The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that several provisions of the 1982 Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act were unconstitutional because they obstructed a woman's right to abortion. These provisions included requirements that a woman be advised of possible medical assistance for childbirth and of the father's responsibility for child support, and that a physician inform the woman of abortion's detrime...

This paper examines maternal and child health in the Nairobi slums using information on 1219 births which occurred in the past three years before the Nairobi Cross-sectional Slum Survey (NCSS) of 2000. The specific objectives are to compare maternal and child health indicators in the Nairobi slums with the rest of the Kenyan population, and to identify socio-economic and demographic factors ass...

BACKGROUND Early parental separation may be a stress factor causing a long-term alteration in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis activity possibly impacting on the susceptibility to develop overweight and obesity in offspring. We aimed to examine the body mass index (BMI) and the risk of overweight and obesity in children whose parents lived separately before the child was born. METHODS ...

The ability to overcome short-term economic stress has been shown to be a good measure of the standard of living of populations in the past. From micro-level studies conducted across Europe and Asia we have learned that measures taken to smooth consumption, such as delaying births and marriages, and out-migration, were not sufficient to prevent all family members from dying in years with high f...

BACKGROUND There is evidence that poverty, health and nutrition affect children's cognitive development. This study aimed to examine the relative contributions of both proximal and distal risk factors on child cognitive development, by breaking down the possible causal pathways through which poverty affects cognition. METHODS This cohort study collected data on family socioeconomic status, ho...

Interventions that include men during pregnancy and childbirth have shown to yield positive health benefits to women and their children. Most previous studies in India examined male involvement during pregnancy and childbirth using qualitative data. In order to gain a quantitative insight on the subject, primary data collected from men aged 15-54 from rural Ahmadnagar in India is used to examin...

BACKGROUND The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is a lower-middle income country making steady progress improving maternal and child health outcomes. We sought to ascertain if there have been improvements in three specific birth outcomes (low birth weight, preterm birth and small for gestational age) over the last decade. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed birth records between 200...

OBJECTIVES To study the relation of intra-uterine growth and gestational age with child protection registration in a 20 year whole population birth cohort. SETTING West Sussex area of England. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective whole population birth cohort. OUTCOMES Child protection registration; individual categories of registration-sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Po...