#when does a fetus have a heartbeat

[zvdvdlvr]

Hi! Firstly, I wanted to say that I adore your imagines! Secondly , I was hoping you’d agree to write an imagine based on s3 e7. Specifically the end of it when he’s sitting on his couch rubbing his fingers the baby touched. Maybe that makes him realize he wants a baby of his own with you? Thanks in advance!!!🩵

what i want ✩ gregory house

🫀- synopsis. Greg knows what he wants, but he needs to know that you want the same thing.

🫀 - warnings. I got a little carried away… SLIGHT impregnation kink. OOC House but i dont care. i hope you enjoyed this, anon!! 🤍

Greg’s mind had been bizarrely silent.

Instead of the regular influx of thoughts that flooded his brain, Greg just heard his heartbeat and his breathing. Well, the T.V. too, but the point is that something was off.

The face of House’s watch read fifteen minutes before eleven o’clock at night, and Greg hadn’t thought if a single thing since the surgery.

The case was an unusual one- as always- consisting of a pregnant photographer who had a stroke. After fainting, House and the team had deducted that the baby (House consistently reffered to it as ‘the fetus’) was killing the mother. Eventually, her organs started to shut down so a surgery was needed to fix the baby to fix Emma.

During the surgery, the unborn child had reached out and clasped it’s tiny hand around Greg’s pointer finger. The baby’s arm wasn’t even the length of Greg’s finger, House noticed. Truly, Greg hadn’t realized how long he had been staring at the baby’s fingers until Cuddy had called his name twice.

Now House thought of that moment in the operating room. He pressed his thumb down lightly to match the amount of pressure Greg felt when the baby held onto him.

Kids were a nuisance. A waste of money, the reason why so many people had heart attacks, and disrespectful. But… they were also cute sometimes and, apparently, wanted nothing more than to make their mommy and daddy proud of them. Well, that’s what Wilson had said when Greg had asked why people wanted kids so badly.

Greg didn’t know if you wanted kids.

You were great with them at any age- infant, toddler, and even those devilish pre-teens. In fact, you seemed to glow whenever someone trusted you to hold their baby. You made sure to look up and find Greg: watching you like he always does. He can’t help but feel a wry smile pull at his lips when he pictures you, your own finger being clutched by your own baby.

Greg was torn; he didn’t know what he wanted.

“I think I’m going to blow up,” you sang as you closed the door behind you. Greg stays still, thumb still pressing on his pointer finger.

You toe off your shoes and start to unbuckle your jeans as you head for your shared room. Greg doesn’t look up when you eventually traipse back out wearing Greg’s sweatpants and and old shirt Greg didn’t know he had. You navigate yourself under his arms and carefully over his leg to lay carefully on him. Greg feels the slow puff of your breath on his neck as you exhale. “Did you eat already, love?”

Greg lets out his own sigh and he let’s his hands rest on your back. “No. Expired lasagna didn’t really sound too appealing to my refined taste,” he replies.

“What’s wrong?” You ask looking up at him.

Greg blinks at you. As he slowly meets your eyes, he starts to feel you hand gently raking his hair back and running your thumb over his prickly facial hair. Just like you always do.

And then it comes to him.

“Do you… want kids?”

Your eyebrows furrow. “I… don’t think so. I don’t- well, you don’t want kids, do you?”

“That’s not what I asked,” Greg chided, squeezing your ass. “Do you want kids?”

It takes you a ling moment to answer. So long, in fact, that Greg thinks you may have fallen asleep with your eyes open. “Probably not. I don’t think you want kids so I haven’t really thought about it. Why?”

Greg keeps going. “Would you want kids? With me?”

You lay your head back down on his chest. “Yeah. If you wanted them too.”

House doesn’t really know how to proceed with the conversation, so he lets you play with his fingers as you watch the baseball game Greg put on. “I want one.”

Your movements stop. Yet again, you peer up at Greg. This time with unhealthily furrowed eyebrows. One of your hands comes up to check your boyfriend’s temperature. “Are you okay? Do I need to call Wilson?”

Greg looks pained as his hands slide up your body to rest at your face. His thumbs rest on your cheekbones. “I want a baby with you, y/n,” he tells you, eyes flickering from your eyes to your lips. “I want- I want your womb to swell with our kid. I want a little extension of you to put up with when you’re working late. I want you to marry me and I want you to be the mother of my child.”

Your mouth dropped open. “That’s- wow.”

“Wow,” Greg repeats with an unsure smile.

“I’m not going to lie,” you say, cracking a smile. “I’m pretty turned on right now. I’m just really surprised that you have baby fever.”

Greg groans. “Tell me what you want, woman! I just rather uncharacteristically spilled my guts and you say ‘wow’!”

You snicker and support Greg’s neck with your hand as you lean up to kiss him. As expected, he wraps his arms tightly around your waist and reciprocates your passion tenfold.

“We could practice the baby-making for the honeymoon,” you whisper after pulling away from his lips.

Greg’s eyes flutter closed and you chuckle. “I would say ‘race you to the bedroom’, but I think you’re going to beat me anyway,” he rasps. You exhale a laugh through your nose as you start to press kisses from his lips hown to his neck. “Let’s go to the bedroom, yeah?” Greg asks, humping you pathetically as you kiss him.

“Fuck yeah,” you respond lowly, a dangerous smile in your face.

[notaplaceofhonour]

my annoyance with people exaggerating & misrepresenting the extreme fringe of Jewish antizionism as being in any way representative of the Jewish community aside, one of the most common talking points that illustrates how little antizionists actually consider the implications of their positions outside the symbolic is the “and there have always been antizionist Jews since the beginning! look at Edwin Montagu; he opposed the Balfour Declaration! look at this 19th Century Bundist! etc.” talking point.

if you think about it for even 2 seconds, Zionism (and thus opposition to it) is in an inherently different place before 1948 and after, and thus it does not necessarily follow that a 19th or early 20th Century anti-Zionist’s position lends any support to the position of a 21st Century anti-Zionist.

1897-1947, the goal of Zionism was creating a hypothetical state. then Israel was created. from 1948 on, Zionism became about the continued existence of a country full of millions of people.

regardless of whether you agree that Zionists were justified in creating Israel, saying “I don’t think this state should exist” is an entirely different statement depending on which side of that state’s establishment you exist on. one is saying “I don’t think we should create x”; the other is saying “I think we should destroy x”. and when “x” is an entire country, with millions of people in it, with a distinct national and cultural identity, that is not an inconsequential difference. because it is one thing to say in 1897 or 1917, “I’m not in favor of creating a hypothetical state” and a fundamentally different one to say in 2024, “I want to destroy the existing home, national identity, and culture of 9 million people”

in literally any other situation, on any other issue, we recognize this difference between something that could be and something that is. take abortion: on the pro-choice side, this distinction is fundamental to the argument that a fetus is not a baby or a person; hypothetically, it could grow to be, but you’re not a murderer if you abort the fetus before that happens—because something that could be is fundamentally different than something that is. (and even the anti-abortion side makes this distinction, but drawing the line earlier, anywhere from the first brain wave/heartbeat to conception—very few will say “not impregnating someone is literally the same as abortion, which is the same as murder” because on some level even they understand something that could be is fundamentally different than something that is)

post-1948 antizionism is to pre-1948 antizionism what infanticide is to abortion. in the same way that “we should kill our newborn baby” does not follow from “we should use contraceptives to avoid having kids”, “it’s fine to say we should destroy a whole ass country” just does not follow from “so and so said in the 1910s that they didn’t want to make a hypothetical state”.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

How would breaking dawn have differed if Bella had been dead set on having an abortion? Like yep, no thanks, do what you gotta do Carlisle, no inhuman children here. If Carlisle had then been successful, would it just be like this weird thing the family never talked about? And would Edward continue to do everything under the sun apart from turning Bella?

