Birth advocates like to talk about how you should trust your body, give in, let it do what it needs to do, and especially tell people who are trying to make you go against your instincts to kindly STFU. Medical science really does show that the less the process is interfered with (unless there are issues that need intervention), the better off both Mom and the baby are.

Becky Powers was 28 weeks along in her pregnancy when the H1N1 virus she contracted landed her in the hospital, in really, really bad condition. She was put on an ECHMO (heart and lung) machine and dialysis, and in a medically-induced coma with less than 25 percent of her lung capacity. She'd been given a 10 percent chance of surviving.

In this state, without being an active participant, she gave birth to her first child. Vaginally.

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Not everyone on the other side is a mindless sheep, okay?

As if insurance isn't costly enough, physician Rahul K. Parikh has announced that he and a colleague think it's time to make people who don't vaccinate pay higher insurance premiums.

He says the poorer people who will be affected by it are the ones who've bought into celebrity scare tactics, and those who it won't affect financially, more affluent families, aren't the ones who are moving against vaccinations in the first place (which means he hasn't seen studies that show that the poorer the person, the more likely they are to have vaccinated on the AAP's schedule).

He seems to think we're all idiotic, fear-mongering, celebrity-bowing cattle, and I'd like to flip him a giant, um, something offensive.

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You might not know who Trish Keenan is, but you may be hearing some of her songs on indie radio stations today and through the weekend. Fans on Twitter are mourning the death of the young "Broadcast" singer with the hauntingly clear and mesmerizing voice. She'd been in the hospital battling pneumonia, a complication from the H1N1 virus, for weeks.

The swine flu claimed a young, seemingly healthy woman. Lest we forget this is a serious bug when not caught in time. Not that I'm telling you to get vaccinated or anything ...

The band never went mainstream in the U.S. -- their biggest claims to fame here was their song "Before We Begin," used in the Season Four finale of the show The L Word. The song "The Book Lovers," the one that got the attention of record labels, was also featured on the soundtrack of the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The fairly obscure band with the psychedelic '60s feel was most widely known in electronic music circles.

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Old and busted: Regular old flu. New hotness: Swine flu. Yes, much like the dreaded bell bottoms of the 60s and ugly neon of the 80s, swine flu is making a comeback. And it's coming back hard.

Think it's not going to hit here in the States this year? That all that hype in Britain and Asia is just crazy talk? Think again. There's a reason the CDC snuck the H1N1 vaccine into your annual flu shot this year.

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In a hospital in England, Fallon Devaney, a 25-year-old mother of four, lies near death from the swine flu. Even more tragic, she is pregnant with her fifth baby, a baby who may never be born. Her family has canceled Christmas while they hold vigil at her side.

Devaney was admitted to the hospital last week with difficulty breathing and swine flu symptoms, and has now developed pneumonia. Doctors put her in a medically induced coma, and have told her mother they may have to take the baby in order to have a chance at saving her life. "If she can't fight it because she's carrying the baby, we may have a very difficult decision to make," her mother told London's Daily Mail.

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On last night's Glee, Mr. Shue came down with a nasty virus that almost led to him losing his gig as club director of New Directions. When he first starts feeling hot and woozy, he tries to shrug it off and "power through" teaching the glee kids. But it doesn't work. He ends up sick as a dog, in bed, being taken care of by his looney-tunes ex-wife.

We've all been there, right? The feeling of "coming down" with a bug is disgusting. Usually we're quick to conclude that we have a cold or the flu, but what if it's not?

Here, a few sneaky symptoms that pose as a cold or the flu ... but are really something else completely. 

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Some pundits are predicting record voter turnout in today's contentious midterm elections. That might be good news for Democrats or Republicans, and will certainly be great news for public health officials. Why? Along with your nifty little "I Voted" sticker and the sense of having done your civic duty, you can also get a flu shot at many polling locations around the country.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and SPARC (Sickness Prevention Achieved Through Regional Cooperation) teamed up to offer the Vote and Vax program. The idea is to catch informed, civic-minded people where they are congregating anyway and get them vaccinated against the flu. Costs vary depending on the location, and anyone can sponsor a clinic.

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There are certain things they should just issue to you when you leave the hospital with your first baby, because chances are good that if you never, ever used these things before, you'll suddenly find them indispensable. And top on that list would be the little purse-sized bottle of hand sanitizer we all seem to carry around (I have not one but two in my purse as I type this). More than 50 percent of people carry a bottle in their purse or briefcase, and I would be willing to bet that a significant amount of those people are moms.

Most of us know hand sanitizer is no substitute for a good hand-washing, but after your kid has been picking up every piece of dirt or God-knows-what on the street a quick swipe with baby wipes (another thing we all carry) and rubdown with hand sanitizer can give us peace of mind.

Bad news, ladies: Hand sanitizer works for far less time than we might think. How much less?

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