Births

As temp jobs go, Saroj Mehli has landed what she feels is a pretty sweet deal. It's a nine-month gig, no special skills needed, and the only real labor comes at the end -- when she gives birth. If everything goes according to plan, Mehli, 32, will deliver a healthy baby early next year. But rather than join her other three children, the newborn will be handed over to an American couple who are unable to bear a child on their own and are hiring Mehli to do it for them.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has apologized for any embarrassment he caused his state when he revived a widely discredited conspiracy theory about President Obama's birthplace by requesting verification that the president was born in Hawaii. The apology came on the same day that Hawaii officials finally responded to Bennett's request for “verification in lieu of” the birth certificate, which he said last week could be a precondition for placing Obama's name on the Arizona ballot.  “If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent,” Bennett said Tuesday in an interview with radio station KTAR.

Women who give birth after age 40 are nearly twice as likely to have a child with autism as those under 25, but it is unlikely that delayed parenthood plays a big role in the current autism epidemic, California researchers reported Monday. The findings were expected to draw widespread attention because of the intense public interest in autism, but their true impact was expected to be simply in suggesting further avenues of research. Surprisingly, the age of the father plays little role unless the mother is younger than 30 and the father is over 40, according to the analysis of all births in California in the 1990s.

The United States has reached a historic tipping point, with children born to Latino, Asian, African American and mixed-race parents now constituting a majority of all births, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The long-expected demographic shift is considered a milestone for the nation, though one that California passed three decades ago when births to racial and ethnic minorities surpassed those to white parents. The new report shows that minorities accounted for about 2 million, or 50.4%, of U.S. births in the 12 months ending July 1 of last year.

Her first baby wasn't due for four days, but Misa Hayashi was advised by her obstetrician during a routine exam to check into the hospital that day. "The doctor said the baby was too big for me to push out and we should go ahead and induce labor," says the Alhambra woman, 24. "I didn't really question it. Induction sounds so common. We went home and packed a bag and checked in at the hospital." Once there, however, Hayashi's plans for an uncomplicated birth faltered.

The United States has reached a historic tipping point, with children born to Latino, Asian, African American and mixed-race parents now constituting a majority of all births, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The long-expected demographic shift is considered a milestone for the nation, though one that California passed three decades ago when births to racial and ethnic minorities surpassed those to white parents. The new report shows that minorities accounted for about 2 million, or 50.4%, of U.S. births in the 12 months ending July 1 of last year.

An Ohio woman who gave birth to a baby boy after a fertility clinic implanted her with the wrong embryo is a "guardian angel," the boy's biological parents said Saturday. Paul and Shannon Morell of suburban Detroit said in a statement that they would be "eternally grateful" to Carolyn Savage, of Sylvania, Ohio, for her decision to give birth to their child despite the clinic's mistake. "We will be eternally grateful for his guardian angel, Carolyn Savage, and the support of the entire Savage family," the Morells said.

STARTING out life as a night owl could have serious consequences. New research shows that babies born at night are more likely to die during their first month than babies born during the day. Researchers are unsure why night births carry a greater risk, but they say that differences in hospital staffing could play a role. "The healthcare system needs to take a careful look at this," says William Benitz, a neonatologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, who was not involved in the research.

The couple had tried for six years to have a baby. Repeated medical tests showed no obvious cause for their infertility. Finally, they underwent in vitro fertilization and had a lovely baby boy. Then, 11 months later, they had a lovely baby girl. The boy's conception was the result of much planning and agonizing and $10,000 worth of medical treatment. His sister's birth followed a surprise conception that cost nothing. How did it happen?

Gov. Sarah Palin gave birth in Juneau to her fifth child, a boy, about a month before her due date. Trig Paxson Van Palin weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces. A statement from Palin's office said the 44-year-old governor and the baby were doing well and resting comfortably.