Well, this would be very awkward, because given the weirdness Bella's body's going through and that her uterus cannot be cut open by human instruments I imagine Carlisle has to do the C-section abortion anyway and that he has to turn her in the process or she will very much die.

(Remaining human, despite Edward's insistence, really wasn't an option the moment Bella became pregnant. Her body turned against her, her digestive system completely warped, her uterus turned to stone--she wasn't going back even if she didn't have to be cut open with vampire teeth.)

And depending how far the fetus is along/how twilight hybridization works, it very much might survive the premature c-section.

So, in the world where the fetus does not survive, it haunts the family tremendously as Rosalie takes this very personally (even when she shouldn't), Edward sees it as all his fault and having destroyed Bella's life and turned her into a vampire in a circumstance he did not want/was trying to avoid, and Bella both has to deal with Rosalie and Edward's fallout as well as the fact that this was her one shot if she ever had wanted children and the emotional baggage that comes with that (yes, Bella was dead certain before and nothing wrong with that, kudos to her, but this is a hard thing for anyone to face and one of those things that brings existential doubt).

I imagine the Cullens would start to fracture after this.

If baby survives doubly so as there's this haunting truth of "the abortion didn't take", you have Bella trying and failing to be a mother even more than before because she didn't actually want this baby at all but now it's here and "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck", you have Rosalie still being doubly weird because even though there's now a baby, Bella did try to abort, and now Bella's pretending she wanted it the whole time when Rosalie would gladly adopt in a heartbeat. And of course Edward.

[swiftsdelucaa]

Could I please have an imagine where the reader moves to Seattle. She starts out as a pediatrician at grey loan. Around this time she realizes she's pregnant. With Carina DeLuca as her ob-gyn and coworker the two fall for each other. Carina did not expect to fall for a pregnant woman but realized she knows what she wants. So she asks you out and you say yes around the time you are halfway through the pregnancy. by the end of the pregnancy, it becomes clear you much you and your baby mean to her. When you go into labor she freaks out and comments that “My girlfriend is having our baby!” (you hear her say that but say nothing due to the pain). When the baby is born she is in awe of the tiny human but kinda keeps to the side for a few minutes until you say “come meet OUR son.” Carina tries to apologize for calling him hers but the reader says that Carina is his mother too. Just like a cute family thing please?

❛ 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 ❜

𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜: Carina DeLuca x f!reader ♡

𝘼/𝙣: I was in the right mood for this lol, enjoy!

You've always loved kids, you would do anything to make them happy. Telling a parent the good news about their child was what you made a living for and although you were aware of the difficult times, you knew how to handle them.

But then just during your successful time in this place you found out you were pregnant. It shocked you enough, because you didn't plan it. You didn't even have a father by your side. It was one of those silly one night stands. You had always been skeptical about this type of thing, but others really instigated you to find distractions outside work and you thought that for once nothing bad would happen if you had some fun. But here's the world turning upside down on you.

As mentioned you could handle any situation, thinking about your life with a baby got you so excited. Yes, you would have loved it, even if as a single mother it would have been a little more taxing. So now you find yourself working for lovely kids while also being careful to take care of the baby you were carrying.

You took it upon yourself to find an appointment with a gynecologist, you certainly wanted your baby to grow up healthy. You were so flustered the first time.

"Good morning" you were greeted by a pretty girl who smiled at you as you sat on the couch.

"Hi" you greeted her with a polite smile, looking around the room a bit.

"You nervous?" the woman asked.

"You don't know how much" you replied with a chuckle at the end.

"It's okay, it's normal" she said making you lie down.

"So, first time?" she asked.

"Yeah"

"I'm doctor DeLuca, Carina DeLuca" she held out her hand to shake it, which you did.

"DeLuca... it's familiar..." you said reflecting.

"Probably you know my brother, Andrew" you nodded to her statement, you had already worked with him a few times.

"Yeah, well I'm Y/n L/n" a smile appeared on her face as soon as she heard your name.

"The famous Y/n, that one who does miracles for kids, finally I meet you" for some strange reason the way she told you that almost made you blush.

"Ok, let's start" she lifted your shirt slightly and took the tools. You moaned as your skin touched the cold gel she smeared on you, and she began to shift her gaze to the monitor. All your emotions and thoughts were stopped by the sound of your baby's heartbeat, which made you cry.

"See, it's here" Carina pointed to the baby's position on the monitor as you looked at it with the tears in your eyes.

"It's a healthy eight week fetus!" the smile on your face increased, unable to hold the tears.

"Hey" Carina wiped the gel off your belly and pulled your shirt back down.

"I, sorry, I don't-"

"No no, it means you care, it's good" she stroked your hand while you wiped away your tears.

"Yeah, thank you, now I should..." you got up from the couch recovering and motioning to have to go.

"I'll make other appointments for you, we'll make sure everything goes well" she took out a notebook to take notes. You stopped at the doorway, smiling one last time at the girl.

"I can't wait" then you went out. After the door closed she mumbled another sentence. "Mee too"

Luckily the meetings went better and better, your baby was growing up perfectly. And the company was pleasant too. Carina stood by you whenever she needed it, she helped you tell others and was there through the ups and downs, she was the moral support you needed.

During the middle of the pregnancy you already couldn't take it anymore. It got tiring and excruciating, and after you found out the baby's sex you wanted to know him even more. You were so happy, you would have prepared to welcome a baby boy. And on the same day Carina asked you out. To be honest she caught you a bit off guard, you were so pregnant and she was your gynecologist…

She apologized immediately after she asked, sounding quite embarrassed, but you made her even more surprised when you said yes. You had thought about her, indeed this woman seemed to show so much interest on you and your baby, and that was all it mattered to you.

You didn't regret saying yes, you had a wonderful evening, and she now took better care of you than before. Even being able to get to know her brother better and watch their quarrels in Italian amused you a lot.

When you went into labor you were completely unprepared, you were washing up for surgery with Alex, which was probably inappropriate being at your ninth month pregnant, and then your water broke. It was lucky that there was someone else with you, because you had completely panicked. He immediately had you loaded onto a stretcher, calling Carina and Arizona, only the best for you.

The contractions increased more and more, becoming almost unbearable, Carina was next to you shaking your hand.

"You... you know that you can resort to orgasm if..."

"Carina, I'd rather have sex with you under more normal circumstances!" you cut her off knowing where she was getting at, starting screaming in pain in the end.

