One article--and one set of research--would have us think so. Perhaps this story is more the sort that would fall under "Pregnancy Fact or Fiction," as breastfeeding in general is a REALLY hot topic, but let's investigate the findings.

To be honest, before we get started, I'd like to point out that this story feels very familiar. That's probably because it is. We never seem to stop talking about breastfeeding--those for it, those against it, etc.--I guess that discussion is a good thing. Way back when no one ever talked about breasts or using them for anything other than filling out a bullet bra.

In this most recent study, 14,000 babies were studied by an international research team. Their findings suggested that breastfeeding makes babies smarter, especially when not mixed with formula. The way the process worked was a little unsettling to me, though: half the mothers were strongly encouraged to breastfeed and the other half were given no encouragement.

As someone who was a recent new mom myself, I can't say that a lack of encouragement would be especially helpful. I guess I wouldn't want the medical staff breathing down my neck about it either, but it would seem especially unfair to a new mom to not encourage her to give breastfeeding a chance. I was able to breastfeed, but I was also given a ton of support and encouragement from everyone from my family to the OBGYNs and nurses to our ParentDish readers. Not everyone gets that kind of support.

What really upset me about the article are some of the other assertions made by the researchers, namely that mothers who breastfeed are "different" because they are smarter and more invested in their children. Say WHAT? So, someone who chooses to not breastfeed or can't breastfeed given the circumstances is not as invested in her child? I disagree. Completely.

Actually, it's my former neighborhood. Apparently--and please pardon me, as there may be just a teensy little bit of bile forming in the back of my throat (and it's NOT morning sickness)--the creator of Melrose Place are considering another such type show set in, gag, Park Slope. For those of you unfamiliar with the Slope, it's in Brooklyn, New York. The people who live there think it's the bomb--the epitome of making it in, well, at least Brooklyn if not New York.

People move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, specifically, to have their babies and clog the sidewalks with their OBNOXIOUS (note, I didn't use the word annoying--it's not annoying; it is, in fact, OBNOXIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!) double-wide strollers and brag to each other and anyone else endlessly about how wonderful they are from all their righteousness and do-gooding. None of which is mixed with an ounce of altruism.

And I used to be one of them. Well, sort of. I fled to Windsor Terrace (sort of like the older cousin of the Slope whose been around the block and knows better) long before I thought about babies--my own, anyway. See, you can't live in the Slope without at least one kid. They'll scorn you otherwise. Seriously. And regardless of cost, they must have the best of everything--you will be snubbed for a simple Maclaren umbrella style stroller like the one I have when you could have shelled out $800 for whatever Euro design is hot this week. I'm basically considered a bad parent by these people because I don't have one. But mine folds up. Easily. With one hand.

High school girls in Brisbane, Australia recently created an elite group they called "Club 21." The girls ranked themselves and each other based on weight, appearance, and popularity with boys -- the higher the number, the higher the ranking -- and then wrote their number on their wrists. One student wrote, "Ugly girls need not apply."

When the club was discovered, parents and local media were outraged. The club made the front page of many local papers. The school principal, however, is now defending his students, saying they've been devastated by the negative attention. He's asking everyone involved to remember that these are teenagers, vulnerable young people who make mistakes.

I was surprised when I found his view refreshing. As a former sensitive girl who is now a mother to two sensitive girls, I'm concerned about the high school years ahead. The "mean girl" culture scares me; I worry that my girls will be a target of it or that, maybe worse, they'll be a part of it. While I think the behavior of these girls is unacceptable and needs to be dealt with, I have to agree that the harsh media criticism their getting is likely more damaging than it is helpful.

Carme Chacon is 37 years old and an expectant mom who is seven months pregnant. She's also the defense minister of Spain, which has put her in a difficult position. While Spain has a mandated 16-week maternity leave (paid maternity leave...lets hear a collective groan from our American sisters), some are saying that she shouldn't be allowed the time off, due to the important nature of her job. Others are calling that point of view sexist, saying that if a man in the position fell ill, there'd be no question.

