5 Celebrity Moms Who Opted for Normal Delivery

       Gisele Bundchen is literally a spokesperson for natural birth. Both, her children were born at home with the                                                                                 help of a midwife.

  Jessica Alba practised yoga breathing techniques as she gave birth to her baby girl naturally. We think it's her                                    dedication to pre-natal yoga that helped her ease through her delivery. 

     Miranda had a beautiful boy with ex-beau, Orlando Bloom in 2011. Yet another supermodel to take the                                                                                     natural birth route. 

  Kate Middleton and Prince William welcomed their little Prince, George, last July. Reportedly, Middleton had an                                                                   almost no-fuss natural birth.

     Demi Moore gave birth to her three daughters with Bruce Willis at home. Yes, all three were natural births.

Sex positions that women love

1. The cowgirl: Let her take charge in this girl-on-top position. It lets her be on top of things while you enjoy the ride, making it a win-win position. Another advantage is that when the woman is in control, she can decide how she wants to reach orgasm.

Tip: For a sureshot clitoral orgasm, ask your woman to lean forward while arching her back and leaning on her hands. Instead of going up and down, she can move laterally so that you hit the right spots and stimulate her in the sensitive areas. Show her some love by sitting up straight and hugging her.

2. Countertop sitting: You've had a brilliant Valentine's Day cookout and can't wait to go to the bedroom get at each other. Make good use of the kitchen counter by lifting her up onto it. Ask her to take on the spread eagle position with you facing her. This position provides maximum G-Spot stimulation and arouses both partners. Since you are taking the lovemaking out of the bedroom, it's also quite spontaneous. However, it's a tricky one since guys tend to ejaculate prematurely.

3. Missionary position: Predictable though it is, the missionary (man on top) position is a classic hit with women since it's pleasurable and also harbours closeness. It allows you to kiss, touch and gaze into each other's eyes while your body gets the loving treatment.

Tip: The slant of your entry makes all the difference. Swivel your hips for a happy twist.

4. Sideways: Sideways positions — spooning and side by side —are good news for men who suffer from premature ejaculation since there are fewer chances of losing an erection. Although it limits the movement of both partners, it gives leeway for more snogging. You can caress your woman and the constant contact with your body will soothe her while you whisper sweet nothings into her ear.

Flatten your bloated tummy

The first step to flattening your jelly belly is to figure out its type. Here's how you can get a midriff makeover

For most women, the biggest body hang-up is often their stomach. But before throwing yourself into a heap of sit-ups and crunches, figure out your belly type as there's no one-size-fits-all solution to getting wasboard abs.

Tummy type one: Bloated tummy
If you wake up with a flat stomach but go to bed with a swollen one, you're probably suffering from bloating. This is caused by sluggish bowels, a poor diet, food intolerance or eating too quickly (you end up swallowing too much air). The solution is to make a note of what bothers your tummy and avoid this for a few days to see if it leaves you looking any flatter. Keep your bowels healthy, eat plenty of fibre-rich foods (wholemeal bread, pasta, fruits, and vegetables), chew thoroughly and drink around two litres of water a day to aid digestion. Instead of stuffing your face thrice a day, eat three mediumsized meals with healthy snacks in between.

Tummy type two: Stress tummy
Too much stress can also give you a fat stomach. Higher stress levels mean a lot of cortisol, which dumps fat all over your stomach. To slim down, you need to calm down. A stress tummy is easy to identify - women who have them tend to have slim arms and legs but a little swollen tummy. Besides cortisol, stress causes you to make the wrong food choices and thereby making you fat. Sugar and heavily processed foods up your body's stress levels. Put calming, wholesome foods into your body instead, such as lean protein (turkey, chicken, fish) and lots of vegetables for more energy and better health.

Tummy type three: Post-baby tummy
If you've had a baby in the last few years, your tummy probably isn't your favourite body part. However, help is at hand. The most effective post-baby exercise is working your pelvic floor muscles, which are the ones you'd use if you wanted to stop yourself from peeing midflow. Clench them for a few seconds and release, then repeat. Do them every day if you can.

To encourage fat burning and improving your energy levels, take fish oil supplements.

Good fats have the same effect, so include plenty of nuts, oils, olives, oily fish such as mackerel in your daily diet.

