a previous communication by the writer (Greval, 1939) and is published in response to several enquiries received last year. Disputes in paternity and maternity arise : (1) When a child is alleged to be supposititious. This appears to be the commonest cause in India. (2) When a man is averred by a woman to be the father of her child. This is the commonest cause in Europe. (3) When a husband aver...

This paper estimates the causal effects of breastfeeding on early child development using exogenous variation in breastfeeding support policies across UK maternity hospitals. Based on data from the Millennium Cohort Study, we find that mothers giving birth in hospitals where such policies are implemented are between 8 and 9 percentage points more likely to breastfeed exclusively at 4 and 8 week...

BACKGROUND Prevention is considered effective in combating the obesity epidemic. Prenatal environment may increase offspring's risk for obesity. A child starts to adopt food preferences and other behavioral habits affecting weight gain during preschool years. We report the study protocol of a pragmatic lifestyle intervention aiming at primary prevention of childhood obesity. METHODS/DESIGN A ...

The STEPS Study aims to search for the precursors and causes of problems in child health and well-being by using a multidisciplinary approach. The cohort consists of all mothers (Finnish or Swedish speaking) who had live deliveries in the Hospital District of Southwest Finland from January 2008 to April 2010 and their children (n=9811 mothers, n=9936 children). Of these, 1797 mothers and their ...

BACKGROUND Obstetrics remains the largest medico-legal liability in healthcare. Neither an increasing awareness of patient safety nor a long tradition of reporting obstetric outcomes have reduced either rates of medical error or obstetric litigation. International debate continues about the best approaches to measuring and improving patient safety. In this study, we set out to assess the feasib...

Background & aim: The experience of having a child is a new experience that can be challenging for mothers. However, this experience can be different for mothers who are subjected to assisted reproduction techniques, compared to mothers with normal fertility experience. The assisted reproductive techniques influence the attitudes and expectations of mothers towards the...

BACKGROUND In Tanzania, and many sub-Saharan African countries, postpartum health programs have received less attention compared to other maternity care programs and therefore new parents rely on informal support. Knowledge on how informal support is understood by its stakeholders to be able to improve the health in families after childbirth is required. This study aimed to explore discourses o...

Developed economies, experiencing concomitant declining fertility and rising educational attainment, have introduced policies to boost fertility. This paper extends Galor and Weil (2000) by introducing bought in services as an input in both the rearing and education of children. Within this framework, we analyse the e¤ects on fertility and education of a baby bonus, paid maternity leave and chi...