Pain relief in labour: a qualitative study to determine how to support women to make decisions about pain relief in labour

Background Engagement in decision making is a key priority of modern healthcare. Women are encouraged to make decisions about pain relief in labour in the ante-natal period based upon their expectations of what labour pain will be like. Many women find this planning difficult. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how women can be better supported in preparing for, and making, decisions during pregnancy and labour regarding pain management. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 primiparous and 10 multiparous women at 36 weeks of pregnancy and again within six weeks postnatally. Data collection and analysis occurred concurrently to identify key themes. Results Three main themes emerged from the data. Firstly, during pregnancy women expressed a degree of uncertainty about the level of pain they would experience in labour and the effect of different methods of pain relief. Secondly, women reflected on how decisions had been made regarding pain management in labour and the degree to which they had felt comfortable making these decisions. Finally, women discussed their perceived levels of control, both desired and experienced, over both their bodies and the decisions they were making. Conclusion This study suggests that the current approach of antenatal preparation in the NHS, of asking women to make decisions antenatally for pain relief in labour, needs reviewing. It would be more beneficial to concentrate efforts on better informing women and on engaging them in discussions around their values, expectations and preferences and how these affect each specific choice rather than expecting them to make to make firm decisions in advance of such an unpredictable event as labour

Overcoming acculturation: physical education recruits' experiences of an alternative pedagogical approach to games teaching

© 2015 Association for Physical Education Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes have been identified as a critical platform to encourage the exploration of alternative teaching approaches by pre-service teachers. However, the socio-cultural constraint of acculturation or past physical education and sporting experiences results in the maintenance of the status quo of a teacher-driven, reproductive paradigm. Previous studies have reported successfully overcoming the powerful influence of acculturation, resulting in a change in PETE students' custodial teaching beliefs and receptiveness to alternative teaching approaches. However, to date, limited information has been reported about how PETE students' acculturation shaped their receptiveness to an alternative teaching approach. This is particularly the case for PETE recruits identified in the literature as most resistant to change. Purpose: To explore the features and experiences of an alternative games teaching approach that appealed to PETE recruits identified as most resistant to change, requiring a specific sample of PETE recruits with strong, custodial, traditional physical education teaching beliefs, and whom are high-achieving sporting products of this traditional culture. The alternative teaching approach explored in this study is the constraints-led approach (CLA), which is similar operationally to Teaching Games for Understanding, but distinguished by a neurobiological theoretical framework (nonlinear pedagogy) that informs learning design. Participants and setting: A purposive sample of 10 Australian PETE students was recruited for the study. All participants initially had strong, custodial, traditional physical education teaching beliefs, and were successful sporting products of this teaching approach. After experiencing the CLA as learners during a games unit, participants demonstrated receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Data collection and analysis: Semi-structured interviews and written reflections were sources of data collection. Each participant was interviewed separately, once prior to participation in the games unit to explore their positive physical education experiences, and then again after participation to explore the specific games unit learning experiences that influenced their receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Participants completed written reflections about their personal experiences after selected practical sessions. Data were qualitatively analysed using grounded theory. Findings: Thorough examination of the data resulted in establishment of two prominent themes related to the appeal of the CLA for the participants: (i) psychomotor (effective in developing skill) and (ii) inclusivity (included students of varying skill level). The efficacy of the CLA in skill development was clearly an important mediator of receptiveness for highly successful products of a traditional culture. This significant finding could be explained by three key factors: the acculturation of the participants, the motor learning theory underpinning the alternative pedagogy and the unit learning design and delivery. The inclusive nature of the CLA provided a solution to the problem of exclusion, which also made the approach attractive to participants. Conclusions: PETE educators could consider these findings when introducing an alternative pedagogy aimed at challenging PETE recruits' custodial, traditional teaching beliefs. To mediate receptiveness, it is important that the learning theory underpinning the alternative approach is operationalised in a research-informed pedagogical learning design that facilitates students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the approach through experiencing and or observing it working

The universal values of science and China’s Nobel Prize pursuit

China does not seem to believe the existence of universally acknowledged values in science and fails to promote the observation of such values that also should be applied to every member of the scientific community and at all times. Or, there is a separation between the practice of science in China and the values represented by modern science. In this context, science, including the pursuit of the Nobel Prize, is more a pragmatic means to achieve the end of the political leadership – the national pride in this case – than an institution laden with values that govern its practices. However, it is the recognition and respect of the latter that could lead to achievement of the former, rather than the other way around

