- Accessibility links
- 15 of the funniest Irish jokes ever
- Related Content
- Official Irish Singles Chart Top 50 | Official Charts Company
- How to Say “Happy Birthday” in 25 Different Languages
It ricochets around the living room, where the paraphernalia of everyday life has been piled into corners to make space for the business of childbirth: Water slops from the pool on to the parquet where, in a few days, a baby will hopefully be sleeping in a moses basket. Kevin, Karen's husband, strokes her hair from her eyes.
Between the waves of pain, though, Karen is clearly relieved to be at home and in control, instructing Kevin to get towels from upstairs, cushions from next door and pills from her bag.
Upstairs, scented candles surround the bed, ready for when the new family curl up together for the first time. A week earlier, Karen had been very clear on the reasoning behind their choice: Why go into an unfamiliar, clinical setting where you don't get continuity of care and are at risk of all sorts of other things like MRSA and swine flu?
Yet there are medical experts who maintain that home births are dangerous and irresponsible.
Accessibility links
Some believe the practice is so reckless, it amounts to child abuse. So powerful is this anti-home birth lobby that not even Karen's hippies are choosing the option in great numbers any longer.
Until the advent of modern medicine, home birth was the de facto method of delivery. Long acknowledged to be safe for low-risk mothers, it is, when compared with hospital delivery, associated with fewer maternal interventions and a shorter recovery time. Women are less likely to haemorrhage, or to experience lacerations or infections.
Despite this, the practice has suffered a precipitous decline. Last year, just 2. In Northern Ireland, this drops to fewer than 0. Yet, low as they are, rates in the UK are still higher than across most of the developed world.
In some US states, rates are down to 0. Supporters of the practice say there is a very real possibility that legal home births will be eradicated in some countries in the very near future.
The overall picture is so bad, says Annie Francis, from Independent Midwives UK , she is tempted to believe there is a "global conspiracy against home birth". We need to ask the questions: Where has this great fear of childbirth come from in the west?
Back in Hertfordshire, Karen lies on the sofa, one leg slung over the back cushions, the other foot resting on the floor.
I'm not saying this is great — but that would make it so much worse. Philip Steer, emeritus professor in obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College London, has assisted at around 8, births and was an adviser to Nicholas Winterton's committee on health when it undertook an in-depth inquiry into maternity services in He insists he is not "anti home birth", but admits he "feels slightly frustrated when women's groups say most women should have a natural labour".
In some parts of Africa, this causes the death of one in six women from obstructed labour. Problems in labour arise far more commonly than many people appreciate, Steer says. Around half of pregnant women in the UK will have or develop a complicating factor — from high blood pressure to diabetes — that makes a hospital birth advisable.
15 of the funniest Irish jokes ever
For a moment last summer, it looked as though a new report would sound the death knell for home birth. The findings reverberated across the world. In the UK, an editorial in The Lancet said the study "provides the strongest evidence so far that home birth can, after all, be harmful to newborn babies". The editorial went on to claim the findings were so unequivocal that women should no longer have the right to choose a home birth: The reaction of the midwifery community was excoriating.
Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives , denounced the research as "flawed". Picking apart the study's methodology and findings, she concluded it was "a deliberate attempt to undermine home births".
Related Content
The AJOG is now backpedalling. The debate is muddied by the fact that evidence for outcomes of newborn babies delivered at home is contradictory: Even vital facts, such as perinatal mortality or caesarean rates, cannot be compared because of variations in how the data is collated and defined.
In the face of such confusing messages from the medical community, women such as Karen, who choose to have their first child at home, are increasingly rare. Marie Martin's first child, Alexandra, was born in hospital in There were lots of drugs involved, and an overwhelming feeling that I was not in control, a feeling that I am certain contributed to the postnatal depression that dogged me for the first year of motherhood.
When it came to giving birth to Alex's brother, Philip, in October, she decided to deliver at home. I didn't feel particularly empowered.
But it was miles better than being in hospital — and when we were left alone, minutes after Philip arrived, in our own home, the family bonding was unbelievably intense and wonderful.
I have never experienced such unadulterated joy. We were all literally weeping with happiness. The experience is not always so blissful, however. When Kim Mussell gave birth to Daisy, her second daughter, at home in south London five years ago, she ended up with an infection so serious she nearly died: She stitched me up, but there was internal damage she missed.
Karen's home birth doesn't go to plan, either. I'm sorry, everyone, but I don't think I'm going to make it. I would rather have the drugs right now than be at home. Depending on one's interpretation, the midwife is either calming — or reluctant to admit defeat.
- horoscope january 16 birthday!
- horoscop capricorn 16 16 february 2019?
- The Irish Charts - All there is to know!
- february 15 birthday 2019 horoscope.
- refinery 20 horoscope january.
- 19 february horoscope scorpio or scorpio.
- List of number-one singles of 1978 (Ireland).
Karen doesn't have the strength to argue. The decline in UK home births began after the Peel Report of , which said every woman should have the right to give birth in hospital.
Official Irish Singles Chart Top 50 | Official Charts Company
The government, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists , and the Royal College of Midwives came out in support of greater choice for women, including access to home births. Britain's maternity services were duly transformed. Unfortunately, we obstetricians undermine the first two — and sometimes even all three.
You should be able to find that yourself, also try looking at http: What an odd question. Our guess is that more than , songs and albums are released in North America and Europe each year so that means about are released on any given day, we won't list them here.
Oh and by the way the film "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was released that day too.
How to Say “Happy Birthday” in 25 Different Languages
If that doesn't answer your question why not try A actually reading what this page says, B pose better questions. Also the same for 1st of april By following the instructions at the top of this page I can tell you that on the 11th Jul Edith Piaf was number 1 in Germany with "Milord".
If, alternately, you want to know what was number 1 ijn the USA on Nov 7 you will have to follow the instructions yourself. I was born in Canberra on 27th April What was the Australian No 1 at that time please? We don't list any music for this year, its too likely to need correcting later. You can navigate to Nov with the dates at the top of the month pages.
We would suggest you look at the sources on Wikipedia that are listed at the foot of each month's page.
If you are looking for charts since the year there are some sites that provide that. If you want side by side charts from before that we suspect you are out of luck.
We find it hard enough to create charts that gather the information and consolidate by year. The sources for various charts are listed on the "Source Charts" page, you could try and create such a resource yourself. Follow the year link at the top of this page, then select the month you want on the third row of the next page.
Your considerate and respectful approach do your country proud. I can't see where the reputation of Australians as rude and crass comes from. The best chart for Canada is the RPM one, however it won't help you for two reasons, firstly it only started in and secondly up to now it has only been available as scanned images see for example http: We don't have any Japanese charts from before If you find any we'd like to add them.
You'll find it listed on http: It is listed on http: We guess that you are from the USA, according to http: We don't know, that's not the kind of data we keep too recent and specific. I was born on june 13 Find a site that delivers that service or look in Wikipedia, all the links you need are listed here and on the "Source Charts" page.
As it explains on the chart listing we don't have any information for Spain between and There are a number of number 1 lists on Wikipedia, you could start there.
The "Song Charts" page lists the sources of most of the charts we have here, going through those would add some extra ones. What you didn't say is that you are from the UK, the list of UK number ones can be found at http: We don't keep records of the current year, because it is hard to know if current songs have reached their peak and the number of weeks changes too frequently.
However if you look at the description of where we obtain our Irish data from you will see a link which eventually leads to http: