During one of the worst flu seasons in history, a large new study proves what many pregnant women have been concerned about all flu season — it’s safe to get the flu shot. And if left unvaccinated, women are twice as likely to have miscarriages or stillborn babies if they contract the flu.

The study out of Norway found no evidence that giving pregnant women the flu shot would hurt their unborn baby. In fact, it reduced the risk of the women suffering a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Researchers looked at flu vaccines in 117,347 pregnant women from 2009 to 2010 in response to the dangerous H1N1 flu pandemic, and found that vaccinated pregnant women were 70% less likely to develop H1N1 flu than unvaccinated women.

The study also found that pregnant women who contracted the flu were twice as likely to miscarry or have a stillbirth.

Misconception That Flu Vaccine Is Harmful For Pregnant Women

“There has been this misconception that getting a flu shot, or a vaccine in general, is risky during pregnancy,” Siobhan Dolan, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, told USA Today. ”But it’s the flu that poses the greatest risk, not the shot.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months old should get a flu shot every year — including pregnant women. Actually, women can be vaccinated safely during any time of their pregnancy.

Flu Vaccine In Pregnant Women Protects Babies In First Months Of Life

Studies have also shown that getting a flu vaccine while pregnant protects babies for their first months of life — especially since babies younger than six months aren’t old enough to be vaccinated yet.

Which is amazing news, considering newborns are more likely to suffer severe complications from the flu because of their small airways and under-developed immune systems.

What do YOU think of the study HollyMoms? Is this good news for pregnant women?

– Christina Stiehl

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Even though parents may want to rush immediately to their babies’ bedside as soon as they start crying in the middle of the night, experts are now stating that it’s better for their overall sleep cycle to let their children self-soothe and cry themselves back to sleep.

The study, published in the journal of Developmental Psychology, revealed that babies have a sleep cycle every one-and-a-half to two hours, and they wake up slightly before falling back asleep.

“When mothers tune in to these night time awakenings… then [the infant] may not be learning how to self-soothe, something that is critical for regular sleep,” Marsha Weinraub, Professor Temple University at Philadelphia, who led the study, said.

Examining The Sleeping Patterns Of 1,200 Babies

The research, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, looked at the sleeping habits of more than 1,200 babies, and found that two-thirds slept through the night, while one third woke up at least once a night.

The study supported the practice that infants should bet put to sleep at a regular time every night, and they do better if they wake up and then fall back asleep on their own.

“By six months of age, most babies sleep through the night, awakening their mothers only about once per week. However, not all children follow this pattern of development,” Marsha said.

“If you measure them while they are sleeping, all babies — like all adults — move through a sleep cycle every 1.5 to 2 hours, where they wake up and then return to sleep. Some of them do cry and call out when they awaken, and that is called ‘not sleeping through the night.’”

In the research, parents reported their child’s awakenings at 6, 15, 24 and 36 months. By six months, 66 percent of babies did not wake up (the “sleepers”), or woke up just once a week, and kept that pattern as they grew older. But 33 percent woke up seven nights per week at six months, then just two nights by 15 months old, and then on night a week by the time they were 24 months old.

How Parents Can Help Their Kids Sleep Through The Night

“Because the mothers in our study described infants with many awakenings per week as creating problems for themselves and other family members, parents might be encouraged to establish more nuanced and carefully targeted routines to help babies with self-soothing and to seek occasional respite,” she said.

What do YOU think of the study HollyMoms? Will you let your baby self-soothe and fall back asleep on his or her own?

– Christina Stiehl

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1. Why Having A Baby Boy Changes Your Brain — New Study
2. Baby Bonding: How The First 18 Months Can Shape Your Love Life
3. New Study: Obese Women Are Twice As Likely To Miscarry Or Endure A Baby’s Death

Thanks to advances in medicine, each generation is expected to outlive the previous — except when it comes to the overweight youths of today, who are projected to die sooner than their parents from obesity-related deaths, according to the New York State Department of Health.

