<p>Helicoptermom - Isnt’ that the truth! When I was 18, I thought I had everything figured out. Every year, especially since kids, the less and less I feel I have a handle on! Everything is so black-and-white when you’re a teen, and you think you always know where that line is.</p>
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<p>Don’t forget the singing and dancing. A Bollywood movie must always have singing and dancing.</p>
<p>love the singing and dancing
Bride and Prejudice was the first “bollywood” movie Ive seen
OMG
Mr Kholi!</p>
<p>I will support abortion rights until:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>every baby, child and adolescent who is languishing in a foster home is adopted </p></li>
<li><p>birth control is available, covered by Medicaid (I cannot even begin to understand why Viagra is covered and birth control is not) and is available to people regardless of green card status.</p></li>
<li><p>habitual drug addicts are chemically sterilized until they are able to maintain recovery for two years</p></li>
<li><p>prenatal care is available to every woman</p></li>
<li><p>we find a way to prevent fetal hearts from malforming to the point they cannot be surgically corrected, and we can eliminate those genetic defects and neonatal infections that offer no hope for any quality of life </p></li>
<li><p>rape and any type of abuse - physical, sexual, emotional - are no longer a part of our vocabulary</p></li>
<li><p>families of medically fragile technology-dependent children are not forced into bankruptcy because they have maxed out on their insurance cap</p></li>
<li><p>every anti-abortion activist adopts at least one child who is a teenager, or child of color, or born addicted, or is medically fragile, or is severely developmentally delayed</p></li>
<li><p>women who are unable to parent their babies can drop them off at a hospital, church or police station with a guarantee there will be no reprisal of any kind, and that confidentiality will be maintained at all costs. (Safe Haven laws exist in some states, but not in all.)</p></li>
<li><p>all teenagers have such a close relationship with their families that they can admit to being sexually active, ask for birth control before they really needed it and admit to a pregnancy without fear of punishment (of course maybe then there would be no adolescent pregnancies . . . )</p></li>
<li><p>we develop a vaccine for HIV</p></li>
<li><p>really good daycare is available everywhere for working parents on a sliding scale, based on a family’s ability to pay.</p></li>
<li><p>women are screened carefully for post-partum depression and treated immediately.</p></li>
<li><p>parenting classes are mandatory for teenagers, recovering addicts, and other parents at high risk, and are available free of charge to anyo parent who feels they need it.</p></li>
<li><p>no child goes hungry, cold or without proper medical care</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I am a neonatal nurse practitioner, I love babies and do everything I can to take care of a baby once it is born. However, after 18 years of experience I can assure you that a baby who is born at 23 weeks gestation to a drug addicted mother suffers immensely in their short little life. Most of these babies die after many painful procedures to try to keep them alive. Of the survivors, most have them are significantly developmentally delayed, develop CP and have a host of complications secondary to their prematurity. Of the survivors who make it to discharge, the financial, physical and emotional burden of taking care of these babies often results in siblings becoming neglected, and marriages falling apart. Unfortunately until we resolve all of the above, not every conception is better off being born.</p>
<p>Well said, rachell.</p>
<p>Thanks ladyl!</p>
<p>Rachell
I appreciate what you experience as a neo-natal nurse, however, we do not live in a utopia nor will be ever here on Earth. I’ve heard many interviews from children conceived from rape, drug addicts and ones whose pregnant mothers were tested and were told they were brain damaged and should end the pregnancy. Their thankfulness that their parents didn’t abort them brings tears to ones eyes. That is life and imho there is only one God who gives life and He is the only one that has the right to take life away.</p>
<p>I agree that there are cases where moms have chosen to continue pregnancies that were a result of a rape, and see their baby as the only positive thing that came from a violent attack. I have also been as overjoyed as the parents when a poor prenatal diagnosis is proven wrong in the delivery room… However, these moms were given the opportunity to make a very personal decision, and it worked for them. Believe me, those are true miracles and are much less common than the other scenarios I listed earlier. You and I have different philosophies about the origin of life, and that is okay . . . My personal belief is that God did not condone the pregnancy of the developmentally delayed 11 year old I took care of a few months ago whose pregnancy was the result of a family member’s sexual abuse, who asked for a coloring book and crayons before her labor started and ended up having a C-section. Both children are now in foster care and have little chance of being permanently adopted. God did not plan for nurses to have to hide syringes we use to medicate the babies from drug-addicted parents who only come to visit their baby when they need needles. God does not want babies to have to go through withdrawal. God has no part in the dead-on-arrival to the ER baby who spent six months in our intensive care nursery being carefully coaxed into health, only to be discharged to a 22 year old mom with three other small children who just couldn’t cope and shook the baby because she wouldn’t stop crying. There are some babies for whom God weeps . . . </p>
<p>Just a note - I love my job and 95% of the babies I take care of go home to parents who love and adore them. I know we are not a utopian society, but we could certainly improve on the care of our children - the ones that are already here.</p>
<p>What a wonderful compassionate nurse you are - I can feel your pain through your words! Thank God there are nurses like you in the world!</p>
<p>That’s what I love about this forum - we can calmly agree to disagree about issues!</p>
<p>Me too! Thank you for your kind words . . . it is a blessing to be a nurse and I don’t regret a second I spend with babies and families. While there have been some very heartbreaking cases, there have been just as many times of joy . . . after this many years I still choke up at the miracle of birth and am constantly awed by the tenacity of our littlest patients. Neonatal intensive care is the perfect combination of high tech and high touch - and what job could be better than that :)</p>
<p>Rach</p>
<p>I don’t get how two humans, with the same parents and upbringing, can be SO different. Nature vs. nurture? Neither one would explain the children I have.</p>
<p>That is life and imho there is only one God who gives life and He is the only one that has the right to take life away.
