Aug
07
2011

IVF Envy Over Provincial Funding

It's Not Who You Know, It's Where You Live

IVF Envy Over Provincial Funding

Carly Weiner has a bone to pick with the Ontario government. Although she was born in Quebec, when she moved to Ontario several years ago, little did she know it would hit her so hard in the pocket. Or that it might even cost her a family. You could say that Weiner is suffering from IVF envy.

"I just wish Ontario could offer the same support as Quebec," says Weiner.

One year ago this week, Quebec became the only province in Canada to fully fund up to three rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Already 4,000 free rounds have been performed, resulting in an estimated 900 pregnancies.

Sadly for Weiner, who had to fork over $25,000 of her own cash, she had no such assistance and has yet to fall pregnant. In Ontario, each round of IVF costs around $10,000.

Although Ontario had planned to pass similar legislation to its eastern neighbour -- with Premier Dalton McGuinty previously vowing to help couples struggling to conceive -- the province has so far failed to put its money where its mouth is.

The impetus behind the funding stems from the fact that so many twins and triplets are born out of private IVF treatments in which more than a single embryo being implanted in order to increase the odds of conception. Multiple pregnancies often lead to premature deliveries and extra neonatal care, all of which burdens the health care system.

While it's clearly unfair that only the wealthy should be able to undergo IVF treatment (which suggests that starting a family is somehow a privilege of the elite few), critics question whether it might make more sense to simply regulate the transfer of embryos performed at private clinics.

For now, though, Weiner, and countless women just like her, are no closer to realizing her dream of having a child. Which begs the question: should IVF be funded in Ontario, too? Or should vital health care funding go towards tackling conditions such as obesity and cancer?

Aug
07
2011

10-Year-old in Sexy Vogue Photo Shoot

French Magazine Not en Vogue

10-Year-old in Sexy Vogue Photo Shoot

You have to wonder what Vogue was thinking.  In its recent photo shoot for Enfants magazine, 10-year-old Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau is tarted up in heels and jewellry. Pouting suggestively, the daughter of a famous French actress and soccer star, lay on a leopard-print bed wearing a distinctly come-hither look.

Although mom, Veronika Loubry, defends the shoot ("My daughter isn't even naked, no need to blow this out of proportion"), it's clear that our portrayal of girls is changing, and not for the better. Little girl beauty pageants are rampant in the southern States. On this side of the border, we don't do our tweens any favours either, sexualizing them with padded bras and the like, often before the onset of puberty.

Even though Thylane may well remain blissfully unaware of the sexual signals she's sending out, viewers of the magazine certainly won't. As Heather Mallick recently wrote in the Star, such photo shoots make it "socially acceptable for the gaze to take in girls, too, to assess them for the sexuality slapped on them by grown-ups".

While I wouldn't go as far as to suggest that the Enfants photo shoot is a "harbinger of bad things" for Thylane, it most definitely isn't something of which we as parents and consumers ought to be proud.

Women have long been valued -- and, arguably, victimized -- by how they look. That being the case, why would we want to speed up this process for our daughters?

Shouldn't we do all in our power to defer the (inevitable) sexualization of our children for as long as possible? We do this by boycotting such magazines and by telling the editors what we like, and don't like, seeing on their pages.

Little girls are undeniably beautiful. But as Vogue seems to have overlooked, that beauty stems in the main from their innocence.

Another yummy mummy weighs in here:  I Don't Want To Look 13

"
Aug
04
2011

RECALL: Bugaboo Car Seat Adapter and Wheeled Board

Components Recalled Due to Fall Hazard

RECALL: Bugaboo Car Seat Adapter and Wheeled Board

Bugaboo has recalled the car seat adapter and wheeled board components sold separately as part of the Bugaboo Cameleon Stroller Frame:

- 80401GC02
- 80400GC01
- 85500WB01

When in a vertical position, the wheeled board can disconnect from the car seat, which can pose a fall hazard to infants and toddlers.

Bugaboo North America has reported one incident involving an infant who sustained cuts and bruises.

Consumers are advised to contact Bugaboo for a Warning Label Kit giving instructions on how to correctly use the Travel System.

For more information, Bugaboo North America can be contacted at 1-800-460-2922 toll free between 9AM and 5PM CT Monday through Friday or via email or by visiting the company's website.

Between December 2005 and July 2011, 3,509 of the adapters for car seats were sold in Canada. 3,433 of the wheeled boards were sold between October 2009 and July 2011.
 

"