The pressures of motherhood can often lead to post-natal depression, according to Adelaide academic Victoria Williamson and Post and Antenatal Depression Association (PANDA) chief executive Belinda Horton.

The illness is estimated to affect one in six Australian mothers and about 200 people call PANDA’s helpline each month.

The lack of awareness of what mothers go through, and the inability to discuss it for fear of others’ judgement, can imprison mothers behind walls of silence and happy pretences…

Ms Horton, PANDA’s CEO, says the losses involved with becoming a mother are not realised. She cites the loss of finances, freedom, worker identity and couple time as examples of negatives that weigh up against the positives, such as developing an amazing relationship with a new baby…

Dr Williamson says her 2005 study of 12 women with post-natal depression found they felt pressured to live up to media images of the perfect mother. She says the mothers would pretend things were happy, like the scenes depicted in family commercials, when actually they were feeling dreadful.

“They were often not wanting to admit to themselves, let alone anyone else, that motherhood wasn’t easy, wasn’t perfect, was actually quite painful in some ways,” Williamson says…

Williamson believes new myths have continually been pushed onto women since the 1950s.

In the 50s, it was the myth of the perfect happy housewife, followed by the 70s career woman, the 80s superwoman and the 1990s beauty myth of looking like a thin catwalk model…

So what needs to be done to help bring the reality of motherhood into the open?

Williamson says more education, support and realistic media images.

“I think firstly public education, about the reality of motherhood, so that those that don’t become depressed, but are just struggling with the normal adjustment process, can have a realistic idea of what to expect, with some ideas of resources if they need them,” she says.

“Women need to help each other more, rather than criticise each other and media needs to give more realistic portrayals of motherhood in newspapers and magazines and television programs. We need to debunk things such as the beauty myth and the superwoman myth and the myth of the perfect mother.”

Source: TVNZ, New Zealand
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1416764

Both the Government and the Opposition want to get women back into the workforce as quickly as possible after giving birth. I suspect that most mothers are also keen on getting back into paid employment as soon as possible.

The problem is the politicians want to do it on the cheap, while mothers are reluctant to entrust their children to second-class care or to paying so much in child care that there is no financial incentive to return to work early. The result is a halfway house in which the Government doesn’t take direct responsibility for the provision of child care and early education but provides what amount to vouchers that subsidise these services run by non-profit and for-profit organisations…

The Scandinavian countries spend between 1.7 and 2 per cent of GDP on early childhood education and care. To reach this level would require a three-to-four-fold increase in government spending on children up to age six. The Scandinavian countries spend between $12,000 to $15,000 a year for each child aged one to six years, but this is not a net burden on taxpayers. The much higher expenditure has to be set against the much higher workforce participation rates for young women with children compared with Australia and the higher proportion of Scandinavian women occupying high-productivity, full-time professional jobs.

In 2006 the OECD published a comprehensive survey of early childhood education and child care. The central insight in the report was that it saw early childhood services as a public good, which provides an unequalled opportunity for investment in human capital. It cites research that shows the social return from investment in child care and preschool is higher than an equivalent level of investment in primary and post-primary education.

According to the OECD report, “In early childhood positive (or negative) dispositions towards society and learning are absorbed and the basic life skills acquired … Additionally, parents are particularly protective of their children at this age and eager to support development and learning. In comparison, remedial education interventions targeting young school drop-outs or adults with poor basic skills are far more costly, and according to the research, of limited benefit.” …

Source: The Age, Australia
http://tinyurl.com/2pr5wa

Primary and middle school students lack the ability to apply academic skills despite having a basic grounding in areas such as reading, writing and calculation, according to the results of a nationwide achievement test conducted by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry…

The tests, which focused on the Japanese language, primary school arithmetic and middle school mathematics, featured two types of questions. The first type quizzed the students on their basic knowledge of each subject, and the second examined their ability to utilize their knowledge to solve problems they might encounter in their daily lives.

At primary schools, an average of 82 percent of students answered the first part of both tests correctly. However, for the second part of the tests, the scores were 63 percent and 64 percent for the language and arithmetic tests, respectively.

In middle schools, 82 percent of students correctly answered the first part of the language test, and 73 percent passed the first part of that for mathematics. For the second sections, 72 percent and 61 percent were successful in language and mathematics, respectively.

The results revealed that many students lack the ability to think independently and express themselves freely–findings similar to those of the Program for International Student Assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development…

Source: The Daily Yomiuri, Japan
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071025TDY01305.htm

Launching plans for the National Year of Reading in 2008, Mr Balls called for a national “revolution” in children’s reading habits at school and at home…

He said: “I want every parent to make a book at bedtime as much a part of the daily routine as brushing their children’s teeth.

