UK

The cot death charity, The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), is concerned to see that young mums are still more likely to suffer a cot death than older mothers.

190 MPs have now pledged to support initiatives to improve the numbers of babies breastfed in the local area and to support measures to increase the duration of breastfeeding to meet government guidelines, marking National Breastfeeding Week 2010.

National Breastfeeding Week (21-27 June) sees The Baby Cafe Charitable Trust join NCT, the UK's largest parenting charity, to help even more mums who want to breastfeed. The Baby Cafe breastfeeding drop-ins will now join the wide range of services NCT charity offers parents around the UK.

"It's been a life changing experience," said Wayne Rooney, one of England's leading footballers in the People. "Becoming a dad means you have to be a role model for your son and be someone he can look up to. I don't think it has changed me as the person I am, but it has just added something different to my life in a great way. It's different and hard work, but a great feeling."

Help the NMC shape the new Midwives Rules and maintain high-quality care for women and families. The NMC is looking for feedback on the proposed changes to the Midwives Rules to ensure the new rules are effective and up-to-date.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today (Wednesday 26 May) launched the first national evidence-based guidelines on the diagnosis and management of idiopathic[1] childhood constipation.

New figures obtained by the cot death charity, the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), reveal that in the last two years at least 25 babies in the UK have died while sleeping together with an adult on a sofa.

Commenting on the new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on neonatal jaundice, published today (Wednesday 19th May 2010), Gail Johnson, education and professional development advisor at the Royal College of Midwives, said: "We welcome these guidelines. Decisions around the diagnosis and treatment of jaundice in newborns can be challenging. The new toolkits and guidance will help to offset the difficulties of judging when to maintain observations (in newborns) or when to intervene".

Commenting on the study on extreme obesity in pregnancy in the United Kingdom, released today by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, Mervi Jokinen, Practice and Standards Development Advisor at the Royal College of Midwives, said:

Commenting on the Office of National Statistics' release of homebirth figures today (8 December 2009), Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "The RCM wants women to have a genuine choice of homebirth. A recent survey with RCM and Netmums, the online parenting website, of 3,508 mothers was encouraging and showed that 68 per cent of the women surveyed had a choice about where to have their babies and 55 per cent of those women were offered a home birth.