The story would be an amusing look at the battle of the bulge gone topsy-turvy if it didn’t include such a disturbing glimpse of what women have endured to stay heavy. It’s a “tradition that’s as old as the desert,” the Monitor’s Claire Soares writes to describe the practice of “gavage”: the force-feeding of young girls so they fatten up and attract men, who believe that a woman’s corpulence is a reflection of their wealth. (And yes, that’s the same word the French use to describe pumping ducks and geese full of corn so they produce succulent foie gras.) Mothers concerned about their daughters’ futures funnel sweetened milk and millet porridge down the girls’ throats.

Thankfully, the practice is declining. Following national and local campaigns, a 2001 government survey found that only 10 percent of women ages 15-19 were force-fed as young girls, compared with 35 percent of 45-to-54-year-olds. But despite a growing awareness of the health risks of obesity, cultural ideals die hard. Some girls are now turning to pills to gain weight — “some of them ones you usually give to an animal,” Mariame Baba Sy, who heads a government commission on women’s issues, told the Monitor. (These include some from Pakistan, which aren’t advised for human consumption, and Chinese medications for rheumatism.)

But a minority are flouting the fat ideal altogether and making waves by embracing fitness. “Swing by the sports stadium in Nouakchott [the capital] as dusk falls and you’ll see scores of chubby ladies determinedly pattering around the track, their sneakers poking out beneath their traditional mephala robes,” writes Soares.

But thin — or even mildly overweight, for that matter — may not be an easy sell on the men. One Mauritanian woman complains that men try to offer her a ride when she wants to walk. And the former mayor of Nouakchott told Soares about a doctor who admitted that even though he knew that thinner was healthier, he liked “something to hold on to.”

Will women anywhere ever be free of the pressure to be a certain body size?

This may seem like it belongs in the Department of Duh, but the Globe points out that pediatricians generally focus on the health of the baby, not the mother. So the whopping 10 percent of mothers who are estimated to be depressed may not get diagnosed. The study, which was published last month in the journal Pediatrics, found that pediatricians who ask a mom two quick questions — whether she has lost interest and pleasure in doing things lately and whether she has been feeling down — made a big difference in identifying the disorder.

Pediatricians have reason to be concerned, too; as the Globe notes, recent research suggests that the children of depressed parents are three times more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, addiction and even heart disease when they’re older. And when the mothers felt better, the kids improved within three months. In fact, the research is so compelling it “screams” for pediatricians to get involved in treating parents’ depression, Dr. Myrna Weissman, a psychiatry professor from Columbia University who led the studies, told the Globe.

More research shows that infants whose mothers are emotionally withdrawn may experience negative feelings, such as sadness and anger, and may even develop slowly. And the moms suffer, too, from both the depression and from guilt that they may have hurt their own children. To help families cope, Dr. William Beardslee, academic chairman of the psychiatry department at Children’s Hospital Boston, suggests mothers tell their kids the following: “This is a medical illness, a biological illness, I’m getting treatment, and your life will be able to continue. This is not your fault, and you’re not to blame, even though it’s very confusing.”

Depression is confusing, and neither mothers nor infants are to blame. It’s heartening to know the medical community is recommending another measure to help battle this insidious affliction — especially one as easy and intuitive as a doctor asking, “How are you?”

Walker tells the story of how 28-year-old Heidi Kenney was able to quit her daily grind at an insurance company and spend more time being a “working mom on her own terms” by making dolls in the shape of tampons. She also makes stuffed doughnuts, toast pillows and toilet seat covers and sells them on her Web site, My Paper Crane, which she started a few years ago. (She now fills between 100 and 150 orders a month.) Kenney has joined the growing wave of small, independent entrepreneurs who sell handmade toys, clothing, bath products and jewelry, among other things.

What’s particularly interesting is that the trend is led mostly by women, according to Faythe Levine, who runs a boutique and gallery in Milwaukee and is making a documentary on the subject. “We’re talking thousands of women,” she told the Times. “It’s really impressive, and powerful.” As a result, the number of craft fairs around the country is growing. There’s a cable channel for do-it-yourselfers, an online community called Craftster and a magazine named Craft is set to launch this fall.

The DIY craft movement offers a new way to combine traditional domestic skills and participation in the economic sphere, writes Walker. It does seem ideal for mothers trying to keep a toe in the business world while juggling other duties. Yet one Broadsheet reader has a word of warning for anyone who thinks her expertise with beads, wire and pliers will shake the jewelry world: “One’s crafts must be good enough to sell. My scarves, for instance, won’t be putting braces on anyone’s teeth any time soon.”

Maybe not. But we bet they look good. And it’s a great day when a woman can dream of building an empire with her own hands.

As a result, hospitals are increasingly offering prenatal classes that do more than merely show birthing videos. These classes aim to prepare future dads to anticipate and manage their own overwhelming feelings, which in turn may help their partners have a calmer — and some say less painful — delivery.

The ghost-white dad-to-be who faints in the delivery room has been a stock favorite of films and television sitcoms. But the unease is real and has received little attention, reports the Post. For example, a small 1993 survey of 44 fathers — one of the few studies on the subject — found that 41 percent reported negative feelings about their childbirth experience, such as anxiety, helplessness and frustration at seeing their partners suffer in pain.

Men may be dealing with these emotions more than ever — especially given cultural expectations that they don’t just stand there dumbfounded holding the camcorder, but support the mothers. (It wasn’t until the 1960s and ’70s that hospitals even started to allow men in delivery rooms.)

It seems that part of the problem is that men aren’t quite sure what they’re supposed to do during the delivery. The Post looks at a 2002 British study that found that men experienced the highest amount of stress when they felt they weren’t adequately fulfilling their roles. “There appears to be some confusion as to the nature and purpose of men’s presence at childbirth,” the study reported. (We’re betting the occasional “You’re doing great, honey!” and then getting out of the way would work for most women.)

Still, the classes seem to be helping both fathers and mothers. One six-year study published in 2004 in the Journal of Perinatal Education found that men who take prenatal classes “tend to be more involved with their spouses and participate more in housework after their babies are born.” And another study found a connection between a father’s level of anxiety and the mother’s resulting pain and fear during and after a C-section.

The increased attention to men’s emotional struggles during childbirth is certainly a welcome trend. Maybe it’s time to add her and his prenatal classes to the before-baby checklist.

Slate: Meghan O’Rourke adds to Linda Hirshman’s soup on why women should work.

Associated Press/USA Today: Good news: Fewer teens are having babies and dropping out of school. Bad news: More are living in poverty. (Children are “treading water,” said Annie E. Casey Foundation president Doug Nelson.)

Daily Mail: British commentary asks if “raunchiness” of hypersexualized culture is hurting women: “Women are competing to look like slags and sluts; the more lurid and explicit their display, the more their peers approve. Can this gross distortion of everything women in the Sixties wanted and believed be why the feminists burned their bras?” Corollary: Is it possible not to knee-jerkingly blame feminism for everything?