Category Archives: Parents and parenting

‘Morally questionable’: compliance element should be scrapped from controversial ParentsNext scheme, MPs told

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Human Rights Commission says aspects of ParentsNext program have the ‘effect of penalising parents, overwhelmingly mothers’

Job agencies running the contentious ParentsNext program have called on the Albanese government to scrap compliance from the scheme, with one suggesting the current system is “morally questionable”.

In submissions to a parliamentary inquiry looking at the employment services system, the Human Rights Commission has also argued stopping social security payments under the program was “contrary to Australia’s human rights obligations”.

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Rising temperatures causing distress to foetuses, study reveals

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Climate crisis increases risks for subsistence farmers in Africa who usually work throughout pregnancy

Rising temperatures driven by climate breakdown are causing distress to the foetuses of pregnant farmers, who are among the worst affected by global heating.

A study revealed that the foetuses of women working in fields in the Gambia showed concerning rises in heart rates and reductions in the blood flow to the placenta as conditions became hotter. The women, who do much of the agricultural labour and work throughout pregnancy, told the scientists that temperatures had noticeably increased in the past decade.

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Boom in Australia breast milk sales and donations a risk to infants, expert says

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Online black market exists where breast milk is bought by cancer patients, athletes and bodybuilders, among others

An exponential growth in Australians donating or selling breast milk online is putting infants at risk of disease, a bioethicist says, calling for human milk to be defined as a “tissue” and regulated in the same way as blood.

There are Facebook groups facilitating the donation or sale of breast milk in every state and territory. The “about” section for one group states: “Please post milky requests, offers and milk-sharing questions … It can be helpful to include details such as the age of your baby and your location or how far you are willing to travel.”

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Free preschool childcare for all would boost UK growth, report finds

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Labour-endorsed study finds initiative would save families thousands of pounds, cut benefits spending and raise tax revenues

Free universal preschool childcare and more funding for after-school clubs could increase government revenues and save a family with young children between £620 and £6,175 a year, a joint report endorsed by the Labour party has revealed.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the charity Save the Children have called for a universal childcare guarantee for all families until the end of primary school to allow more women to get back into work and reduce the attainment gap between rich and poor children in their early years.

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Seven in 10 nurseries in England warn fees will rise amid energy crisis

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Over 10% of early years providers say they will close if energy bill relief scheme not extended, survey reveals

Seven in 10 nurseries and preschools in England will have no option but to increase their fees without additional financial support from the government towards rising energy costs, according to a survey.

The sector is warning the energy crisis could be “a nail in the coffin” for many settings, with more than one in 10 saying they will be forced to close permanently without an extension to the government’s energy bill relief scheme.

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Polish politician blames low birthrate on young women drinking

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Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ruling party, criticised by opposition for ‘nonsense’ comments

Outrage built up in Poland on Monday after the governing party’s leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, claimed excessive drinking by young women was to blame for the EU country’s low birthrate.

Opposition politicians, female celebrities and others denounced the 73-year-old as out of touch and patriarchal, dismissing his comments as nonsense.

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Children whose parents lack warmth more likely to grow up obese, study finds

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UK data shows authoritarian or neglectful parenting linked to higher weight in children and adolescents

Children whose parents lack warmth are more likely to grow up overweight or obese, according to the first study of its kind.

The effects of different parenting styles on children’s weight have been determined for the first time – and suggest parental warmth is key to a healthy weight, researchers at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne, the biennial congress of the World Obesity Federation, will say on Wednesday.

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Truss ‘considering plans to send childcare cash to parents’ in England

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PM said to be planning shake-up of subsidy system whereby parents, rather than nurseries, get cash to spend as they see fit

Liz Truss is said to be considering a shake-up of the childcare subsidy system whereby parents, rather than nurseries, would be given government cash to spend as they see fit.

At present, all three and four-year-olds in England are entitled to 15 hours’ free childcare a week during term time, while some families can claim up to double that amount.

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Toxic air pollution particles found in lungs and brains of unborn babies

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Particles breathed by mothers pass to their vulnerable foetuses, with potentially lifelong consequences

Toxic air pollution particles have been found in the lungs, livers and brains of unborn babies, long before they have taken their first breath. Researchers said their “groundbreaking” discovery was “very worrying”, as the gestation period of foetuses is the most vulnerable stage of human development.

Thousands of black carbon particles were found in each cubic millimetre of tissue, which were breathed in by the mother during pregnancy and then passed through the bloodstream and placenta to the foetus.

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Increasing paid parental leave to 52 weeks would give billion-dollar boost to economy, unions say

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In the lead-up to Labor’s jobs and skills summit, unions have also called for payments to match actual wages and the inclusion of superannuation

Unions have called for a massive expansion of paid parental leave by extending it to 52 weeks, paying parents their actual wage and including superannuation.