While it's hard for us in the States to relate (six weeks unpaid leave is hard enough to pull off), it is easy to understand the crossroads where motherhood and career meet. As women, motherhood forces us to make choices about the direction our lives are taking. Will we step aside from our careers -- careers we worked hard for in our youth -- to raise our children, or will we try to strike a balance between work and home?

MSNBC has an interesting article about the different viewpoints surrounding this issue. Take a minute to check it out, then come back and share your thoughts with us.

In India, boy babies are preferable to girls due in part to their ability to grow up and become family breadwinners. Not only do Indian girls not bring home the bacon, parents must pay large dowries in order to marry them off. For that reason, the United Nations says that about 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.

This baby girl in the eastern state of Bihar was lucky enough to survive her mother's pregnancy, but just barely. Officials say the newborn child was discovered buried in a mound of mud and likely would have died had it not been for three stray dogs. "The dogs removed the soil around and began to bark and the baby started crying which drew attention of the local villagers," Ram Narayan Sahani, a senior government official, said.

Police assume the baby's mother left her there to die and are still searching for her. As for the baby girl, it looks like she is going to be just fine. With people trekking to this remote village to see the miracle child who was saved by dogs, she's become a bit of a celebrity. But the best news is that a local couple with no children of their own have adopted her.

This weekend, I rented the Oscar-nominated film, Juno. It's easy to see why this little film generated such buzz. It's funny, smart, and heartwarming. It also brings up the perpetually relevant topic of teens, sex, unplanned pregnancy and the ever-contentious issue of "choice". As a mom, these are issues of great interest to me. As someone who has personally dealt with an unplanned pregnancy prior to marriage, it is also a subject dear to my heart.

After watching Juno, I came across an opinion piece in the Boston Globe about the film by Ellen Goodman, a well-known feminist writer. Goodman is critical of Juno and a "wave of movies about unexpectedly pregnant women - 'Knocked Up', 'Waitress', and 'Bella' - all deciding to have their babies and all wrapped up in nice, neat bows". She expresses deep concern for the row of tweens sitting in front of her in the movie theater while she watches Juno. What misleading messages, she asks, are "being absorbed through their PG-13 pores"?

Goodman is certainly not alone in her thinking. Many adults, pundits and parents alike, expressed outrage at the recent announcement of 16 year-old television star, Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy. In a society that offers abstinence as an "option" for teens and follows up with information about "safe sex", the parental fury over Jamie Lynn is presumably about her carelessness and ultimately, her decision to keep her baby - not her sexually active status. And understandably, no one wants to see a teenage girl go through the stigma of pregnancy, the pain of giving up a child, or the hardships of raising a child when one is seemingly ill prepared.

When I first learned that I was pregnant, I was 27 and in the middle of a series of on-air live auditions for a seat on ABC's "The View". I knew that the producers were seeking a single 20-something and that my untimely pregnancy would likely cost me the job, no matter how well I performed. Moreover, the auditions (11 in total) were going to continue for several months due to the immense ratings boost they were providing the network; it would be nearly impossible to disguise my condition through the process. I made the difficult decision to publicly announce my pregnancy (on the show). Sean and I got married in a small ceremony a month and a half later in Arizona.

I was in a committed relationship, but I was not engaged when I learned of my pregnancy. Sean was still in law school and I was on the verge of launching a television-hosting career on the hottest daytime talk show. Professionally speaking, the timing couldn't have been worse. Plus, I was deeply aware of the embarrassment and disappointment this would cause my devout Catholic parents.

Of course, there are difficulties that one must endure in making any tough choice. Witness Juno waddling through the school hallway, missing out on prom, and enduring the stares of peers, the judgmental look of a school secretary and the insensitive comment of an ultra sound technician during one of her prenatal visits. Her wit, good humor, and steely exterior did little to dissipate the pain I felt for her during those scenes - a testament to the fine acting skills of this film's rising star.

