By Louise Livesey | 6 February 2008, 10:55

First off is the news that women are opting for Caesarian Section births because they are scared of childbirth.

A study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology questioned 496 first-time mothers with a healthy pregnancy at 37-39 weeks of gestation, with a follow-up three months after delivery. The women were divided into those who wanted an elective C-section, those who wanted one because of breech delivery and women planning a natural birth.

Almost half - 43 per cent - of women requesting a caesarean were found to have had a clinically significant fear of childbirth as a result of negative expectations of a natural delivery, gathered through feedback from friends and family who had endured bad experiences in childbirth.

From The Telegraph

In not-entirely-unrelated news women will now have to be told of all available options for contraception, including long-term measures which can last up to five years.

In a campaign to be launched today by Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, health workers will advise women on the full range of contraception available to them. About £10m will go towards encouraging strategic health authorities to devise innovative ways of promoting contraception to both men and women. About 75% of women are not offered all methods of contraception by their GP, according to a recent survey by the all-party parliamentary pro-choice and sexual health group.

From The Guardian

Meanwhile in Finland research has shown that women take up to 50% more short-term sick leave often citing physical health problems, physical work demands and work fatigue as reasons. But they don’t take more long-term sick leave. Whilst in America it’s being reported that elder women are more likely to suffer from depression. Researchers have found that at all stages of later life women suffer more depression and are now asking whether it is connected with less aggressive treatment of depression in elder women.

They followed 754 men and women over age 70, starting in 1998 and every 18 months thereafter. At each follow-up appointment, the participants were asked to report any medical conditions and were screened for symptoms of depression, such as loss of appetite, sadness, or sleep problems during the previous week. Overall, 36 percent of the participants were depressed at some point during the study. Of those, nearly half remained depressed over two consecutive follow-up appointments, and nearly 5% were depressed at all five checkups. The results showed more women were depressed than men at each interval, and women were more likely than men to suffer from depression at different time points.

“Whether women are treated less aggressively than men for late-life depression or are less likely to respond to conventional treatment is not known but should be the focus of future research,” says Lisa C. Barry, PhD, MPH, of Yale University School of Medicine.

From CBS News

So that’s all a cheery thought….

Photo shared under Creative Commons licence by Megan *