Laura Novak
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Sarah Palin: A Second Opinion

4/28/2011

 
Picture
My son, post-op, at 3 months in his "first bedroom". Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

This is my second interview with a pediatric specialist. In this case, the doctor is a neonatologist. That is a pediatrician who does an extra 3-year post-residency fellowship in order to specialize in the intensive care of newborns. Neonatologists care for newborns that are hospitalized due to complications of prematurity as well as full term babies needing critical care, such as those born with serious birth defects needing surgery, such as my son. 


On delivering babies early:
Some percentage of babies born at any age will have problems. The more premature a baby is, the more likely the problems. The most common problem is respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). This is a condition where the lungs lack a chemical called surfactant. Near term babies (35+ weeks) with RDS can be some of the sickest babies we take care of. Many of these babies will need to go on a mechanical respirator and some of them will need extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which is very similar to heart/lung bypass. Most hospitals don’t have the capability to take care of these patients. A typical community hospital has a level 1 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which probably does not even have a respirator for a baby and/or the people qualified to operate it.

Inducing a 44-year-old multipara woman carrying a 35-week Down syndrome fetus:
In order to justify an induction at 35 weeks, there has to be a significant risk to the mother’s or baby’s health. Down’s syndrome in itself is not such a reason. There are tests to evaluate lung maturity. They require an amniocentesis, which carries its own risks and are far from 100% accurate.

Sarah Palin states she began leaking amniotic fluid in Dallas 24 hours before she delivered and flew for 8 of those:
Aside from the mess associated with leaking amniotic fluid (was she wearing an adult diaper to catch the fluid? There can be a lot of it), medically, it makes no sense. The longer that the membranes are ruptured, the higher the risk of infection to the mother and fetus. The risk rises more rapidly after 24 hours and mothers ruptured that long should be monitored in a hospital and probably should be given IV antibiotics. Any doctor who tells her patient with ruptured membranes that it’s ok to travel for 10 hours better have good malpractice insurance. Once the membranes rupture, the onset of labor can happen at any time. A woman who has had several children will often have a shorter labor and can deliver shortly after labor begins. This is variable, of course, but who would want to take this risk?

What would happen to a baby born on an airplane:
If a baby was born on an airplane, the odds that someone knows what to do are fairly small and the equipment to handle a delivery will certainly not be available. Most doctors who aren’t in OB/Gyn or Pediatrics haven’t been to a delivery since medical school. They would probably do fine if the mother and baby had no real problems, but in the case of premature baby, possibly infected, possibly with a heart defect and known to have Down’s syndrome, many things could go wrong. At best, the plane would have to make an emergency landing and the mother/baby taken to the nearest hospital.

Delivering in small hospital without NICU:
For a full term baby with no known problems, this is fine because most babies and mothers do well. The equipment and personnel to resuscitate a baby would be there and the baby could be stabilized and transported to hospital with a higher level of care. However, when there are known problems with the baby, it makes no sense to take unnecessary risks that the baby will need immediate intervention that cannot be provided in community hospital.

Delivery of a Ds baby by a Family Practitioner:
This, I have no problem with. A family practitioner (FP) who routinely does deliveries can handle this, as long as there is an OB/GYN back up in case a C-section is needed. Keep in mind that an FP could also help with the resuscitation of a sick baby, but that would divert him/her from the care of the mother and someone’s care would be compromised. Often, there is a pediatrician on call, but they may not be immediately available and would likely get there after the baby had already delivered. Again, this is fine for most cases, but when there are known issues with the baby, it makes no sense.

Down syndrome heart defects :
About half of babies with Down’s syndrome will have a heart defect. Many of these do not cause immediate problems, but will usually need surgical correction in the first year of life and need to be watched closely in the hospital before discharge to determine the timing of follow-up. Of course, this is not true of all heart defects and some will need immediate intervention from a cardiologist and pediatric cardiac surgeon. Not all congenital heart defects can be detected on prenatal ultrasound and it is recommended that all babies with Down’s syndrome have an early evaluation by a pediatric cardiologist. While this can be done in some community hospitals, it isn’t always easy.

