Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: Blooming or bloomin’ awful? A review of the literature

BackgroundNausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) is a normal, commonly experienced affliction of early pregnancy. Despite this, its impact on women's lives is not necessarily minimal. For some women, the implications of NVP are substantial with multi-faceted effects, hindering their ability to maintain usual life activities, and particularly their ability to work. In an effort to understand the effect of NVP, several researchers have developed NVP measurement tools, which enable an understanding of NVP's effect on quality of life (QOL).ProblemThis paper seeks to provide a review of the literature to explore the impact of NVP on women's quality of life, particularly their ability to maintain social and professional commitments.MethodMedline, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Ebsco, Science Direct, Health Source, Academic Search Premiere, Cochrane databases were extensively searched using Boolean operators with various combinations of relevant terms: nausea, vomiting, pregnancy, emesis, quality of life, QOL, NVPQOL, PUQE, SF-12, SF-36 and limited to those published from 1999 onwards. Papers were scrutinised to include those discussing the impact of normal NVP on women's lives, particularly their QOL with careful exclusion of those addressing hyperemesis gravidarum (HG).FindingsNVP has a significant effect on women's QOL and therefore their ability to maintain day-to-day activities as well as work capacity. This has implications for the woman, her partner, her family and her employers.ConclusionIt is important that all maternity care workers consider the impact of NVP on the woman's QOL and that care is given not to minimise this experience. Further research is warranted which considers ways in which women can best manage this experience in relation to social and professional commitments. Given the authors were able to identify only one Australian study in this area, published in 2000 and utilising non-NVP specific QOL measurement tools, there exists scope for additional local studies using NVP-specific QOL tools to determine the impact of QOL for Australian women and therefore Australian society.     

‘Therapy Doesn't Exist in a Vacuum’: An Interview With Max Cornwell

Max Cornwell is a psychologist and social worker in Sydney. He edited ANZJFT from 1985 until 1996 and is a former editor of Australian Social Work. He has taught in hundreds of venues in Australia and abroad. In 1980 he co‐founded the Family Therapy Institute, a major influence on the training of family therapists in New South Wales until the mid‐90s. He is an Honorary Life Member of VAFT and has received the Journal Award for services to family therapy.     

Zur Erklärung von sozialer Ansteckung beim Übergang zur Elternschaft

Using panel data (N = 1679 married and cohabiting couples), this paper investigates the impact of social contagion processes in first births. The empirical results confirm an association between the transition rate into parenthood and the share of network members (friends, acquaintances, siblings) with young children. Several bridge assumptions concerning the explanation of social contagion are tested. It can be shown that social networks have an impact on reproductive planning in that network members provide Ego with information on the joys and challenges of parenthood. Furthermore, younger couples whose network partners mostly still live with children, place a high priority on starting a family. Beyond that, the transition to parenthood is also found to be functional for maximizing one’s social approval when the share of network members with young children rises. Older childless couples are increasingly exposed to social pressure from friends and siblings with children. This type of social pressure decreases a couple’s propensity to start a family, though.     

Assessment of locus of control: Situational specificity in the sexual context

Past research indicates that one's beliefs about the control of rewards and aversive events critically affect the quality of one's life. The concept of locus of control (LC) has been a focal point for this prior work. Few studies have examined the explanatory power of the LC concept in sexual (excluding reproductive) contexts. Problematic for past work has been the use of LC measures not developed specifically for sex research. The present study discusses methodological and conceptual issues involved in assessing LC, reports on the development of an LC measure relevant to the sexual dyad (the DSR), and compares the DSR to a general LC measure not developed expressly for sex research (the NSLC). The DSR was found to (a) have satisfactory reliability and validity, (b) correlate with sexual dyadic variables (e.g., frequency of orgasm, dyadic sexual satisfaction) but not monadic variables (e.g., masturbation frequency, masturbation attitudes), and (c) have significantly larger correlations with dyadic sexual variables than has the NSLC. Accordingly, when LC is assessed in a sexual context, LC scale items should incorporate relevant features of the sexual situation. Lastly, expected sex differences in perceptions of control were not found. Possible reasons for this result are discussed.     

A changing democracy: contemporary challenges to the British political tradition

A series of authors including ourselves have argued that there is a dominant, if contested, political tradition (the BPT), that is a particular conception of democracy, that underpins to institutions and processes of British politics. However, here we argue that the BPT has never been more contested or vulnerable, focusing upon three contemporary challenges, the Scottish question, the rise of anti-politics and the demands to leave the European Union (EU), culminating in BREXIT, although we recognise there are others. At the same time, we contend that the BPT still plays a key role in how the political elite reacts to these challenges; its first response remains to preserve as much of the BPT as possible in changing circumstances. As such, the key question we address here is whether we are witnessing the beginnings of a fundamental shift in the nature of British political democracy, or whether, as so often before, the BPT and its adherents will adapt to, and accommodate, these challenges.     

Physician executives boost clout, earning power.

Results of the 2001 Physician Executive Compensation Survey are in and they show that physician executives working in practice/hospital management companies or single specialty groups earn the highest pay. Physician executives with advanced degrees appear to earn more, as well.