"My girlfriend is having our baby!" she exclaimed with happiness as you continued to scream.

Well yes, it was tiring, but you managed to get to the end, being able to hold your beautiful baby in your arms. He was so beautiful, you were very very happy at that moment. You sought Carina with the gaze, finding her not far from the door walking around it.

"Hey" you got her attention. “Come meet our son” you said with a smile as she entered.

"I- I'm sorry... I was just-"

"It's okay, he's yours too, he's ours" before she could feel guilty you consoled her. You cared about her, you wanted her in your baby's life, you knew she would be happy.

She bent down to give you a kiss on your lips and stroked your hair. The baby's little noises made you stop attracting your attention.

"Oh, your mommies love you too" Carina gave him a kiss on his forehead, the sight of them made you laugh. It was so cute, maybe too much to be real. Together you would have been the best.

[bthump]

Wait why is it that in the famous “bthump” page the panels are put together in a way that gives the illusion that guts and griffith are facing each other when griffith’s heart goes bthump. We know guts is fighting zodd at that moment he cant be having a staring contest with griffith he has his back to him anyway. I feel like if u show that page out of context to anyone they’ll assume the two are looking at each other. Or am i going crazy? I mean i usually wouldn’t read too much into such a thing but i feel like miura actively uses paneling to convey certain messages throughout the story. He still could’ve just had a silly moment there idk

Because Guts is what's making his heart go bthump!

I have a post about the paneling specifically here, actually, but I'll get into it again because I feel like that explanation could be more detailed lol.

So basically they're positioned like that, Guts on one side of the panel, Griffith on the other, as a parallel and contrast to the final panel immediately before that page:

Griffith is on the left, fetus is on the right. Fetus is Griffith's theory, or hope. I came here to test my heart and make sure I don't have feelings, and oops looks like I just failed that test while watching Guts fight a stronger opponent, notably similar circumstances to the first time I ever saw him. Hmm gotta be that fetus, surely these feelings aren't real.

This is a conclusive counterpoint to Griffith's argument, stemming from reality rather than Griffith's thoughts. It's the final page of the chapter so it has greater weight than Griffith's fetus theory. It's composed similarly, Griffith on the left and the other possible source of feelings on the right - but Guts right there, and the fetus is only Griffith's thoughts, so Guts has more weight in that sense too.

And that final "......... bthump" is the perfect capstone, because it's essentially saying that Guts is causing that heartbeat. The final word of this chapter is Griffith's heart beating when faced with Guts.

The panel is composed like this despite not reflecting how Griffith is viewing Guts in reality, imo to hammer home the point that Guts specifically is the source of feelings. It's not the excitement of the fight, it's not Zodd, it's not even concern for Guts' life necessarily, it's just Guts, and the raw intensity Guts exhibits in the middle of a fight, the same thing that drew Griffith to him when they first met. This panel especially emphasizes their gazes - Griffith is gazing at Guts, but Guts isn't gazing at Griffith - but this could also suggest that Griffith would like Guts to be looking at him like that, with that same intensity.

It also parallels the two of them, the way they each get one half of a face. In the context of Griffith's singularity as The Absolute, and Guts' own tempation towards becoming a monster that becomes especially pronounced during fights, and the constant emphasis on power dynamics and the two of them wanting to be equals throughout the story, this arguably suggests the potential for the two of them to still be equals in ways that actually matter, despite Griffith being a god now. Guts humanizes Griffith here by making his heart beat, Griffith monsterizes Guts by enraging him.

And to be perfectly honest, I don't think it's a coincidence that Guts looks particularly good in this panel either lol. Guts here is essentially what Griffith is imagining he looks like as he faces Zodd. And it's something Miura does regularly imo. Characters become more attractive when they're the objects of certain gazes. I have a long post about Griffith from Guts' perspective here, but Guts also gets this treatment from Griffith's perspective during the rescue. There are probably heterosexual examples too, but I don't recall them offhand because that's not what I'm reading Berserk for. That second one is arguably half heterosexual anyway lol.

So yeah, basically imo the reason is: to emphasize Guts as the cause of Griffith's feelings, to parallel them, and to add some homoeroticism.

Thanks for asking!

[cecilysass]

Pause (8/11)

Read on AO3 | Tagging @today-in-fic

Chapter 8: Dusk

When Scully returns to the apartment, it is hours later. Shadows slant thick and dark through the apartment. Mulder apparently hasn’t bothered to turn on a lamp.

She finds him lying on the couch, staring straight up at the ceiling. He doesn’t react to her return, even when she drops his keys on the entry table with a discordant jangle and abruptly turns on the lights.

Taking a few slow steps towards him, she waits for him to speak, to acknowledge her.

“Where have you been?” he asks at last, a dark and listless monotone.

“To see a doctor.”

He doesn’t move.

“I have a question, Mulder,” she says.

He continues to stare upwards.

“When I died, was I—by any chance—ten weeks pregnant?”

Now his head tilts slowly, his eyes are on hers. Alert.

“Because if I was … that seems like a crucially important piece of information to withhold.”

He seems to struggle with his answer. “You were.”

Scully closes her eyes, and behind her eyelids, the world is radiant white with her rage. Hot, bright fire, the kind that takes everything away with it. She opens them again and strides to sit in the chair directly opposite him.

“I was relieved to learn it was a human fetus.” Her words are like a weapon, unflinching and sharp. “That was one of my concerns.”

He sits up on the edge of the couch, his lips drawn. He regards her for a moment, as though about to say something, but then seems to crumple. He rests his forearms on his thighs, dropping his gaze to the floor.

“I had many concerns, Mulder. I continue to have many concerns. Being pregnant for reasons you don’t understand is terrifying. Having things happen to your body you don’t remember is terrifying. And as you may recall… this isn’t the first time it’s happened to me.”

“Scully,” he says, and when he raises his head, she sees that his eyes shimmer with unshed tears. “For what it’s worth… you were happy about being pregnant. God, you were so happy.”

She is actually shaking with anger. It takes her a moment to compose herself. “Then why… then why wouldn’t you tell me about it? How could you not see that this was something I needed to know?”

He folds his hands together directly in front of his face, over the bridge of his nose, giving the impression he is hiding. He does not answer.

“What if I had done something risky? What if I had decided to drink a fifth of vodka? My god—I was lifting weights, Mulder. You saw me lifting weights.”

He removes his hands from his face, instantly distraught. “Did you—”

“No,” she interrupts sharply. “I saw an ultrasound. The heartbeat. The pregnancy is proceeding normally. Whatever that even means in this context.”

He looks dazed. They look at one another, trapped in one another’s hurt stare.

“In 1998,” she begins, trying to keep her voice steady, “I was under the impression I couldn’t have biological children. Do you know how…? Was it the ova you found? They were viable after all?”

Mulder looks down again at his folded hands, letting out a sigh. He shakes his head slowly. “You tried going through IVF with the ova. But… it didn’t work.”

“It didn’t work?”

“No.”

“Well,” she says tartly, “something worked.”

“Yeah,” Mulder says hoarsely. “The old-fashioned way. Apparently. Unexpectedly. A miracle.”

