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The Department of Health and Social Security issued the following statement on recent suggestions that potato blight might endanger some unborn children:

The purpose of this paper is to describe Burmese migrant women’s perceptions of health and well-being during pregnancy, their health promoting practices and their experiences with the Thai antenatal services.

The study used an ethnographic design. Observations were conducted in two antenatal clinics in southern Thailand. Ten Burmese migrant women and three Burmese interpreters participated in interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

The Burmese women wanted to take care of themselves and their baby to the best of their ability. This included following traditional practices and attending the antenatal clinic if able. Negotiating the demands of earning an income, and protecting their unborn baby, sometimes led to unhealthy practices such as consuming energy drinks and herbal tonics to improve performance. Accessing antenatal care was a positive health seeking behaviour noted in this community, however, it was not available to all.

This is a small ethnographic study conducted in one Province in Thailand and all Burmese participants were legal migrants. Further research is required to understand the needs of pregnant women not able to access maternity services because of their status as an illegal migrant.

Community-based health promotion initiatives need to focus on the nutrition of pregnant women who are migrants living in southern Thailand. New models of care may increase migrant women’s use of antenatal services.

Most studies of the health of migrant women are conducted in high-income countries. This study demonstrates the difficulties experienced by women migrating from a low to middle-income country.

This paper aims to investigate infant sensory patterns and their associations with previous perinatal loss, maternal-foetal attachment and postnatal maternal sensory patterns.

In a prospective cohort study, women with and without perinatal loss (N = 57) were recruited from an Australian public hospital. Participants were surveyed during pregnancy (maternal-foetal attachment, loss) and again postnatally (maternal/infant sensory patterns). Chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses controlling for previous perinatal loss were conducted with infant sensory patterns as outcome variables.

“More than typical” infant low registration was associated with poorer quality of maternal-foetal attachment. “More than typical” infant sensory seeking was associated with previous perinatal loss and higher levels of maternal sensory seeking. “More than typical” infant sensory sensitivity was linked with previous perinatal loss, poorer quality of maternal-foetal attachment and higher maternal low registration. “More than typical” infant sensory avoidance was associated with poorer quality of maternal-foetal attachment and higher levels of maternal sensory sensitivity.

To support more typical infant sensory patterns, results point to the potential benefit of occupational therapists supporting pregnant women with previous perinatal loss; facilitating favourable maternal-foetal attachment; and educating new mothers on how their sensory patterns impact on interactions with their infant. Sensory modulation strategies that consider the sensory patterns of both mother and infant may be beneficial to promote engagement in co-occupations.

These findings are the first to suggest that previous perinatal loss, poorer quality of maternal-foetal attachment and higher levels of maternal postnatal sensory patterns represent risk factors for infant sensory patterns that are “more than typical.”

Using a sense making approach, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role that virtual health communities play as a source of informational and social support for pregnant diabetic women. The paper helps to understand how women suffering from a critical medical condition (i.e. diabetes during pregnancy and birth) manage a complex health situation.

The data sample consisted of 507 posts collected from a virtual health community for diabetic pregnant women. Data were analysed deductively looking for different expressions of normality and different types of health information about diabetes.

Content analysis revealed four themes that reflect the process that diabetic women go through from their attempts to conceive through pregnancy and birth. The findings show that for women dealing with a chronic illness such as diabetes, the breakdown of normal was the beginning of the pregnancy that prompted a new range of informational and emotional needs. The members of the community negotiated a socially constructed sense of normality and tried to empower other members with a new sense of normal by sharing information about their births. The findings also showed that members of the community disclosed personal health information to elicit medical information, advice and social support from other members.

The study highlighted the significance of sense-making processes in managing complex health situations and the value of virtual communities as sources of information and social support as to resolve discontinuities in the management of their illnesses.

This paper aims to consider the increased commercialisation of motherhood and particularly the consumer practices of women as they prepare for the birth of their first child. The commercial world appears omnipresent in the lives of new mothers in Western societies.

