I like hearing about the different ways that people channel their miscarriage grief into projects to help others. In the Google News today I found a story in The Catholic Review Online that talked about a group called Heaven Born. Started by Maureen Day, a graphic designer who was devastated by a miscarriage at 11 weeks, the group offers small hand-made pillows for moms who have had early miscarriages, along with a booklet on coping with loss.

In discussing the project, Day described the pillows as "something for a mother, when you don't have anything to hold." Day and the other volunteers also wash the pillows in infant detergents to give them a soothing smell. The pillows are offered at the group's website at cost and have been shipped around the world.

Heaven Born also has a craft community that advises groups who would like to make the pillows on their own.

I though this was a neat project and idea. Anyone who's interested in learning more about the pillows can visit the group's website at www.heavenborn.com.

I'm often both annoyed and amused by how you can find so much conflicting and scare mongering information on the Internet and this week I found an interesting case study for why a trusted doctor is probably still your best source for making treatment decisions.

In my news alerts this past week, there was an article popping up about how new research has supposedly found that using UTI drugs increases the risk of stillbirth. The article turned out to be from an anti-doctor website, which I will not link here, but it listed a reliable enough source for its claims -- the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Intrigued, I visited the CMAJ website and found the full text of the article, which sure enough did report a possible association between UTI medications and increased risk of stillbirth. But there was also a pretty thorough commentary in the same issue of the journal explaining a lot of good reasons why it would be more than a little premature to sound the alarm on UTI drugs based on the study findings, including possible other explanations for the study findings. This info, of course, was not covered in the initial scare mongering article I read -- to no one's real surprise.

In addition, I then ran a few surface Google searches on UTI and stillbirth and found journal articles and mainstream media pieces claiming all sorts of wild things about UTI and pregnancy, some proven and some not, but it seems like doctors agree that untreated UTIs during pregnancy may increase the risk of mental retardation and developmental delays as well as possibly miscarriage in some strains of E. coli. Certainly sounds like the benefits of treating UTIs probably outweigh the theoretical risk based on the one study.

What to do? Well, as usual, the best route is probably to follow your doctor's treatment advice -- and it's always a good idea to discuss any concerns with your doctor before worrying too much about some of the things you can find online.

The new Marley and Me movie has been popping up a lot in searches for miscarriage news, apparently because Jennifer Aniston's character suffers a miscarriage during the movie.

Now, I have not seen the movie at all and have no plans to see it in the near future, but some are raising an interesting question about this movie. The movie is rated PG. It seems like it's being marketed as a family movie, perhaps because it centers around a dog. But is a miscarriage scene appropriate subject matter for a family movie? Should the movie instead have been rated PG-13, as this letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News suggests?

I am not totally sure of the answer myself. I suspect it would depend on how the scene was handled. But what do you think, especially if you have actually seen the movie? Please answer below if you'd like to share.

Last month there were reports on a study that was reported to find light drinking during pregnancy (in the neighborhood of one light beer per week) to be beneficial to infants' cognitive development. At least, that was what some media outlets reported. The truth was otherwise, says a national alcohol awareness group in this Medical News Today article.

The article, which was adapted from a press release from the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group, describes how the study in question simply found that light drinking during pregnancy might not adversely affect behavior or mental acuity of the babies but media outlets unfortunately began reporting that the light drinking resulted in benefits in these areas. Many other variables were also in play, such as the possibility that moms who drank very lightly might have higher socioeconomic status, which was linked to better neurodevelopmental outcomes.

The moral: don't believe everything you read in the mass media, and check with your doctor before changing habits or practices.