New Mums 'Abandoned' During Labour

One in three new mothers is left alone during or just after labour because maternity services are overstretched, according to a survey.

The poll of 3,500 mums found almost half (43%) said they did not have access to a midwife after giving birth.

More than a third (35%) of those questioned by The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and parenting website Netmums.com said they had been abandoned during or after labour at a time when they felt worried.

Sally Russell, co-founder of Netmums.com, said: "This survey's results should demonstrate to the Government just how stretched maternity services are.

"It shows that our members want, need and deserve one-to-one care from midwives but they are not getting this and are left alone and feeling abandoned during labour, and especially in the vital post-natal period."

    All women can expect individual support from a midwife, supported by a wider maternity team, throughout her labour and birth.

Health Minister Ann Keen

One mother said of her labour: "There were too many people on and off shifts.

"There was no continuity of care, therefore no-one was able to make sound decisions.

"I (had) seven different midwives involved just during labour. I ended up having an emergency Caesarean section."

In 2007, the Government said all women in England should be supported by a midwife they know and trust throughout their pregnancy and after birth.

Ministers promised that "by the end of 2009" women would be able to choose where they give birth and have better continuity of midwifery care.

But the survey found only 68% of women were offered a choice of where to give birth.

Baby buggy

Some mothers felt abandoned

There were some positive responses in the research, including 83% of women saying they had the name and telephone number of a midwife they could contact if they were worried.

And 72% said they had their first appointment with a midwife as soon as they wanted it.

RCM general secretary Cathy Warwick said she was pleased some aspects of maternity services were rated highly but that overall the results painted a "worrying and disturbing picture".

Reacting to the survey, Health Minister Ann Keen said: "There has been record investment in the NHS in recent years including an additional £330m for maternity services.

"All women can expect individual support from a midwife, supported by a wider maternity team, throughout her labour and birth."

NEWS BY:http://news.sky.com

Tracing musical style through technology

Aberdeen academics will employ the techniques of DNA sequencing to look at how music has changed over the centuries.

They are part of an international team successful in securing a £100,000 grant from the Digging into Data project, which supports researchers using computational techniques to change the nature of humanities and social sciences research.

Dr Frauke Jurgensen, a lecturer in music at the University of Aberdeen, will lead the Aberdeen team, working alongside academics from Canada and the USA, to study changes in musical style from 1300 to 1900.

They will employ computational techniques, including those more commonly used in genetics research, to pinpoint transitions in musical style which could ultimately change the way in which we appreciate and perform music from this era.

Dr Jurgensen will focus on Renaissance music, analysing the changes in musical chords and melodic motions using advanced music information retrieval techniques.

She said: “As a singer I have a strong interest in music from a performance perspective, and if you are going to perform or even listen to music then you have to understand it.

“Modern audiences are not going to be familiar with much of the music we are looking at, since we subconsciously build up an understanding of the music we normally listen to.

“Much of the music we are investigating deserves to be performed, and we hope that by developing our understanding of the way it is constructed, we can help modern audiences and musicians to connect to it.”

Dr Jurgensen will use the digitised collections of several large music repositories, including the music of Palestrina and his contemporaries, to extract answers as to how the styles of the composers differ.

She will work with Professor George Coghill, Head of Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen and Dr Ian Knopke from the BBC, with Dr David Smith, Head of Music at the University of Aberdeen, acting in an advisory role.

“The collections we are looking at extend to thousands of pieces and if you were to attempt this kind of analysis by hand it would take many years.

“By using digitised data we are able to use pattern matching techniques similar to those in DNA sequencing to look at both similarities and differences in the music.

“We will be able to pinpoint the way in which a composer writes a piece of music that makes it different from another composer from the same period.

“This way of looking at music should help us to understand not only how this older music works, but also affects our understanding of newer music, which is underpinned by similar concepts.”




NEWS BY:http://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/details-11607.php