A report released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) on Monday night has suggested halving the gap in women’s pay and participation would boost the economy by $111bn.

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T-minus 10: Statistician writes formula to predict kids’ backseat tantrums

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The chances of breakdowns are mitigated with food, but increased with the addition of siblings

Long traffic jams, bickering siblings, extreme boredom – most parents will know the signs to look out for when trying to prevent a full-blown backseat temper tantrum on a family holiday.

Now a statistician has calculated the exact formula for predicting the chances, and timing, of children throwing a tantrum in the back of a car during a long journey.

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Gaga for goo goo: Wellington named the global capital of baby talk

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Residents of the New Zealand city have the world’s most extreme vocal changes when speaking to babies, a study has found

From small tribes in the remote Pacific islands to the teeming cities of China, humans share the common language of baby talk – but new research has discovered that Wellington, New Zealand, is the global capital of cooing.

An international study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, collected 1615 recordings of 410 people from 21 societies speaking and singing to an adult and then a baby in more than a dozen languages.

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Australian birthrate falls to lowest in over a decade

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Data shows average age of mothers has increased, though stillborn and neonatal death rates remain unchanged

Australia has seen its lowest birthrate in more than a decade but stillborn rates have remained stubborn, based on the latest mothers and babies data.

In 2020, there were 295,796 babies born to 291,712 mothers. This represents a fall from 66 women per 1,000 giving birth in 2007 to 56 per 1,000 in 2020, according to the Australia’s mothers and babies report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], published on Friday.

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Premature birth ‘almost twice as likely’ in England’s prisons than outside

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Data says more than 11% of women who give birth behind bars do so before 37 weeks, compared with 6.5% in community

Female prisoners are almost twice as likely to give birth prematurely as women in the general population, leaving them and their babies at risk, research has revealed.

More than one in 10 (11%) women who have a child while behind bars do so before 37 weeks of their pregnancy, compared with 6.5% of mothers in the community, the Nuffield Trust found.

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After the long wait, US parents seeking under-5s’ vaccine face yet more hurdles

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Some local officials are unsure of how to order Covid vaccines or when they will arrive, while others are aiming to ignore federal guidelines completely

Ashley Comegys, a parent of two young children in Florida, was ecstatic when the Covid vaccines were authorized for children above the age of six months in the US. “We’ve been waiting for this for so long,” she said. “We can finally start to spread our wings again.”

But then she learned that Florida had missed two deadlines to preorder vaccines and would not make them available through state and local health departments, delaying the rollout by several weeks and significantly limiting access.

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UK sperm donor with genetic condition banned from contacting children

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Judge says James MacDougall, 37, was not upfront about fragile-X syndrome and should not meet some of those he fathered

A man with an incurable genetic condition who advertised his sperm to lesbians on social media has been banned from contacting some of the children he fathered as a result.

A family court judge took the unusual step of naming James MacDougall after finding he “took advantage of these young women’s vulnerability and their strong desire to have children”.

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Moderna asks US to authorize Covid-19 vaccine for children under age six

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Moderna submits data to FDA, in hopes low-dose shots to protect babies, toddlers and preschoolers will be available by summer

Moderna on Thursday asked US regulators to authorize low doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than six, a long-awaited move toward potentially making injections available for millions of children by summer.

Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s youngest kids as all around them people shed masks and other public health precautions – even though highly contagious coronavirus mutants continue to spread.

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Pregnant women increasingly left out of pocket by Medicare antenatal consultations, doctors say

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Peak GPs body calls for Medicare rebate to be extended to cover growing complexity of care for expectant mothers

Expectant mothers are unable to afford some antenatal consultations, the peak body representing GPs says, as doctors call on the federal government to raise the Medicare rebate.

Dr Karen Price, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, says there have been significant advances in antenatal care over the years but Medicare patient rebates had not kept pace with the costs of providing it.

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Wales introduces ban on smacking and slapping children

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Welsh government hails ‘historic moment’ for children’s rights amid calls for England to follow suit

Smacking and slapping children has been outlawed in Wales, with people told to contact social services or police if they see a parent or carer meting out physical punishment.

The law change, which came into force first thing on Monday, was hailed as “historic” by the Labour-led Welsh government and a number of child protection champions, who called for England to follow suit.

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Harry Potter star Jessie Cave in hospital after catching Covid while pregnant

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The actor, best known for her role as Lavender Brown, says her symptoms have lasted for weeks


Harry Potter star Jessie Cave has been admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 while pregnant with her fourth child.

The actor, best known for her role as Lavender Brown in the film adaptations of the hit books, said the virus had hit her hard and her symptoms have lasted weeks.

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