#Men 'Crucially Important' For #WomensHealth. #Women #CervicalCancer

10th June 2011

Men have an important role to play in women’s health, according to Women’s Health Concern (WHC).

Patrick Shervington, chief executive of the organisation, said: “Whether it is an employer, a boss, a work colleague; whether it’s a husband or a partner; a man needs to be very understanding, very caring and very positive about health issues, not just cervical screening, but any health issue that the woman may have.”

Coinciding with Cervical Screening Awareness Week [running from June 6th to 12th], a survey conducted for Jo’s Trust by YouGov found that a lack of flexibility by employers and GPs could be putting women at risk.

Mr Shervington said: “Flexible surgery hours or health centre hours would make a positive difference.”

He added that women who work full-time are perhaps reluctant to have time off because of the money they will lose, so have limited opportunity to get to surgeries.

“If more and more surgeries are open for longer hours, then they can be fitted in. Then de facto, there will be a rise in the take up of screening,” he stated.

Posted by Jeanette Royston

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Original Article

Longer #Maternity Leave Ups #Breastfeeding Rates. #WomensHealth #Women

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By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) — Women who stay home longer after having a baby are more likely to breastfeed their babies, a new study indicates.

Researchers found that new mothers who were at home for three months or more were about twice as likely to be predominantly breastfeeding beyond three months. Results of the study are published in the June issue of Pediatrics.

“Women need to be helped. If the government could make changes, like extending the Family and Medical Leave Act, women would know they have job security, and it would help those who want to breastfeed,” said study author Dr. Chinelo Ogbuanu, a senior maternal and child health epidemiologist in the division of public health at the Georgia Department of Community Health in Atlanta.

Even better, she said, would be making paid maternity leave available to all women. “That could help women stay home longer,” Ogbuanu said. “Some women don’t take leave because they don’t get paid.”

The U.S. Family Leave and Medical Act, which became law in 1993, requires that employers offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the birth of a child. But, the law does not apply to all employers. Businesses that have fewer than 50 workers are exempt and, in all cases, women must have held the job for a year or more and worked at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months to be eligible. Just five states offer maternity leave that goes beyond the federal law. California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island provide partial wage compensation to women after the birth of a child.

By comparison, Canada generally provides 17 weeks of paid maternity leave at 55% of a woman’s wages, although this does vary by province, according to the United Nations Division of Statistics. Sweden offers 16 months of parental leave, with 80% of the worker’s salary, and Japan offers 14 weeks, but at two-thirds pay, according to the U.N.

Previous research had pointed to the length of maternity leave as a significant factor in a woman’s decision on whether to even try to breastfeed, as well as for the early cessation of breastfeeding, according to background information in the study.

“Many women have to return within six weeks of giving birth,” said Dr. Deborah Campbell, director of neonatology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. “But, it takes time to establish breastfeeding. Not every baby is born knowing how to breastfeed. Mothers can have feeding challenges. Mom and baby need time to become in sync with each other. Even with high rates of breastfeeding initiation, when women have to go back to work, they often choose to combo-feed with bottle and breast, and the bottle undermines breastfeeding.”

To get a better idea of the impact of maternity leave length on breastfeeding, the researchers reviewed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. This group included a nationally representative sample of 6,150 women who had given birth to a single child. All of the women had worked in the 12 months leading up to the birth of their child.

Slightly more than two-thirds of the women started breastfeeding, according to the study. About 74% of those who took at least 13 weeks of maternity leave initiated breastfeeding, compared with about 65% of women who took one to six weeks of leave.

Among women who stayed home more than three months, 34% continued to predominantly breastfeed for more than three months, compared with 18% of women who returned to work one to six weeks after childbirth, the study found.

“This study provides further support that we need to have more maternity leave for women to establish and promote the continuation of breastfeeding,” Campbell said.

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

SOURCES: Chinelo Ogbuanu, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., senior maternal and child health epidemiologist, Maternal and Child Health Program, division of public health, Georgia Department of Community Health, Atlanta; Deborah Campbell, M.D., director, division of neonatology, Montefiore Medical Center, and professor, clinical pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City; June 2011 Pediatrics.

Original Article

“This study provides further support th