For questions specific to your health conditions, please write down in the comments section and we will answer it as soon as possible. Thanks

Breastfeeding boosts IQ in babies: Study

WASHINGTON: Children who are breastfed score higher on IQ tests and perform better in school, scientists say.

A new study by sociologists at Brigham Young University pinpoints two parenting skills as the real source of this cognitive boost: Responding to children's emotional cues and reading to children starting at 9 months of age.

Breastfeeding mothers tend to do both of those things, said lead study author Ben Gibbs.

"It's really the parenting that makes the difference," said Gibbs.

"Breastfeeding matters in others ways, but this actually gives us a better mechanism and can shape our confidence about interventions that promote school readiness," said Gibbs.

According to the analysis, improvements in sensitivity to emotional cues and time reading to children could yield 2-3 months' worth of brain development by age 4 (as measured by math and reading readiness assessments).

"Because these are four-year-olds, a month or two represents a non-trivial chunk of time," Gibbs said.

"And if a child is on the edge of needing special education, even a small boost across some eligibility line could shape a child's educational trajectory," said Gibbs.

Researchers utilised a national data set that followed 7,500 mothers and their children from birth to five years of age.

The data set is rich with information on the home environment, including how early and how often parents read to their kids.

Additionally, each of the mothers in the study also participated in video-taped activities with their children.

As the child tried to complete a challenging task, the mother's supportiveness and sensitivity to their child's emotional cues were measured.

Sandra Jacobson of Wayne State University School of Medicine noted that children in the study who were breastfed for 6 months or longer performed the best on reading assessments because they also "experienced the most optimal parenting practices.

"Gibbs and Forste found that reading to an infant every day as early as age 9 months and sensitivity to the child's cues during social interactions, rather than breastfeeding per se, were significant predictors of reading readiness at age 4 years," said Jacobson.

Sausages made with baby poo are completely normal and super healthy, scientists say

Researchers say they have discovered way to ferment sausages that could turn the fatty meat product into a health food similar to probiotic yogurts. The secret ingredient? A type of bacteria found in baby faeces.

Although this may sound like either the stupidest or the most disgusting thing you've heard scientist get up to in recent years, the research - published in the February issue of the journal Meat Science (yes, that's also a real thing) - is actually a fascinating insight into the common usages of bacteria in the food instury.

Bacterial fermentation is already a big part in making sausages and many varieties (including favourites such as pepperoni and salami) owe their rich and tangy flavour to bacteria, which even create lactic acids that stops the development of germs in the meat.

However, while traditional manufacturing techniques mostly rely on the bacteria that occur naturally in raw meat, researchers in Spain have been experimenting with adding probiotic bacteria instead. The reason for the sensationalist headlines? They've been collecting their samples from human faeces.

Now, to go over the why's and wherefore's of probiotic bacteria a little, the term is one that's applied generally micro-organisms that are believed to provide various health benefits. Ever since the invention of the microscope, scientists have known that the human body is full of various bacteria - a primitive form of life typically just a few micrometres in length.

However, in the beginning of the 20th century scentists began to suspect that the bacteria that lives in the human gut (typically around 100 trillion bacterial cells) might actually be helping us out, breaking down the foodstuffs that our stomach acid can't handle and tackling the nastier germs we might accidentally ingest.

In recent decades this has led to many theories that adding probiotics to food products will help with a number of ailments - anything from gastrointestinal disorders such as constipation to allergic reactions. Although the science surrounding this is still not entirely conclusive, this doesn't stop researchers finding new ways to add the human-friendly bacteria to our food.

With this particular batch of sasuges the probiotic bacteria used (specifically Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium) was sourced from 43 stool samples from healthy babies up to six months old.

This may sound like a bizarre step to take but it is in fact a standard (if not common) method for isolating probiotics. For example, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, a commercial strain found in a variety of yoghurts and 'daily dose' drinks, was first isolated from human faeces in 1983.

And why faeces? Because, if you're on the hunt for naturally-occurring bacteria that have been busy helping the body, looking in the material that has recently passed through the body of a healthy individual is a good place to start.

Speaking to LiveScience about the research, co-author Anna Jofre, a food microbiologist at Catalonia's Institute of Food and Agricultural Research's (IRTA) food-safety program, added that "infant faeces are natural samples, easy to obtain."