I was not a teen, but I could certainly relate to the feelings of despair that drove Juno into the "Women Now" clinic. However, what Juno (and the women in the other movies) learn, is that life's problems always look their worst when they first present themselves. In those moments we are very susceptible to underestimating our own strength and the willingness and ability of others to help us through. But it is precisely when we are gripped by fear and self-doubt that courage counts most. The films and heroines that Ellen Goodman dismisses as "fantasy" all celebrate this little life secret, crumpled bow and all.

As I have come to learn for myself, an unplanned pregnancy and child often results in unplanned and unexpected joy - and not just for the mother. What Goodman and others, fail to grasp is that in order for that to happen, one must have faith, hope, and the unsullied optimism of a teenage girl to believe in such things.

If you walk through the children's section of a book store, it's pretty easy to find literature for kids on all sorts of life- changing topics. Things like such as divorce, moving, starting school, adding a baby to the family, and going to the hospital, for instance.

But after a plastic surgeon noted children getting upset seeing their post-surgery mothers bruised and bandaged, he realized people were not telling their kids since Daddy got a young,new secretary they needed new boobs there was not a children's book that prepared kids of plastic surgery patients so he wrote My Beautiful Mommy.

In My Beautiful Mommy the mother character explains to her daughter that she's going to a doctor to get a "prettier nose" and get her aged, stretched body to fit into clothes better. Of course, there's a happy ending! Mom didn't die on the operating table and once her beak was shaved down and her pregnancy flab removed she's able to smile happily in the spotlight baring her midriff top and squeezed into a pair of low rise pants.

I wonder what effect this sort of book will have on young girls' body image and sense of self esteem? Will the sequel end up being If You REALLY Loved Me, You'd Buy Me a New Nose and Boobs for the Prom?

Can you imagine opening the glossy pages of a high fashion magazine and NOT seeing stick thin models? This is may be made reality in France.

The French parliament's lower house has recently adopted a landmark bill that would make it illegal for anyone to promote or "publicly incite" extreme thinness. Remarkably, this legislation won unanimous support from the ruling conservative UMP party and was approved in a series of votes by the National Assembly. It goes to the Senate in the next few weeks, and if passed, it would affect affect the way fashion magazines, Web sites, advertisers and other media portray thinness.

French couture are of course opposed to the idea of legal boundaries on beauty standards--but just think how a ban on the portrayal of extreme thinness might positively affect the way women and young girls see themselves.

Of course, it seems like fashion models have almost been replaced in the U.S. by the Hollywood elite. It is more likely for an actress to grace the covers of Vogue or Elle than for a model. And I imagine were a similar ban to be put in place here, the American appetite for Hollywood gossip would blur the lines between promoting thinness and portraying a lifestyle that places an extremely high value on thinness.

But I'll be watching the outcome of this with interest. In my small high school, probably one in three girls (or more) had an eating disorder of some sort, and two were memorably hospitalized. Now I teach first graders and I am constantly listening to little girls talk about their weight. "I'm thin," they say proudly, as if they were declaring that thin equals smart or creative or talented. And it kind of makes my heart ache.

It seems to be all the rage these days: talk of teens, and tweens, and their primping. When is it too soon? When is it too much? I remember getting my ears pierced at a relatively young age--I think I was in the second grade--but makeup? Well, even though my mother and grandmother generously indulged in that, I wasn't allowed until I was much, much older.

These days, as you can tell just by walking down the street, watching Nickelodeon--Miley Cyrus, anyone?--or hitting the local mall or salon, beauty is not just for adults anymore. And primping isn't just about beauty anymore, either--it's about pampering. I don't know when pampering ourselves became such a pursuit, but it is, at least with many of the women--and their daughters--I know.

A recent article in the New York Times probes this phenomenon. Girls want to be like their moms and the women they know. They want to go to salons, too. They want to get highlights and whatever else done to their hair as well as having their toes painted and their colors done. One girl's mother interviewed for the article commented that her daughter works hard and gets good grades. Her mother contends, because of that, she deserves a trip to the salon--to get her hair highlighted, to be pampered.

