That’s the question asked by a free new booklet from the March of Dimes that helps women and their partners plan for pregnancy and the many lifestyle changes that a baby can bring. Janis Biermann , senior vice president, Education and Health Promotion, for the March of Dimes. The material includes facts on the importance of taking folic acid daily, eating a healthy diet, choosing a health care provider, and preparing a reasonable budget. The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. read more

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Nikki, a 15-year-old Indian rhinoceros at the zoo, is pregnant, the result of the world’s first successful artificial insemination procedure in an endangered rhino species. Her pregnancy at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is also the world’s first in any rhino using frozen and thawed semen. Monica Stoops, reproductive physiologist at the zoo’s Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW), supervises the project. She and her colleagues had to invent tools to collect the semen, then develop a technique for freezing and thawing, then invent more tools and techniques for intra- uterine implantation. The semen samples Stoops collected from 2002 to 2005 were kept at 323 degrees below zero in the Frozen Zoo and Garden in the CREW building. read more

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Calendar | E-cards | E-N Columnists | Family/Teens | Fashion | Fiesta | Food/Recipes | Home/Garden | Great Day S. Experts say from 4 percent to 8 percent of pregnant women are physically hurt by their partners — that’s 160,000 to 320,000 women a year. A Centers for Disease Control study found that pregnant and post-partum women are also at higher risk for homicide if they’re young or black. Higher numbers for black mothers — who have a maternal homicide rate seven times that of white women — might relate to unemployment of black men and the frustration they experience because of it, she says. Men who kill their pregnant partners tend to be "psychopaths," observes Pat Brown of the Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency in Minneapolis — self-absorbed narcissists who can feel neither empathy nor compassion. read more

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