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Reddy: Massachusetts can protect new mothers as maternity care shrinks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

It’s common in an OB/GYN clinic to have a patient hand me a stack of printouts from her last doctor, a thick ream mostly littered with extraneous lab results and automated text.  But to have a patient do so when she shows up in labor, breathing through contractions, is far more unusual, especially when their previous hospital is less than 30 miles away.But this past spring it became a routine occurrence at my Boston hospital; after a fire closed down Brockton Hospital in February, patients would arrive without warning or transfer, ready to have their babies at a place they didn’t recognize, with physicians and nurses unaware of their medical histories.  That a patient had to travel 30 miles to find an available birthing hospital seemed strange to colleagues so used to having the nation’s best hospitals clustered within a couple miles, or just across the street.  But for many New Englanders, the lack of accessible maternity care is a reality that stands to get worse.Despite the regio...

Musician/photographer Andy Summers adds photos to new tour

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

Andy Summers spent the decade before joining the Police becoming one of the world’s greatest guitarists. In the years leading up to his colossal, world-conquering trio with Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers logged time in blues bands and psychedelic outfits, and even earned a degree in classical guitar.By the time the Police went global, Summers was a musical heavyweight with long stretches of time that needed to be filled with something other than playing hit records.“I’m in the Police and we’re on the road all the time,” Summers told Herald. “We’re surrounded by photographers and it came to me, ‘I should do photography. I should become a very good photographer.”And so Summers became a very good photographer.He may be the rare example of somebody who could actually quit their day job, but instead of deciding between the camera and guitar, he recently combined the two. His current tour, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String, which stops at Beverly’s Cabot Theater on July 21, has him...

Fill your summer with music at Boston museums

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

Art! Music! Summer! Let’s do them all at once!While the concert calendars of stadiums and clubs have been filled with the welcome-if-expected summer fare, a few alternative venues are offering more unique musical experiences. This week the Museum of Fine Arts rolls out its Concerts in the Courtyard series. In August, the Institute of Contemporary Art hosts three vinyl Friday events. All summer long, the Museum of Science goes old school on Fridays and Saturdays with a classic laser light show set to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”Maybe skip the $18 beers and nose-bleed seats for a sonic adventure paired with a Mary Cassatt oil painting or exhibit on artificial intelligence.Concerts in the Courtyard, Museum of Fine ArtsThursday through Aug.  24Tucked into the MFA’s Calderwood Courtyard is one of the city’s coolest, most-intimate concert spaces. Just like in years past, the museum has curated a diverse and delightful line up. The Thursday night sets will include performances fro...

How to help your child cope when a beloved pet dies

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

How your child reacts to your pet’s death will depend on their age and developmental level. When children display emotions like sadness, it’s important to validate them.During my own childhood, I remember when a pet died, my well-meaning mother told me I shouldn’t dwell on being sad. It’s natural to want to protect your child from unpleasant emotions. But letting children experience them helps them build coping skills for the future.Here’s what you can do to help your child deal with the loss of a pet.Explain your own sadness.If your emotion isn’t obvious, this may confuse your child. It’s OK to let them see you cry. Keep in mind, though, that not all children — whatever their age — express their grief through sadness. Anger is also a common way to express grief. Understanding this is important so you can help them learn to work through it.Remember, grief-related emotions can come and go, sometimes without warning. It may take longer than yo...

Yankees Notebook: Aaron Boone sees Giancarlo Stanton ‘getting there’ at the plate

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

DENVER — It’s taken some time, but Giancarlo Stanton is starting to look like the hitter he and the Yankees expect him to be.While the team’s offense is struggling mightily, Stanton crushed a two-run home run in the first inning of Friday’s loss to the Rockies. In doing so, the slugger gave the Yankees their only runs of the game.Entering Saturday’s game, Stanton had 11 RBI and 11 hits in his last 11 games. He also totaled seven runs scored, three doubles and four homers over that span while registering a .290/.386/.684 slash line and just seven strikeouts. The 33-year-old also torched an opposite-field three-run homer in Saturday’s matchup.“He’s getting there,” Aaron Boone said Saturday afternoon. “It’s timing. It’s rhythm. It’s that subtle load that he has within his legs and his hands. So he’s getting into that good position to make a good swing decision.”Stanton has appeared far more comfor...