For couples seeking to overcome infertility by turning to assisted reproductive technology - which can be invasive and expensive - an increased risk of birth defects probably won't stand in their way. Still, a study released Saturday by the New England Journal of Medicine may give some prospective parents a little something to think about as they mull their options for fertility treatment. The study is based on data from more than 300,000 births in the state of South Australia (population 1.6 million)

Teen births have fallen to record lows in the United States, continuing an overall trend -- partly due to programs aimed at preventing pregnancies among teenagers, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday. The U.S. teen birth rate declined 9% from 2009 to 2010, reaching 34.3 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19, the CDC reported . From 1991 through 2010, the rate dropped by 44%. Teen child-bearing has been generally on a long-term decline in the United States since the late 1950s, but the United States continues to have one of the highest such rates among industrialized countries.

MILWAUKEE - The shape of a general election battle between Mitt Romney and President Obama came into sharper focus Sunday as Vice President Joe Biden led an administration assault on the potential Republican nominee. Biden took on Romney across a wide array of topics in a television interview, describing him as out of touch with the middle class and out of his depth on foreign affairs. And in a rare break from her retreat from partisan politics, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Romney's perspective on Russia "somewhat dated.

The Arizona state Senate has rejected a controversial bill that would have allowed employers to refuse to offer birth control coverage if it conflicted with their moral or religious beliefs. The proposal had become entangled in a rancorous national debate over women's healthcare and religious freedom. Under the bill, employers still would have been required to cover birth control used for purposes other than contraception, such as treating acne. Opponents said that would have required women who wanted birth control to tell their employers why, thereby violating their privacy, the Associated Press reported . Supporters of the bill maintained that women only would have to share such information with their insurers, but retooled the proposal before Wednesday's vote.

In 1957, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first birth-control pills, it wasn't for birth control. The contraceptives won approval as a treatment for severe menstrual disorders; temporary infertility was a side effect. Funny, women across the country suddenly started complaining in droves about severe menstrual disorders. As religiously-affiliated organizations, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, continue to complain about federal policies that would require that health insurance cover family planning (President Obama worked out a compromise deal under which the insurance companies would absorb the cost, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops still sees this as undue interference)

Horse racing has its own little March Madness thing going. No brackets. Just a baby. There is lead-up buzz for the April 7 Santa Anita Derby. Same thing for the March 31 Dubai Classic, and its $10-million purse. Of course, there is the biggest deal of all in the sport, the revered first-Saturday-in-May Kentucky Derby. But, arguably, none of those have rung the chimes of fans as much as the birth of Zenyatta's first baby a week ago. Little Zennie, a colt, arrived in Kentucky weighing 130 pounds and celebrated all over the country.

Hospital administrator Timothy Carda pointed to brightly colored architectural plans for a new obstetrics wing. "It's not the Ritz-Carlton. It's more like the Holiday Inn," admitted Carda, executive director of Western Medical Center-Anaheim. Still, when 14 homey, simply furnished labor-delivery-recovery rooms open in early 1992, it will be a major step for the hospital--and for Orange County.

Detroit health officials said last week that they are seeing a growing number of pregnant women, both poor and affluent, who are taking cocaine during labor to speed delivery. They said the practice, which is said to be spreading across the United States, endangers both the baby and the mother. "I think it would be more important to publicize the dangers rather than the benefits because it is so highly dangerous that I can see no benefits whatsoever," said Dr.

In 1984, Mario Cuomo pioneered the argument that one may be "personally opposed" to abortion while supporting abortion rights. Ever since, this convenient locution has become a staple for countless Democratic politicians, particularly Roman Catholic ones. Cuomo's argument was a mess. For instance, in order to buttress his argument he touted the (alleged) refusal of American Catholic bishops to forcefully denounce slavery. The bishops "weren't hypocrites; they were realists," Cuomo explained.

She feared the worst at first. What if she tripped? What if she fell? What if she ran head-on into a wall? Blind for 16 years, Maria Perez still struggled getting around in her Santa Clarita home. And then someone came along and dared her to take the stage as an actress, under the lights, under the gaze of an audience. VIDEO: Blind theater troupe "There's no way," she thought. "No way I can do it. " That was two years ago, when she first joined Theater by the Blind, a troupe of actors who put on a show despite their disability.