A birth mother's hopeful vision of the life her relinquished daughter enjoyed cultured over twenty-eight years burst like a ruptured bubble when she learned that the child died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at the age of 6-months.

This story from the Salt Lake Tribune reports that the birth mother is now fighting to have Utah law changed to require agencies to notify birth parents in the event of their child's death.

Also from Utah, this article suggesting that a misinterpretation of a federal law designed to protect abused children may be, in fact, harming those same kids.

It's a complex rendition involving the Utah Division of Children and Family Services and their take on the Adam Walsh Child Protection And Safety Act of 2006 that has ended up with flat out refusals to place kids with family or friends, but instead opts every time for only background-checked professionals or shelters.

Since screenings are taking up to eight weeks in the state, that's leaving a lot of kids hanging for far too long.

With a declaration that the "early 20s might be the new teens", this report looks at the soaring numbers of single mothers in America, most of whom are between the ages of 20 and 24.

In Lackwanna County, PA, it appears that married people are having fewer babies, while singles are taking up the slack.

In 2005 - for the first time - more babies in Scranton and Throop were born to unmarried mothers than their married counterparts - by 73 and eight respectively, according to the state Department of Health.

In Carbondale, unwed births have outpaced married births since 2001, with the exception of 2004.

On a national level, around half of unmarried women who give birth are living with the fathers of the children, and most say they're in no hurry to get married, kids or no ... as one couple put it: "We've been to three weddings and seen three divorces. We've watched them date, marry and divorce in the time we've been together." ... and more than 40% of Americans under fifty have cohabitated in the "shacked up" sense of the word at some point of their life.

Teen births are at a record low, while those from single women in their thirties and forties are increasing.

In a legal case in Vancouver, a lawyer from the B.C. Attorney General's Ministry has told the Supreme Court that a child's right to life should "trump parent's rights".

"Surely where the life and health of the child is more immediately engaged, that is medical emergency care, then it's more compelling to prefer the child's right to life and health than to prefer the parents' rights, whatever they might be," he said.

The case is over the birth of sextuplets to a Jehovah's Witness family who fought against allowing the four-month premies to receive blood transfusions.

The family's lawyer is arguing that a "fundamental justice was denied to his clients and that the seizure of their children was a breach of the Charter of Rights."

(For some reason, the link to this last story won't post.)