“As a parent I know how hard it can be to find time but just 10 minutes a day can make a difference to a child’s future — and will instil a love of reading from a very early age.” …

Though there was a similar Government-backed year of reading a decade ago, and despite the huge encouragement for the young to pick up a book because of the success of the Harry Potter series, politicians remained concerned that reading by the young has not picked up fast enough.

Improvements in primary school test results have slowed in recent years, with one in five 11-year-olds still falling short of the standards of English expected of their age group…

A survey of children’s authors attempting to discover what makes a child fall in love with a book found young readers wanted an imaginative story-line and engaging characters…

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/25/nread125.xml

While working with parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at the University at Buffalo, Gregory A. Fabiano noticed something was missing: the fathers.

Fabiano, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education, made the discovery while still a graduate assistant at the UB Center for Children and Families, which runs a summer treatment program that has helped more than 2,500 children with behavioral, emotional and learning problems. The program uses sports as a way to teach children peer-relationship skills, Fabiano said…

“I was surprised to find there were no studies on dads with kids with ADHD and so I thought this would be a good area in which we could try to do something. My dissertation was trying out a parenting program specifically for fathers, using sports as a kind of hook to get the dads interested and the kids too,” Fabiano said…

“We thought for a chronic disorder like ADHD where these fathers aren’t going to be dealing with these problems for a couple weeks or a couple months, but for the child’s entire life, the treatment has to be well-liked, palatable and engaging,” Fabiano explained.

The results, he said, have been remarkable.

“We had huge differences on things like drop-out rates for both the dad and the child. The dads in the COACHES group were more likely to try out the homework, which was a pretty big accomplishment,” Fabiano said. “They also rated the treatment as better.” …

Also, the children themselves seemed to be tension-free while playing, a sharp contrast to their previous experiences with sports, he said.

“Families with children with ADHD tell us lots of horror stories about their children failing at team sports because they weren’t paying attention when the ball is coming toward them or they have a low frustration threshold, so they stomped off the field if they made an error,” Fabiano said.

The best result by far was the sense of community that the program offered the fathers…

At each meeting, while the children practice soccer skills, the fathers meet to learn parenting skills, such as “how to pay attention to the child’s good behaviors, give clear commands, use time outs well,” Fabiano said…

Success on the field means a greater chance of success at home and school…

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071023173432.htm

For many pregnant women across Canada, questions about their mental health are becoming a mainstay of prenatal visits to the doctor.

As recently as a few years ago, pregnant women may not have been treated for depression until it showed up after baby was born — if they were treated at all.

Fuelled by new research, experts are now broadening the definition of postpartum depression to include moms-to-be. In response, new, more extensive treatment programs are springing up across the country to help women during pregnancy and after.

For women who experience prenatal or postpartum depression - between 10 and 20 per cent of those who give birth - experts say the experience is more than a brief blip near childbirth. It may be part of a lifelong battle with a mood disorder.

But even a short period of depression can have lasting effects for a new mother and her family.

Armed with this view, doctors are now seeking to identify women who are in danger long before they deliver.

“One of the biggest risk factors for postnatal depression is prenatal depression,” says psychiatrist Eileen Sloan, a specialist in perinatal mood disorders at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

And the fix may not be as simple as undergoing talk or drug therapy, experts say.

“Women who are depressed need support in their role as mothers,” says Concordia University psychologist David Forman, who recently studied the negative effects of postpartum depression on mothers’ relationships with their babies. “It’s not just a momentary or passing problem of her mood that can somehow get fixed by quick, symptom-relieving treatment.” …

Sleep in the early days is believed to help protect at-risk women. “It’s been shown to be effective,” Dr. Sloan says…

In Vancouver, if a mom has a severe case of depression for which she needs to be hospitalized, she can be offered a “swing” bed to share with her baby while undergoing treatment at the BC Women’s Hospital…

The hospital is now working on creating a cognitive behaviour therapy tool specifically to teach depressed mothers how to banish negative thought patterns. The hospital is even using baby massage to help moms bond with their children, says Diana Carter, a psychiatrist in the reproductive mental health program at BC Women’s Hospital.

Bonding is one of the chief worries about depressed new mothers…

Source: Globe and Mail, Canada
http://tinyurl.com/2jmu5n

There’s a joy to fatherhood no matter when someone has a child, but many Americans are waiting longer. Research shows the percentage of married men having children at 40 or older has nearly tripled over the past two decades, from 5 percent in 1984 to 14 percent in 2004…

A couple of reasons stand out for older men fathering children, said Dr. Mohit Khera, a professor of urology at Baylor University.

The first is divorce, after which some men remarry younger women and start a second family.

The second is a general trend toward waiting until midlife - when educational goals have been attained and a career started - before marrying and fathering children…

“Children benefit from a parent who has a sense of self, who made mistakes and grew and as a result he can help a child grow up happy and confident,” Mandel said. “He knows the route.”