There is another condition that occurs more often in babies with Down’s syndrome called persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN). This cannot be predicted prenatally and can be very serious. In this condition, the blood vessels in the baby’s lungs are constricted and very little blood flows through the lungs. This means that the baby has a hard time getting oxygen into their blood even if they are breathing normally. The usual treatment ranges from small amounts of supplemental oxygen, above concentration of oxygen in the air, delivered via an oxygen tent or nasal canula, to a mechanical respirator, to ECMO (heart-lung bypass, described above). This is more often associated with premature babies, but can happen at any age.

Photo of Trig seemingly with a nasal canula for oxygen:

If Trig required a nasal canula, there are many possible reasons. The most common would be “delayed transition” where he simply needed some support while he cleared fluid from his lungs. This could be exaggerated in a baby with low muscle tone due to Down’s syndrome. This generally gets better over time, but this is care that is over and above the capability of a level 1 NICU in a community hospital. He could also have some PPHN as I described above or even some RDS due to prematurity.

Taking a 3-day-old newborn to work:

Babies in general are very susceptible to infection. A baby with a heart defect and/or lung disease could get very ill if they get an upper respiratory infection. It is not recommended that newborns be taken out where they could be exposed to people who are sick.

Feeding issues:
The feeding issues associated with Down’s syndrome are usually related to the low muscle tone. Swallowing and breathing are two things we take for granted in a baby. In a premature and/or Down’s syndrome baby, they may not be able to do this right away and may need a feeding tube for a period of time. Often, the cardiac surgeons want a baby to gain weight before they operate on a heart defect. The heart defect can also make it harder for the baby to gain weight with a normal food intake. Oral feedings are often supplemented by tube feedings in these babies.

Down’s syndrome can affect almost any system in the body. They have an increased incidence of intestinal blockages, needing surgery shortly after birth. They can also have abnormalities of the blood. They can have low platelet counts (platelets are the cells in the blood that are involved in forming clots) and have a higher incidence of neonatal leukemia.

The media and the “Spiral of Silence”:
This is out of my area of expertise, but I can say this: Until recently, there was a line of respect for public figures that the media was not willing to cross. A politician’s children were generally off-limits for criticism and that probably explains the silence. However, it seems like everything is fair game these days.

Trig and Trisomy G:
I have never heard Down’s syndrome called “Trisomy G”. A quick Google search tells me that the Merck Manual has that name, but I’ve never heard it mentioned by anyone. We either call it Down’s syndrome or Trisomy 21, as the baby will have three copies of chromosome 21, instead of the usual two.

What a parent names their child is their decision. I’ve seen some crazy names over the years and Trig (Trisomy G?) is no big deal. What would you do if your parents named you “Shi’thead” or “Chlamydia”? Once we had a teen mother try to name her baby “Diarrhea” but we convinced her it wasn’t a good idea. My favorite baby name was pronounced “An-yae” but it was spelled “Etienne”. Apparently, the mother took the wrong name off her Etienne-Aigner purse when filling out the birth certificate. As we often say, “You need a license to drive a car, but not to have a baby.”

Ruffled ear defect:
I don’t know much about this. Generally, when a ear is deformed by the baby’s position in the womb, it will return to a normal shape after a few weeks. Rarely, some splinting is needed to re-shape the ear. This is not the case for developmental abnormalities of the ear. When an ear is malformed, surgical correction is needed to give the ear a normal appearance.

Downs and age:
The incidence of giving birth to a baby with Down’s syndrome rises with the age of the mother. It can be as high as 1 in 60 for a mother in her mid-40s. However, any mother of any age can have a baby with Down’s syndrome. It does happen in teenage mothers, but their risk is more like 1 in 1250.

A hoax?
Has a mother ever hidden her teenage daughter’s pregnancy and birth? Of course, I’m sure this happens all the time. The daughter has the baby and they announce to the world that the mother had another baby. It saves them from difficult questions and possibly shame. I can imagine if a mother is a political figure and an advocate of abstinence-only education, she would not want her teenage daughter getting pregnant and having a baby in the public eye. It could be the end of her political career, or at least her credibility.

I remember hearing that Bristol Palin was out of school for about 6 months due to “mononucleosis”. While mono can make a teenager quite sick, the timing certainly is suspicious and the length of time out is much longer than most cases of mono would last.
DebinOH
4/28/2011 02:43:13 am

Thanks! Not much to add because it makes sense to me.

