Word: fetal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...reduce wind resistance, racers tuck into a fetal-like position, their noses a mere foot from the ground. They don't even breathe during the 13-to- 15-sec. run, since doing so would relax their muscles. "It is a fight against air, which feels more like concrete at that speed," says French speedster Nicolas Bollon. Officially recognized by the International Ski Federation only in 1988, the sport has had an understandably hard time shaking its kamikaze reputation. Still, aficionados contend that it is reasonably sane and safe, at least relatively speaking. France's Michael Prufer, the world's fastest...
...Jacobson was giving patients hormone treatments that simulated the effects of early pregnancy. At hearings before a committee of the Virginia Board of Medicine in 1989, several women wept as they described how Jacobson would show them sonograms of what he said was their fetus, pointing out nonexistent heartbeats, fetal movements and thumb-sucking. He would give them fetal snapshots to take home -- only to announce several weeks later that their baby had died...
Some users swear by the tapes. Melissa Farrell of Lake Wallenpaupack, Pa., had always thought that reading aloud would affect the unborn. When she became pregnant, the electronic fetal-improvement system seemed a good way to give daughter Muryah Elizabeth "as much of an opportunity as possible and see if it would stimulate her thought process." Though only 21 months old, Muryah plays with toys designed for youngsters twice her age, Farrell says. In Kirkland, Wash., Lisa Altig is using the tapes for a third time. Her two children, Natalie, 3, and Richie, 18 months, were relaxed babies...
Many medical experts, however, remain skeptical. Dr. Thomas Easterling, who teaches obstetrics at the University of Washington, believes the idea of fetal improvement is possible but doubts Logan's claims for his belt. Parents who try the tapes, says Dr. Kathryn Clark, a San Francisco obstetrician and mother of a one-year-old, are "highly motivated people who would have been doing some kind of nurturing anyway." Also, she points out, prenatals do respond to sound and become restless, but "we don't necessarily know that they like it. They might want to get away from...
Although ultrasound tests are used almost routinely on fetuses, Dr. Curt Bennett, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, says there is a possibility that the baby tapes could be harmful. "Sound waves that are too intense might have fetal consequences," he says. The better-baby belt, he adds, "is an intervention after all, and it does have the potential to be risky...