. Ask the doctor how limited your baby's contact with other kids and adults should be during these first weeks.
Most doctors recommend not visiting public places with preemies. And limit visitors to your home: anyone who is ill should not visit, nobody should smoke in your home, and all visitors should wash their hands before touching the baby. Talk to your doctor about specific recommendations — some family visits may need to be postponed to allow your little one's immune system to grow stronger.
Reporter: Are you going to take a maternity leave?
Palin: No, mm,mm. I’ll, I’ll…
Reporter: You’re gonna be…you’re obviously back today..
Palin: I’ll be able to bring Trig with me, um, to many of the, um, meetings and, and events and um, parts of the job here that I’m engaged in and just working it around Trig either being here with me in the early days as I did… the last one, with Piper, when I was mayor of Wasilla, she was with me so often.
Sarah Palin wanted to be prepared.
Going Rogue:
I had always flippantly declined the amnios before, thinking they didn't matter, since I confidently asserted I would never abort anyway. But this time I said yes. This time I wanted information. If there was something wrong, I wanted to be prepared.
She was desperate for this baby:
Desperation for this baby overwhelmed me.
Please don’t let anything happen to this baby. It occurred to me, once and for all. I’m so in love with this child, please God, protect him!
After all my doubts and fears, I had fallen in love with this precious child. The worst thing in the world would be that I would lose him.
Precious Trig at 11pm, 41F
If a birth defect is discovered prenatally, your doctor may discuss what will happen in the time right after you deliver the baby. You and your doctor should discuss which hospital is best prepared to deal care for your baby so that you can plan to deliver there.
You might want to ask if you can tour the intensive or special care unit at the hospital to become familiar with it and meet the team of health care professionals who may care your baby. This team may include neonatologists, pediatric anesthesiologists, pediatric surgeons, neonatal nurses, nurse practitioners, and doctors in training (like fellows and residents).
Kids with Down syndrome are also at an increased risk of developing pulmonary hypertension, a serious condition that can lead to irreversible damage to the lungs. All infants with Down syndrome should be evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist. Expectant parents preparing for the birth of a baby with Down syndrome will read information in our book and other on-line resources discussing the possibility of a NICU stay. Mom Adina over at Baby Center conducted an informal poll of moms which found the following:
32.4 percent of babies went home with mom
24.3 percent spent less than 2 weeks in NICU
19.8 percent spent 2 to 4 weeks in NICU
9 percent spent 4 to 6 weeks in NICU
14.4 percent spent over 6 weeks in NICU
Adina’s poll shows over half of the babies with Down syndrome had no NICU stay or only a short NICU stay. But a large percentage do have a stay over 2 weeks. So while many babies will not have a NICU stay, practically speaking it is a very good idea to prepare for the possibility.
Sarah Palin knew she was carrying a baby with Down Syndrome. She wanted to inform herself about the condition, so she must have known that babies with Down syndrome may need extra assistance at birth. The websites I visited talk about the steps taken in the delivery of full term babies. Sarah Palin indicated that she wasn't going to be able to be pregnant for another five weeks, so she knew Trig would be premature. Prematurity alone alters the routine of the mother during and after the birth. There are issues about the immature immune systems of preemies. There are health issues affecting babies with Down Syndrome. The combination of Trig's special needs and his premature arrival would make his concerned, well informed mother wish to avail herself of the best possible facilities and resources in case anything went wrong.
Sarah Palin didn't alter her routine during this pregnancy at all. She knew she was carrying a baby with potentially serious health issues and yet she clocked several thousand air miles in her third trimester. When the possibility of Trig arriving five weeks early became part of her reality, she didn't alter her plans. All the consultations and examinations of her impending labour were conducted by telephone. She was determined to give her speech and very determined to give birth at a poorly equipped hospital.
Women who are not pregnant with a baby with special needs think twice before booking a flight in their third trimester. Women who suspect they're leaking amniotic fluid or who experience strange sensations down in their bellies in their eigth month would make sure they see a doctor in the flesh and wouldn't dream of boarding two flights with a 2-hour layover in between, followed by a car journey to an ill-equipped hospital. What makes Sarah Palin so very different from all the rest of pregnant women? It should also be noted that Sarah Palin didn't alter her routine after the birth of her premature baby with special needs.
The happy outcome doesn't alter the fact that her nonchalant behaviour had the potential for tragic consequences for herself and her baby. It also doesn't justify her award-winning doctor giving irresponsible advice over the telephone.