Molly
4/28/2011 02:57:32 am

Now I like this second opinion. He/she just gets to the bones of it. No dancing around.

PMom_GA
4/28/2011 03:06:08 am

One question that needed to be asked but wasn't.

What would be the time frame for release from the hopsital of a baby with known heart condition and Down's Syndrome?

rubbernecking
4/28/2011 03:25:18 am

Have you come across the term pregorexia? A woman wrote about her struggles with an eating disorder while pregnant here: http://www.momlogic.com/2009/06/pregorexia_starving_for_two.php

The author posts photos of her healthy first pregnancy and her unhealthy second pregnancy. Assuming her photos and captions are real/accurate, it's shocking how small her pregnancy bump is in her 3rd trimester. The comparisons to palin's 1st and 5th pregnancy photos are eerie.

It's painful to consider this possibility but there appears to be a sad and real reason for a very small pregnancy bump.

Tina
4/28/2011 03:26:03 am

Remember, Palin herself changed her birth story when she gave a speech in September 2010 and changed the time she 'delivered' Trig to 7 1/2 months. She also changed the birthplace to Anchorage - which does have NICU facilities at Providence Maternity Center.

Which gestation time and which facility for sure?
Who really knows.

Using the month-to-week conversion factor, 7 1/2 months converts to 32-33 weeks instead of 35 weeks which means the child could potentially need much more care and have many more problems at birth than at 35 weeks.

It also means the odds of the child going home and to visit the office after just 3 days go way, way down since a longer hospital stay is frequently required.

AnneNY
4/28/2011 03:36:46 am

The responses and reactions from this doctor is what I imagine what we would hear from most ob drs and neonatal specialists. Logical, sensible and backed up by actual medical experience in the field. Hard to argue with that !

The facts are the facts. This story doesn't hold up. If she truly was pregnant, why was she so incredibly small ? She supposedly delivered a 6lb+ baby. Even if she had been starving herself, 6+lbs plus water sac is going to show.

In either scenario, whether pregnant or faking it - We're dealing with a woman who has told a bunch of lies and has done so over and over. ( and not always keeping them straight )

I ask the "debunkers" to explain her incredibly small size. To justify the reckless ride. To explain how she went from from a very small size to huge in only a few days, according to resourced photos. Palin herself says that the airline personell didn't realize she was pregnant because she wasn't really showing and yet there is a photo showing a huge belly, taken only a few days before.

C'mon - Any person with any ability for critical thinking can see that something is very, very wrong here.

curiouser
4/28/2011 03:37:04 am

This is horrifying to me. The stupidity and disregard of getting on the plane without first getting a physical exam....grrr...I have no words.

Sadly, I think Sarah Palin has shown us in various circumstances that she is stupid enough and is uncaring enough to do such a thing. At this point, it seems that the 'wild ride' is possible.

Regarding Tri-G: It's the first thing I found when I googled DS and expect Sarah would have seen the same thing.

Could the doctor provide the chances that a 35-week DS preemie would be discharged in two days?

Laura - Many thanks for staying on this story!

Lilybart
4/28/2011 03:59:55 am

Regarding "pregorexia", how do we explain the back fat! And then how do we explain the Gusty photos?

DebinOH
4/28/2011 04:15:36 am

curiouser - Your comment about her being uncaring and stupid is always the one thing that keeps me from being 100% Trig is not her child. I know it sounds stupid when you look at the photos & everything else but she really is that nuts.

My boss's daughter has a three year old Down baby and she had him and his brother at about 35 wks. He was able to come home after a week or so as I recall but he had to have a shunt for water build up in his head & I know he was on BP medications for some time. I don't know if he still takes the BP med but I will ask her tomorrow. I will also ask her how long he was in the hospital and exactly how far along she was. She was in the hospital a lot because she was having pre-term labor starting at about 26 weeks so it is hard to remember all the details.

I won't tell her it has anything to do with SP because she is Catholic so she really likes her because 1) SP did not have an abortion 2) she relates to her regarding the Down children.

Laura Novak link
4/28/2011 04:18:25 am

Thank you for weighing in, everyone. I think that both docs are saying that discharge depends on how the baby is doing and that Ds babies can do differently, depending on how much is involved. If they can manage to feed and don't have other issues, going home may not be the issue. But taking the baby out 3 days later? Neither doc condones that.