Though my kids seemed to love Horton Hears a Who, I left sputtering quietly under my breath. If you haven't seen it, I don't think this is a spoiler, but be warned anyway: The Mayor of Whoville has 96 daughters and one son, which...ok, fine. But things slide downhill from there. The Mayor wants his son to follow in his footsteps, but the boy doesn't want to. Much hand-wringing ensues.

My first question, only a few minutes into the film was, maybe one of your 96 daughters would like to be mayor instead. But no, that apparently isn't even a consideration. And at the end, the boy saves the day while the girls all stand around and watch. This is not a lesson I want my girls to be learning.

I thought maybe I was overreacting. But then I read this piece on NPR and said to my computer screen, "Yes. Exactly." In a much more eloquent way, Peter Segal put into words exactly what I was feeling. It's too bad Hollywood doesn't realize that half of their customers are girls, and many of them are tired of standing back watching the boys have all the fun.

They say that any press is good press, and that seems to be true for the makers of the now notorious Miss Bimbo, an online game geared toward 'tweens and teens.

The site made headlines last week, and parents across the 'net stood up in protest. Miss Bimbo is a virtual doll, one whose interests lie in things like boys, plastic surgery, hot clothing, and under-eating.

But should we all be worried? Maybe only if your daughter actually plays the game, which according to MSNBC, isn't necessarily likely. Instead, it seems that many of Miss Bimbo's fans are in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond. And they are hoppin' mad that all of this press crashed their favorite online game. With all of the attention the game has gotten over the past week or so, the web site has been unavailable.

This doesn't comfort me a whole lot. Though the game may indeed be ironic, the under 12 set aren't necessarily at an age where grasping irony comes easily.

Like most mothers who have nursed, I have, occasionally, wondered what reconstructive surgery would do for my cleavage. However, I can honestly say that I never had those thoughts when I was a teenager. Back then, teens didn't get plastic surgery as birthday or graduation gifts. Besides, my parents would have never given me the permission I presume a 17 year-old would need to have breast augmentation surgery. And for that, I am grateful.

Reading this article is just so sad. This young girl had everything to live for. She was both an accomplished gymnast and a straight 'A' student who was looking forward to entering a pre-med program after graduation this summer. On top of that, she was beautiful and loved by many. What a senseless death!

Unfortunately, all of our daughters are at risk of being seduced by this rampant cult of beauty, body and perfection. And it's not just teens and tweens that are being targeted. Just check out the latest website craze for 9 to 16 year olds, called "Miss Bimbo",, a virtual fashion game in which girls play (and pay) to help their "bimbo" lose weight, get plastic surgery, or meet a wealthy man. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it's true AND popular. According to this article, the site has already attracted more than 1.4 million members in France and 200,000 in England.

Thankfully, outrage is spreading and parents are beginning to speak out against this website. However, the website creators (all men, go figure) stand by their "product".

In a world where Bratz dolls dressed like sexy street-walkers are considered appropriate toys for little girls and plastic surgery passes for television entertainment, should we really be all that surprised that girls are getting mixed and dangerous messages about their self-worth?

Channel surfing yesterday, I caught a couple minutes of "spring break" on MTV. Apparently, pole dancing has become a spring-break activity since my own co-ed party days at Arizona State University. It's only a small step from the MTV dance stage to a debut on a "girls gone wild" video that will forever haunt these college grads.

My heart goes out to the family of the young teen who died in this operation. And while I do not condone her parent's decision to let her go under the knife, I have to admit that in the toxic environment our girls swim in everyday, it is becoming increasingly difficult for even good parents to convince their daughters that there is more to them than their bodies and that the quest to be "hot" is not worth dying for.

Note: I have changed the title of this post to reflect a more accurate description of the surgery. Hopefully, the following statement will help clarity the intent of the post and my position on the subject.

