An NYU grad student has found a unique way to way to use Twitter. Corey Menscher, whose wife Ellen is eight months pregnant with the couple’s first baby, figured out a novel way to have Twitter notify him every time the baby kicks. For a class project, he invented a pregnancy belt he dubbed the Kickbee, made of a “stretchable band with embedded electronics and sensors” that “transmit small but detectable voltages when they are triggered by movement underneath.” The signals are then wirelessly transmitted to an accompanying Java application via Bluetooth.

In last weekend’s edition of the New York Times Magazine, Alex Kuczynski, the author of Beauty Junkies, writes about having a baby by surrogate in “Her Body, My Baby.” In her late 30s, Kuczynski couldn’t get pregnant. Over the course of several years, she tried in vitro fertilization and miscarried multiple times. Finally, she found a surrogate mother who would carry, as she puts it, “the product of my egg and my husband’s sperm.” It’s a story about the lengths a woman will go to have a baby—but it’s also a story only a wealthy woman could tell, as Kuczynksi and her financier husband spent over $100,000 to make her baby dreams come true. (The surrogate was paid $25,000 for the use of her womb.) In the article’s comments, readers are tearing Kuczynski apart, deeming her a “disgusting… spoiled brat” and a “rich, self-obsessed snob,” while far fewer others are commending her for telling her story at all. So, what do you think? Has the high-tech business of baby-making gone too far? Or is having a baby by any means necessary a 21st century fertility reality?

2006 was a year of unprotected sex for me. No, not every time, but I started off the year with a fling with a slightly older man I was besotted with, who didn’t speak a word about condoms, and, in response, I didn’t either. I wanted to trust that he had some magical knowledge that somehow I was missing, that maybe the world had overturned itself and they were no longer necessary. I was wrong, and after a pregnancy panic as I searched for Plan B—this was right before it was so readily available—I escaped unscathed. Then later that year I met a guy I fell absolutely head over heels with, sure that we were destined to be together.

“I’m with a man who’s evolved enough to look at my body and see it as more beautiful because of the journey it has taken and what it has created. He genuinely sees it that way. So I genuinely feel sexier.”—Angelina Jolie in W

This Pill, which started the sexual revolution by preventing pregnancy, has also been accused of casting a curse on libido. A couple of the women interviewed for Time Out New York’s Sex Issue made it sound like the pill is damaging to their sexual desire and ruined their physical need to be ravaged.  It’s ironic that the thing that makes women able to engage in slightly more carefree sex is also conversely making them chaste, eh?  One of the women, referred to as “Ditched The Pill,”, who had been struggling with her lack of interest in having sex with her boyfriend, noted, “When I went off it, my libido skyrocketed; suddenly it was easy again.”  Is the pill that powerful?

For more than a decade, my best friend has been a gay guy. I don’t really even like qualifying him as a “gay guy,” since his gayness is such a non-issue in our relationship and in my perception of him. Part of that may be the type of gay he is, or more accurately, the type of gay he isn’t. He never knows, for example, when it’s Pride weekend, and he doesn’t own anything rainbow, and he doesn’t even like Madonna. He does, however, love “Project Runway” as much as I do and his home is so beautifully designed, it would give Martha Stewart an inferiority complex. Sometimes after we’ve had a few bottles of wine — as we’re known to do — and we’re good and lubricated, he’ll slide in a comment about the possibility of us making a kid together. Usually, it’ll be a remark about what great hair it would have or how it would surely inherit the same square Flintstone feet we both share. I’ll chuckle and reply with some quip about it also inheriting the same flightiness we both have, too, and then I’ll change the subject.