Based on a five-year study of motherhood in the UK, the paper focusses on women’s relationship to the marketing and consumption of everyday maternity and baby products made available to them through readership of pregnancy magazines and mainstream commercial outlets.

Documenting how consumer culture features in the lives of mothers-to-be, the study identifies age and socio-economic status as key features in shaping the maternal experience and consumer “choice”.

The paper explores the significance of consumption as preparatory work in the transition to motherhood.

The purpose of this article is to help acquaint librarians with some of the major resources available regarding Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAS/FAE).

The purpose of this paper is to draw on data from 16 interviews (two each with eight women) to explore some of the ways in which everyday shopping may change as women become mothers. The meanings, practices and implications of the transition to motherhood have long been a topic for sociological inquiry. Recently, interest has turned to the opportunities offered by this transition for the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles. Becoming a mother is likely to lead to changes in a variety of aspects of everyday life such as travel, leisure, cooking and purchase of consumer goods, all of which have environmental implications. The environmental impacts associated with such changes are complex, and positive moves toward more sustainable activities in one sphere may be offset by less environmentally positive changes elsewhere.

This paper draws on data from 16 interviews (two each with eight women) to explore some of the ways in which everyday shopping may change as women become mothers.

This paper focuses on the ways in which modes and meanings of everyday shopping may shift through the transition to mother, and on indicating any potential sustainability implications. The paper explores the adoption of more structured shopping and of shifting the mode of grocery shopping online or offline. The paper draws attention to the way in which practices are embedded and interrelated and argue that more consideration needs to be given to the influence of all household members.

The question here is not whether women purchase different products or consume more once they have a child, but rather how does the everyday activity of shopping for groceries and the meanings it has change with new motherhood and what sustainability implications might this have? In this context, this paper provides a novel addition to research on new mothers and consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of insecticide-treated net (ITN) use in the control of malaria amongst pregnant women attending antenatal clinic.

Data were gathered using interviews and documentary review. Framework analysis was applied to classify emerging themes and the findings interpreted using the health belief model.

The findings showed that the pregnant women had appreciable knowledge, both the positive and negative attitudes and the perceptions of insecticide treated nets. To most of them, sleeping under an ITN would not affect pregnancy/cause abortion, but rather prevent mosquito bites and associated malaria.

The limitations include the sample size of participants and health facilities used. Lack of application of a quantitative research method meant that the authors could not quantify the findings to ensure generalisation to the entire population.

The findings suggest that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals need to appreciate the perception and the attitude of pregnant women when designing policy guidelines for the malaria control programme.

This paper helps to elucidate on how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of ITN usage amongst both pregnant women and people in malaria endemic communities.

This paper suggests that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals have to devise strategies to address socio-cultural beliefs and practices in the scaling up of malaria control programmes.

Perinatal depression is common and increases the risk of adverse outcomes for both the mother and child. Despite regular contact with midwives and GPs during the perinatal period less than 50 per cent of women with depression are identified and treated. A number of reasons for this have been proposed; however, failure of health professionals to recognise the symptoms women present with may contribute. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore women’s self-report symptoms of perinatal depression and understand how the symptoms women present with might impact on identification.

Women were invited to post their experiences of perinatal depression on one of two online discussion forums over a nine-month period. Data were analysed using a process of deductive thematic analysis informed by cognitive behavioural therapy.

Women’s symptoms were presented using five headings: triggers (for perinatal depression), thoughts, moods, physical reactions and behaviours. Women believed having a previous mental health problem contributed to their depression. Women’s self-report symptoms included intrusive and violent thoughts; emotional responses including fear, worry and anger; and somatic symptoms including insomnia and weight changes. Women also reported aggressive behaviour and social withdrawal as part of their depressive symptomatology. Symptoms women present with may negatively impact on identification as they often overlap with those of pregnancy; may not be included in the criteria for mental health assessment and may involve undesirable and socially unacceptable behaviour, making disclosure difficult.

A more inclusive understanding of women’s self-report symptoms of perinatal depression is called for, if identification is to improve.

This paper offers an analysis of women’s self-report symptoms of depression, in the context of identification of perinatal mental health problems.