January 29, 2020
In HuffPost Birth Diaries we hear the extraordinary stories of the everyday miracle of birth. This week, Danielle Bodicoat shares her story. If you’d like to share yours, email amy.packham@huffpost.com.I’ve always had large babies, but my third was definitely the biggest of the lot. The older two had weighed 9lb 13oz and 8lb 6oz when they were born – and at the time, I read a lot of scare stories about birthing heavier babies. They were all quite negative, to be honest. But despite the few complications I had, I’d love women to know that it’s not always as bad as those fearful articles portray. 
Birth Diaries: My 11lb Baby Got Stuck In The Middle Of My Water Birth
I didn’t even measure big during the pregnancy with my third child. Ironically, my growth had actually slowed down on the charts, so I went in for a scan two weeks before my due date. That’s when I found out he was already measuring over nine pounds – the first indicator my son was going to be on the larger side. But I wasn’t surprised or concerned at that point. 
Knowing my baby was going to be big, I had a rountine appointment with the consultant. This is where you talk through the risks, one of which is shoulder dystocia, when the baby’s head has been born, but one of the shoulders gets stuck behind the pubic bone. The baby can stop getting oxygen very quickly and, if that happens, I was told, the room would fill up with people to get the baby out – even if that meant breaking a shoulder. I started to worry a bit.Related... Birth Diaries: ‘My Husband Died When I Was 6 Months Pregnant’ My son was 10 days late. I was at home taking my other two to bed around 7pm and as I walked up the stairs, I got what I thought was a contraction, but brushed it off – I’d had Braxton Hicks for weeks beforehand, so assumed it was that. They got strong really quickly, though, and I couldn’t ignore them. I’d had really quick births too, you see, so I knew that was a possibility. 
My partner and I rang my mum to look after the kids and as soon as she arrived, she told us to ring the hospital – my contractions were just two minutes apart.
It was 8pm when we got there. The midwife did an examination and went to read my notes, but I had to call her back in almost immediately as I was already feeling the beginnings of an urge to push. It was really painful – and in hindsight, I know why – but also because it was happening so quickly. Related... What Does Childbirth Really Feel Like? 9 Mums Tell It Like It Is My midwife was pretty old school. Very no-nonsense, quite strict with me and bossy, you could say. But I almost needed that to cut through the fog of what was happening (and she actually apologised after, for being so firm). 
I was just happy to be in the birthing unit I planned to be in, and got into the pool despite being told I’d have to deliver my son outside the water. I never had time to get out the water in the end. As I was labouring, I told my husband I needed to push – he had to quickly grab the midwife who was eating her sandwich outside. She came in as the head pushed out really easily. 
But then the shoulders got stuck. It was terrifying, everything the consultants had told me about, but it had never happened with the earlier births, which is why I thought I’d be okay. “I dunno if it helps, but he’s got black hair,” my husband said. Our first two are redheads. 
The midwife told him to hit the emergency button, and the room quickly filled with the resuscitation team. I was so glad I was warned about this – it kept me calm. “We need to get this baby out now,” the midwife kept telling me. But they couldn’t get me out the pool at this point. I was being held up and out as they tried to keep my son’s head out of the water – or he would have drowned.
My head was all over the place, and the midwife was getting firm. I didn’t think I had the energy left, but I was so scared of what would happen if I didn’t push him out – I really didn’t want intervention. I rested my elbows on the back of the pool and pushed down with everything I had. The shoulders eased. Behind me, the team were prepping everything for my son’s arrival. 
As soon as his shoulders slid out, the rest of him followed – but he was completely tangled up in his cord. It was really long, around his neck and his shoulders. It was horrible to see. He was blue, his eyes were shut, there was no sound. The whole room fell silent. 
The midwife cut the cord straight away and passed him to the resuscitation team. I remember hearing his cry, a long, loud, angry cry just a few minutes later and it was amazing to hear. I remember hearing the team talking about how big he was! Someone ran off to get the scales to weigh him, and even though I was in a fog I knew, as I heard them laughing, that everything was going to be okay.