The fact that neither doc was familiar with Trisomy G - I wouldn't worry about that. Their heads are crammed with so much more information (since they wrote their college thesis?!!!) this actually doesn't surprise me.

molly Malone
4/28/2011 04:50:58 am

Laura, thank you for continuing to investigate an issue that many of us find so very puzzling.

The question that has been nagging at me is: 1) if Palin's doctor saw no reason for her not to fly back to Alaska, and 2) if that doctor induced labor scant hours after Palin's arrival at Wasilla, at a hospital with no NICU facilities, then 3)this must have been a serious, unexpected medical emergency. So what was the emergency?

The baby was not put in NICU; Palin said it was the easiest delivery she'd ever had; and both babe and mom showed up at the office 3 days later. Try as I might, I just can't wrap my head around that.

rubbernecking
4/28/2011 05:03:19 am

AnneNY and Lilybart,

I don't know if Palin was suffering from an eating disorder like pregorexia. I think it should be considered. With Laura Novak's record as a health writer, she seemed to be a person who could pursue this in an intelligent and compassionate way.

I think people need to be careful about what facts are really known. I don't believe there is a reliable source for the 6lb birth weight or the presence of "back fat" whatever that is.

I feel that the Dr's letter and the photographs are the most reliable docs available. Her doctor's letter said Palin had "pre-term delivery at 35 weeks in 2008".

The Dr does *not* tell us the date in 2008, or the birth weight, or place of birth however. In fact, the Dr goes to strange lengths to avoid giving any specific dates, not even the date of Palin's last check-up.

On this track, I ask how could the Dr's statements be true and the photos accurate? An eating disorder with a premature delivery in early 2008 *might* be an explanation.

Dr Who
4/28/2011 05:22:07 am

Laura, did you know that Sarah also claimed to have amnio at a time that others wrote was very uncommon and dangerous?? I don't remember what week of pregnancy she claimed this was done but others will.
The doctors reaction to the leaking amniotic fluid was very interesting. That part of the story was the biggest red flag for me!! It never made sense to me.

curiouser
4/28/2011 05:32:39 am

Laura - If there's any chance you can interview an OB/GYN, would you please ask if there is a verifiable medical explanation for the belly change in the 18 days from Mar. 26 to April 13?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49830475@N04/5659851978/in/photostream/

karenw729
4/28/2011 06:05:58 am

Thanks, Laura, for providing credible medical expertise to what a lot of us moms already know: Palin is either a liar or a horrible mother. Good point too regarding Bristol's 6 month absence for mono. I had it as a teenager and I was out 2 weeks. Makes it seem more and more like she could be Trig's birth mother. My sister-in-law got pregnant 4 months after giving birth to twins, so it happens, especially if you don't breastfeed and are fertile.

I have a friend who was raised by her grandparents. She thought they were her parents, but later found out they were her grandparents and the woman she thought was her sister turned out to be her biological mother. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

AnneNY
4/28/2011 06:19:37 am

Rubbernecking at 12:03

I agree that the pregorexia can be considered. The pictures you linked to earlier in the comment thread are ones I've seen before and it does make me wonder. It's a scenario that answers a good number of questions. ( When I earlier mentioned the 6lb weight of the baby, I was asking how the deniers can explain how that supposed weight can match up with the many photos of a very small belly. )

No matter which scenario ends up being true, they all involve Palin being not right in the head and certainly not fit to be in any role of leadership.

Laura, thanks for your work on this story. It's so good to see the questions finally being asked.

Blue Galangal
4/28/2011 07:55:48 am

@curiouser - I believe she said she had the amnio at 13 weeks. It's usually performed around week 16.

AFM
4/28/2011 09:55:09 am

I have an extremely hard time believing the wild ride period. Any woman having a baby that is leaking fluid knows darn well the pain is going to get harder and harder until the water finally breaks and then its pretty painful. Sorry folks I think Palin is lying about the birth. It may not be Bristol's but I don't put anything pass Palin. She is a known liar.

Laura Novak link
4/28/2011 09:58:54 am

I can say that I had an amnio at 16 weeks. I went back for a second ultrasound at 20 weeks to confirm what they thought was my son's problem. So I CLEARLY remember that it was 16 weeks. I was only 34 YO at the time, but I recall clearly that my doc did not advise a CVS any earlier.