Hi Everyone! It's me, Rachel. You are all right that the title of
the post is misleading, and for that I apologize.

While the comments regarding women being responsible for their
decisions are true, we are not talking about a "woman", we're talking
about a teen. The point of my post is that our culture/media are
sending a disturbing message to young, vulnerable girls that physical
perfection is a means for achieving "self-esteem" and "acceptance" and
our girls are hearing this message loud and clear. Unfortunately,
this message is sometimes reenforced by good and well-intentioned
parents.

Yes, this was a rare reaction to anesthesia; and yes, she could have
died some time in the future in the dental office, as some have
mentioned. Nonetheless, she died this past week, at the tender age
of 17, in an elective surgery to improve the appearance of her
breast.

Re-reading my post, I can see how my message was lost. And if many of
you say that it was too harsh, I will certainly take that into
consideration in future posts. However, I stand by the intent of
the post which is to say that our daughters deserve to be told by the
adults in their lives that self-esteem and self-worth are not found
in the exterior. They are discovered through achievement, something
this young lady sadly had in spades.

Thanks for all your posts. Me and the column are better for it!

I am very excited to introduce my new weekly column, "View from the Home Front." I'm the host of AOL Living and a married, at-home mom of four children, with a fifth on the way. I am passionate about motherhood and forever grateful to be able to spend so much of my time in the company of my "entourage." One of my favorite sayings is: "We don't remember days. We remember moments." My days are filled with these little moments and I am better for them.

At the same time, I am hardly oblivious to the down sides. It is hard work -- physically and emotionally -- and being brutally honest about the sacrifices and challenges of motherhood is as important as being open to the 'moments." My column and blog is a place for all mothers to share their joys, struggles and wisdom.

Despite an appalling lack of validation from the world (something I desperately want to change!), I am convinced that there is nothing more fulfilling than being a mom and for those who choose the at-home route, there has never been a better time.

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to parenting, and viewpoints on everything from breastfeeding to circumcision to daycare can spark fierce, sometimes vicious debate. One thing that every parent agrees on: children cost an awful lot of money.

Between childcare, food, diapers, clothes, toys and education, kids cost a lot of money. I estimate that I spend nearly half of every paycheck on my two and a half year old son, and though I make sure to file away some money in an investment portfolio, I know it's not nearly enough. I know I need to be doing more, somehow, even though it feels like I don't have a whole lot to spare. A lot of millionaires start off with a few pennies, right? So I started investigating ways that I could scrape together two pennies to create a dime, a buck, hopefully more.

Have you heard of the Millionaire Mommy next door? She and her family are what she calls "closet millionaires" - living in a nice but unassuming home. She and her husband stay at home with their young daughter, having attained financial independence by the age of 40. Wow.

I have yet to rifle through her whole blog, but this entry alone, about how to effectively converse about money with your partner, is worth a visit. And now I'm off to go read her baby steps to independent wealth. Though retirement seems far, far away and my son seems so young, I am beginning to understand how fast the years will pass. I think getting a better grip on best money management practices is an important investment in itself.

Finally!--I've found a part-time job to help rake in some extra cash for when baby number two shows up and demands diapers! I'm pregnant, and I could do ballet--who knew?

A British artistic director thinks that pregnant women are far from the hulking masses we feel like we are most of the time. Rather, she finds we are often "serene." Liv Lorent is looking for twelve pregnant women to dance alongside six professional ballet dancers in a show titled "MaEternal." Liv is pregnant herself, so I guess she has some experience with the lumbering (or not) part.

Liv is known for using regular people from all walks (or lumbers) of life in tandem with professional dancers for her productions. That sounds truly fascinating to me. Liv also commented on the joy pregnant women have and how that kind of joy can't be found among anyone else. It's an emotion she wants to share with the world, I guess.

So, are you pregnant and interested in ballet? Doing it, not watching it. If so, you should give Liv a ring! Just make sure you're at least 32 weeks along. I am merely 9 weeks in and I feel like a house. Does that count???