Additionally, today’s older fathers are more physically fit than men in their 40s a generation ago, she said. They can still expend the energy needed to cart around a toddler…

Rogers, 51, said children benefit from parents who are able to mentor more than discipline. That ability often comes with age.

“You can have rich discussions and meaningful bonding with fathers in their later ages,” he said. “You can relate on many levels because you’ve been there.”

And yet, being there for the long haul may be biggest question older dads worry over. That is, whether they will live long enough to witness their children’s major milestones: high school and college graduation, marriages and the birth of a grandchild…

Source: Stockton Record, CA
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071023/A_LIFE/710230307

Regrets, every one has a few, but the ones that haunt New Zealanders most are the things they did not do.

Not taking action causes New Zealanders more regret than anything else, according to research by Andy Towers for a doctorate degree at the School of Psychology at Massey University.

He found that men have different regrets to woman and regrets change as we age.

“People regret the things they didn’t do, that is the inaction – both in the short and the long-term,” he said.

Men are more likely to regret financial and occupational decisions. Women’s regrets are more varied, spanning occupation, family, parenting and health decisions.

Lack of education was one of the biggest regrets expressed by older people.

“Time and time again the thing that came up is `if I had stayed at school I could have had a better job and my life would be different’, or `I would not have had this manual job that has wrecked me’.”

Middle age is a time for reflection on relationships, according to the survey. People in their 40s are most likely to have regrets about intimate relationships…

Source: Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4249137a11.html

In most of the world, sleeping next to your child is a necessity: families of limited means live in cramped quarters. But in the affluent West, the practice is widely frowned on, not just by grandparents and friends, but by the medical community at large.

Still, it is far more common than many people think. Nearly 13 percent of parents in the United States slept with their infants in 2000, up from 5.5 percent in 1993, according to a report last month in the journal Infant and Child Development. Countless children start the night in their own beds, only to wake up a few hours later and pad into their parents’ bedrooms, crawling into the bed or curling up nearby on the floor.

Ask parents if they sleep with their kids, and most will say no. But there is evidence that the prevalence of bed sharing is far greater than reported. Many parents are “closet co-sleepers,” fearful of disapproval if anyone finds out, notes James J. McKenna, professor of anthropology and director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame.

“They’re tired of being censured or criticized,” Dr. McKenna said. “It’s not just that their babies are being judged negatively for not being a good baby compared to the baby who sleeps by himself, but they’re being judged badly for having these babies and being needy.” …

In a series of studies in Britain, scientists interviewed parents about their children’s sleep habits, but also used infrared cameras to monitor the parents’ bedroom. The children often spent part of the night in the adults’ bed, but in about half those cases, the parents did not reveal that unless they were specifically asked. As a result, many experts say most of the data in the United States vastly understates how common the practice really is…

In a paper last month in Infant and Child Development, Dr. Dyer proposed that co-sleeping families fall into three distinct categories. There are intentional co-sleepers — those who sleep with their children because they want to breast-feed for a long stretch and believe bed sharing is good for a child’s well-being and emotional development. Another group is reactive co-sleepers, those parents who don’t really want to sleep with their kids, but do so because they can’t get their children to sleep any other way or because financial hardship requires them to share a room with a child.

And then there is a third group that she tentatively calls circumstantial co-sleepers — parents who sleep with their children occasionally because of circumstances like sharing a bed on a family vacation, during a thunderstorm or because the child is sick…

Source: New York Times, United States
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/health/23well.html?ref=science

… What makes the debate about fish so heated? And if scientists remain so at odds about eating seafood during pregnancy, what should consumers do?

To try to answer these questions, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks interviewing numerous scientists, doctors and environmental experts and reading as many scientific papers and reports about methyl mercury, omega-3s, fish and pregnancy as possible. To my surprise, I found a lot of scientific agreement that I hope will help guide your decisions about seafood. (And for those who don’t eat seafood, there are other options below.)

First and foremost, eat fish low in mercury whether you’re pregnant or not. There’s wide agreement on this. Fish is rich in protein, generally low in calories and packed with omega-3 fatty acids, and generally lower in contaminants. The National Academy of Sciences, the American Heart Association and the 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines are among the expert sources that advise Americans to eat about two meals of fish per week for health benefits ranging from heart protection to help with weight control. This advice is also consistent with the guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and, yes, the Healthy Mothers coalition.

Omega-3s are especially important for pregnant women because these essential fats are key to fetal brain development. “You want optimal function and every brain cell that God created for you,” says Philippe Grandjean, a Harvard School of Public Health adjunct professor who heads a long-term study of the risks and benefits of seafood consumption in the Faeroe Islands…

Source: Washington Post, United States
http://tinyurl.com/2ma8ah