pregnancy: أبريل 2021

الأربعاء، 28 أبريل 2021

Kenya debates lowering age of consent from 18 to 16

While some point to the number of teenage boys jailed for consensual sex, others fear gender equality gains could be lost

Kenya’s judges and child welfare organisations are embroiled in a fresh debate on whether to lower the age of consent.

Some members of the judiciary believe the age of consent should be lowered from 18 to 16 for heterosexual acts (gay sex is criminalised at any age, punishable by up to 14 years in prison) because boys and girls have “reached the age of discretion and are able to make intelligent and informed decisions about their lives and their bodies”.

The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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الجمعة، 23 أبريل 2021

Home Office sued by asylum seeker over baby’s death

Woman claims asylum housing staff ignored pleas for help when she was in pain while 35 weeks pregnant

A woman whose baby died is suing the Home Office for negligence over claims that staff at her asylum accommodation refused to call an ambulance when she was pregnant and bleeding.

The woman, who has asked to be named Adna, sought asylum in the UK in January 2020 after fleeing Chad. She was seven months pregnant when she was brought by police to Brigstock House asylum-support accommodation in Croydon.

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الأربعاء، 21 أبريل 2021

Pregnant women need better Covid safety at work, say campaigners

Husband of UK nurse Mary Agyapong, who died in 2020, says government still not doing enough

Five pregnant women wearing “I Am Mary” T-shirts in memory of the nurse Mary Agyapong protested in Parliament Square on Wednesday after figures revealed nearly 1,000 pregnant NHS staff were still working in patient-facing roles.

Despite evidence revealing that pregnant women may be at an increased risk of severe disease and losing their baby if they contract Covid, 984 pregnant staff in 25 trusts across the UK continue to work in frontline roles, a request under freedom of information laws by the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed has revealed.

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الثلاثاء، 20 أبريل 2021

Lockdown baby boom may be on the way as NHS antenatal bookings rebound

Appointments in third quarter of 2020 at five-year high despite dip earlier in pandemic

Contrary to fears that the coronavirus pandemic could cause a “baby bust”, the numbers of women in England expecting a baby appear to be on the rise.

Maternity statistics collected by the NHS show that although there was a dip in the number of antenatal booking appointments in May 2020, numbers quickly rebounded and continued to grow. The number of antenatal booking appointments during the fourth quarter of 2020 was the highest for five years.

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الجمعة، 16 أبريل 2021

Covid jabs offered to pregnant women: your questions answered

Pfizer or Moderna jabs to be given after US data confirms that they are safe and effective

All pregnant women are now eligible to get a Covid vaccine, according to updated guidance by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Previously, the committee had recommended that only pregnant women at high risk of exposure, such as frontline health workers, or those with certain underlying medical conditions be offered a jab.

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All pregnant women to be offered Covid vaccine in UK

Bereaved families and campaigners welcome decision to give jabs, based on age and clinical risk

Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women in the UK have been given the green light to receive a Covid vaccine in a move welcomed by bereaved families and campaigners.

All pregnant women will be offered the Pfizer or Moderna jab based on their age and clinical risk group after real-world data from the US showed about 90,000 pregnant women had been vaccinated without any safety concerns, the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said on Friday.

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الأحد، 11 أبريل 2021

‘Out of Trump playbook’: UK accused of ‘abandoning’ women with cuts to aid

Charity warns of 22,000 additional deaths in poorest countries if Wish reproductive health programme ends

The director of a leading sexual and reproductive health charity has accused the government of “abandoning” women and girls it promised to help, as aid cuts derail a leading Tory programme to reduce maternal deaths and prevent unsafe abortions in poor countries.

The threat to the women’s integrated sexual health (Wish) programme could mean 7.5m additional unintended pregnancies, 2.7m unsafe abortions and 22,000 maternal deaths over the next year, said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, director general of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

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الجمعة، 9 أبريل 2021

She sued for pregnancy discrimination. Now she’s battling Google’s army of lawyers

Chelsey Glasson alleged she had been discriminated against while pregnant and had witnessed others being treated similarly

When Chelsey Glasson found out she was pregnant with her second child in 2019, she did not anticipate the first three years of her new baby’s life would be overshadowed by an epic legal battle against a trillion-dollar company.

The 38-year-old sued Google, her former employer, in 2020 alleging she had been discriminated against while pregnant and witnessed others being treated similarly, and faced retaliation from her manager when she spoke up about it.

When you are a victim and you are told to go to counseling, it is incredibly offensive – it’s sending a message that you’re crazy and you’re making all this up

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الخميس، 8 أبريل 2021

Contraception blood-clot risk: ‘public need better access to advice’

Health experts in UK say risk remains low, as social media debates shift from AstraZeneca jab to hormonal contraceptives

Women need more information about contraceptive options, experts said, after concerns over rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca Covid jab prompted a debate over side-effects caused by certain forms of the pill.

On Wednesday the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that evidence that the jab could be causing a rare blood clotting syndrome was growing stronger. As a result the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that healthy people under the age of 30 who were at low risk of Covid should be offered a different vaccine if possible.

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الاثنين، 5 أبريل 2021

On Facebook Marketplace I found pre-loved baby items and a community that touched my heart | Maggie Kelly

Maggie Kelly went looking for secondhand clothes and a crib and found the mother tribe

It was that special brand of 2020 pessimism and a hefty dose of first-mum nerves that turned me in the pregnancy Grinch. Everything was new, overwhelming, and expensive. List upon list grew with every 3am bolt from the blue. Cribs, bassinets, prams, nursing chairs, eco-nappies, cotton nappies, bamboo nappies. I was trapped in a cutesy-wootsy duckling-print plastic hell.

“We’re going to kill the planet with every dollar we spend,” I grumbled to my partner as I waddled the aisles of Baby Bunting. Shopping second hand seemed like the better option – I could save the planet while avoiding anything printed with baby animals.

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الأحد، 4 أبريل 2021

Plea to ease Covid maternity rules as women continue to get bad news alone

But Not Maternity Alliance says postcode lottery remains despite guidance issued in December

The majority of women who have received bad news about their pregnancy since December were on their own at the time, despite the NHS ordering trusts to allow partners to be present throughout scans, labour and birth, the Guardian can reveal.

An alliance of pregnancy rights campaigners have written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, urging him to draw up a roadmap for easing visiting restrictions in maternity services.

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الجمعة، 2 أبريل 2021

Experience: I carried a twin in each of my wombs

The medical staff had never seen anything like it. They told us the chances were one in 50 million

The day I gave birth, there were 24 people in the room, most of them fascinated medical students. At 10.11am they watched as my daughter, Bonnie, came into the world, and five minutes later they saw Watson emerge, from my other womb.

The twins were not our first children. Our eldest daughter, Agyness, was born two months early, in 2015, but doctors said early labour was “one of those things”. When I became pregnant with Margot, born six weeks early, in 2017, scans revealed a bicornuate uterus, which means it’s heart-shaped. But no one spotted the second one.

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