“For the first time in our history, children may face a shorter life span than their parents because of the consequences of this epidemic,” Pat Waniewski, director of the Health Department’s Bureau of Community Chronic Disease Prevention, said in a presentation to minority-health advocates.

About 40 percent of public school students aged 6 to 12 in New York City are obese or overweight, compared to 32 percent in the entire state of New York.

But not only does childhood obesity put kids’ lives in jeopardy — it costs the health industry billions of dollars, thanks to related illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and asthma.

“New York has the second-highest obesity-related Medicaid-related expenditures in the country: $4 billion a year. That’s $4 billion with a ‘B,’ ” Pat said.

State officials have already praised Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s efforts to fight obesity, including the approved rule to ban sugary drinks more than 16 ounces at restaurants, and listing calories on fast food menus.

Governor Andrew Cuomo also plans to cut that obesity rate down 10 percent by 2017 — meaning 623,000 younger than 17.

“Fighting childhood obesity and preventing life-threatening illnesses for a new generation of New Yorkers is good public-health policy and something this administration takes very seriously,” Health Department spokesman Peter Constantakes said.

What do YOU think of the childhood obesity statistics HollyMoms?

– Christina Stiehl

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Experts agree that giving your kids allowance is essential to teaching them about financial responsibility, but instilling proper budgeting in children only works when the parents agree to a specific allowance each week — and a specific set of rules.

“Allowance only works when your kid has to take that sum of money and then manage it,” Jean Chatzky, a financial journalist, said on Today on Oct. 11, and added that throwing in a few dollars here and there for them is more harmful than helpful.

According to a national survey for the American Institute of CPAs, 54 percent of parents pay their kids a weekly allowance starting at age 8 or younger, which Jean agrees is great practice — the earlier children learn about financial responsibility, the better.

But the old method of having kids work for their allowance through chores is not always best, she said, because children should not be motivated to help out around the house with money.

So how much should you give your kid in allowance each week for best money management?

“It would depend on the age of the child and the financial circumstances of the family,” Clare Levison, a member of the AICPA’s National Financial Literacy Commission, told Yahoo! Shine.

The average allowance is about $15 a week, but that doesn’t go as far in today’s economy — a single movie ticket costs $8, and a new video game can cost around $50 a pop.

The bottom line with allowance is to teach your kids the value of a dollar.

“Parents need to make sure they’re also passing along financial sense with those dollars and cents,” Jordan Amin, chair of the American Institute of CPAs’ Financial Literacy Commission, told Yahoo! Shine.

“Earning, budgeting and saving are all important lessons that can be tied to allowances – lessons that can help put children on solid financial footing.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What do YOU think HollyMoms? How much fo you give your kids in allowance?

– Christina Stiehl

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Experts have getting pregnant down to a science. Researchers from the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics have calculated a woman’s odds of conceiving based on age and length of time she has been trying to get pregnant.

Since fertility drops with age, the general likelihood of conceiving peaks at age 25, and plummets after age 35.

The formula, which was published in the scientific journal PLoS One, also takes into account how many months a woman has been trying to get pregnant, and the odds of conceiving drops dramatically as length of time increases.

For example, the formula has determined that a 25-year-old woman who has been trying to get pregnant for six months has a 15 percent chance of conceiving within the month, while a woman who is 35 and has been trying for 12 months only has a six percent chance of getting pregnant.

By age 40, the odds of drop even further to just one percent after two years.

The general rule of thumb is to seek medical help after one year of not conceiving, but age also plays a major factor in a woman’s fertility.

“As time goes by and people have been trying for a while, they start to get stressed and upset and that can affect their chances of having sex and then becoming pregnant. one of the researchers, Professor Geraldine Hartshorne, said.

“Approaching a doctor about a personal matter is daunting, so knowing the right time to start investigations would be a useful step forward.”

What do YOU think of this formula HollyMoms?

– Christina Stiehl

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There’s nothing like a bond between a mother and her son, but now the connection goes further than scientists originally thought, according to a new study.

When a woman is pregnant with a baby boy, some of his DNA can be transmitted through the mother’s body and up to her brain, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have determined.

