Commonplace Iris

Links for 2007-08-06 thorough 09 [del.icio.us]

• Birth The Play :: Bold
  
  "Birth is a play based on over one hundred interviews Karen Brody conducted with mothers across America who gave birth between 2000-2004. It tells the true stories of 8 women painting a portrait of how low-risk, educated women are giving birth in America today."
  
  I don't know whether I'm likely to be able to see this play, or go to a Red Tent event, this year but it sounds really interesting to me (I read more birth stories than I have time for). During September there are groups all over the USA (and further afield) putting on the play, and/or organizing events in order to raise awareness about labor/birth and to make birthing more mother friendly -- look for an event near you.
• A pause before parenting -- PJStar.com - Journal Star Features
  
  "Women who began their families later in life share the rewards - and regrets - of delayed motherhood"
• August '07 edition of MagKnits, your friendly online knitting magazine
  
  I like the look of Lemonade (a fitted cotton cardi), Jenora (a cardigan that makes me think of the Bloomsbury group) and Summer Sky (a nice shrug/cardigan) Also there's a sock pattern, and a slinky knit dress pattern.
• A pioneer in an experiment called open adoption - Los Angeles Times
  
  The second part of the story is here. Interesting look at one story of an open adoption, you should really read both parts of the story. I've been reading several blogs where adoption is an important part of the bloggers life - as a first parent, an adoptive parent or a person who was adopted - and it's really expanded my understanding of adoption enormously. It's given me far more insight than I've got from people I know personally who've placed a child, adopted a child or been adopted (probably in part because I've never really talked about adoption in any depth with those people). I'm really grateful for the people who have shared their stories and helped me understand more about the long term implications of adoption for all involved.
  
• How Much Salt Is Safe? | Scientific Blogging
• Latent Memory Means Genetic Learning | Scientific Blogging
• Freebirthing: Should women give birth alone? -- Daily Mail
  
  Freebirthing scares me personally, I had drug-free easy deliveries but I really valued having the nurses, midwives and my doula around (and I know my husband would have been terrified without them). Of course we were at a hospital that knows how to support "normal birth". Hearing stories of being in labor at hospitals that have epidural rates so high that the nurses don't know what to do with a naturally laboring woman, and hearing of the rising and rising c-section rates around the country (US and UK), (not to mention how hard it can be to find midwives and doctors to attend a homebirth what with malpractice insurance and not enough OBs and midwives around) I can see where freebirthing becomes a more attractive option for many women.
• MAGPIE » “Bread and Puppet continues, more than 40 years on, to live an ideal of art as collective enterprise, a free or low-cost alternative voice outside the profit system.” - Arthur Magazine blogs for you...
• Baby Videos May Hinder Infants' Language Development | Scientific Blogging
  
  "Rather than helping babies, the over-use of such productions actually may slow down infants eight to 16 months of age when it comes to acquiring vocabulary, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
  
  "The scientists found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. Baby DVDs and videos had no positive or negative effect on the vocabularies on toddlers 17 to 24 months of age."
• Online movie guides for parents - ParentDish
• BBC NEWS | Health | Diabetes problems 'vitamin link'
  
  "A simple vitamin deficiency may be the cause of many of the side effects of diabetes, a study suggests.
  
  "Researchers found people with the disease expelled thiamine - vitamin B1 - from their bodies at 15 times the normal rate in a study of 94 people.
  
  "The Warwick University team said thiamine helped ward off complications such as heart disease and eye problems, the Diabetologia journal said."
• The Phrontistery: Obscure Words and Vocabulary Resources
• Owl Hat Pattern
  Seen in a flickr photo
  
• BBC NEWS | Health | Diet food 'may fuel obesity risk'
  
  "researchers believe low-calorie versions of usually high-calorie foods disrupt the body's ability to use taste to regulate calorific intake."
• Monkeys, Humans Learn The Same Way | Scientific Blogging
  
  “'Like humans, monkeys benefit enormously from being actively involved in learning instead of having information presented to them passively,' said Nate Kornell, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in psychology and lead author of the study. 'The advantage of active learning appears to be a fundamental property of memory in humans and nonhumans alike.'”
• BBC NEWS | Education | Academic study 'not always best'
  
  "Parents should encourage teenagers to pursue a wider range of courses, not just academic ones, campaigners say.
  
  "Educational foundation Edge warns of 'academic snobbery' against vocational courses. It says a fifth of pupils think they are on the wrong path.
  
  "Going on to study for a degree for its own sake is not always suitable for the careers they really want, Edge says."