Caring for families experiencing stillbirth: Evidence-based guidance for maternity care providers

BackgroundEvidence-based guidance is needed to inform care provided to mothers and families who experience stillbirth. This paper focuses upon how meaningful and culturally appropriate care can be provided to mothers and families from when they are informed that their baby will be stillborn to many years after the experience. Avoidable suffering may be occurring in the clinical setting.AimsTo promote and inform meaningful and culturally appropriate evidence-informed practice amongst maternity care providers caring for mothers and families who experience stillbirth.MethodsA comprehensive systematic review was conducted which primarily synthesised relevant qualitative research studies. An expert advisory group comprised of stillbirth researchers, clinicians, and parents who have experienced stillbirth provided guidance for the review and the development of implications for practice.FindingsGrieving parents want staff to demonstrate sensitivity and empathy, validate their emotions, provide clear, information, and be aware that the timing of information may be distressing. Parents want support and guidance when making decisions about seeing and holding their baby. Sensitivity, respect, collaboration, and information are essential throughout the experience of stillbirth. Culturally appropriate care is important and may require staff to accommodate different cultural practices.ConclusionThe findings of the review and expert consensus inform the provision of meaningful and culturally appropriate care for mothers and families that have experienced stillbirth. Evidence informed implications for practice are provided to guide the actions, communication, and behaviours of maternity care providers.     

孤独个体与向死而生——多元文化社会中《凡人》的身份认同

美国犹太裔作家菲利普·罗斯的《凡人》讲述了一个关于失去与孤独、疾病与死亡的故事。主人公作为一个犹太裔美国人,因其身份的特殊性与美国主流文化格格不入,显得格外孤独与痛苦,这种孤独个体的特性也贯穿了其一生。与此同时,在他的一生中无时无刻不在与疾病和死亡作斗争,体现了向死而生的特点,即在绝望中蕴含着希望。在美国多元文化社会中,主人公追寻的身份认同正是当代美国人普遍的生存状况,表现了普遍的生存困境。     

Changing Frameworks in Attitudes Toward Abortion

For more than two decades, legal abortion has been the subject of heated political debate and adversarial social movement activity; however, national polls have shown little change in aggregate levels of support for abortion. This analysis examines how the determinants of abortion attitudes have changed between 1977 and 1996, using data from the General Social Surveys. While in early time periods, whites were more approving of abortion than blacks, that pattern had reversed by the late 1980s. After controlling for other factors, older people are more accepting of abortion throughout the two decades, while gender is generally unrelated to abortion views. Catholic religion weakens slightly as a predictor of abortion attitudes, while religious fundamentalism and political liberalism increase in explanatory power. The associations between attitudinal correlates and abortion approval also change over this time period. Religiosity becomes a less powerful predictor of abortion attitudes, while respondents' attitude toward sexual freedom and belief in the sanctity of human life increase in their predictive power. Support for gender inequality remains a weak but stable predictor of abortion attitudes. This pattern of results suggests that the public is influenced more by the pro-life framework of viewing abortion than by the pro-choice perspective.     

Tracing Differentiation in Gendered Leadership: An Analysis of Differences in Gender Composition in Top Management in Business,Politics and the Civil Service

The aim of this article is to discuss the relationship between the gendering of leadership positions and sector‐specific structures within politics, business and the civil service in Denmark in the context of differences between the Nordic countries and other western countries. The analysis is based on data from a survey of top male and female leaders within the three sectors. The theoretical point of departure of this article is constructivist. It looks at gender as constituted by actions in social space, orchestrated by structural processes and a symbolic order of gender. This constitutes a cultural discourse on gender reflected in gender conventions in society and in a range of possibilities of gender positioning. Expressions of this are discussed in the analysis of the patterns of difference in structural conditions for women and men in leadership positions to be found within the three sectors. The structural conditions encompass access conditions and conditions for gendered positioning and are analysed on the basis of data on social background, education, career course, family, children and distribution of housework. The analysis shows that there is a correlation between gender composition of leadership and possibilities of gendered positioning within a sector. The results are finally discussed as possible expressions of an egalitarian culture.     

Linguists and other animals

Book reviewed in this article:
Joan Dunayer, Animal Equality: Language and Liberation     

脑死亡立法的社会意义及面临的困难

长期以来,心肺功能完全丧失一直是判定死亡的标准。然而,随着现代医学的进步,这一标准已不再适应科学的发展和社会的需要,脑死亡标准应运而生。世界上已有许多国家接受了脑死亡标准,并制订了相应的法律条例。我国在这方面才刚刚起步,在此过程中必然会遇到一些困难。因此,脑死亡立法应当谨慎进行。     

清代司法实践中的情理初探

在清代,司法实践的根本依据不是成文法,而是自身含义带有极大非实定性的情理。可以说,情理构成了清代的司法精神。那么,以灵活变通为追求的情理,是否存在一个不变的、实定的核心,或者说情理的本质是什么呢?如果存在,它产生于怎样的社会土壤?本文将从情理的词源含义、法律含义等角度入手,分析情理的本质;并从伦理作用下的情理与情理中的伦理两方面阐释情理生存的社会土壤。     

从传统文化的角度解读安乐死

“安乐死”问题已经越来越引起世人的关注,由于涉及到种种道德问题,安乐死在我国难以取得合法地位。我国儒、道两家代表的传统生死观对死亡价值的肯定和重视,为安乐死的合法性提供了有说服力的理论依据。     

Social identities and political cleavages: the role of political context

Summary. Using a novel method, the paper investigates the influence of social group identities on attitudes and on voting in a variety of political contexts. Examining the major regions of Britain, Canada and the USA, we find considerable national and regional diversity in the nature of social cleavages. For example, social class and race had widely different effects across societies, but within societies their effects on attitudes and on voting were very similar. However, despite that, age and religion had a similar effect on attitudes across societies; the effects on voting varied considerably. The significant within-country differences underline the importance of using region, rather than country, as the unit of analysis. More importantly, these results highlight the role of political context, especially competing cleavages and the structure of party competition, in the establishment of politically relevant social cleavages.     

试论新约的死亡观

新约圣经对于死亡有其独特的信念与看法。概括说来 ,新约对死亡的看法包含着几个方面的含义 :灵性的死、旧我的死及身体的死。本文主要探讨了后两个方面的意义 ,认为正是这两个方面构成了新约死亡观的主要特征。首先 ,人可以活着经历自己 (旧我 )的死 ;如果从生存论层面来解释其末世论的意义的话 ,那么这种自我认同的转换正表明了旧我之死的深刻含义。其次 ,身体的死如果意味着人在此世之存在的结束的话 ,新约并没有将其看作是人之生命及其身体的结束。死亡乃意味着是个人生命或身体存在形态的转折点