The political site Daily Kos outlines the conspiracy theory (presented with a timeline, photos and video) that Sarah Palin's youngest child, Trig, is actually her daughter Bristol's baby.

Palin's camp came out swinging, but their defense today came as something of a surprise: Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin is not four-month-old Trig's mother, because Bristol is five months pregnant now.

Some couples will do anything to make sure they have a boy or a girl, including, these days, plunking down thousands of dollars for fertility treatments like IVF even if they're fertile.

According to the well-researched article "Pick a Sex, Any Sex," couples are opting for procedures like MicroSort to ensure that their odds of getting the baby they want will be better than 50-50.

It's increasingly popular, but it's still controversial.

"Should a child's gender be selected like a brand of flour off the grocery store shelf?" asked one mom.

Here's a story we just wrote for TIME about homebirth, which as you'll recall from June's 'My Homebirth Was a Felony' conversation is super controversial. An excerpt:

Obstetricians in the U.S. are concerned about the recent push by direct-entry midwives to receive licenses so they can practice their craft without fear of prosecution. This summer, Missouri reversed its 25-year ban on non-nurse midwives. Twenty states have similar legislation they are either introducing or planning.

It's a really intense time for people on both sides of the issue: the doctors who are afraid the rate of death during childbirth will rise with a rise in homebirth and the midwives who are afraid their work will be further regulated or even criminalized. Read the full story here.

While seventeen teenage girls in the same Massachusetts high school are awaiting the birth of their babies, everyone wants to know whether or not they made a "pregnancy pact" to conceive within the same year. There were allegations indicating that the girls planned on having, and raising their children together. Even the Mayor of Gloucester got involved with the investigation to put an end to the rumors.

During a press conference today, Mayor Carolyn Kirk stated she is "not able to confirm the existence of the pact." She continues to say, " Any planned oath to become pregnant - there is no evidence."

Who cares whether or not there was a pact? That is the most unimportant element of the story. Those girls are all under 16 years of age, and are already expecting children. There is a significant issue here that has received very little attention.

Gloucester High School reportedly had to cut back on health education spending to meet federally mandated standards such as No Child Left Behind. With little emphasis on sex education, and no contraceptives readily available, it's no surprise that the school, located in a conservative fishing town, has had trouble controlling teen pregnancies for years.

In addition, the nature of the high school simply caters to the needs of pregnant teens. For instance, there is a childcare center provided in Gloucester High for young mothers who wish to complete their high school education. This can be seen as good or bad depending on ones perspective. On one side, it's great that young mothers are given the opportunity to finish school. On the other side, it sends out a message that conceiving a child while in high school is acceptable, and will be supported by the school itself.

It would be foolish to completely blame the high school for the teen pregnancies, although Gloucester High still has some fault. Hollywood definitely could have played a role in this case. For instance, actress Jamie Lynn Spears mentioned she was pregnant at the age of 16, and just delivered her daughter Maddie Brian. News of Spears' pregnancy led to a little criticism, but mostly a lot of positive attention.

"Juno" was entertaining and well written movie about a teenage girl who got pregnant by a first-time sexual encounter. In fact, I will be the first to admit it was my favorite movie of the year. However, I hate to say that it did send out a bad message to young girls who are easily influenced by the media. While some people are able to differentiate reality from a fictional movie, some young people simply are not. It's a sad fact that movies like Juno have to receive flack because of those who can't think straight. But that's just the world we live in.

Hollywood romanticizes pregnancy. Ashley Simpson is back in the media after she announced that she's pregnant, and Paris Hilton keeps talking about how she can't wait to have babies with her boyfriend Benji Madden. But if schools have actual programs to sit young girls down and tell them the truth about how difficult it is to raise children, and how easy it is to prevent unexpected pregnancies, I think it can counter Hollywood pregnancy romanticism. Education is power in every single aspect of life. These girls just need to be aware and educated, and Gloucester High somehow missed the memo.

The American Medical Association recently issued a controversial position essentially opposing home birth:

"That our AMA support state legislation that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging of the concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital . . ."

Women's Health News has a good analysis of the statement and on what it might mean for the regulation of birth, which is done on a state-by-state basis.

Madeline Holler has an amazing article up now on Babble.com about her illegal Missouri home birth (of an 11-pound girl!), which her midwife could have been charged with a felony for attending.

Seventeen girls are pregnant at Gloucester High School, and many of them got that way on purpose, Time magazine reports in a new, read-it-to-believe-it article.

The Time story says the school nurse was deluged with girls asking for pregnancy tests, and that: on hearing the results, "some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," [Principal] Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

There's a list up on Babble called "45 Reasons to Have a Baby. Right. Now." Here are the first couple of the forty-five arguments in favor of immediate procreation:

1. Splitting It 50-50
Maybe your dad never changed a diaper, but when you become a parent, you'll be expected to share the load equally. Which, in the end, works out best for everyone.