How would Sarah Palin react if one of her followers copied her actions and died with her baby in mid-air? Another blood libel?
I've spoiled my readers by posting at regular intervals and as I'm late preparing a post for today, this is just a quickie to touch base...
A asked a doctor friend of mine (in Brazil!) to estimate the stages of pregnancy in each of these three photos (in months and/or weeks). I didn't identify the woman, but said she's 44 years old, in her 5th pregnancy (plus 2 early miscarriages).
I know this has been done by another blogger a long time ago, but the reply should be interesting, nevertheless...
I'm also collecting some medical facts and advice regarding premature births, Down Syndrome and flying.
I've been focusing on certain aspects of Babygate recently. I have two reasons for doing this: To restore some of the information that was lost due to a photosharing account being deactivated and to add my two pennies worth to the story. I have never written many posts on this topic. Most issues had already been covered by other blogs and I'm not the investigative type who makes contacts with Alaska locals, hoping to obtain first-hand information about this particular pregnancy or unearth some tidbits about Sarah Palin's earlier pregnancies.
What I think I do well is look at the easily available information and ask questions about inconsistencies in Sarah Palin's tall tales. I like to connect the dots. It works for her political record and it works for the mysterious pregnancy and labour with Trig.
Babygate made a come back and is being discussed again.
I particularly liked the series of conversations between Brad Scharlott and Laura Novak. Both are puzzled about the media's lack of curiosity about the hoax and Laura brings the perspective of a mother who went through a complicated pregnancy to the table, offering a more realistic account of her experiences than Sarah Palin's badly concocted tales of fishpickers, erratic labour and abs of steel.
Most of the media simply dismissed the story, repeating the argument Sarah Palin and the campaign put out there to rebut the rumours: Bristol couldn't have given birth to a baby in April and to another baby in December of the same year. Case closed. Others added the tired statistics about older women having greater chances of conceiving a baby with Down Syndrome. They didn't bother to do any research into childbirth, comprehensive statistics about Down syndrome or anything else. They're still stuck in early September 2008 and won't budge.
Sarah Palin's camp didn't miss the opportunity to start another smokescreen in the "documentary" about Sarah Palin on E! True Hollywood Stories. Apparently, Sarah already had tight abs when she was pregnant with Piper. She's a truly remarkable and unusual woman: She can control labour at will and her body works in a backward fashion.
Sarah Palin's tight abs about one month after Piper's birth
That's when I like to come in and ask a few questions. A quick google search produces many results about second and subsequent pregnancies. I found an article about a second pregnancy. I wonder what the scenario would be for a fifth!
- You tend to show about a month sooner. After having a baby, your uterus doesn't shrink all the way down to its previous size, which gives it a head start in growing during the next pregnancy.
- You carry your baby lower. Your abdominal muscles get stretched so much by the first pregnancy that they're weaker. As a result, they can't support a baby as well as they did before, so the fetus drops lower in your abdomen. The upside to carrying lower is that you'll probably breathe more easily and eat more comfortably than in your first pregnancy. The downside? You may find that the urge to urinate frequently starts earlier and you may have increased pelvic discomfort from the additional pressure on your bladder and pelvic area. You can relieve some of the discomfort with Kegel exercises, which strengthen the pelvic muscles.
Sarah Palin's body is a marvel. Instead of having weaker abdominal muscles after giving birth to three babies, hers get stronger and tighter: Piper and Trig pregnancies were contained until the last minute! Her body also has a secret compartment to store the growing baby, placenta and amniotic fluid conveniently tucked away, completely out of sight, and the cumbersome bump doesn't interfere with her centre of gravity.
Once I crossed over, into my second trimester, my energy levels skyrocketed, and I started to feel like myself again. My workouts became even more enjoyable. I also found myself truly enjoying my growing belly and highly active baby. My workout intensity increased slightly. During the first half of my second trimester, I wasn't really "showing", and it was very easy to maneuver my way through my workouts. But, by the end of my second trimester, my belly began to "pop", and my center of gravity shifted. Although It is still fairly easy for me, to maneuver my way through my workouts, I am even more cautious, than before, when performing exercises, that require me to stand.
At 28 weeks pregnant, I have continued to maintain the muscle tone, in my arms, legs, back, chest, and, shoulders. I have yet to experience any odd pains, exercise exhaustion, or any other complications for that matter. My workouts have not changed, very much, from my pre-pregnancy routine, but I have made some minimal changes. I am still feeling really good, and I have been able to maintain most of my pre-pregnancy physique (excluding my abdominal muscles - of course!).