Evolutionary diversification of new caledonian Araucaria

New Caledonia is a global biodiversity hotspot. Hypotheses for its biotic richness suggest either that the island is a ‘museum’ for an old Gondwana biota or alternatively it has developed following relatively recent long distance dispersal and in situ radiation. The conifer genus Araucaria (Araucariaceae) comprises 19 species globally with 13 endemic to this island. With a typically Gondwanan distribution, Araucaria is particularly well suited to testing alternative biogeographic hypotheses concerning the origins of New Caledonian biota. We derived phylogenetic estimates using 11 plastid and rDNA ITS2 sequence data for a complete sampling of Araucaria (including multiple accessions of each of the 13 New Caledonian Araucaria species). In addition, we developed a dataset comprising 4 plastid regions for a wider taxon sample to facilitate fossil based molecular dating. Following statistical analyses to identify a credible and internally consistent set of fossil constraints, divergence times estimated using a Bayesian relaxed clock approach were contrasted with geological scenarios to explore the biogeographic history of Araucaria. The phylogenetic data resolve relationships within Araucariaceae and among the main lineages in Araucaria, but provide limited resolution within the monophyletic New Caledonian species group. Divergence time estimates suggest a Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic radiation of extant Araucaria and a Neogene radiation of the New Caledonian lineage. A molecular timescale for the evolution of Araucariaceae supports a relatively recent radiation, and suggests that earlier (pre-Cenozoic) fossil types assigned to Araucaria may have affinities elsewhere in Araucariaceae. While additional data will be required to adequately resolve relationships among the New Caledonian species, their recent origin is consistent with overwater dispersal following Eocene emersion of New Caledonia but is too old to support a single dispersal from Australia to Norfolk Island for the radiation of the Pacific Araucaria sect. Eutacta clade.Mai Lan Kranitz, Edward Biffin, Alexandra Clark, Michelle L. Hollingsworth, Markus Ruhsam, Martin F. Gardner, Philip Thomas, Robert R. Mill, Richard A. Ennos, Myriam Gaudeul, Andrew J. Lowe, Peter M. Hollingswort

Gorham\u27s Cave sediment micromorphology

[extract] Introduction Fieldwork, sampling and sediment micromorphology together with X-Ray EDAX and bulk sample analyses were carried out at Gorham\u27s Cave

Soil micromorphology of Gibraltar Caves coprolites

[extract] Introduction Several coprolites (fossil faeces) were collected from the Middle Palaeolithic levels in Gorham\u27s and Vanguard Caves during the 1995-1998 excavations (Finlayson and Finlayson 2000; Stringer et al. 2000)

Reconstructing past land use from dark earth: examples from England and France

Soil micromorphology and micro-and bulk-chemical techniques have been applied to dark earth investigations for three decades. These methods have been successful both in identifying the origins of dark earth (e.g. weathering of, and soil formation in, earth-and lime-based constructional materials, domestic and artisan waste, etc.) and in showing how dark earth records use of urban space through time at individual sites and at different locations. Examples are given to demonstrate details of changing land use at Prosper-Mérimée Square, Tours, from Late Antiquity to early medieval times, compared to the small resettled town of Tarquimpol (Moselle), where dark earth records short-lived Late Antique occupation (~100 yrs). Late Roman, Saxon and early medieval dark earth sequences from Anderitum (Pevensey Castle), Canterbury, Winchester and numerous London locations provide analogous data, further aiding our interpretation of populations and activities. Examples of dark earth formation trajectories are given in Table 1

[Special section on the Yiluo project] SOIL MICROMORPHOLOGY, CHEMISTRY AND MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY STUDIES AT HUIZUI (YILUO REGION, HENAN PROVINCE, NORTHERN CHINA), WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON A TYPICAL YANGSHAO FLOOR SEQUENCE

31 thin sections and 25 bulk samples were investigated from Huizui (Loess Plateau of northern China) creating a broad, albeit limited, dataset for the Peiligang, Yangshao, Longshan and Erlitou Periods. The study provides punctuated insights into the occupational and landscape history of the site. These are briefly reported in order to examine, in context, some details of a typical Yangshao Period floor sequence (11 layers). Here, ground-raising was achieved mainly through constructing layers of planttempered adobe, manufactured from `clean' loess that is present at Huizui. A dark, `red' coloured mud-plastered surface was made at the top of the adobe layers, to underlie each `white' floor. Contrary to expectation, soil micromorphology found that the `white' floors are not `burned lime' floors, but single and multiple quarried slabs of fossiliferous tabular formed tufa, of likely Quaternary age and local origin; a finding consistent with bulk analyses. As these slabs appear to be at least 3-4 m in size their quarrying and transport imply a high degree of social organization. No Yangshao occupation floor deposits were found, suggesting that either floors were of ritual use or were swept or mat-covered. An example of an off-site gleyed, Yangshao to Longshan soil-sediment sequence, containing anthropogenic inclusions, was found to overlie the local truncated grey, gleyed, and archaeologically sterile Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene alluvial soil

Vanguard Cave sediments and soil micromorphology

[extract] Introduction Vanguard Cave contains a sequence of over 17 m of deposits, generally made up of massive, coarse to medium sands interfingered with tabular to lenticular units of silts and silty sands (Fig 13.1)