Scully lets that sink in. “Oh.”

They say nothing else. She stares at him, feeling her heart pounding in her chest.

“Mulder,” she says, strained, “now you have to see, right? Now you have to understand that this is evidence.”

He stares blankly back at her.

“I don’t claim to fully understand cloning technology. But to clone a woman to be pregnant with a genetically distinct fetus in exactly the same stage of pregnancy as the original donor… I don’t know if that is even possible. It’s extremely implausible at a minimum.”

His eyes don’t waver from hers.

“I mean, we can run tests on the fetus to make sure… but I think you have to see this as evidence that I’m actually myself. You see what I’m saying, Mulder? You have to believe me now.”

He looks baffled, shaking his head just once.

“What?” she says quickly. “What is it?”

“I just think it’s incredibly strange that you haven’t asked,” Mulder says.

“What do you mean?”

“About the baby’s father. You haven’t asked. I’d think that would be the most obvious and natural next question.”

She purses her lips. He’s right, of course, and it’s impossible to explain, but she’s afraid. She’s afraid to know. She thinks she knows. Hopes she does. There’s only one answer that really makes sense. There’s only one answer that it could really be.

But what if she’s wrong? What if the world is more upside down than she realizes?

As usual, she is afraid to believe. She hasn’t really stopped shaking. She grabs hold of her own hands and grips them tightly.

“Was I—was I seeing someone?” she asks, hushed, almost a whisper.

“Yes,” he says, his eyes still locked on hers.

“Ah,” she says. “Okay.” Another pause.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to ask?”

“How long?” Her voice is very thin. “How long had the relationship been going on?”

A single tear rolls down his cheek. “Not long enough. Not nearly long enough. Not even six months before you died. There was one long-ass build-up before that, though.”

She stares at him, feeling like she can’t get enough air in her lungs.

“Was it—was it a good relationship?”

“Oh,” Mulder says, swiping the tear away, “I don’t know. The guy was kind of an asshole. But you two were really in sync, lots of practice spending time together.” He wipes again at his moist eyes. “Some parts of it—some parts were very good.”

“Very good?“ she repeats in a tiny voice.

“Yeah,” he says, something between a laugh and a sob, “life changingly good, Scully.”

“And the baby?” Scully whispers. “What did he think about that?”

A pause. “He was happy,” Mulder says. “But he was also worried. Worried there was a catch. It turns out… this guy has a surprisingly hard time believing in miracles. He has a hard time accepting them. He was afraid. Afraid it was a trap.” He rubs his temples. “Later, he regretted that he hadn’t been more excited with you. He should have been more fucking excited. He should have told you how happy he was.”

“I … probably knew.”

“I don’t think you did,” he says. “I don’t. Really. It was such a mistake, the worst mistake a man could make.”

It’s the most broken voice she has ever heard from him. She has no comfort to offer him.

“Later, he realized how happy he’d been about it, really, deep down, in places he couldn’t admit. And how happy he would have been,” Mulder says. “When he realized it wasn’t just you he lost, but the possibility of having a family again. That realization … hit slowly.”

She can’t believe she is hearing these words come out of his mouth. It’s hard for her to hold this truth in her head, that these words about family—about family with her—are being said by Mulder, the same glib Mulder she has known for so long.

He sinks forward, folding at the waist, resting his forehead on his palms, his elbows on his thighs. “I should have told you,” he says, his voice empty. “I should have told you right away that you’d been pregnant. You’re right, your mom was right. I was just so…” He stops. “It’s another way I’ve let you down.”

She doesn’t know what to say, just staring at him helplessly from her chair. He’s right. He should have told her. Still, it’s hard to stay angry with this heartbroken Mulder.

Her impulse is to walk over and place her hand on his back to reassure him, but she doesn’t remember this consummated relationship they apparently had. So she doesn’t quite know if she should touch him. Or how she would have touched him. She wrings her hands, trying to settle herself.

“The doctor estimates the baby is due the first week of January,” she tells him in as calm a voice as she can manage.

“January 2002,” he says. She hears him swallow. “It was originally December 2000.”

His eyes rise to hers. They look at one another. A pensive expression falls over his face.

“I wonder if…” He stops, scowling, disappearing into his thoughts.

“What is it?”

“If it wasn’t your life that was being put on pause,” he says.

Something tightens in her belly unpleasantly as she realizes what he means. For the first time it hits her that there is another person involved now. Her fingers run down her abdomen almost without thinking, and Mulder’s eyes follow them. She lets her hand rest there, over this as-yet very hypothetical baby.

This baby she apparently wanted very much.

“Do you…” He gestures half-heartedly with his hand towards her. “Do you feel okay? You were feeling sick … before.”

“I have thrown up a few times,” admits Scully.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “And you didn’t know why you were throwing up… fuck, I’m sorry.”

She bites down on the edge of her lip, thinking about how different it must have been, before. She’d been getting sick, evidently. Had he been comforting her? In this new and unfamiliar capacity, as whatever it was they were to one another?

“Mulder,” she says, thinking of something. “The sweater on your bed. That’s…?”

He nods, looking away.

“Oh,” she says softly, feeling her own tears well up. “Okay. Right.”

“You want it back?” he says. “I know you don’t have many of your clothes.”

“I … I guess.”

“I’ve been trying to stop sleeping with it. I knew it was probably a healthy step. I just haven’t been able to.”

“I don’t recognize it,” she murmurs. “I must have bought it after 1998.”

“I’ll give it back,” Mulder says. “Don’t worry.”

Is that why he has a bed now—because of their relationship? She feels her cheeks warm. Even the idea that she has been… in that bed, with him, makes her feel unbearably self-conscious.

Mulder is watching her. “Are you feeling all right now?”

“Yes, it’s just so much,” she says, avoiding his eyes. “It’s so much to … absorb.”

“Yeah.” She feels his stare heavily on her for a beat. All at once, he stands up abruptly, walking over to his window, and turns around. “Listen,” he says. “This is important, because I don’t want you to feel like…” He shakes his head. “I know that the woman I was in a relationship with was a different woman.”

“What?” Scully feels anger bubble up inside her again.

“No, no,” he says hastily. “I’m sorry, that’s not what I mean.” He stops, his mouth still open, like the words just won’t come out for a moment. “What I mean is that the woman I was in a relationship with chose to be with me.” He bites his lip, his eyes trailing over her face. “You didn’t. You woke up here pregnant. Chained by a history you don’t even remember to a partner that … like you said, isn’t exactly the man he once was.”

Regret fills her stomach like acid.

“I don’t want you to feel stuck,” he said. “You should still think about San Diego.”

“Oh,” she says. “I see what you mean.”

“I imagine I’d probably want to see the baby sometimes,” he says. “And obviously I’m able to contribute financially, whatever it takes. But I wouldn’t bother you. You’re free. I know you’re just learning all of this, but I just want you to see that.”

She nods, and she looks down at her abdomen again.

“Mulder,” she says, and for the first time since waking up in 2001, she feels entirely certain about what to say to him. “I’m not going to move away.”

