Alcohol use during pregnancy and breastfeeding is associated with diverse risks to infant health. As there no known safe threshold of alcohol consumption, official guidelines advocate a precautionary approach advise pregnant women abstain. Sociological research has shown that women's occasional drinking involves complex responses risk messages health recommendations. However, on views consumpti...

Gender and motherhood dynamics feature prominently in research that examines professional workplace inequities. The rise of patenting as an available form of academic productivity presents a fruitful site to revisit these in the science profession and to compare academic and industrial science contexts. I predict patenting involvement across disciplines, sectors, and time. Contrary to findings ...

Commercial surrogate-motherhood contracts should be legally enforceable, despite the vociferous and prevalent opposition to them. We shall, in particular, argue here that they do not involve the commodification of children, nor in other ways are they contrary to the interests of the children concerned. Our case is developed in response to criticisms of arguments we have made before in defense o...

Objective: To investigate and compare stress and satisfaction with motherhood of mothers of children with versus without an orofacial cleft. Setting: Cleft palate center and a child day care in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Participants: Seventy six mothers with children aged 0-4 years with clefts were included. The children were treated at the academic cleft palate center in Amsterdam, The Nethe...

Behavioral adaptations during motherhood are aimed at increasing reproductive success. Alterations of hormones during motherhood could trigger brain morphological changes to underlie behavioral alterations. Here we investigated whether motherhood changes a rat's sensory perception and spatial memory in conjunction with cortical neuronal structural changes. Female rats of different statuses, inc...

The time is right to shift the focus of the global maternal health community to the challenges of effective implementation of services within districts. 20 years after the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, the community has reached a broad consensus about priority interventions, incorporated these interventions into national policy documents, and organised globally in coalition with the...

States of fragility and insecurity often give rise to urgent health needs that need to be met quickly and effectively, particularly for women and adolescents. Vouchers are a demand-side financing mechanism which can be used to address some of the health challenges faced by women under these circumstances. A number of organisations have begun to use vouchers to enable access to reproductive, mat...

This essay provides a review of 25 years of maternal mortality reduction policies proposed by international bodies under the Safe Motherhood Initiative(SMI), and explores the relevance of cultural preferences for birth care in maternal death reduction policies. This review is significant for public health because it addresses the public health mission of ensuring quality and effective health ca...

BACKGROUND Melasma is an acquired increased pigmentation of the skin characterized by symmetrical and confluent grey-brown patches usually on the areas of the face exposed to the sun. Silymarin strongly prevents photocarcinogenesis, and significantly prevented melanin production. The objectives of this study were the assessment of safety and efficacy of topical Silymain (SM) cream in a double-b...