Dr. Who: what was the docs comments about the fluid that you're alluding to? I can't put my finger on it. Tell me what you're thinking.

What I always found interesting is this: how reliable can that "medical record" letter be knowing that they got Piper's birth year wrong?

It's all very strange indeed. Nothing adds up. I wonder whether the doctor was foolish, or unknowing. Remember: Med/Mal insurance for OB's runs in the six figures. That's why some family practitioners can't afford to deliver babies.

But we don't know that an OB on call didn't deliver this baby. But I don't think it really matters who did. The actual delivery is not the issue I believe.

dmoreno
4/28/2011 10:18:26 am

My water broke almost two weeks before my due date on my first pregnancy and I decided to shower and shave my legs taking my time to get ready to go the hospital. I got chewed out by the doctor for not coming immediately. There is no way an ethical doctor would allow their patient to get on a plane. There is so much that does not add up and not asking SP for clarification is just insane.

Kimosabe
4/28/2011 10:47:27 am

thanks Laura. We have heard many old wives tales, an tales from some old wives, but not before from a disinterested ob/gyn or neonatologist. This really adds to the discussion and is very enlightening.

Laura Novak link
4/28/2011 10:52:01 am

Thanks, Kemosabe and others. You're right: Dmoreno, docs don't take amniotic fluid leaks lightly. As I said in an earlier conversation with Brad Scharlott, my water had to be broken in the operating room by four people. It was high risk stuff. But at least it was sterile! How can this story be believed? This doctor was right: Did she wear a diaper? And sitting all those hours? Wouldn't the pressure alone strain the sac?

So, maybe it was a tall tale. But then why high tail it back so fast and deliver at 35 weeks? The baby didn't appear to be in distress or he would have been transported to Anchorage. And it's too early without cause. Both doctors have said that so far.



betsy smith
4/28/2011 10:55:32 am

The baby in the Palin kitchen photos with SP, Levi, Bristol and Mercedes is not the same baby that was photographed with SP's parents in the hospital hall.
This baby, called Ruffles by the bloggers, did not have
"crushed" ears from uterine compaction--this baby had totally deformed FAS ears--and no evidence of Down syndrome. The larger "4 month old" DS baby that was presented at the RNC had perfectly normal ears.

Katie M
4/28/2011 11:42:25 am

Pregorexia does not make sense from a physiologic or psychological perspective. If Palin was truly pregnant and had pregorexia, how does that explain the large pregnant stomach she displayed in Texas? If she were starving herself, it would be because she believes she is overweight and doesn't want to gain weight or appear overweight. So why would she put on a fake stomach to look hugely pregnant?

Second, if she had been starving herself yet still managed to produce a premature baby greater than 6 pounds (babies gain 1/2 pound per week in the last 4 weeks, so she was supposedly on her way to quite a large baby, that suggests the baby was absorbing all the calories at her expense.

If that is the case, then the woman who had been starving herself is not likely to have been feeling fit and fine to go back to work three days after giving birth. The loss of fluids and blood would have left her even weaker than she would have had to be before delivery (had she been starving herself).

So, it doesn't make sense at all.

DebinOH
4/28/2011 12:15:32 pm

Pregorexia doesn't sound too plausible to me because if you look at pre-McCain pics Sarah was thin but not that thin. From the pictures that are left on line she really wasn't much of a fashion plate either.

However if she really did give birth she clearly was trying not to put on too much weight. I still think if she was pregnant she wanted to hide it from the VP scouters. She new she was being checked out.

DebinOH
4/28/2011 10:02:10 pm

Laura, I wanted to ask another question. Would any of your specialists/MDs lie for a patient? If not, would they lie to protect not SP but another patient? I guess the only way I could see her lie is if she was protecting a young girl maybe?

The lawyer with CBJ is troubling but if she was protecting herself from SP it would make some sense.

I guess I just can't see how she could lie? Wouldn't she get into trouble if this all was a hoax?

DebinOH
4/29/2011 12:11:45 am

Okay, I feel like a total pain in the butt, but I did say I would check with my boss about her daughter's babies.

She gave birth around 37 weeks. The Down baby did not have a heart problem but his twin who doesn't have Down syndrome did and takes BP medication. They both weighed in the 5-6# range and went home within a week.

