Articles

Few disorders are as devastating and frightening for an individual as stroke. Often without warning, life can be torn apart by the sudden loss of basic physical or mental skills. Equally, no disorder is more confounding to medical science since stroke cannot be pinned down to one single, treatable cause. Instead, it is influenced by […]

Question: When is an operation not an operation? Answer: When it’s a section. It’s only recently that caesarean operations (known inexplicably as “sections”) have become commonplace. Earlier this century, caesareans were used as a last ditch attempt to save the baby usually after the mother had died. Fifty years ago mothers were likely to die […]

There is a joke among medical practitioners confronted with a woman suffering from gynecological problems. The diagnosis: she is suffering from CPU or Chronic Persistent Uterus. The solution: Hysterectomy. In fact, hysterectomy, or more correctly female castration, is now one of the most widely applied surgeries for women, second in some countries only to the […]

Photographs transmitted all over the world of prisoner ‘Annette’, from the notorious Holloway Prison in London, labouring in chains have caused us all to take stock of the penal system’s treatment of pregnant women Photographs transmitted all over the world of prisoner ‘Annette’, from the notorious Holloway Prison in London, labouring in chains have caused […]

What do mothers want from midwives? Over the years, I have been privileged to listen to many mothersWhat do mothers want from midwives? Over the years, I have been privileged to listen to many mothers. No matter what their age or experience most want the same thing the woman they have read about in books. […]

Premenstrual tension was discovered in 1931 by Dr Robert Frank. Since then, it has been elevated to the status of syndrome-yet its causes and cures remain an enigma. Pat Thomas reports It seems there are three things that are certain in this life: death, taxes and, if you’re a woman, premenstrual syn­drome. With more than […]

When you find a drug which helps you, do not try and persuade your medical advisor to cut the length of the treatment short ‘When you find a drug which helps you, do not try and persuade your medical advisor to cut the length of the treatment short. You may find when you take drugs […]

Caesarean rates in this country have multiplied five times in the last 20 years, yet foetal survival rates have not seen a corresponding increase. Cases where a caesarean is essential are much rarer than our doctors would have us believe. When a doctor advises an elective (predetermined) caesarean, most understand the sense of panic and […]