EW! So disgusting! Some kooky designer in London is turning afterbirth placentas into teddy bears. First, London-based Alex Green cures the placenta with salt to kill bacteria; then Green softens the organ with a mixture of eggs and tannins so it’ll take on the appearance of suede or leather. (Instead of, you know, a bloody organ that was chilling in your womb for nine months.) Green said he cuts up the placenta, sews it into a five-inch tall stuffed animal shape and fills the placenta teddy bear up with brown rice. He claims he wants to provoke “a debate about placentas and how we treat them,” noting that some people plant the placenta in the backyard and grow and tree, while in China, the placenta is somethings eaten for strength. Fair enough, but I, for one, think I’ll be more careful around friends who’ve just popped out a baby. [ABC News]

It’s amazing what you can sell on Craigslist these days. But instead of being amused, one mother got the shock of her life when she looked online and saw that her baby was up for adoption. A woman tipped off Massachusetts mother, Brenna, after she saw an ad on Craigslist for the adoption of Brenna’s son, Jacob. Worried and confused, Brenna checked out the ad. Turns out some man was using her son’s picture in an online adoption scam. The post advertised the adoption of a Canadian baby boy living in a orphanage in Cameroon, even though Jacob was safe at home in Massachusetts. He’d taken the picture of Jacob from his family’s public blog on Wordpress. [CNN]

On Monday, eight-months-pregnant Darlene Haynes of Massachusetts was found dead in her bedroom, her unborn baby cut from her womb. Amazingly, this tragic murder has a silver lining: Darlene’s baby girl has been found alive. Police found the baby with one of Darlene’s friends, Julie A. Corey, in New Hampshire yesterday. When some of Darlene’s friends heard about the grisly murder, they tipped off authorities that they had seen Corey shortly before, carrying around a newborn girl. Corey claimed she had recently given birth, “sometime” between July 23th and 24th, and couldn’t remember the name of the Massachusetts hospital where she’d had the baby. Corey is currently charged with being a fugitive from justice, but something tells me that in the end she’ll be charged with something much stronger. Police are currently investigating what happened in this heinous crime. The most important part is that Darlene’s baby girl is healthy and getting proper medical attention. [CNN]

Cameron Diaz thinks your kids are bad for the environment.

Well, no, not really. But she told Cosmopolitan she thinks women shouldn’t be pressured into procreating or “shunned” for not having kids because “honestly, we don’t need anymore kids. We have plenty of people on this planet already.”

While we agree with Cameron that it’s b.s. women still get hassled for not raising rugrats, we can think of far better reasons than old Mother Nature for staying childless. Our reasons, after the jump…

Home is the new OB/GYN. Not only can you take a pregnancy test in the comfort of your own home, but you can test the gender of your baby, too. Intelligender, an at-home kit for determining the sex of a baby, is on the market.

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.

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]

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.

It’s a rare man with super sperm that can impregnate a woman when the two of them are in their seventies. The late conservative Senator Strom Thurmond, fathered a child at 74, comedian Charlie Chaplin helped his wife conceive at 73, and abstract artist Picasso made a baby at 68. And all this was before Viagra! Now science has made things possible for any Tom, Dick, and Harry with in-vitro fertilization.  Thanks to IVF,  Charam Singh, who is in his mid-70’s, and his 70 year-old wife just gave birth to twins over the weekend in India.  Congratulations?! So we get why Angelina Jolie wants to spawn over and over again with Brad Pitt, but why on earth would this woman want to take a loan out to pay all the expensive medical bills, not to mention take her va-jane out of retirement?  The Panwars already had two daughters and five grandchildren together, but it wasn’t enough for them. They wanted, and finally got, a male heir to pass their family farm onto. Thanks chauvinism!  [BBC via Dlisted]

Kids grow up so fast these days.  By 3rd grade, I had definitely played pretend bride, but a girl in Yemen was forced to do it for reals. At the bold age of eight, her parents married her off to a man over four times her age. It’s all fun and games until someone gets raped and beaten. Abandoned, alone, abused, what is a girl to do? Be her own superhero. Nojoud Mohammed Ali (no relation to the fighter) is a champion!  After escaping her husband’s home, she managed to find her way to a courthouse and asked for justice.  Thankfully, in court last week, she secured her freedom and is now possibly the world’s youngest divorcee, but definitely the world’s bravest baby girl. [ABC News]