“Are you—”

“I’m sure.” With a confidence she doesn’t feel, she stands up and walks to him, touching his shoulder. He flinches slightly. “You’re still my partner. And you’re… apparently my child’s father. But I need you healthy and thinking clearly.” 

He looks at her bewildered, like a small child.

“I also need you to be sure I’m myself,” she adds, studying his reaction. “You’re sure, aren’t you, Mulder?”

There is an unwieldy pause. He shakes his head, dropping his gaze to his feet again for a moment, then looking back up. He smiles a twisted smile.

“I think I knew it was you from the first five minutes.”

She opens her mouth in shock.

“Don’t rule out San Diego,” he says, his voice like gravel. “I’m one fucked up guy, Scully.”

[killed-by-choice]

“Georgia Roe,” 27 (USA 1975)

In 1975, a 27-year-old who was later given the name “Georgia” after her state underwent an abortion at 10 weeks pregnant.

Georgia’s medical history was noted in a later case report. At the age of 8, she had surgery for severe pectus excavatum. Her heart had stopped for 20 minutes, but circulation was maintained and she had no further issues noted until age 20, when possible cardiac enlargement and/or pulmonary edema was noted. A brief course of treatment relieved her and she was noted to have been living a “normal life”.

But at the age of 27, she underwent a hysterectomy abortion (removing the uterus with the fetus still inside) at 10 weeks pregnant.

It is possible that Georgia thought that the abortion would preserve her health. At some point after having three uneventful and healthy births, she had started experiencing pelvic pain, which was identified as chronic cervicitis. At the time of the abortion, she’d had a class 3 Pap smear* and a cervical biopsy showed atypical squamous metaplasia**.

It is also possible that she had the abortion because she just didn’t want another child. She had already given birth to three babies, each one born full-term with no complications from the pregnancy or birth. The reason for the abortion remains unknown.

In the recovery room, Georgia had an occasionally irregular heartbeat and ST depression was noted. Another EKG 2 days later showed "possibly a little more" ST depression. Despite this, the hospital released her after 5 days and did not have her see a doctor for a follow-up.

Georgia’s family members reported that in her last few weeks alive, she suffered from continuous vaginal bleeding. Despite her alarming symptoms and her medical history, Georgia still was not given any follow-up medical treatment.

5 weeks after the abortion, Georgia was in her car on the way to a relative’s funeral. When she got out of the car, she suddenly collapsed and died.

A doctor who had occasionally seen Georgia during her life but had not seen or treated her at any point after the abortion listed her cause of death as “coronary occlusion”, but no autopsy was ever performed.

Georgia was 1 out of 10 known deaths in the state of Georgia to happen to a client who had recently had a legal abortion in 1975. Due to a voluntary and largely ineffective reporting system, it is unknown how many more cases go unreported.

* The now-obsolete class system for papanicolaou smear testing marked the results as a class 3. This means that abnormal cells were detected, but it doesn’t confirm the presence of a dangerous problem and cells marked as class 3 will sometimes become normal again without any treatment at all. The biopsy may have been ordered after the results came back.

** Atypical squamous metaplasia can be precancerous or fully benign. It can come from a virus, hormonal conditions, polyps, menopause and more. It does not necessarily mean that the patient has or will develop cancer, but follow-up testing is usually in order.

[agentbluefox]

Every single state in the US has verbiage allowing abortion (removal of a live, viable fetus) if the life of the mother is in danger or compromised. You can look up the laws - in fact, I encourage you to. You deserve to know your rights, not just what you’re being told. Knowing your rights will save lives. In addition, every doctor follows (or is expected to follow) the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. Knowingly allowing a patient to die is medical malpractice At Best and has nothing to do with abortion laws or Roe v Wade.

Removal of ectopic pregnancies and any type of removal, surgical or chemical, of a dead or miscarried fetus, are not abortions and are not classified as such. The arguments I’ve seen state that these types of pregnancies have heartbeats and so cannot be removed. A quick google search will disprove that.

This varies based on personal opinion - certainly there are those who will oppose abortion under any circumstances - but most politicians (including Trump) have stated there should be exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and even fetal anomaly. Not to mention, the overturning of Roe v Wade pushed the entire issue of abortion back to the states, so that the federal government ISN’T in charge of your abortion access or your medical decisions beyond, again, when the mother’s life is at risk. However, further pushing for singular universal government healthcare will put any and all medical decisions into the hands of the federal government. There’s an old saying that if you don’t want the other side to have just as much power and control as you have right now, you should limit that power and control.

As another poster said, the trans topic is a separate issue and once again, I encourage anyone affected to read the bills that were passed under the Trump administration and under the Biden/Harris administration. I worked in a school (albeit a small one), and was ‘loaned' to a few public schools through both administrations, in what used to be a fairly conservative part of the country. Never under any circumstances are teachers to be alone, unsupervised with a child. Nor should they be. Unfortunately, sexual assault is far too common in the school system. But unless the constitution is going to be overturned and every non-discrimination and child-protective policy thrown out the window, nobody should be legally checking children’s genitals. I’m guessing OP is relying on the “don’t say gay” bill passed in Florida as proof all that will soon be legal. I encourage you to read that bill too if you can. Once again, a whole separate topic.

I don’t say any of this to attack op, though I keep seeing posts and videos like this, all repeating what are essentially talking points. And all this does is further fear, based largely on assumption and emotion. That’s a dangerous combination for anyone, but especially for those who might be affected. Start asking questions, start reading the laws that affect your own body, your own freedoms, and those of the people you care about.

To the men who voted for Donald Trump today:

When your girlfriend gets pregnant, and you’re not ready to become a father, and you’re forced into a position that cripples you emotionally, financially and irreversibly, remember: you did this.

When your sister’s pregnancy turns out to be ectopic, and she can’t get the life-saving medical care she needs and dies a completely pointless, preventable death, remember: you did this.

When your 12-year-old daughter is raped by her soccer coach — after he’s legally allowed to strip off her pants and peep at her genitals, because the existence of trans kids terrifies you — and she steals your shotgun and kills herself in your garage, remember, first and foremost: you did this.

Hundreds of thousands of people are going to die because of the decision you made today.

You did that.

[sunshinehealthcarelimited]

How Does Ultrasound Scan in Accra Work?

An ultrasound scan is a widely used medical imaging technique that uses high-frequency sound waves to create visual images of the inside of the body. This non-invasive and safe procedure is commonly performed for various reasons, from diagnosing health conditions to monitoring pregnancy. If you're in Accra and looking to understand more about ultrasound scans, especially for pregnancy, this guide will walk you through the process, the different types of scans available, and why Sunshine Healthcare Ltd is the best choice for your ultrasound needs.

What Is an Ultrasound Scan?

An ultrasound scan uses sound waves that are too high-pitched for the human ear to hear. These sound waves are transmitted through the body via a probe, and when they bounce off tissues and organs, they create images that can be seen on a screen. This imaging method is incredibly useful in diagnosing a variety of medical conditions, including issues with organs, blood vessels, and even monitoring the development of a fetus during pregnancy.

