Pumpkin to live with grandmother

The grandmother of the little girl who was dumped by her father at a railway station in Melbourne has been granted custody by the New Zealand courts. The child, dubbed as Pumpkin because she was wearing Pumpkin Patch clothing has been deprived of her mother because of her murder.

Qian’s half-sister, Grace also asked for custody of her sister, but the judge decided that what was best for the child was to go to China to be with her grandmother. Grace will be allowed to have access to her half-sister.

I am not sure if this is a good result for little Pumpkin, but what is paramount is that the child receives good care from family members.

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Chocolate might aid fatigue syndrome

Patients in a pilot study at Hull York Medical School have reported a pilot study that indicates that dark chocolate may be having an effect on the brain chemical serotonin.

The idea for the study came after a patient reported to Professor Steve Atkin that she felt much better after swapping her normal milk chocolate with a high cocoa solid content.

He explained: “Dark chocolate is high in polyphenols,
which have been associated with health benefits such as a reduction in
blood pressure.

“Also high polyphenols appear to improve levels of
serotonin in the brain, which has been linked with chronic fatigue
syndrome and that may be a mechanism.”

He added that although more research was needed to
confirm the findings, patients would not do themselves any harm by
eating small amounts of dark chocolate and no-one in the study put on
any weight.

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Caesarean increases risk of womb tearing

US and Swedish researchers report that nine in every 1,000 mothers who opted to try a vaginal delivery after a previous Caesarean are afflicted by a torn uterus. This condition puts both mother and baby at risk of loss of life.

The findings were based on a study of more than 300,000 Swedish women by Emory University, Atlanta and the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.

 

Fourteen of the 274 women who suffered a torn uterus lost their baby – a death rate of 51 per 1,000.

In contrast, the neonatal death rate among women who did not develop the condition was just 1.4 per 1,000.

 Other risk factors

A prior Caesarean section was not the only factor which increased risk.

Women who gave birth aged 35 or older were nearly three times more vulnerable to a uterine tear than women aged 24 or younger.

Clinically obese women had more than twice the risk of women who were not overweight.

And inducing labour appeared to double the risk, compared to labour which began spontaneously.

The researchers suggested the chemicals used to induce birth weakened previous Caesarean scars, making them more likely to rip.

Women who gave birth late were discovered to be more at
risk than those who gave birth after a normal-length pregnancy,
regardless of whether they had had a Caesarean section before.

And women who gave birth to babies weighing at least 4kg were at twice the risk than women whose babies were less than 4kg.

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