This may just be the most incredible birth story of the year. A California teenager named Xochitl Parra concealed her pregnancy from everyone for nine months, gave birth alone in her parents' bathroom, then took the baby (still attached by the umbilical cord!) and jogged over to the hospital to get post-natal care.

According to the Press-Telegram, the director of the hospital's NICU said: "This is a heartwarming story, especially when a teenager does the right thing. We hear so much negative with teenagers throwing their babies in the dumpsters. This baby is fine and hopefully there will be a happy ending with the extended family."

The article claims that the story does indeed have a happy ending: mother and baby are fine, and the girl's parents didn't kick them out of the house. In fact, grandma's going to help take care of the baby so Xochitl can finish high school.

For real. A man named Thomas Beatie is going to have a baby. And no, not in some Gloria Steinem alternate reality.

Beatie, Popular Fidelity reports, was born a woman, but had gender reassignment surgery. His wife couldn't get pregnant, but he still could. So now the child's father will be the one to give birth.

And now a word from Thomas:

The New York Post has an article about how a lot of striking writers appear to be using their time off to get pregnant:

"Like the New York Blackout of 1977, which produced a little baby boom nine months later, the writers' strike of 2007-08 has inspired a bumper crop of Hollywood pregnancies. Some of the expectant stars are even married."

We've been wondering if that applies also to TV watchers. In 2001, the Indian government encouraged couples to watch TV instead of having sex.

So, is the writers' strike going to have the opposite effect, producing an American baby boom in fall '08?

We just ran an article on Babble this week called "The Six Biggest Pregnancy Myths: In defense of sushi, cheese, hair dye - and common sense." It immediately, inevitably got a gazillion comments about fetal alcohol syndrome.

But the author of the story, L.J. Williamson, isn't saying pregnant women should go out and become raging alcoholics or eat cat litter. She's just saying the anxiety about what pregnant women eat and drink has gone too far. She writes:

As I was preparing to leave the hospital after the birth of my son, a nurse sat me down and solemnly told me that it was very important, while breastfeeding, to "avoid all spicy foods like Mexican or Indian." I imagined a sari-clad wife cradling a newborn and looking on sadly as her Mexican husband cleared their refrigerator of tikka masala, pork vindaloo, and chorizo sausage, restocking it with a twelve-month supply of Swanson's Hungry Man Meatloaf Dinners.

Yes, little Jamie Lynn, star of the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101, is three months pregnant by her high school boyfriend.

OK! magazine, who had the story first, asked what Jamie Lynn thought of premarital sex. She said, "I definitely don't think it's something you should do; it's better to wait. But I can't be judgmental because it's a position I put myself in."

To us, that exemplifies the schizophrenic ideas we have in America about teen sex: all these abstinence advocates keep saying it's wrong and should be avoided at all costs, even as teens continue to act as teens always have.

Focusing on how bad it is rather than on how to be more responsible and practical about it just seems like a recipe for disaster . . . or rather, a recipe for the Spears family.

We can usually feign authority about most parenting-related things, because we have a great pediatrician and we do everything he says. But sometimes we run across a new-parent custom that has us totally baffled. Such a phenomenon is "push presents," or the giving of gifts to a new mother in the hospital by the father as a reward for the agony of labor. This New York Times article last week reported:

Push presents seem to have taken off within the last decade, particularly in the last couple of years. In 2005 the Southeast-based jewelry chain Mayors marketed diamond earrings with the tag line, "She delivered your first born; now give her twins." [Ed note: blecch.]

Kim Brooks has a story up now on Babble about how the number of options available to women for their "birth plans" and the increased pressure to have a perfect pregnancy and ideal labor.

She writes: It quickly became clear to me that pregnancy was no longer simply a physiological state; it was a state of mind as well. When I mentioned to a pregnant friend that I wasn't giving up soft cheese, that my doctor had said it was fine as long as it was pasteurized, she looked at me as if I'd just taken a crack pipe out of my pocket . Read more here.

According to a story we ran on Babble.com earlier this week by Jean Railla called "Fatherless Brooklyn," the number of middle-class single women having babies alone is on the rise:

In 2004, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, 36% of babies in the United States were born to unwed mothers. In cities like New York, the number is close to 50%. A significant percentage of these single moms were not stereotypical disadvantaged teenagers (for whom child-raising would be a deep financial burden) or high-powered executives (who could easily absorb child-care and other costs), but rather typical middle-class working women. This new breed of single moms make their decision to have children neither as a grand political statement nor as a last resort, but because they don't want to miss out on the emotional experience of giving birth and raising children.