Types of Ultrasound Scans Available in Accra

At Sunshine Healthcare Ltd, we provide different types of ultrasound scans to cater to various medical needs:

Abdominal Ultrasound Scan: Used to examine the organs in the abdomen such as the liver, kidneys, and bladder.

Pelvic Ultrasound Scan: Commonly performed to examine the bladder, ovaries, and uterus.

Obstetric Ultrasound Scan: This includes Pregnancy scan in Accra and is used to monitor the progress and development of a pregnancy.

Cardiac Ultrasound (Echocardiogram): Helps assess the health and function of the heart.

How Does an Ultrasound Scan Work in Accra?

Preparation: Depending on the type of ultrasound, you may need to follow certain instructions. For example, if you’re having an abdominal scan, you might be asked to fast for a few hours before the procedure.

During the Scan: A gel is applied to the area being scanned. This gel helps the sound waves travel through the skin. The ultrasound probe, which is a small handheld device, is then moved over the area. It emits high-frequency sound waves and captures the returning echoes.

Results: The images are instantly displayed on a screen for the technician to analyze. These images are often recorded and sent to your doctor, who will interpret the results.

Pregnancy Scan in Accra: A Vital Tool for Expecting Mothers

A pregnancy scan in Accra is essential for monitoring the health and development of the fetus throughout the pregnancy. At Sunshine Healthcare Ltd, we provide comprehensive obstetric ultrasound services to ensure that both mother and baby are well cared for.

Early Pregnancy Scan: Usually done within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy to confirm the pregnancy, check for fetal heartbeats, and estimate the due date.

Anatomy Scan: Performed around 18-22 weeks, it provides a detailed view of the baby’s organs and growth.

Growth and Wellbeing Scan: Conducted in the third trimester to ensure that the baby is growing well and check for any potential complications.

Why Choose Sunshine Healthcare Ltd for Ultrasound Scan in Accra?

State-of-the-art Equipment: We use the latest ultrasound technology to ensure high-quality, clear images for accurate diagnosis.

Experienced Staff: Our certified ultrasound technicians are highly skilled and committed to providing you with a comfortable experience.

Comprehensive Services: From pregnancy scans to general diagnostic ultrasound, we offer a wide range of ultrasound services tailored to your needs.

Convenient Location: Located in Accra, we offer easy access for patients seeking professional ultrasound services.

Personalized Care: We understand that medical scans can be stressful, and our team is dedicated to offering compassionate and supportive care every step of the way.

Conclusion

If you are in Accra and in need of an ultrasound scan or pregnancy scan, Sunshine Healthcare Ltd is your trusted partner. Whether you're seeking a routine check-up or specialized pregnancy monitoring, our professional team and advanced equipment ensure you receive the highest quality of care. Book your appointment today and experience the difference with Sunshine Healthcare Ltd!

Source:- https://www.maiyro.com/posts/rkrh04vm

[comparatorclock]

Oh, also, I saw your question about heartbeats being a life sign

That depends!

It depends both before birth, and after birth

For example, a human who has been born, let's say an adult man, can be declared brain dead while still having a heartbeat. The person is dead, but their heart is (often artificially) still beating, and they still count as dead because there is no way to make their brain work again.

However, someone's heart can stop beating, but if you artificially start it again before the brain has died, you can save the person! You can also use a pacemaker to keep a heart beating even when it won't on its own, as long as the brain is alive

For fetuses, the first "heart beats" come from a clump of cells that are going to develop into a full heart later, they start contracting before the heart has fully grown. This is why some people who were born too early can have holes in their hearts where it didn't finish growing, but they were able to survive an early birth despite it because it worked just well enough to keep a small child alive. They require surgery to stay healthy and alive though

A fetus can be considered "incompatible with life" which means that it is so sick or disabled that it will either be born dead, die at birth, or die shortly after birth. They are still alive at that point, depending on definition, but they're a huge risk to the mother's health and will either 100% die or is at such huge risk of death that it is not worth it, because the family would have an extremely drawn out grieving process while the mother is in bad health or also dying. It is very sad, and no one wants to go through that, especially if it's a planned pregnancy, and these people deserve compassion and a choice

There are many sad possibilities on the road of pregnancy, regardless of whether someone chose pregnancy or not they should have the option to back out when the worst happens. To be able to do that, they need the choice to back out whenever, because they cannot wait for a court ruling

Abortion is lifesaving

ok fair on the heartbeat thing - clearly, it should be a question of a combination of multiple different lifesigns then (in this case primarily heart + brain).

As for the baby's-death-is-inevitable scenario, that does sound tragic - and indeed, that does seem like it would fall under the stillbirth/miscarriage category. However, is it morally okay for there to be the murder of the child in that situation so as to hasten the inevitable? In that scenario, someone would have blood on their hands, and guilt will occur in the psyche of everyone involved. Is preventing a scenario of double-death really morally worth killing one of those 2 early? (yes this is rapidly devolving into trolley problem territory :-/)

Lastly, maybe the court system is incredibly inefficient and that such inefficiency is an incredibly massive ill/evil affecting all of society - not to mention the typical court case bankrupts those involved via court fees. The entire judicial system needs a massive overhaul to be less costly for those involved, more efficient, and much faster. But I suppose this is a tangent to the question.

[salora-rainriver]

[cw] abortion, rabies, euthanasia, animal death.

shitty pseudo-poem or whatever. I keep getting nonsense on the fyp, and I just,

==

I find myself so frustrated with the state of the debate. Everyone's asking the wrong question: "when does life begin" "if a fetus human" the answer to that question doesn't matter.

it's moot. can't you see how pointless this argument is?

Every day, an innocent human life is ended by a doctor. and it's acceptable. you allow it. you may have even signed off on it. We have a word for those acts. it isn't murder.

Picture this:

You're standing on the side of a road. It's night. A black shape races towards you, mouth foaming, gait erratic, a rabid dog. there's a gun in your hand. what do you do? there's only one thing you can.

Do you know what rabies is? it's a virus that targets the brain. It melts your neurons into slurry. Your body prickles, you see things that aren't there. Water terrifies you, you can't drink and can't sleep. Nothing can save you now, there is no cure. You are dying,

That dog is dying, suffering at the hands of one of the most terrible diseases we know. Nothing makes sense as their body breaks down. Existence has become an endless nightmare. Viruses are not alive. No evil has caused this. There is no villain to enact judgment upon. There is nothing you can do for the dog, as it drools and snarls and lunges at you, except to pull the trigger. End its nightmare.

but, you cry, a fetus is not a rabid dog! and there are vaccines for rabies, you have time after it bites you, you don't have to shoot the dog!

… Sure. Perhaps the analogy isn't perfect. But if anything that makes it worse. Rabies is one of the most certain diseases in the world. As soon as symptoms appear, you're as good as dead, and you can recognize a rabid dog at a distance, with a flashlight in the dark. Most fatal pregnancy complications are not so certain.

You can't be sure if the dog inside her belly is rabid. You can't be sure if the rabies will spread. You can't know if it will kill her. or itself. or both.

And it's that uncertainty that terrifies.

