• Created on 4/29/10 by Melanie Mayo

| by Peggy O’Mara, Editor and Publisher On March 12, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning regarding the use of baby slings. The CPSC 
asserts that slings pose a suffocation risk for infants younger than four months old, and that caution should be exercised when carrying babies of this age group in slings. On March 24, the CPSC got more specific by announcing a recall of the Infantino SlingRider, citing three infants who died in this particular sling. In addition, the CPSC called for mandatory standards for slings because no standards of any kind,... read more

• Created on 2/27/10 by Melanie Mayo

| by Peggy O’Mara, Editor and Publisher During their Thanksgiving visit, my son and his wife revealed that they are pregnant. I am ecstatic. Though I’ve got collections of baby clothes and toys stashed all over the house, I had all but given up on ever becoming a grandmother. But soon I will be. And soon, my son will be a father. I’d never looked at pregnancy through the eyes of the father before. During my own pregnancies, I focused on my experiences, and expected my husband to do so as well. I didn’t fully appreciate that he was having his own, often... read more

• Created on 2/4/10 by Peggy O'Mara

Peter Doshi, MA, a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and currently a Visiting Researcher with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tokyo, spoke at the National Vaccine Information Center conference on the difference between the childhood vaccine programs in the US and Japan. Japan, a country of 130 million people with low infant mortality and high life expectancy, has had a completely voluntary vaccination system since 1994. No system exists to check vaccine status in schools in Japan. Recommended vaccines are free and one must... read more

• Created on 10/30/09 by Peggy O'Mara

by Peggy O’Mara, Editor and Publisher While grocery shopping at our local food co-op last Saturday, I ran into an old friend. He told me that he’d been walking the aisles in a daze of fear, wondering how much hydrogen peroxide to stock up on for the coming pandemic. Our conversation seemed to calm him down, but later I wondered how many other 
parents were so terrified. In response to the recent hysteria about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, we have created a new online resource section, www.mothering.com/health/swine-flu. Swine flu, however, is just one of many... read more

• Created on 10/11/09 by Peggy O'Mara

For those of you who want to know more about the HPV vaccine, you may want to order the audio of the NVIC presentation, “Gardasil Vaccine: Informed Consent?” by Diane Harper, MD, MPH, MS. Harper has worked in all aspects of HPV associated diseases, specifically cervical cancer prevention. She is the leading international expert on HPV vaccines and has worked with both Merck and GSK to develop Gardasil and Cervarix. Before Harald zur Hausen identified HPV as the cause of cervical cancer in 1976, it was the most common cancer in the world, with a rate of 50 cases per... read more

• Created on 10/6/09 by Peggy O'Mara

George Annas, JD, MPH, delivered the opening keynote address of the 4th international NVIC conference, “False Choices and Worse Case Scenarios: How Taking Informed Consent Seriously Can Improve Public Health.” Annas is the Edward R. Utley Professor and chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights of Boston University School of Public Health and professor in the Boston University School of Medicine and School of Law. He is co-founder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational professional association of lawyers and physicians working together... read more

• Created on 10/3/09 by Peggy O'Mara

Well, the vaccine conference is over, at least for me. There is one last panel tonight on vaccines and political action, but it’s time for me to rest and to catch you up on this amazing event. I had originally intended to blog everyday, but the conference schedule has literally been non-stop and this is the first chance I’ve had to organize my thoughts. The conference presentations were uniformly excellent, the material diverse and far reaching and the attendees inspired and activated. There is no doubt in my mind that we have reached a critical mass. It is just a... read more

• Created on 9/30/09 by Peggy O'Mara

I’m in Reston, Virginia right now, here to attend the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination put on by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). The conference is being held from Thursday, October 1st through Sunday, October 4th, 2009. Monday, October 5th, is a group lobbying day on Capitol Hill. The day includes a congressional briefing on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and time for conference participants to visit their own state legislators to discuss vaccine safety issues. I always love visiting the DC area, probably because I’ve... read more

• Created on 8/31/09 by Peggy O'Mara

Issue 156 – September/October 2009 It’s safe to say that the No. 1 worry for most pregnant women is pain during labor. Secretly, you ask yourself, “Will I be able to handle it?” But it’s hard to know if you’ll be able to handle something you’ve never experienced before, especially when the cultural messages about birth in the US do not inspire confidence. It’s understandable that you might be afraid of the unknown, but your experience of pain in labor may be more within your control than you realize. The amount of pain you feel during labor is affected by your... read more