The Mother and Child Foundation http://www.mother-and-child.org Working for good health in Mothers and Children Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:15:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 Support urgently needed for children in Sudan http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=359 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=359#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:11:06 +0000 Professor Michael A Crawford, PhD CBiol FSB FRCPath http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=359 Being aware of the crises in Pakistan and China and doing what we can help ourselves with donations, the Foundation wishes to draw attention to an unsung tragedy in the Sudan.

However, the research of our students highlights the critical importance of the young women, pregnant and breast feeding mothers. It is not just any food that is needed but food that contains the nutrients specifically needed by the mother to secure her health and that of her unborn child.
Josette Shaaron, the Executive Director of the World Food Program, in her opening remarks to the Executive Board in June re-iterated our mission as follows
“We know now that if children under two do not receive sufficient nutrition they will be sentenced to a lifetime of mental and physical limitations. We now have what I call the burden of knowledge and WFP is looking for ways to ensure we prioritize those under twos, the most vulnerable of all in the world, during emergencies.

http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/newsroom/wfp221014.pdf

No mother deliberately malnourishes her child, and malnourishment of the under 2 means malnourishment of the mother which certainly will have stunted brain development irreversibly. So children grow up unable to hold attention at school; unable to learn properly, often with chronic ill health all of which leads to a high rate of mortality, and for those that survive an inability to invent, be creative or hold a job. The net effect is the cementing of poverty. Our Sudanese students desperately need support to find the best ways to provide for safe maternal nutrition and health. This is the surest way to solve poverty.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=359 0 Epidurals protect key muscles in labour, study suggests http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=356 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=356#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:18:06 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=356 Having an epidural during labour may protect key muscles and therefore cut the risk of incontinence in later life, a study of nearly 400 women suggests.

Research in the BJOG, the leading obstetrics journal, found more than one in ten women who had vaginal births suffered damage to the “levator” muscles which hold up internal organs.

via BBC News.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=356 0 Preventing Premature Births Will cut Health Problems, Save Billions of Dollars http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=354 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=354#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:08:15 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=354 When doctors detect preterm labor its often too late to do anything about it. Premature births are often only delayed a few days. Biomedical researchers at Johns Hopkins University however, are developing a new system to help physicians detect preterm labor. “If labor can be detected earlier, medications can sometimes prolong the pregnancy by as much as six weeks,” says researcher, Karin Hwang. “We estimate that the cost savings could be more than $44,000 per patient for every preterm birth we could prevent”

via Change.org.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=354 0 Hormones ‘govern ability to breastfeed’ http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=352 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=352#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:30:41 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=352 Mothers who find breastfeeding so hard that they give up should not blame themselves, researchers say.

A Norwegian study concludes that difficulty feeding a newborn may be down to higher levels of the male hormone testosterone during pregnancy.

via BBC News.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=352 0 Criticism over breastfeeding ‘creepy’ article http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=350 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=350#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:28:20 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=350 An article in a magazine for new mothers that described breastfeeding as “creepy” has drawn widespread criticism.

Mother & Baby Magazine’s deputy editor Kathryn Blundell said she bottle fed because she did not want to put her “fun bags” in a “bawling baby’s mouth”.

via BBC News.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=350 0 Breastfeeding should be ‘the law’, says supermodel http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=348 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=348#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:26:12 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=348 Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen says that all mothers should be made to breastfeed their babies for the first six months of their lives.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, she said: “I think breastfeeding really helped [me keep my figure].

via BBC News.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=348 0 Archbishop Desmond Tutu ‘to withdraw from public life’ http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=346 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=346#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:11:55 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=346 Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has announced he is to withdraw from public life.

He played a prominent role in South Africa’s struggle against the whites-only apartheid system.

