Ante-natal care: Women who do not attend maternity hospitals for ante-natal care are at greater risk of having pre-term low-birth babies and also of stillbirth and neo-natal death, according to a study reported in the Irish Medical Journal.
Those women who do not turn up for ante-natal care are, the survey says, most likely to be young, unemployed and unmarried. While unbooked pregnancies account for a tiny proportion of babies born in hospital, researchers believe that if risk factors were detected ante-natally, they could be better managed.
Women and alcohol: Sharing information about their problems with alcohol in safe and friendly weekly meetings has proved helpful for many women recovering from alcohol problems. Anew, the self-help group for women with, or recovering from, problems with alcohol has a network of support meetings around Ireland. See its new website, www.anew.ie, for details of its weekly support meetings and of its 10-choices programme for living. Anew can be contacted at Athlumney, Navan, Co Meath. Tel: 046-21279; e-mail: frnugent@iolfree.ie
Marriage counsellors sought: The Catholic marriage counselling agency, Accord, is seeking married men and women to work for its marriage education services in Dublin. Such volunteers would be trained to run marriage preparation and enrichment courses. Accord provides marriage preparation courses for 1,200 couples each year. Interested volunteers should attend one of the following meetings: tomorrow at 8.30 p.m. in St Anne's Resource Centre, St Anne's Church, Shankill, Co Dublin, or Tuesday, June 25th at 8.30 p.m. in Accord Centre, 39 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01- 4784400 for more details.
Children and television: Contrary to the general perception that Irish children spend most of their time in front of the television, a study of 11- to 12-year-olds has found that the percentage of "inactive children" is lower here than in other European populations. Girls are, however, beginning to show less interest in sports in the last years of primary school. The study, in the Irish Medical Journal, found that rural children were the most active.
Lifelines is compiled by Dr Muiris Houston and SylviaThompson
lifelines@irish-times.ie