Not sure this adds to anything but her babies went home w/i a week of birth and were over 5#.

Ivyfree
4/29/2011 12:58:13 am

Thanks. Makes sense.

The thing is, there are too many strange occurrences for the Babygate story to add up. The unlikeliness of getting pregnant at her age, even if we discount the tubal ligation. The leaking amniotic fluid not followed by an immediate trip to the hospital, despite the supposed mother's declared "desperation" for the baby. The cheerful speech where nobody noticed anything amiss or any leakage! The refusing a private plane. The flight attendants not realizing she was pregnant. The visitor in the lounge at Seattle not noticing any labor while Sarah read a book :::staggers::: and the second flight with nobody noticing anything and Todd not notifying anybody in Alaska that labor had started and then the induction that produced a premature baby with complications, none of which were severe enough to keep the baby in the hospital...

If you wrote a movie like that, people would say that while you don't expect reality in a movie, that is just too unreal to be believed.

Ivyfree
4/29/2011 01:03:28 am

Can we get off the pregorexia idiocy? Sarah was not pregorexic. Nobody's commented that she never ate anything, and if you look at the picture of the woman on the website you keep talking about, her ribs and arm bones are sticking out- you can't see her face, but I imagine it got bony too. Pictures of Sarah show her face and neck to be normal during her pregnancy; in fact, the bots comment that her face "looks" pregnant: "fuller." And even through clothes, her arms and shoulders were normally sized.

When you start coming up with obscure eating disorders to account for things, you've definitely tipped over into tinfoil hat territory. The simplest explanation is that Sarah did was Sarah does: she lied.

V
4/29/2011 02:40:00 am

Lying: I don't think if you ask people if they lie, that you will ever get an affirmative response. Those who don't lie will say that they don't lie. Those who do lie, however, will have little trouble denying it.

I agree that the words from CBJ are the most troubling - and the only thing that made me give any credence to SP's story. On the other hand, we know that doctors - like other mortals - don't always tell the truth. And CBJ may have been either pressured, or may have reasoned that she was protecting Bristol.

At the time that she issued the letter - the day before the election - it was pretty clear that the McCain-Palin ticket was going to lose. So CBJ might have reasoned that her statement would not be investigated or scrutinized. Furthermore, she could have believed that Sarah would then continue as governor of Alaska - a big local influence - and it could have been important to stay on SP's good side.

SP's vitriolic defense of her doctor, and CBJ's taking a lawyer with her to ADN, makes me think that my imagined scenarios are getting close to the truth. What if CBJ feared that ADN had acquired proof of TriG's birth in another place at another time with another mother? Then she would certainly take a lawyer with her.

of course this is speculation...

Laura Novak link
4/29/2011 02:41:01 am

Yes, Deb: both doctors point out that babies born even slightly prematurely with problems CAN go home. Clearly Trig was healthy or they would have not released him or transported him to Anchorage.

Or, he was born earlier.

And IvyFree: let's not forget the "puppy is ready" emails. Talk about a monkey wrench that could either mean nothing or be code for you-know-what!

Who's to say. Has anyone in public life ever had such a strange and fantastical birth story? Ever???

DebinOH
4/29/2011 05:31:43 am

Laura, You tell us;) I have never even heard of anything so odd in all my life.

Banyan
4/29/2011 05:35:23 am

It is very easy to make one's face "appear fuller" with a course of steroids.

mumimor
4/29/2011 07:06:12 am

What a great interview! Very clear and to the point.
There are some questions on your blog about the media, and Laura, you must be able to answer them better than me. However, I think two things are in play here. The first is, as soon as Americans got to know Sarah Palin, the majority rejected her, and with her John McCain. I think the mainstream media decided it would be undignified to get tough with someone who was so obviously losing. If SP gets even close to a Republican candidacy in 2012, things will look different.
Americans, and the American media are extremely careful when it comes to women and women's "stuff". More so with traditional, conservative women than with progressive women. The Obama campaign did not go aggressively or personally after Hillary, or after Palin. It would have hit them right back in the head.
Part of this is good manners, and part is insecurity - very few American men know anything about pregnancy or childbirth, and a majority of women don't know much beyond their own and closest friends' experience. You know why - no general or comprehensive sex-ed in the US.
So things that mature and well-educated people find patently absurd in Palins explanation, like boarding an airplane while after one's waters have broken (leaking and breaking is the same), or not showing at all before the seventh month in your fifth pregnancy, or having a 5 weeks premature Downs baby delivered by your family doctor in a community hospital may seem very reasonable to many people, even politicians and journalists. ;-)

Bobcat Logic
4/29/2011 07:19:05 am

Journalists are also justifiably worried about being "burned" by a piece of planted false evidence" -- as happened to Dan Rather.