After isolating the bacteria from their samples (this process involves letting the bacteria develop in a petri dish - it's not simply plucked from the faeces and dropped into the sausage), the researchers created six batches of fuet - a Catalonian pork sausage that's similar to chorizo minus the paprika.

Of the six strains of bacteria they used only one successfully took up home in the fermenting sausages, with the strain growing to levels of "100 million cells per gram of sausage", enough - says Jofre - to "produce health-promoting effects to people".

The sausages were all sampled by professional tasters who confirmed that the flavour was indistinguishable from that of regular fuet - even though they all contained less salt and less fat. You may not like the idea of sausages made in this way, but bacteria found in faeces is probably already a part of your diet - so don't complain when it makes your sausages healthier too.

One reason it’s good to be ugly

Latest research has found that being ugly makes you more memorable than attractive people. 

In this superficial day and age, people with imperfect features get a raw deal. However, you have one reason to rejoice if you belong to the tribe - people recognise and remember you more easily. At least that's what German scientists claim, if new research is to be believed. Researchers from the University of Jena in Germany found that images of unattractive people were more memorable compared to pretty faces. Unless they had noticeable traits like Angelina Jolie's pillow-shaped lips or Colin Farrell's bushy eyebrows, beautiful faces are more easily forgotten. So, if you are considered ugly you also have the advantage of being an easily recognisable face. 

According to Dr Holger Wiese, who conducted the study along with Carolin Altmann and Stefan Schweinberger, we tend to think that we recognise a face just because it's attractive. However, this belief is far from the truth. The researchers showed subjects photos of a group of people, half of whom were considered beautiful while the other half was unattractive. They showed the test subjects these faces for a few seconds and asked them to try to memorise the pictures. They showed the snaps to them again and asked whether they recognised them. 

The results surprisingly shattered the old myth of never forgetting a pretty face. Profiles of people considered ugly got many more affirmatives; further proof comes from EEG recordings from the study that show the brain's electrical activity. As for attractive faces, there were a notable number of false positives. This means, people think they recognise a pretty face without having seen it before since we like to look at a beautiful mug.

10 essentials to have before a baby’s birth

Advice for expecting moms on the must-haves to stack up on before the newborn arrives

You've read books on what to expect when you're pregnant from cover to cover, and have decorated the baby room with flourish. But have you made a list of the most essential items you'll need when the baby comes home? Read through this list of the absolute must-haves.

1. Crib
Find a crib with a mattress and crib sheets that are fitted. Look for one that is comfortable and secure enough to hold a bonny baby.

2. Bouncy seat
A bouncy seat is required since you won't be able to put your baby in her crib every time you go over to the kitchen to cook, or the bathroom to the do laundry. Find a simple and regular sized model for the newborn. Bouncy seats are mobile so you can even bring one into the bathroom while taking a shower.

3. Formula
Irrespective of whether you are breastfeeding or bottle-feeding your baby, keep a few cans of milk-based formula handy in the kitchen cabinet for emergencies - like delays getting home from an errand. Before you stock up, though, make sure the brand suits your newborn.

4. Feeding bottles
You don't need many if you are nursing the infant yourself. Otherwise, you will need about 10 bottles a day. This number sounds bloated since you could consider washing and reusing the bottles. However, having a few extras will save you the time taken to wash them frequently. Pick full-size bottles since the baby will grow out of tiny ones pretty soon.

5. Diapers
Decide whether you want to use disposable diapers or cloth. With cloth, have a set of 24 in the beginning. As for disposable diapers, get a pack of newborn size and two packs of size one.

6. New car seat
This one's for car owners, of course. Put the baby car seat at the top of your priority list since hospital staff is usually not allowed to let you drive out without one.

7. Digital thermometer
Since babies can't mouth their unease, it is important to be able to take your newborn's temperature. If you infant's fever gets serious, it could spell trouble. Get a basic digital thermometer that you can use rectally.

8. Breast pump
Using a breast pump to fill bottles takes the pressure off you so your husband - or parents - can feed the child when you are busy. If you are nursing the child, have one ready when you get home from the hospital.

9. Diaper rash cream
Diaper rash is a common problem with most newborns. If you don't have enough time to go to the supermarket, use petroleum jelly.

10. Maxi-pads
This one's for new mothers. Pick up two packages of ultra-absorbent maxi-pads for the post-delivery period. The locia discharge slows down in two or three weeks, so get a box of panty liners too.