England’s public health chief is urging hospitals to give every pregnant woman a carbon monoxide test to see if they smoke, as part of an NHS-wide drive to persuade patients to kick the habit.
Duncan Selbie wants midwives and nurses to routinely screen mothers-to-be when their pregnancy is first “booked”, monitor them at all their antenatal appointments and support those who want to quit.
Continue reading...Postnatal depression – would you recognise it? I didn’t. I thought I had a fairly good understanding of how these things manifest themselves in women, until my own pregnancy proved otherwise. What followed was not smiles and love, but a growing emptiness consuming my world from the inside out.
Looking back, I can see how conspicuously absent discussion of such emotions is from our preparation for motherhood. The fact that we don’t know enough about postnatal depression, and rarely acknowledge the mental health implications of starting a family, means it’s hard to spot – in ourselves and in the women we know and love.
Related: Pregnancy and mental health: the hidden pain of giving birth
Continue reading...Ask the Midwife provides fully qualified advice on pregnancy and baby health – and meets a growing trend for women to consult apps during pregnancy
The findings of a new NCT report, which revealed that tens of thousands of women were having to seek help at accident and emergency (A&E) departments or with their GP because they cannot reach a midwife, do not come as a surprise to Hannah Harvey.
Harvey has been a midwife for five years. She says that while she and her colleagues care deeply about the women they look after, a nationwide shortage of midwives and government cutbacks to training bursaries mean they often struggle to provide the necessary support to new mums. According to the report by the NCT (pdf) and National Federation of Women’s Institutes, 36% of women who were not able to see a midwife as often as they required postnatally said that it caused them a great deal of concern while almost a third (31%) said that it resulted in a delay of a health problem (for them or their baby) being diagnosed and treated. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) estimates England has a shortfall of 3,500 midwives.
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Continue reading...The last thing you should say to a woman who is desperately trying to have a baby is, ‘Try not to think about it.’ It’s all we think about
I’m 33, and my husband and I have been trying to conceive for three years. When we were ready, we threw caution to the wind and decided that if it happened naturally, it would be wonderful. Then as the months passed, we began to wonder if there was something wrong, so we got tested. My husband’s fertility is A++; his swimmers are practically Phelps-like in their speed and precision. My eggs, on the other hand, are a little more Humpty Dumpty.
In the past year I’ve been referred to doctors, specialists, naturopaths and acupuncturists. They all ask the same questions. And despite their years of experience, most of them still fill silences with ridiculous lines like, “It’ll happen when you least expect it.” The last thing you should say to a woman who is desperately trying to have a baby is, “Try not to think about it.” It’s all we think about.
Continue reading...We had our daughter without a problem, so when my wife and I decided to try for a second baby, we never imagined we would need repeated IVF
One morning at breakfast our daughter, Laila, looked up from her cornflakes and said: “Why am I the only child in this family?”
We had always known we wanted more than one child. Laila was born in 2011, a year after Bridget and I married. I loved being a dad. Children are hope in human form and while parenthood was often challenging, it also gifted us an addictive joy.
Related: What are your experiences of IVF?
Continue reading...Beyoncé is pregnant with twins; Madonna has adopted twins; now the Clooneys are expecting twins. But I did it first, and this is what I learned
So, first Beyoncé announced on Instagram that she is having twins. Then Madonna posted that she has adopted twin girls. Now the Clooneys have let it be known that they’re expecting twins. What on earth is going on?
Hannah, by email
Continue reading...Alice Lowe directs and stars in this cracking tale of a pregnant woman who turns killer on the instructions of her unborn child
Alice Lowe makes a cracking directorial debut with this macabre, grittily low-budget and explicitly violent movie about a murderous pregnancy. It is a little like Sightseers, the black comedy she co-wrote and acted in for Ben Wheatley – but with fainter tint of queasy humour. It reminded me more of John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, or indeed the “impregnation” scene from Ridley Scott’s Alien.
Prevenge provides a nightmarish satirical twist on post- and antenatal depression. On first seeing this film in Venice last year, maybe addled by lagoon vapours or the disorientating horror of the film itself, I aired my own bizarre theory that the title was a riff on pre-emptive revenge: prevenge, pretaliation etc. It was gently pointed out to me that it just meant pregnancy plus revenge. No other interpretation is needed.
Continue reading...We asked NGOs how the reinstatement of the ‘global gag’ rule will impact what they do, and the people they work with. Here are some of the responses
Three days after his inauguration, Donald Trump reinstated the “global gag” rule, which prohibits the use of US aid money for abortions, prevents NGOs from using private funds for abortion services, from referring women to groups that provide abortions, and even from offering information on services.
We asked NGOs around the world to tell us how the policy impacted them in the past, and what it means for their work today.
This policy is going to undermine the reproductive health of our women
The policy will feed stigma around abortion and prevent millions from making informed decisions about their own bodies
This is not our first global gag rule rodeo – nor, sadly, is it likely to be our last
Continue reading...2017 is a full-on sewage works explosion of reality, so any celebrity escapism needed to be super-sized: enter Beyoncé with an Instagram announcement
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Sure, I appreciate your Meryl Streeps, your Madonnas, even your Shia LaBeoufs railing against Donald Trump. But I’ll be honest with you, that is not what I come to celebrities for. I have never denied being as shallow as a puddle, so what I want from celebrities is escapism – escape from the dumpster fire that is reality. And, given that 2017 is a full-on sewage works explosion of reality, any celebrity escapism needed to be supersized: enter, stage right, Beyoncé, announcing on Instagram that she is pregnant. With twins. In her underwear. Thank you, Queen Bey. Thank you for coming to save us from ourselves.
Related: Beyoncé announces she's pregnant with twins on Instagram
Continue reading...The star released a brief statement on Instagram, accompanied by a photograph, to her 92.4 million followers that her ‘family will be growing by two’
Pop queen Beyoncé is pregnant with twins.
She announced the news in an Instagram post on Wednesday, where she reveals her bump while dressed in underwear and a tulle veil, in front of a wall of roses.
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