That is worse than the suffering and pain as a process we revere, as the origin of ourselves, all goes horrifically wrong. the organs are in the wrong place. Its heartbeat is weak. it's draining your strength like a parasite.

how do you know if it will live? how do you know if you will live?

You remember how women used to die before modern medicine. You think you might start to bleed from the inside. You don't know if you can hold on, or if you need to pull the trigger.

will your child forgive you for giving up on them? will they understand? How many tests, how much monitoring, how many nights alone as your fears run rampant will you need, before you can finally know for sure?

and when you make that decision, as the doctors pull from you the clump of broken flesh and sever the umbilical chord, as the half-formed human being finally ceases to be, what does that make you?

a murderer? no.

there's a word we have for this, for when we hold the life of another in our hands, like Atropa holds the thread, for when it suffers, sick and in pain, for when its days are numbered, for when we grant it a final mercy, for when we pull the scissor blades closed.

it's not murder, but euthanasia.

but you don't like that word, you refuse to use it. because 'murder' is such a clean word, isn't it? there is a villain, there is a victim. it's a word to rally behind. a word to inspire, rage, valor, and action.

Euthanasia makes us uncomfortable. no one wants to cut the thread, but no one wants to watch a loved one suffer a slow death.

the problem with euthanasia is that so often we truly can't ever know. could that old dog have lived? hobbled along for a few more happy days? could your father recover, stand to go on a decade more? it's not fair, is it? it's not fair that mortal men have to make these choices.

but we have to. every doctor that is trained to save lives, is also trained to end them. each one holds a poisoned pill, just in case nothing more can be done.

every time a patient is terminal, they have to ask, when? how long should I wait before I give up on them? when exactly, should I cut their thread?

this decision is no less difficult for the very old, or the very young.

oh, but these lives don't feel. that should make it so much easier, there is no suffering you're saving them from, just the impatience of the mother.

It would be so easy then, because there's only one decision, to leave the decision to god. Wash your hands of responsibility. ... oh if only humans hatched from eggs.

but we don't. that failing life is tied to another. you cannot back away, and now you have double the uncertainty, will the dying fetus kill its own mother? how can you know? how can you truly know? if you sever its tie to the mother, if you sever its thread of life, can you prove this was your only choice?

because if you don't, as the courts have decreed, your thread will be the next one severed.

you murderer.

… except I lied. the court doesn't care to rule on matters of euthanasia. not right now. not for a fetus. they don't care if it will live, they care if it's alive now.

is its heart beating? has it developed a brain? is it a human or a clump of cells? is it a child or a corpse? does the body belong to itself, or to the mother? do human beings have souls, and when exactly do we gain one?

these are not the questions you ask when you send the family dog to a final, peaceful sleep. these are not the questions you ask at the deathbed of a loved one. but they are the questions you ask at an abortion clinic. they're the questions you ask when deciding to ban abortion clinics,

for some reason.

Picture this:

you hold the life of a half-made human in your hands, as it is intertwined with that of another.

the threads are withering. the bodies are strangling each other to an early end with the fleshy chord that unites them,

you cut the chord. one thread is severed. the other may have been saved. maybe. you'll never know for sure.

the protestors standing outside your doors are shouting 'murderer', but you have ended so many lives before, the lives of the sick, the old, the dying, you've killed them because they asked for it, because their families could not support them, because they were in pain and begged for mercy, because a fast death is better than a slow one. but this one matters more, this life, so fragile, so weak, never awake to experience anything, doomed before it could ever truly live, this clump of cells that we can't even agree on the humanity of, this is what paints your hands red…. … because we can't agree?

how backwards is this reasoning? what madness has befallen us as a people, what did we think was the role of a doctor,

if not to do exactly this?

[alex51324]

So I read this article a few days ago, and I have been haunted by it ever since.

This young woman, Nevaeh, had an "oops" pregnancy. As you may have already guessed, she was from a Christian background--her name, "Heaven," spelled backwards, is popular in Evangelical circles. She, "believed abortion was morally wrong," and "didn’t care whether the government banned it," since she wouldn't have chosen to have one anyway.

Instead, she decided to carry the pregnancy to term and raise the baby, with the support of her mother and her boyfriend, the baby's father. Her boyfriend, the baby's father, gave her a diamond promise ring, and she picked out a name--Lillian--and planned a baby shower.

On the day of the baby shower, she felt unwell, then developed a fever and began vomiting. Her mother took to her to the ER, where she was given a prescription for antibiotics and sent home. A few hours later, she felt even worse, and her mother took her to the other hospital in their town, which had an obstetric emergency room. They did some tests, including checking the fetal heart rate, and told her the baby was fine. The gave her IV fluids and antibiotics, recorded her increasing fever, fast pulse, and high fetal heart rate, and sent her home again. She had to be taken out to the car in a wheelchair, because her pain was so bad.

A few hours later, she started bleeding, and they went back to the hospital with the obstetric emergency department. There, a different doctor did an ultrasound and was unable to find a fetal heartbeat.

Under Texas law, a medical practitioner faces up to 99 years in prison for performing any intervention that ends a fetal heartbeat. So, at this point, the doctors were free to treat her like a seriously ill human being, and not an ambulatory vessel for a life more valuable than her own--however, they hadn't recorded the first ultrasound. To ensure they could demonstrate compliance with the law, the doctor ordered a second one.

Somehow, that ended up taking about an hour and a half, during which time Neveah's condition got worse. By the time the second ultrasound was done, and the doctor was able to order a D&C to remove the deceased fetus, she was too weak to sign the release forms--her mother had to sign for her.

Before they got her into the operating room, she was dead.

If they were going to make an exception for anybody, they would have made one for her: a pro-life, Christian girl, who responded to her unplanned pregnancy by getting excited about becoming a mom. Who was not just unwell, not just in danger, but actually dying when she was refused care.

The Texas fetal heartbeat law does have an exception when the mother's life is at immediate risk. However, the Texas Attorney General has made clear--and several Trump-appointed judges have backed him up--to Texas doctors that they will be charged with homicide if he, who has no medical credentials whatsoever, disagrees with their professional judgment that a procedure which ended a fetal heartbeat was necessary to safe the life of the mother. That's why the doctor needed that second ultrasound.

That's probably why the other two doctors sent Nevaeh home: they couldn't be accused of an intervention that ended the fetal heartbeat, if they didn't intervene.

The leopards that eat people's faces, like all predators, go for the most vulnerable members of the herd. The guy up front on the podium, getting rich off bloviating about how leopards just have to eat a person's face from time to time, he's safe--not because of any loyalty on the part of the leopards, but because others in the group are softer targets.

Like I said, I'd been haunting me.

The Shirley Exception

[johnnyrobish]

Texas Atty. Gen Paxton Threatens Hospitals, Doctors, and Woman With Pregnancy Complications

Not long after Texas Judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring the state of Texas from preventing a woman who has severe pregnancy complications from having an abortion, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent out threatening letters to Texas hospitals informing them that the TRO is temporary and that Texas will go after any hospital or doctor that provides pregnant Katie Cox with the necessary abortion. He then petitioned the conservative Texas Supreme Court, who then (as expected) overruled the lower court’s decision, thereby placing the woman’s abortion status in limbo.  The fetus Katie Cox is carrying suffers from Edwards Syndrome, a fetal anomaly that, 50% of the time, results in the fetus dying before or during birth, with 95 percent of those surviving past that dying painful deaths within the next two weeks.  Doctors have advised Cox the pregnancy is non-viable, and proceeding with it carries significant risks to her own future health.