“I am a new mother of my fourth child. During the last couple of months of my pregnancy, my husband was uncomfortable having sex with me. I felt rejected, but kind of understood. This led to a good three months of no sex. By the time we DID it, it was awkwardly uncomfortable for me. I still felt like a whale. It is now two months since that first time, and we’re still not at normal speed. We used to have sex at least twice per week. The last time we had sex was three weeks ago. I feel rejected, further, and I have no confidence to initiate anything. I feel lonely and heartbroken. I love him, and I have no intentions of leaving him, but I can’t imagine allowing him to see me naked again. Is it possible to put off sex until I lose more baby-weight? I know that it could boost my confidence to tone up and give my body a good makeover. Can a relationship survive no sex during the time it would take to lose about 30 pounds?”—New Mom In Crisis, via email

Teenage pregnancy is trendier than metrosexual manscaping.  From celebs like Jamie Lynn Spears to preggers Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of the Republican VP hopeful, baby bumps on babies are popping up in the most conspicuous places. In the current climate where children are exposed to sexuality through pop culture, Planned Parenthood is more needed than ever.  Yet despite their efforts, they’ve come under fire from conservative groups for their recent campaign, Take Care Down There.  We posted some love for these cheeky PSA’s back in April when the site launched, but after a cross-country summer tour, the safe-sex advocates have been getting crap for their sense of humor.  Planned Parenthood has said they are trying to appeal to their young audience through relatable slang and situations without confusing their messages with fear mongering and scientific lingo.  However, conservative groups are claiming Planned Parenthood isn’t taking the situation seriously by supporting safe-sex and masturbation via comedy sketches that the abstinence-only supported find hokey. But petty arguments aside, with one in four teenage girls already infected with an STD and teen pregnancy on the rise for the first time in almost 15 years, something has got to be done…besides all those teenagers. [ABC News]

When Sally was seven weeks pregnant, her doctor said he was 99% sure she’d had a miscarriage. But she didn’t want to believe him. So in the restroom of a restaurant in San Francisco, she peed on a stick (or seven) and against all her expectations, got two blue lines.

Meanwhile, my friend Cat was so eager to find out whether she was with child that she dashed into the local Burger King toilet to take a test, despite being a vegetarian.

And Linda took her test in a supermarket restroom on the way to a Weight Watchers meeting… which she never got around to going to.

I used to think that pregnancy was a pretty private thing – at least until the belly starts to pop and strangers want to rub it. My mom and other women of her generation all went to their gynecologist or the privacy of their own bathrooms if they wanted to know if they were knocked up or not.

Nowadays, we modern gals are too busy to worry about spawning.  It might be on some of our to do lists, but according to a 2006 survey, one in five women never have a baby. That’s double the number of childless women in 1976! While 30 years ago, 59% of women had at least three kids, now only 28% have popped that many out. The U.S. Census Bureau, who conducted the survey, speculates that societal factors, like people trying to conceive later because of careers and education, fertility rates steadily dropping since the ‘80s, and a wide range of socially accepted birth control options, are all adding up to less brats, er, bundles of joy.  Now you can point fingers at the empowered products of women’s lib all you want, but we’re willing to bet there’s an underlying economic issue here too. For instance, the birth rate keeps going down while college tuition keeps going up. Coincidence? We think not. Kids cost a lot more than condoms. [The Guardian]

Brangelina just had twins and the magazine covers of OK! and Star are at it again, claiming that Brad’s ex, Jennifer Aniston, is desperate to not be far behind on the procreation bandwagon. While Aniston’s rep denied the rumor today, we still find the story to be pretty messed up.  First of all, Jennifer went from being America’s Sweetheart to America’s #1 Cougar in the span of just a few years. And sure, she’s headed straight for the big 4-0, but we didn’t see anyone flinch when 50-something bachelor George Clooney went monogamous with Sarah Larson a few months ago (albeit just for a bit).  No one was putting him on the cover of their trash mag claiming he wanted to settle down and spawn. Not every lady’s biological clock is ticking.

The Pill is a miracle.  It’s 99% effective at preventing pregnancy, which is almost as good as you’re gonna get from abstinence. We said almost. While 12 million American women rely on the oral contraceptive to stop them from going prematurely preggos (Ashlee Simpson must not have gotten the memo), it’s unfortunately not indomitable. There are still five ways you can get pregnant while pill popping. Have your cervix take notes.

1. Alcohol: Since spirits lodge themselves in your liver, just like the pill, binge-drinking affects the way the medication is metabolized there.