The Health News United Kingdom November 29 2017

• Leading doctors and campaigners have said that junk food advertisements should be banned before the 9pm watershed to prevent manufacturers getting round rules designed to protect children. New research has found 6 in 10 food and drink commercials shown during programmes watched by hundreds of thousands of children are for products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS). Under current rules they would be prohibited during children’s programming but are allowed during shows such as The Voice, which attract hundreds of thousands of minors.
• According to an online survey of one thousand eight hundred British parents by the BBC Radio 5 live and YouGov, more than a third of mothers have experienced mental health issues related to parenthood. The study revealed that, in comparison, 17% of fathers had experienced similar issues. More than two-thirds of the affected mothers sought professional help – suffering from conditions such as acute stress, severe anxiety and postpartum depression.
• Based on a report by doctors, academics and health charities, about eighty percent of full-term stillbirths and deaths of babies during childbirth could be prevented if mothers received better care and UK maternity units were better staffed. According to the study, about 180 babies died in 2015 as a result of midwife shortages, mistakes by maternity staff and delivery delays out of a total of 225 full-term stillbirths and deaths during childbirth.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 29th of November 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/28/junk-food-advertisements-should-banned-9pm-protect-children/

Leading doctors and campaigners have said that junk food advertisements should be banned before the nine pm watershed to prevent manufacturers getting round rules designed to protect children.  New research has found six in ten food and drink commercials shown during programmes watched by hundreds of thousands of children are for products high in fat, sugar and salt or HFSS. Under current rules they would be prohibited during children’s programming but are allowed during shows such as The Voice, which attract hundreds of thousands of minors.

The study by the Obesity Health Alliance and the University of Liverpool found that in some cases children were “bombarded” with up to nine junk food advertisements in less than thirty minutes. Experts said the “grim” findings showed the UK is “losing the fight” against childhood obesity. They are calling on the Government to ban HFSS advertising before nine pm and to ban brands associated from junk food advertising during any programmes popular with children.

This year a prohibition on junk food advertising aimed at children online and in particular on social media came into force, however campaigners have criticised the Government’s willingness to tackle big food manufacturers’ use of television. The Obesity Health Alliance, which includes several Royal Medical Colleges among its membership, analysed adverts shown before and during some of the most popular TV programmes on ITV, Channel four and E four between six pm-nine pm, when the number of children watching TV peaks, as well as The Voice and Ninja Warriors.
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Nikki Joule, from Diabetes UK’s Policy, said: “This report makes clear that the current junk food advertising rules are failing children and their families.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-42140028

According to an online survey of one thousand eight hundred British parents by the BBC Radio five live and YouGov, more than a third of mothers have experienced mental health issues related to parenthood.  The study revealed that, in comparison, seventeen percent of fathers had experienced similar issues. More than two-thirds of the affected mothers sought professional help – suffering from conditions such as acute stress, severe anxiety and postpartum depression.
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Many of the parents surveyed reported feeling criticised by a large number of people.
Mothers said their parents were the most critical of their parenting (twenty six percent), followed by their spouse/partner at twenty four percent and other family members (eighteen percent).
About fourteen percent said they had been criticised by strangers, compared with five percent of the eight hundred fathers who responded to the survey. New parents can experience troubles in the workplace as well. About thirty percent of mothers who responded said they had felt discriminated against at work through being a parent, compared with fourteen percent of working fathers. According to Citizens Advice, new mothers are reporting increasing levels of unfair treatment at work. The survey also found women turn to online forums for support more than men. A total of sixty percent of women said they had received emotional support from their friends, fifty six percent from their partner and eighteen went online. But fifteen percent of mothers and a quarter of fathers say they didn’t receive any emotional support for their parenting at all. This is despite a growing understanding that postpartum depression affects men as well as women.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/28/four-out-of-five-full-term-baby-deaths-uk-could-be-prevented-study

Based on a report by doctors, academics and health charities, about eighty percent of full-term stillbirths and deaths of babies during childbirth could be prevented if mothers received better care and UK maternity units were better staffed. According to the study, about one hundred eighty babies died in two thousand fifteen as a result of midwife shortages, mistakes by maternity staff and delivery delays out of a total of two hundred twenty five full-term stillbirths and deaths during childbirth. The findings by the MBRRACE-UK coalition have prompted concern that some babies are dying because midwives are too busy to provide proper care in maternity units that are often under intense pressure.
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The group, led by experts at Oxford and Leicester universities, based their findings on an in-depth analysis of what went wrong with seventy eight of the two hundred twenty five deaths in two thousand fifteen.

Although such deaths are happening less often, the experts said a growing number of babies were being born to women “who have risk factors associated with an increased risk of perinatal death”, including being very overweight. Obesity and the increasing trend towards older motherhood are making childbirth more complex for maternity staff. “Cases of stillbirth and neonatal death have a devastating emotional impact on parents. The government needs to address, as a matter of urgency, the shortage of midwives and obstetricians, to make sure that women in labour are properly cared for. Too often midwives are overworked and unable to give women the attention they need,” said Maureen Treadwell, a research officer with the Birth Trauma Association, which helps women who develop post-traumatic stress disorder after childbirth.

In a speech on Tuesday on maternity safety, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, will announce plans to ensure that when a baby dies or suffers life-changing injuries at birth in England, there will be an independent investigation into what happened.