Pregnancy-related news round-up

Due to the events of week 26 of being pregnant, I’ve had lots of time with only the internet for company, which has been a perfect chance to do lots of reading. Like the large amount of pregnant celebs at the moment, it also seems there’s a wealth of topical baby-related stories in the news – not sure if I’m just noticing these things because I’m pregnant though?

Here’s a round-up of a couple of articles I read that caught my eye:

• For the first time women may soon be given the right to an elective c-section, not just in the case of mitigating medical reasons. There’s some interesting perspectives on this story including one on Being a Mummy
• Women are able to subliminally control when they give birth, avoiding Halloween due to the traditional superstitions associated with the date, according to topical research from Yale scientists. I’m hoping this means I’ll be able to avoid giving birth at Christmas, me or my husband’s birthdays, or any time there’s snow in January
• It seems that stress can even have an effect on your baby’s gender. Apparently stressed women are more likely to give birth to girls (but when it’s 50 / 50 anyway, who knows?)
• Is there a right age to have a baby? Official 2010 statistics state that the average age to have a first baby is up to 29.5, and that almost half of all babies are born to women in their thirties. Parentdish suggest here that the reason for this is that people are choosing to delay motherhood and give birth later on due to lifestyle choices, careers / buying houses etc.
• And finally – the world’s 7 billionth baby has been born (possibly…)