News

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has noticed a slight increase this year in the number of Cesarean sections being carried out in England and Wales this year.C-sections were developed in rare cases where complications mean that a natural birth is not possible or could have other risks, but some people choose these days to opt for a c section rather than go through the pain of natural child birth.While C-sections are a well establish (Julius Ceasar was reputed to have been born this way) and very safe operation, the The Royal College of Midwives did stress that is is still a major...

It seems that Ireland is the midst of a baby boom.Apparently the economic situation has contributed to this boom as poorer career opportunities coupled with lower house prices and rents allow couples to afford bigger and more family friendly housing.According to the Irish Central Statistics Office Irish women have the highest birth rate in Europe at 2.1 babies per woman. This considered to be the level at which a population is able to remain the same size in the long term (excluding the effects of immigration). But is much higher than other European countries.Chidren are our biggest investment in the...

We were in Covent Garden this weekend and popped in for some deeply sinful fresh cinnamon donuts from a very posh ice cream parlor called Icecreamist.They are (in)famous for at one point making and selling ice cream made from breast milk (human breast milk I should add). I should clarify that they did advertise on Mumsnet for volunteers, rather than round up a group of new mums (being from a country background I know more about the ins and outs of getting the daily pink than I would like to know).Anyway Westminster City Council stopped them selling it on the grounds that it was potentially a...

Slightly off topic from bandana bibs, baby clothes and issues about breastfeeding but important.I was reading (...again) about fires and other emergencies. We are often told to put smoke detectors in our houses and check them regularly, but I never really thought about it. But in the book The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley, she made the following point. Smoke is what kills in a house fire, and smoke rises, so by the time there is enough smoke to wake you, there is enough to kill. In fact her exact words which shocked me and why I am writing about this is that, you wake...

I was reading some of the sales brochures from a fabric company, as a way of avoiding doing any real work today. But it did make quite interesting reading Cotton is a ball of fibers (called a Boll) which is there to protect the seeds of the cotton plant The plant is native to both America and Asia The cotton plant is in the same family as hibiscus and okra It;s use in fabrics goes back to at least 7,000 BC. As I tell my son, that is even older than Granny. Cotton is also used to make animal feed, paper and...