Poor woman! She wouldn't have been able to take a brisk walk around Juneau in very high heels...
The bloggers who have been writing about Sarah Palin's amazing fifth pregnancy don't have the same resources as the media. We tend to rely on Google to obtain information. Some have more information than others because they work in the medical field. We're not really interested in establishing who gave birth to Trig, we're simply convinced that Sarah Palin didn't.
The clues we picked up in order to come to this conclusion came not from a conspiracy theory, but from the improbability of the story Sarah Palin herself put forward. The media could forget about the Bristol part of the story and focus on Sarah Palin's pregnancy and labour alone. It would take the conspiracy element away and leave only the medical improbabilities to be explored.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the media tied Sarah Palin to a chair and fired a few probing questions? It could be done in a very respectful way.
"Dear governor (she likes that), you have mentioned your tight abs as the reason you didn't show during your pregnancy with Trig. Considering that you have matured normally in your adult life, without any serious weight fluctuations or health issues, how do you explain your body working differently from other women's bodies? A photograph of your healthy, young, beautiful self in an earlier pregnancy shows a very large baby bump. Normally, women show earlier and get bigger with each subsequent pregnancy. You have a small frame, so where in your body was your fifth baby growing? Where did you stash the placenta and the amniotic fluid?"
"Best governor ever, I did some searching and found several accounts of pregnancies from very fit, athletic women, many years younger than your fantastic self. They continued to exercize almost normally, but reported changes in their centers of gravity and their growing bellies. Their photos show very fit bodies and yet their bumps showed. On the other hand, very large, obese women don't show at all, you couldn't tell whether they were pregnant or simply fatter. That's definitely not your case, you're hawt! How do you explain your tight abdominal muscles working as a steel girdle, capable of keeping your profile perfectly flat at 7 months when even professional athletes failed to disguise their bumps much earlier in their pregnancies?"
"Your Highness, moving on from this boring subject of tight abs - after all, you said they're tight and I accept it - I have a question about that amniotic leaky. You said you were in regular touch with your doctor by telephone. Please tell me, how did your award winning doctor perform the necessary tests to confirm the nature of the leaky fluids over the phone?"
"Ah, Your Majesty, my colleague's question reminds me of another little question: You said you sat up straight in bed, with a strange sensation low in your belly. You were worried it was too early and feared for the life of your precious child. Your irondogging husband rang the doctor over your protests. I assume both your gracious self and your intrepid husband considered the possibility of you being in the early stages of labour. I'm curious, how did your doctor perform a pelvic examination to see if your cervix was dilating? Perhaps you and your doctor would be so kind as to share these telephone techniques in obstetric examinations with the rest of the professionals in the field."
"Wait, wait! Your Saintness, now that your precious child and your desperation for this baby have been mentioned, I think it would be interesting for you to expand on this topic. Early tests showed that your baby had Down syndrome. You had studied all that was available about the condition because you wanted to be prepared. As you no doubt learned from the material you read, babies with Down syndrome are prone to heart problems and may have complications at birth. Considering that your fishpicking gift from God could make an appearance a month early - as you said, the leaky, the strange sensations and the contractions during your speech were signs that you wouldn't be able to be pregnant for, uh, um, another month - wouldn't it have been safer for your miraculous baby if you had gone to the nearest hospital with a NICU? How did your doctor monitor the condition of the baby over the telephone?"
And so on and so forth. All that's necessary for the media to come up with a few questions is a healthy dose of curiosity, a bit of googling, an entertaining read of Going Rogue and a careful listen to Sarah Palin's account of the wild ride.
It couldn't be simpler! No conspiracy theories, just good, honest to God (He knows what He's doing) questions.
She's 3 months pregnant and should have no trouble hiding her bump. As a former model, we would expect Carla to have very tight abs.
Sally and Chuck Heath pose with Trig in one of the rooms
Sarah Palin's tight abs about one month after Piper's birth
"Best governor ever, I did some searching and found several accounts of pregnancies from very fit, athletic women, many years younger than your fantastic self. They continued to exercize almost normally, but reported changes in their centers of gravity and their growing bellies. Their photos show very fit bodies and yet their bumps showed. On the other hand, very large, obese women don't show at all, you couldn't tell whether they were pregnant or simply fatter. That's definitely not your case, you're hawt! How do you explain your tight abdominal muscles working as a steel girdle, capable of keeping your profile perfectly flat at 7 months when even professional athletes failed to disguise their bumps much earlier in their pregnancies?"
