When a newly pregnant 27-year-old in Staffordshire, UK, called to report a dangerous driver, she never expected to be reported to social services for being an unfit mother.

But a few days after speaking to a policewoman in her doorway about a driver who almost ran her over, Mary Cooke received a letter from the county council’s children’s services informing her that her unborn child may be referred for services.

Why? Because of peeling wallpaper, stripped floors and unfinished paint jobs in the house.
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In a picture of Stacey Herald and her three-year-old, the three-year-old is almost the same height.  And now the world’s shortest mum is expecting another child.

It will be her third.

I hesitated writing about this because people flock to these stories to poke fun. But I can’t help but write about it for the pure beauty of the story. She was told she could never have kids, and now she’s on pregnancy number three? That’s what they call miracles.

Herald, who is thirty-five and married to a man of “normal” height (he’s five foot nine), is two feet four because of Osteogenesis Imperfecta. UK tabloid, The Sun reports doctors told her a baby growing in her womb would crush her organs, making it impossible for her to carry a child. But she went ahead with it anyway. And now the girls are reportedly bigger than Herald (although the Sun’s picture makes three-year-old Kateri look slightly shorter than her mum).

The family will soon add a boy to their Kentucky home.

Image: Fox News (Stacey after birth of one of her daughters)

I grew up reading Mad Magazine, and one of the regular features was things “we’d like to see.” For example, “Honest Advertising Campaign Slogans We’d Like To See.” You get the idea.

In honour of the new book “Dirt is Good for You: True Stories of Surviving Parenthood” which features some of Babble’s Bad Parent essays, here are some Bad Parent Essays We’d Like To See.

Note: as far as I know, I made these up. If anyone has done these things, or know someone who has, let us know. Check ‘em out after the jump Read more »

Sharks aren’t known for being friendly, even to their own kind.  But in a weird turn of events, a shark at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World in New Zealand saved a fellow shark’s babies by giving her an impromtu “c-section.”

Onlookers went running for help when they noticed the babies swimming out from the wound in the mama shark’s belly. There were four in all, and they were quickly rescued by the aquarium’s staff, who didn’t know the shark was pregnant. Had she given birth naturally (typically at night), the babies would probably have been eaten before anyone knew they were born.

Though the attack itself isn’t uncommon, the fact that babies and mother were unharmed is. Aquarist Fiona Davies told NZHerald.com, “It had to bite a certain part to let them out and do it without killing them [the babies] or her [the mother].”

The babies will be released into the wild, and the mother is apparently recovering from her natural c-section by shark. Suddenly, giving birth with a one-sided epidural doesn’t seem so brutal after all.

Big Bird’s been around for 40 years, but there’s still plenty to learn about our giant feathered friend.  For instance, did you know he’s actually a Giant Golden Condor? I didn’t.

Over at the New York Times, Big Bird tells all in Q & A session with some of his biggest fans.  Here are the highlights:

For a long time, everyone thought that Snuffy was Big Bird’s imaginary friend, but creators became concerned that they were modelling the idea that adults don’t believe things that children tell them. So an episode was written to “introduce” Big Bird’s very real friend to the rest of the neighbourhood.

Big Bird is controlled by the exact same system that Jim Henson set up 40 years ago.  There have been no upgrades in technology inside the bird costume itself, though Caroll Spinney says he “has replaced the batteries.”

Sesame Street’s “Old School” DVDs showing episodes from the early seasons are actually labelled as “not for young children” because they feature kids riding bikes without helmets and riding in cars without seat belts.
Big Bird’s favourite book is the Audobon Book of Birds.

For more on what the big guy has to say, see the full interview.

Discomfort is one of the necessary hallmarks of pregnancy.  When you’ve got a tiny human jutting out from the middle of your body, things just aren’t going to feel right. And that includes seat belts.

Fitting a seat belt over a baby bump is tricky, but a British entrepreneur thinks he’s got the answer. Stephen Weston has invented a pregnancy safety harness for pregnant drivers that eliminates the lap belt and would spread the force of impact across the shoulders and upper body instead.  Take a look after the jump Read more »

To most of us, it’s common sense. But it took a court to tell Rachael Hill she couldn’t smoke around her kid. And an appeals court just upheld their ruling.

Hill only has visitation rights to see her daughter. Victoria Anderson lives with her paternal great-grandparents, while her divorced parents visit. It was great-grandma who complained that the girl returned from visits reeking of cigarette smoke. She won the right to keep Victoria smoke-free late last year.

So mum appealed – on her right to smoke.

And an Ohio appeals court has decided her right to smoke is superseded by her kid’s right to breathe.

And that applies even though Victoria has no condition at the moment from her mum’s smoking – the point, the court has affirmed, is to prevent her from developing a condition from exposure to secondhand smoke. Read more »

Unlike a lot of people who deal with infertility, I had a diagnosis and an expectation that things would go not so well long before I was remotely interested in having kids. I was diagnosed with PCOS at age 23 and my wonderful primary care doctor was fairly nonchalant about the fact that when I did want to get pregnant, a little Clomid would do the trick.

It didn’t. But at least I was able to tell my now-husband that getting pregnant might not be so easy once things started getting serious, so neither of us were especially surprised when things didn’t go so well. Many of my friends who also faced down infertility said they envied me in I was able to tell my partner long before we were formally committed and let him decide if he was up for the challenges we might face. Read more »

Kids cry all the time. I think my son cried this weekend when I screwed up and didn’t call him by his recently chosen name “Grand Master Batman Flash” (I think I called him “Grand Master Batman Fletch“). There might be no mode that comes more naturally to children than crying.

But for two-year-old Tianna McHugh, who lives in Wales, crying is not an option. When Tianna cries her body seizes and stiffens, her skin turns white, her heart stops beating and she stops breathing. Read more »

The blogosphere is all atwitter with commentary on what is, hands down, the weirdest cough drop ad ever. I’m not sure I’m as fired up as the American Decency Association, which believes that the ad is promoting the “legitimisation of elderly ones with younger ones,” but I certainly agree that this commercial is “perverse.”

The 30-second ad features a mother helping her son move into his dorm room. When his nerdy roommate offers her a “surprisingly mouth-watering” Hall’s Refresh Cough Drop, sexual tension flies in a manner that is not only “surprising,” but also a bit nauseating:. Read more amazing stuff Read more »