I was lifted out the water on to the bed and had my first cuddle with him. It was comforting knowing that even though I had a big baby – he weighed in at 10lb 15oz in the end – and not everything went to plan, I still had the birth I wanted. My birth advice?Having a few mantras in my head really helped! One of the ones my mum told me, which really helped, was: “Every contraction is one step closer to meeting your baby”. She prepped me with a few!Follow Danielle’s blog, Snatched Words, where she shares tips, motivation and inspiration for working mums.Related... Birth Diaries: ‘My Husband Died When I Was 6 Months Pregnant’ What Does Childbirth Really Feel Like? 9 Mums Tell It Like It Is ‘I Felt A Warm Gush, Then Blood Hit The Wall’
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'Trump tax': MSNBC host Chris Hayes shows how Trump winning would increase costs
Mar 28, 2024
How much would former President Donald Trump's proposed 10 percent tariff plan actually cost the average American household?The wave of tariffs Trump enacted when he was last president caused chaos, but there are many complexities that muddy this somewhat. However, MSNBC's Chris Hayes took an educated and simple guess at just how badly the country would be hit in the pocketbook under Trump's second-term plans."We don't know exactly how much everything would cost," said Hayes, but "just add 10 percent on the back of the napkin. Here's the cost of living under the Trump Tax."ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills"Start with groceries," he said. "A dozen eggs cost about $3. Once you apply the Trump Tax, that is up to $3.30, with the U.S. importing over 4 million eggs a year, but cost consumers over $1.2 million. If you like oranges, they currently go for about $1.53 per pound. With the Trump Tax, that would be $1.68 per pound, which would cost American consumers almost $71 million for the nearly half a billion pounds of the import. Bananas. We don't really grow them in the U.S., do we? They average about $.63 per pound and going up to $.69 per pound with the Trump Tax, thanks to the U.S. importing more than 10 million pounds per year, that could cost Americans at $609 million and that's a $609 million tax on American consumers. Then there's tomatoes. They go for about $2.13 per pound. Apply the 10 percent Trump Tax. They would be $2.34 per pound, potentially costing Americans $3.5 million thanks to the 6.8 million pounds we import per year. If you are spending $1,200 on groceries, add another $120 to the bill. That's more than the peak of inflation in 2022, which topped off at 9 percent. This is 10 percent."Groceries are just the start, he continued."How about the refrigerator?" said Hayes. "You need to keep the groceries fresh. The average cost of a new fridge is about $1,300. With the Trump Tax, that could go up to $1,430, costing Americans $1.95 billion for the 15 million refrigerators that we import. Again, $1.95 billion of new taxes. What about the car that you need to drive to the grocery store? On average, a new car costs about $48,808 today. With Trump Tax, it costs $53,684, with Americans potentially taking a $66.3 billion hit across the board on the 13 million cars we import. That's not including the 50 percent tariff which would make it another $25,000. Even the smartphone in your pocket cost on average about $940 right now. With Trump Tax, it can go up to $1,034, with Americans potentially paying an extra $13.2 billion for the nearly 141 million smartphones that we import per year.""Everyone hates when you have to pay more for things," he added. "Inflation is one of the biggest liabilities for a sitting president. Yet here is Donald Trump, in the Year of our Lord 2024, running against President Biden, promising to make things more expensive for every American."Watch the video below or click here. Chris Hayes breaks down "Trump Tax" www.youtube.com
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Trump-endorsed candidate says Beyoncé is teaching women 'how to be hyper-sexual'
Mar 28, 2024
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson had yet another group of extremist comments unveiled — this time about legendary singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.According to The Root, "During a series of rants spanning multiple years, Robinson —who is Black —insulted Beyoncé’s singing abilities, called her a 'skank,' and said she was teaching 'young women how to be hyper-sexual w----s.'"For example, in 2017, Robinson posted to Facebook, “Person; Beyoncé is a role model!” Me; “The only person that butt shakin’, devil worshipping, skank is a role model to is people who want a fast track to Hell.” This is on top of previous reporting that he referred to her music as sounding like "Satanic chants."ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal billsThese revelations come at a moment when Beyoncé herself has found herself at the center of some national controversy, having written a country music inspired album known as Cowboy Carter, and some country radio stations refusing to play singles off of it because of her race.Robinson, who is challenging Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein for the governorship of North Carolina, has been put under the spotlight for a number of bizarre and offensive comments throughout the years.Among other things, he has referred to school shooting survivors as "prosti-tots," pushed QAnon and "lizard people" conspiracy theories, questioned the Holocaust, and suggested American politics was better in the era when women couldn't vote.
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'Some prosecutor should be looking into' Trump's latest legal defense scam: expert
Mar 28, 2024
Former President Donald Trump's sprawling network of ostensibly independent political groups raising money for him, much of it in service of paying legal expenses, seems to walk right up to the line of breaking the law, former prosecutor Kristy Greenberg told MSNBC's Alex Wagner — and may in fact cross it."Kristy, how is this legal?" asked Wagner. "How can he keep saying this one thing and doing another?""Well, I think the big question here will be looking behind all of this as to who is coordinating it," said Greenberg. "If Donald Trump is coordinating between his campaign and these PACs that are supposed to be third parties and independent — the Save America PAC is independent, even though he directs it, independent third-party — if there is sufficient coordination, you could prove that, then maybe you would have something to say these expenditures are not purely personal, these are really campaign contributions. And therefore they should be subject to the limits of $5,000 that campaign contributions are subject to."ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal billsWhat it looks like, Greenberg went on, is that Trump and his allies are "just trying to do an end-run around these various regulations, and it seems so transparent.""[Special counsel] Jack Smith ... had served some subpoenas in connection with that nonexistent, as it turns out, election defense fund," Greenberg said. "He served some subpoenas and then he withdrew them and it was unclear why, because that seemed like such a clear-cut fraud. I questioned why that happened. Perhaps it was optics. Perhaps he thought like he had such strong cases, the January 6 case and the national security case, that he didn't want to seem as though he was trying to drain Trump of the ability to legally defend against those cases. Hard to say. But I questioned it at that time because that seemed like such a clear wire fraud case that it seemed like it should be looked into, but maybe they just had limited resources and didn't like the optics of it.""But I agree with you, this raises a lot of questions," she added. "Someone, somewhere, even if not the special counsel's office, because they are pretty busy — some prosecutors should be looking into this."Watch the video below or at the link. Kristy Greenberg on the legality of Trump's PACs www.youtube.com
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