After his 79th birthday in October, he said he would reduce his workload to one day a week before retiring.

via BBC News

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=346 0 House of Lords Seminar on Brain Development http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=341 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=341#comments Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:39:55 +0000 Professor Michael A Crawford, PhD CBiol FSB FRCPath http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=341 Lord Hameed held a Seminar at the House of Lords on 14th June to raise awareness about cerebral palsy and allied disorders of brain development. Lord Hameed is the President of the Little Foundation, a sister charity that is specifically concerned with research on the cause and prevention of cerebral palsy and the allied disorders.

He spoke eloquently of the lack of interest on prevention by the research councils and NHS research arm which Sir David Cooksey described in his report to the Treasury that only 2% of the total research budget was spent on research into prevention. The reason for his report was to recommend ways of stemming the rising costs of the NHS.

The Little Foundation initiated a multi-centre study across the Europe using magnetic resonance imaging to assess the origin of the brain damage. The result demonstrated that in the majority of cases the lesions could be identified as happening well before the birth date. That means they were not due to obstetric mishap. As Professor Polani’s research could not identify any genetic cause, the cause had to be associated with fetal nutritional and or infectious problems.

If this government wishes to save money prevention is the way to do it. Cerebral palsy costs the UK about £4 billion a year: a cost that is disproportionately high because of its life long impact. The incidence has not changed over the last several decades but there has been a marked and sinister rise in mental ill health. The DoH calculated the cost of mental
ill health in the UK was £77 billion in 2007, greater than the cost of heart disease and cancer combined.

Lord Hameed was followed by Professor Mark Johnson and Dr Enitan Ogundipe of Imperial College who outlined the problems associated with low birthweight and prematurity. Professor Johnson described the very high prevalence of
cerebral palsy on preterm and very low birthweight infants as a major clue as to discovering the cause which could lead to prevention. He referred to poor maternal/fetal nutrition leading to chronic diseases in later life. He identified the brain specific fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid a deficiency of which in the modern food system was as a potential culprit. It is both required for brain structure and function and is also anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombus. Dr. Ogundipe then discussed the issue as they affect the development of the children which apart from the extreme of 24 hour nursing care include physical disabilities, behavioral disorders, attention deficit disorders, poor learning in school which leads to poor achievement in life. Lord Hameed had pointed out that this cluster of poor abilities leads to the cyclical cementing of poverty. Cerebral palsy is the tip of an iceberg. Professor Michael Crawford ended by re-iterating the gravity of the rise in brain disorders and mental ill health and suggested that last century food policy had mistakenly focused on protein and calories and body growth. However, there are different principles for the growth of the brain and the body as the material of the brain is largely fat which is especially rich in brain specific essential fatty acids. Our species is characterized by the brain not the body. There needs to be a new paradigm for food policy which prioritizes the needs of the brain. He suggested ways this could be done.

The presentations were followed by an hour long discussion of the issues raised and what needs to be done. Further information from Professor Crawford.

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=341 0 Pregnant women ‘must take vitamin D supplements’ http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=339 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=339#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:00:07 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=339 Pregnant women in the UK should be told to routinely take vitamin D supplements, researchers say.

The team at University College London Institute of Child Health says official bodies currently offer conflicting advice.

Writing in the British Journal of Nutrition, they say there is a “strong case” for a daily dose of vitamin D in pregnancy.

via BBC News

]]> http://www.mother-and-child.org/?feed=rss2&p=339 0 Vitamin D deficiency in pregnant Arab women requires urgent attention, says doctor http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=336 http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=336#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:20:08 +0000 Brother Phil http://www.mother-and-child.org/?p=336 Pregnant Arab women have an “extraordinarily high prevalence” of vitamin D deficiency — a potential health issue for them and their babies, according to a new Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center study.

The vitamin deficiency is largely due to how Arab women dress outdoors — preventing exposure of the skin to sunlight and subsequent vitamin D intake, according to Adekunle Dawodu, M.D., a physician in the Center for Global Child Health at Cincinnati Children’s and lead author of the study.

via Science Daily. Thanks to levelsofillusion for pointing out this article to me.

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