Rather's story for CBS about Bush and his "military career" was almost certainly correct, but Rather lost his job when he reported (unknowingly) on a letter that was, almost certainly, forged and planted by Karl Rove's dirty-tricksters.

mumimor
4/29/2011 08:32:25 am

on a whim, I googled "me, 7 months pregnant": http://www.google.dk/search?hl=da&rlz=&q=me,+seven+months+pregnant&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1058&bih=747
Look at those images, and specially open those files where the woman doesn't look pregnant. I found this one very illuminating: http://sarahsvet.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html The woman is young, slender and obsessed with looks and fashion. The pregnancy doesn't show much. But it shows, and she writes how she cannot wear the clothes she wants.
Sarah Palin is a liar. But what is the truth?

V
4/29/2011 09:08:19 am

Especially wrt Bobcat Logic - why haven't more people been demanding truth from the press? Such as WMD? Why does anyone listen to any of these people? Why didn't more heads roll?

I can understand the corporate aspect of things - which would actually explain why few RW reporters have been fired. But I don't understand why more people aren't demanding truth from the press.

mistah charley, ph.d. link
4/29/2011 10:28:57 am

"Why aren't more people demanding truth from the press?"

In some sense, it doesn't matter what the people demand. Look at what happened in the fall of 2008, with the bankster giveaway. The people spoke, quite resoundingly, against it. But it went through anyway. Do the people want war with Afghanistan? Not really, but that's not what matters.

The reason has to do with the old saying, "He who pays the piper calls the tune." Who pays the piper for the Demopublican system? The banksters and their allies, of course. Eisenhower's first draft of his Farewell Address, which will be resurrected from the obscurity it has fallen into if our current system is reformed or renewed (if, if, if), used the phrase "military industrial congressional complex." I've suggested an expansion of this phrase, with a nifty, easy-to-say acronym - the Military Industrial Congressional Financial Corporate Media Complex, or MICFiC for short (notice that the second i is NOT a capital). The MICFiC is a conspiracy to use, abuse, and confuse the people; speaking metaphorically, it aims to milk, shear and slaughter the sheeple (except that the slaughter is literal, not metaphorical).

I realize this may be too overarching an explanation for some people's tastes. Let's just focus on the corporate media part of the puzzle, then. Who are the customers, who are by definition always right? Is it the viewers, the listeners, the subscribers, the readers? No. The customers are the advertisers - they are the ones who are doing the buying. The attention of the audience is the PRODUCT which is being sold to the customers.

When this is understood, that which was formerly in darkness becomes illuminated.

Or your money back.

Bobcat Logic
4/29/2011 12:13:45 pm

@mIstah charley

What we see after "illuminating the darkness" is profoundly frightening to most people.

That's the main reason the Palin story has not achieved the proper media "traction" yet.

Who wants to believe, much less admit, that they have been duped by a "Big Lie" or lots of "Big Lies"?

The implications (the "overarching explanation") is so unsettling that most people turn away.

And that's how Palin, Cheney, Rove, Goldman Sachs, the Koch Bros. etc., get away with it.

And, sadly, we'll never get our money back!

Laura Novak link
4/30/2011 01:47:10 am

"Or your money back." Great line! And terrific reasoning, to put this story in to a much larger perspective. I agree with you as well, Bobcat.

And FWIW, I see everyone's comments and mean to go back and address most of them because they are so intelligent and fabulous. And then I get distracted and can't always go back and find what I was looking for. So my apologies. Just know that this discourse is entirely intelligent and worth responding to. My thanks!

B
6/17/2011 12:19:31 am

Laura, I second curiouser's suggestion you interview an obstetrician. I want to know where a baby could possibly be in the Mar. 14 photo flat-belly photo.


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