so I assume you are against the death penalty?
and War?
Not to mention IVF</p>
<p>You don’t work at the UW do you?
Both my girls were in the NICU- very strange
8 years apart- one was term one was 10 weeks early but they both spent their first night on the same warming bed, with the same primary care nurse * and their BD’s are one day apart<a href=“you%20may%20have%20read%20about%20my%20oldest%20in%20med%20school-%20she%20tied%20her%20umbilicus%20into%20three%20true%20knots!%20what%20a%20wiggleworm%20that%20one%20was%20!”>/i</a></p>
<p>I haven’t worked at UW (?) - but I have worked at CHOP (Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia) CNMC (Childrens National Medical Center in D.C) I know work in a mid-sized community hospital in Virginia.</p>
<p>3 true knots - wow!! What a lucky little girl! My d is a NICU grad too - a preemie. I have found that it’s not uncommon for NICU nurses to root in and stay at one hospital for a long time . . . I think it’s because it’s intellectually challenging (babies can’t tell you what hurts), it’s never boring and you get to rock and feed babies and do intensive care with all kinds of cool gadgets - sometimes all in the same shift! :)</p>
<p>back to topic (and I do agree with Rachel and the others btw)</p>
<p>but my family is watching Phantom of the Opera, and while the movie is good, I don’t get OPERA</p>
<p>I don’t get No Child Left Behind</p>
<p>I don’t get smokers</p>
<p>I don’t get men’s ties- okay they look good, but when you think about their purpose…</p>
<p>I don’t get toupees</p>
<p>I don’t get really really long finger nails</p>
<p>I don’t get Anime</p>
<p>I don’t get No Child Left Behind, also
I don’t get why I forgot correct grammatical English
I don’t get why I procrastinate and why I can’t stop even though I really want to.<br>
I don’t get why people don’t get the South.
I don’t get organized religion.
I don’t get why people want to live in overcrowded cities.
I don’t get why people agree that public schools suck but don’t listen to teachers to find ways to fix them. Like politicians know what they are doing.
I don’t get the professional athlete thing either.
I don’t get why the country is so homophobic, anti-not accepted as “normal” and yet so christian.
I don’t get the use of the word normal, who defines normal.
I don’t get fundamentalists of any kind.
I don’t get my friend’s obsession with drinking and smoking. What a waste of money.
I don’t get a lot of things, apparently.
I don’t get our obsession with celebrities, tv, movies, etc.
I don’t why Britney Spears is considered music.
I don’t get certain people’s obsession with playing god because they hold office.
I don’t get why more isn’t done for underperforming schools
I don’t get this largely hypocritical country
I really don’t get fundamentalist Christians and why they can get away with certain things but let a liberal do the same thing and all hell breaks loose.</p>
<p>Actually it sounds to me like you do get it!!! Maybe it’s them and not you - lol!</p>
<p>I don’t get ketchup on steaks</p>
<p>I don’t get uggs</p>
<p>I don’t get Maury Povitch</p>
<p>I don’t get why people want to live in the boonies</p>
<p>I don’t get those little pick up trucks on those giant tires</p>
<p>I don’t get why cell phones are so expensive AFTER you have been using the same company for years- if you need to replace it, wow- no respect for long term customers</p>
<p>I don’t get why men look good older and grey with wrinkles and we women, well…</p>
<p>emeraldkity4
Why would I be against IVF when it is used to create life for people who would previously have been childless - it supports life!!! </p>
<p>As far was war goes - the Old Testament abounds with war!!! War is necessary to protect the innocents. To sit back and allow mad men to terrorize the world is insanity. I feel God supports war when we are terrorized by those who threaten our peace.
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace " (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). </p>
<p>Personally I don’t agree with the death penalty but like all the above, it is a big bone of contention with people.</p>
<p>I don’t get how this originally light-hearted thread went from Paris Hilton and Pokemon to fundamentalism and right-to-life issues. Can’t we ever declare a preaching-free zone?</p>