The same way a woman passes oxygen and nutrients to her unborn baby through the placenta, the fetus can also send DNA up to the mother, the study suggests. The baby’s cells and his descendants can stay in a woman for decades — male DNA was found in the brain of a 93-year-old woman after she died.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is the first to find male DNA in women’s brains, although previous studies have found male cells in women’s blood, bone marrow, hearts, and lungs, among other organs.

Although the male DNA could lead to higher odds of bowel and skin cancer, the condition known as microchimerism overall believed to be good for a woman’s health — male DNA may help women fight breast cancer by boosting her immune response, because male cells help protect the woman’s immune system while still fighting off infections.

Also, women live longer than men, and some scientists think that it would be due in part to the introduction of “fresh” cells from the fetus. Although there is no certainty that little girls can’t also pass on their DNA in the same way, it is much harder to test.

What do YOU think of this study HollyMoms? Were you pregnant with a boy — how does this make you feel now? Let us know in the comments below!

– Dory Larrabee & Christina Stiehl

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Thousands of babies are still dying of SIDS even after the initiative was made to have children sleep on their backs. A new report explains the risks.

In 1994, the Back to Sleep campaign launched so that parents could stop putting their babies to sleep on their stomachs. The campaign was a success, but there are still more than two thousand babies dying each year in the U.S alone, according to Time.

According to research, although parents are now aware that a baby sleeping on his or her stomach is dangerous, there are other Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) risk factors. In a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, risk factors have changed over the years. Between 1991 and 2008, the rate of bed-sharing between parents and their babies doubled, which is dangerous to a small child who can easily suffocate from all the fluffy pillows and blankets.

Also there are other risk factors that the Back to Sleep campaign does not stress and according to Henry Krous, a pediatric pathologist and director of the San Diego SIDS Research Project at Rady Children’s Hospital, haven’t decreased.

“Most babies had two or more risk factors,” says Krous. “What that says to us is that Back to Sleep should emphasize multiple risk factors.”

Such risk not only include co-sleeping, which had a controversial campaigns launched in the past showing babies sleeping in adult beds with butcher knives, being born prematurely, being male, prenatal exposure to alcohol or cigarettes, over-bundling a baby or tucking a child in with a cozy quilt.

Even though the Back to Sleep campaign needs improvement, it’s main purpose is to help educate parents on the safety of their babies, yet sadly 30% of babies are still being put to bed on their stomachs.

-Milly Contreras

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Celebs like Ashlee Simpson, Beyonce, and Gwyneth Paltrow have made headlines not only for their careers, but for the names they gave their children. According to baby name expert Laura Wattenberg, more and more parents are frustrated with their choice —whether’s it’s because everyone mispronounces their baby’s unique name, they learn of some negative association with the name or they think another name might have suited their child’s personality better.

Choosing a baby’s name is very important to parents because evidence suggest that a name can influence the child later in life. For example, boys with a feminine name will be the subject of constant teasing and may experience disciplinary issues in school. Studies also show that a name can determine future job employment.

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that resumes with “white” names were more likely to be called back than resumes with “black” names, even if they have the same credentials.

But Laura, author of The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby, still supports parents choosing unique names.”Names are becoming more important as they’re becoming more diverse, because every choice sends a stronger signal,” she says. “When you’re choosing names from around the world or you’re inventing your own name, that comes with a more powerful message.”

That explains why celebs choose really unusual names like Blue Ivy, Bronx Mowgli, and Apple, but what can be done when you are no longer like your pick?

“Kids grow into their names in ways you can’t predict,” she says. “On the other hand I think we’re all a little too scared about changing an infant’s name.” She pointed out how very young babies get called by a variety of nicknames, and they’re unlikely notice their name being switched early on.

So what can you do to avoid this with your baby? She suggest not overwhelming yourself with baby name books were the options are endless.

“We’re always looking to make our lists bigger,” the expert explains. “Just remind yourself to make your list smaller — and if you have a bunch of good options, that’s a wonderful situation to be in. That means that they will all be fine.”

-Milly Contreras

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