No abstract

To determine if postpartum lactation alters plasma lipoprotein lipid and apoprotein concentrations and composition, we studied 56 overnight fasting lactating and 16 nonlactating women approximately 6 weeks postpartum. Postpartum results are presented as absolute concentrations and as the difference from antepartum values determined at 36 weeks gestation. Antepartum lipoprotein lipid and apoprotein concentrations were generally not different in the 2 groups, with the single exception of whole plasma and low density lipoprotein (LDL) apoprotein (apo) B (probably a chance difference). When expressed as the antepartum and postpartum difference, the lactating and nonlactating groups were indistinguishable in very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and LDL triglyceride, cholesterol, phospholipid, and apo B concentrations. However, lactating women had higher high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, phospholipid, apo A-I, and apo A-II concentrations than nonlactating women when results were expressed as differences from antepartum values or as absolute values. HDL triglyceride concentrations were not significantly different between lactating and nonlactating women by either analysis. There was no significant effect of lactation on VLDL or LDL composition, but there was a significant increase in the percent cholesterol content in HDL. We hypothesize that the increase in HDL constituents in lactation is generated in part by increased catabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins by the lactating breast.

A professional, skilled and engaged early childhood workforce is critical to economic and social productivity and positive life trajectories for children. Yet high staff turnover, skill loss and unmet standards of staff qualification pervade the sector, limiting optimal outcomes. For many early childhood educators, alternatives of better paid and less challenging sources of employment are available in other employment sectors, a fact that explains turnover rates as high as 30%. However, this study reverses the emphasis on why early childhood educators leave the sector and asks instead 'Why do so many stay?'. This question is a significant one when it is considered that the remuneration of educators in early childhood barely meets minimum wage thresholds, and that they face challenging working conditions and few opportunities for career progression. The findings of the study contribute to an understanding of retention in early childhood education and care occupations specifically, and in feminised, low-paid occupational groups more broadly. The study also informs policy and strategy responses to low retention in the early childhood sector in Australia and internationally.

Interview data and health diary material were collected for an investigation of mothers' perceptions of their children's illnesses and of how they routinely coped with minor ailments in their children. The descriptions offered by the mothers of how they treated their children's symptoms and their actual use of various remedies as reported in the health diaries helped clarify the issues and processes concerned in their use of proprietary medicines and home remedies and their attitudes towards prescriptions. There was extensive use ofproprietary medicines, yet mothers also used some home remedies or took no action at all. They were found to treat their children's symptoms themselves, contacting their general practitioner only if symptoms did not clear up or became more serious.Generally mothers should be treated as competent in caring for a child whose health and behaviour are causing concern, and in these cases the skills of the general practitioner should be viewed as complementing those of the mother. Mothers do not invariably expect a prescription from the doctor.

The available data have been examined to determine if plasma lipids or lipoproteins are altered in pregnant subjects with adult-onset (type II) diabetes, gestational diabetes, or the hyperglycemic extreme of a randomly selected group of pregnant women attending a prepaid health plan. In each of these groups, a trend is observed toward an increase in total plasma and very low density lipoprotein triglycerides and a decrease in high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. These observations indicate that measurements of plasma triglyceride and HDL cholesterol may be valuable in identifying and quantifying the metabolic abnormality in gestational diabetes and in prognosticating fetal outcome.