Michelle Tant

According to government statistics, 96% of women drink less alcohol once they get pregnant. So why is there this 'tar with the same brush' mentality to making recommendations about alcohol consumption? I'm certainly not negating the seriousness of fetal alcohol syndrome but I do think that the women who are going to drink to excess whilst pregnant will do so regardless of the governments well meaning guidelines. The vast majority, yes, safe to say, almost all women take a sensible view to alcohol drinking when pregnant if the figures are to be believed. In fact a third of that 96% actually give up alcohol entirely. There's a part of me that thinks that the whole thing smacks of a nanny state, driven to reactive government styles. Women are more than capable of making these decisions. We are not defenseless, ill-educated dolls hanging about waiting for someone, anyone to please tell us how to look after our bodies and children because really we have no idea. ...

This year has felt like one attack after another on breastfeeding. There's been the ongoing Facebook debacle; photos of breastfeeding being removed while Playboys pages are continued to be allowed to flaunt more flesh than a whole convention of breastfeeding mothers. Then there was the ridiculous opinion piece in the British Medical Journal which many newspapers, including The Daily Fail regurgitated as fact, further undermining the benefits of breastfeeding. Just this week I saw a short piece in Practical Parenting magazine about the Chinese developing GM cows to produce human milk! One sentence says the milk will have more nutritional content in it, though its unclear whether it means than breastmilk or than formula milk. And now this. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/campaigners-livid-as-whitehall-axes-breastfeeding-week-2287445.html Our beloved government in its wisdom has cut national support for National Breastfeeding ...

With one NHS Trust losing 22.5% of its staff, health care in the UK is looking dicier by the day. Check out this article in The Guardian http://m.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/23/nhs-to-lose-50000-jobs?cat=society&type=article Cutting nhs staff is not the answer to the UKs problems. All that will achieve is a lowering of standards in healthcare. Perhaps the government should look closer to itself to make the savings rather than attacking the living standards of everyday people yet again. Being a bleeding heart lefty, I was less than overjoyed at the election of a coalition government headed up by the Tories. Doesn't anyone remember what they did to us in the past? A number of people I spoke to said they were voting blue because of their family friendly policies. Well look at us now. * Surestart centres - funding slashed and centres closing. * Tax credits reducing, mainly affecting mid-lower income families * Child benefit to be gone in next few years * Mass...