Older workers to fill 150M more jobs around world by 2030

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

NEW YORK — A global study from Bain & Company has found that 150 million jobs will shift to workers over the age of 55 by 2030. That figure is nearly equal to the entire working population of the US. In the Group of Seven (G7) countries, Bain predicts these experienced workers will comprise a quarter of the workforce by the end of the decade — nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2011.This trend is most pronounced in high-income countries. In Japan, for example, workers 55 and older will approach 40% of the workforce by the end of the decade. In Italy and Germany, the number is around 30%. This shift is playing out in low- and middle-income countries as well. China’s population of individuals 65 and older is set to double by 2050, and Brazil’s proportion of workers over age 55 is creeping up to the midteens.Over the last two decades, fewer young people are entering the workforce, and a long-term trend toward earlier retirement is slowly going into reverse...

Editorial: John Kerry should be fired [+video]

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

John Kerry just told taxpayers to go to hell.That’s ironic because he’s the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate who is supposedly the nation’s champion for the planet. But while he’s trying to turn down the heat, he’s firing up the secrecy.History will remember that the nation’s first global warming warrior was the least transparent official in the Biden administration. That’s not an enviable distinction.The globetrotting former Bay State senator and failed presidential candidate is basically kicking sand in everyone’s face.Kerry testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability Thursday that his post is unlike any other special envoy before him. We agree, wholeheartedly.Wildfires, floods, record temperatures, pollution, and all related worries must be examined if we’re going to preserve the only home we have. But, and here’s where Kerry is “stupid” — to use his own...

Keep co-parent in the loop about new partner

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

Q. My ex and I broke up three years ago. I have been dating when the kids are with their father, never mentioning anyone because I’ve never been serious until now. I would like to date someone exclusively. Actually, more than exclusively. We are planning a life together. My kids are young, 8 and 9, and know him as a friend. He has been at our home for dinner quite a few times over the last six months, but my co-parent has no idea. I’m trying to get the timing right. Who do I tell first that we are a couple? The kids or their dad? What’s good ex-etiquette?A. I’m sticking my neck out here, but if he’s has been to your home for dinner “quite a few times” over the last six months, I venture to think both your kids and their dad already know he’s someone special.If your kids have kept it a secret that he’s been to dinner, then your kids are the only ones I have met who don’t pass on information to their other home.So that means daddy probably already knows you have “a friend.” He probabl...

‘Anything is possible’ for Annie Murphy in voicing ‘Praise Petey’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

For Annie Murphy, being heard but not seen in the wild, weirdly outrageous and dementedly funny Freeform animated series “Praise Petey” is a little bit of creative heaven.“Weird’s the word that I use about ‘Petey,’” the “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy winner began.  “It’s an incredibly hilarious, incredibly bizarre trip into the mind of Anna Drezen who in my opinion is the funniest woman on the face of the earth.”An actress and comedian, Drezen is best known as the head writer for “Saturday Night Live.”“I knew this was the job for me,” Murphy, 36, continued, “when I read that Petey, my character, was dating a literal plank of wood. It’s that kind of bizarre. Since anything is possible when you have animation, they really went for it.”Murphy discovered it’s in the recording booth that “Praise Petey” really takes shape.  “We do all the recording and then they animate according to what we’ve recorded. It’s such a strange, new world for me, voice acting.  What’s grea...

Many health benefits to neutering your dog

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:43:50 GMT

Dear Dr. John,My boyfriend and I share in the ownership of a nine-month-old Brittany Spaniel. He is slightly hyperactive to say the least. Our difference in opinion comes down to whether we should neuter our dog. Are there any negative side effects? My boyfriend is convinced that this would make our dog lazier and fatter and take away his high level of energy. Frankly, slowing him down some might not be such a bad idea. I have always heard and believed that it was advisable to neuter male dogs much like it is important to spay a female dog. I’m convinced that this is a bit of a macho thing. Lastly, how soon should we have this done if we are to go forward in agreement on the subject? B.V.Dear B.V.,For a very long time, the benefits of neutering male dogs have been well understood. I list the following in no specific order of importance. The benefits include eliminating the risk of testicular cancer, greatly reducing any chance of prostatic disease such as hypertrophy or neoplasia, p...