Latest news with #heartbeat
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Husband's Attempt at Humor During Ultrasound Backfires. Now He Is ‘Banned' from Speaking in Other Appointments
A husband decided to accompany his wife to her ultrasound appointment The pair were excited to hear their child's heartbeat for the first time However, the wife and doctor were not amused by the husband's joke after hearing the soundExpecting a child is one of life's most emotional and transformative experiences. For one Reddit user and his wife, both 31, the journey to parenthood took an unexpectedly awkward — yet humorous — turn during a routine ultrasound appointment. What began as a joyful, exciting day quickly became a moment of comic misfire that will likely be remembered for years to come. 'We went in for the 12-week scan. Everyone's in a good mood, the tech is sweet, and everything looks great,' the soon-to-be dad writes in the post, setting the stage for what was supposed to be a tender milestone in their pregnancy journey. But then came the moment that often brings tears to parents' eyes: the first sound of the baby's heartbeat. 'She puts the wand over my wife's belly, and the room goes quiet. Then: Lub dub. Lub dub,' he recalls. It was then, caught up in the emotion and the surreal quality of the moment, that the expectant father said what he thought would be a lighthearted comment to break the silence. "Without thinking, I blurt out, 'Sounds like a tiny rave in there,'' he recalls. Unfortunately, his attempt at humor didn't land. 'No one laughs. Not the tech. Not my wife,' he recounts. 'The tech just says flatly, 'It's a heart, not a party.' My wife, God bless her, gives me that 'please stop breathing for a second' look.' The silence that followed was deafening. What was meant to be a bonding moment through shared laughter turned into a lesson in timing — and the unwritten rules of ultrasound etiquette. Recognizing the situation, the dad decided to stay quiet for the rest of the appointment. Although no one found his comment funny at the moment, Reddit users flooded the comments in support of the poster. 'Ehhh they just don't have a sense of humor, that's pretty funny,' one person commented. 'Dad joking it up before you are officially a dad.' The fallout, however, didn't end at the clinic. Later that night, his wife sent him a text from another room. 'Tiny rave. Really?' she asked. The poster noted that he has since been 'permanently banned from speaking during future appointments." While the joke didn't garner any laughs, it did lead to an unofficial nickname for their future son. 'We're naming the baby Oliver,' he writes, 'but I know the real nickname will be DJ Heartbeat.' In the end, this expectant father learned a valuable — and slightly embarrassing — lesson: sometimes, the best thing to say during a poignant moment is nothing at all. Still, it's clear that his heart was in the right place, even if his timing was not. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Husband's Attempt at Humor During Ultrasound Backfires. Now He Is ‘Banned' from Speaking in Other Appointments
A husband decided to accompany his wife to her ultrasound appointment The pair were excited to hear their child's heartbeat for the first time However, the wife and doctor were not amused by the husband's joke after hearing the soundExpecting a child is one of life's most emotional and transformative experiences. For one Reddit user and his wife, both 31, the journey to parenthood took an unexpectedly awkward — yet humorous — turn during a routine ultrasound appointment. What began as a joyful, exciting day quickly became a moment of comic misfire that will likely be remembered for years to come. 'We went in for the 12-week scan. Everyone's in a good mood, the tech is sweet, and everything looks great,' the soon-to-be dad writes in the post, setting the stage for what was supposed to be a tender milestone in their pregnancy journey. But then came the moment that often brings tears to parents' eyes: the first sound of the baby's heartbeat. 'She puts the wand over my wife's belly, and the room goes quiet. Then: Lub dub. Lub dub,' he recalls. It was then, caught up in the emotion and the surreal quality of the moment, that the expectant father said what he thought would be a lighthearted comment to break the silence. "Without thinking, I blurt out, 'Sounds like a tiny rave in there,'' he recalls. Unfortunately, his attempt at humor didn't land. 'No one laughs. Not the tech. Not my wife,' he recounts. 'The tech just says flatly, 'It's a heart, not a party.' My wife, God bless her, gives me that 'please stop breathing for a second' look.' The silence that followed was deafening. What was meant to be a bonding moment through shared laughter turned into a lesson in timing — and the unwritten rules of ultrasound etiquette. Recognizing the situation, the dad decided to stay quiet for the rest of the appointment. Although no one found his comment funny at the moment, Reddit users flooded the comments in support of the poster. 'Ehhh they just don't have a sense of humor, that's pretty funny,' one person commented. 'Dad joking it up before you are officially a dad.' The fallout, however, didn't end at the clinic. Later that night, his wife sent him a text from another room. 'Tiny rave. Really?' she asked. The poster noted that he has since been 'permanently banned from speaking during future appointments." While the joke didn't garner any laughs, it did lead to an unofficial nickname for their future son. 'We're naming the baby Oliver,' he writes, 'but I know the real nickname will be DJ Heartbeat.' In the end, this expectant father learned a valuable — and slightly embarrassing — lesson: sometimes, the best thing to say during a poignant moment is nothing at all. Still, it's clear that his heart was in the right place, even if his timing was not. Read the original article on People
ABC News
19-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Baby of brain-dead mother Adriana Smith delivered in US state of Georgia
The baby of a brain-dead woman, forcibly kept alive by doctors concerned they might breach the state of Georgia's 'heartbeat' abortion laws has been delivered in the US. Weighing just 1lb 13oz, baby Chance was born via caesarean section on June 13, and swiftly taken to the neonatal intensive care unit where he remains. His mother, Adriana Smith, was then taken off life support. What started out as a story of a young mother experiencing headaches rapidly became international news and the latest example of the consequences of laws applied by US states in the wake of Roe V Wade protections being overturned. The 30-year-old mother and nurse, was about nine weeks into the pregnancy with her second child, when she begun to experience headaches. Her mother, April Newkirk, told local news outlets that she was denied a CT scan and returned home. She woke the next day gasping for air and making gurgling sounds. Her boyfriend called 911 and she was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with brain clots. She rapidly deteriorated and within hours, was declared brain dead. Smith's family were told by the hospital that she would need to be kept on life support to preserve her pregnancy until they could deliver the foetus due to Georgia law that applies "personhood" to any foetus whose heartbeat can be medically detected. Three months later, Ms Newkirk told local media seeing her daughter kept breathing with machines was like "torture". She said that the family visited her daughter regularly with her five-year-old son. Ms Newkirk told local news station 11Alive that the family wanted the baby but the choice should have been up to them, "not the state". This week also marked what would have been Adriana Smith's 31 birthday. Family and community members gathered at a church in Atlanta for a rally and celebration of her life where they cut a birthday cake for her and released white balloons. Prior to Chance's birth, there were major concerns for his health. Ms Newkirk told local news network WXIA that doctors told the family the foetus had fluid on his brain. She also shared concerns he would be born with vision loss or wouldn't be able to walk. The hospital, Emory Healthcare told the Associated Press it could not comment on an individual case because of privacy rules, but released a statement saying it, "uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualised treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws. Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve." Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a near-total abortion ban in the state, in 2019. The law, which also defines a "person" to include an "unborn child" was blocked before it took effect because it violated the right to abortion established by the US Supreme Court in its 1973 landmark Roe v Wade ruling. But when that law was overturned in 2022, it cleared the way for the state law to immediately take effect. The Georgia law bans most abortions once a 'detectable human heartbeat' is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realise they are pregnant. The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed. It also provides for later abortions when the mother's life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a foetus unviable. Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia's abortion law told the Associated Press in May the situation was problematic. "Her family deserved the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions," Ms Simpson said in a statement. "Instead, they have endured over 90 days of retraumatisation, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing." In May, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr released a statement saying that Georgia's six-week law does not require medical professionals to keep women alive on life support after being declared brain-dead. "Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy," Mr Carr's spokesperson, Kara Murray, said in the statement. Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist and lawyer at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said while a few states have laws that specifically limit removing treatment from a pregnant woman who is alive but incapacitated, or brain dead, Georgia isn't one of them. "Removing the woman's mechanical ventilation or other support would not constitute an abortion." "Continued treatment is not legally required." But Georgia state Senator Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 law, said he supported Emory's interpretation. "I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child," Mr Setzler said. "I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately." A similar case took place in Texas 10 years ago when a brain-dead woman was kept on life support for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge eventually ruled that the hospital was misapplying state law, and life support was removed. Georgia's abortion ban has been in the spotlight before. Last year, ProPublica reported that two Georgia women died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller entered into the presidential race, with Democrat Kamala Harris saying the deaths were the result of the abortion bans that went into effect in Georgia and elsewhere after Roe v Wade was overturned.
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
South Carolina Supreme Court decides heartbeat definition allows six-week abortion ban
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the state can keep banning abortions around six weeks after conception by agreeing with the earliest interpretation offered of when a heartbeat starts. The justices unanimously ruled that while the medical language in the 2023 law was vague, supporters and opponents of the law all seemed to think it banned abortions after six weeks until Planned Parenthood lost its challenge to the entire law two years ago. The law says abortions cannot be performed after an ultrasound can detect 'cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.' The state argued that is the moment when an ultrasound detects cardiac activity. Planned Parenthood said the words after the 'or' mean the ban should only start after the major parts of the heart come together and 'repetitive rhythmic contraction' begins, which is often around nine weeks. The justices acknowledged the medical imprecision of South Carolina's heartbeat provision, which is similar to language in the laws in several other states. But they said that drove them to study the intent of the General Assembly which left no doubt lawmakers on both sides of the issue saw it as a six-week ban. 'We could find not one instance during the entire 2023 legislative session in which anyone connected in any way to the General Assembly framed the Act as banning abortion after approximately nine weeks,' Associate Justice John Few wrote in the court's opinion. The justices said opponents of the law used six weeks when proposing amendments that were voted down on when child support payments should start. And the Supreme Court pointed out Planned Parenthood used the phrase 'six-week ban' more than 300 times in previous filings as South Carolina's 2021 ban at cardiac activity was overturned in a 3-2 decision in 2023 and then reinstated months later after the General Assembly tweaked the law and the court's only woman who overturned the ban had to retire because of her age. The ruling upholding the six-week ban mentioned the imprecision which led Planned Parenthood to sue again over the definitions. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or restrictions and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access. Currently, 12 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and South Carolina and three others have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy -- often before women realize they're pregnant. The fight over South Carolina's abortion law is not over. Earlier this month, a federal judge allowed to continue a lawsuit by five OB-GYN doctors who said the vague definitions of heartbeat and the exceptions allowing abortions when a fatal fetal anomaly exists or a woman's life is at risk prevents them from being able to properly treat patients because they fear they could be charged with crimes. South Carolina's law also allows abortions for up to 12 weeks after conception if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. But in a change from previous years, there was little debate in the General Assembly on tightening the law to ban nearly all abortions. Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said the state will continue to fight as long as the law is challenged. 'Today's ruling is another clear and decisive victory that will ensure the lives of countless unborn children remain protected and that South Carolina continues to lead the charge in defending the sanctity of life,' he said in a statement.