So, it appears both a doctor and a judge approve of her urgent need to get an abortion, but the Texas Taliban does not.  Gee, what fun it must be to live in a state governed by religious fanatics.  All I can say is - its a damn shame Time Magazine doesn’t also do a “Jerk of the Year” award.  Why Kenny Paxton would be a shoo-in.  That said, I fully understand why this whole abortion issue is so important to Republicans.  After all, if you’re a Republican, every fetus that gets aborted represents a child who will never get to own a gun.  Can’t have that.

Is it just me, or does it just seem like yesterday when MAGAs were warning everyone about the dangers of “Sharia Law?”  And yet here it is - right here in Texas - same thing - courtesy of Texas Republicans.  Christian Nationalism implementing their own special brand of “Sharia Law.”  Fact is, Republicans think the slogan, “My Body, My Choice,” should only apply to ”anti-vax" freaks, and everyone else had better just “shut the f**k up and do what we tell you.”

Now, am I the only one who thinks it rather ironic these Christofascists passed an infamous “Heartbeat Law” in Texas when not a single one of them appears to have something even close to anything resembling a human heart?  I mean, a woman’s doctor who argued her health would be at risk if she carried this fetus to fruition has been overruled by a religious zealot named Ken Paxton, who is under the mistaken impression that he is not only a lawyer, but also a doctor - and a “human being.”

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, please consider joining me at:

[independentartistbuzz]

Sebastian Reynolds Does It Again on Ambient Dance Single + Video for "Fetus"

Out today is  “Fetus,” the second single from Oxford, UK-based electronic composer Sebastian Reynolds‘ from his new album Canary, out September 29th via PinDrop. Reynolds describes “Fetus” as “a modern classical dreamscape for a disrupted mindstate.”

Where the claustrophobic leadoff single “Cascade” confronts the horrors of terrorism (while still managing to be dance-y), “Fetus” creates a hallucinatory sense of spaciousness that recalls film composers Hans Zimmer, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and experimental cellist Oliver Coates.

Reynolds explains: “Our son was born asleep on 24th July 2020, and I composed ‘Fetus’ as a tribute to Noah and is shared with love and empathy for all those affected by tragedies such as this.”

“Fetus” combines haunting piano, chiming Thai Gong Circle, a heart-stopping cello performance from Stornoway’s Jonathan Ouin, and vocal samples from Cornish singer Sarah Tresidder.

Inspired by Susumu Yokota, Luigi Nono, Olivier Messiaen, Stockhausen, and Thom Yorke, Canary‘s soundscapes visit upon traumas like the stillbirth of a child, the death of one’s parents and survival after a bomb attack, as well as themes like the fragmentation of our collective cognition, the awakening of machine intelligence and Pali Buddhist notions of consciousness.

As always, Reynolds remains intent on preserving a sense of meaning in his hybrid of programmed and organic sounds.

Born to a computer-engineer mom who worked for Research Machines, Sebastian Reynolds grew up “surrounded by dusty, strange machines that played games from cassettes.” Naturally, he was drawn to electronic production before he ever picked up a “real” instrument. But when he started kicking around in bands, his music acquired a living-breathing-sweating essence that it’s maintained over his 25-year career. This is, after all, an artist who named one of his releases Nihilism Is Pointless…

His new album Canary, however, raises the bar with soul-stirring meditation on life, death and the afterlife in the wake of his mother’s passing, followed not long thereafter by the stillbirth of his son. Influenced by what he describes as the aural “dreamworld” created by Susumu Yokota, as well as the post-traumatic shell shock that galvanized the compositions of Luigi Nono, Olivier Messiaen, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Reynolds is especially adapt at blurring the line between mechanical and organic sound sources.

Reynolds hybridizes programmed and played sound sources not like some gleeful modern-day Frankenstein/Kurzweil who’s lost perspective on what it means to be alive, but as someone who sees electronic music as a fertile medium to express meaning.  As a teenager growing up in Oxford, England during the ’90s, Reynolds was close to ground zero when Radiohead showed that they could conserve the humanity of their music, even as they plunged head-first into a kind of digital abyss.

Similarly, though Canary peers over the edge of the precipice we all find ourselves facing today — a bomb going off, the fragmentation of our collective mindscape, the awakening of machine intelligence, a child’s life cut-off at birth, and the quotidian reality of living the rest of one’s life without their parents — Reynolds always manages to locate a heartbeat in his electro-organic mélange of sounds.

Reynolds has collaborated with Anne Müller (Erased Tapes) and Alex Stolze (Bodi Bill), Mike Bannard at The Aviary, and others. Sebastian also continues to work on commissions for Neon Dance. His projects have received airtime across the BBC and beyond.

[nursingscience]

Awesome Heart – The Busiest Man in our Body

🔹

Read this and know what your heart is doing everyday.

Following are the list of facts about our heart.

Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.

The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.

Though weighing only 11 ounces on average, a healthy heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day.

The volume of blood pumped by the heart can vary over a wide range, from five to 30 liters per minute.

Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen.

The fetal heart rate is approximately twice as fast as an adult’s, at about 150 beats per minute. By the time a fetus is 12 weeks old, its heart pumps an amazing 60 pints of blood a day.

The heart pumps blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells. Only the corneas receive no blood supply.

During an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million gallons of blood—enough to fill 200 train tank cars.

Five percent of blood supplies the heart, 15-20% goes to the brain and central nervous system, and 22% goes to the kidneys.

The “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing.

The heart does the most physical work of any muscle during a lifetime. The power output of the heart ranges from 1-5 watts. While the quadriceps can produce 100 watts for a few minutes, an output of one watt for 80 years is equal to 2.5 gigajoules.

The heart begins beating at four weeks after conception and does not stop until death.

A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in circulation. An adult human has about four to five quarts which the heart pumps to all the tissues and to and from the lungs in about one minute while beating 75 times.

The heart pumps oxygenated blood through the aorta (the largest artery) at about 1 mile (1.6 km) per hour. By the time blood reaches the capillaries, it is moving at around 43 inches (109 cm) per hour.

An anonymous contributor to the Hippocratic Collection (or Canon) believed vessel valves kept impurities out of the heart, since the intelligence of man was believed to lie in the left cavity.

Some heavy snorers may have a condition called obtrusive sleep apnea (OSA), which can negatively affect the heart.

Cocaine affects the heart’s electrical activity and causes spasm of the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke, even in healthy people.

A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heart of an average man beats approximately 70 times a minute, whereas the average woman has a heart rate of 78 per minute.

Blood is actually a tissue. When the body is at rest, it takes only six seconds for the blood to go from the heart to the lungs and back, only eight seconds for it to go the brain and back, and only 16 seconds for it to reach the toes and travel all the way back to the heart.

Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood.