Kathy Hurst Zoe and Andy Clark-Coates with their children. Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian Zoe Clark-Coates remembers the moment a scan showed that her second pregnancy, like her first, had ended. “I’ll never forget the midwife’s face as she looked at the screen. She fell completely silent and I started screaming – a...
Ben Quinn Anti-abortion campaigners stage a rally outside parliament in October. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Anti-abortion campaigners will stage “kerbside vigils” in more than 50 towns and cities around the UK on Saturday to mark the 44th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act’s implementation. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) says...
Carlene Firmin A young woman holds a placard at a ‘slut walk’ demonstration. A new government campaign wants those who commit sexual violence to be challenged to recognise it as such. Photograph: Raoul Dixon / NNP/North News & Pictures Ltd A 15-year-old boy was describing to me and a group of 12 other young...
Jenni Russell Illustration by Belle Mellor A few years ago an academic I know had to suspend her career and go underground for a year. She was fleeing a stalker – an ex-boyfriend who had spent three years following, messaging and threatening her. She would wake up to dozens of texts and emails telling...
Luisa Dillner Both health watchdog Nice and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recommend vitamin D supplements. Photograph: Alamy How could we have forgotten about vitamin D? Suddenly newspapers are reporting that one in four toddlers do not get enough and rickets is emerging again. The chief medical officer in England, Dame...
Ann Robinson A ray of vitamin D bearing sun breaks through clouds in Hoxne, Suffolk. Photograph: Graham Turner Vitamin D is in the news again, and while the experts squabble over it, I’m off to buy myself some supplements. The chief medical officer for England has told GPs like me to advise those at...
Denis Campbell A woman holds her removed defective silicone gel breast implant, manufactured by the now defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP). Photograph: Reuters The Welsh government says it will pay to replace French-made PIP breast implants for women who were treated privately. Welsh health minister Lesley Griffiths said not replacing the implants...
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, suggested the dropping of a clause from the draft House of Lords reform bill. Photograph: Reuters The archbishop of Canterbury has pressed the case for fast-tracking women bishops into the House of Lords, asking a government committee for “discretion and flexibility” on the...
Does job insecurity make you less likely to take sick leave? | Open thread
Open thread The number of days taken off sick by working adults in the UK has fallen to four and a half. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA Good news for UK employers: employees are calling in sick less often. The Office of National Statistics reports that the average worker now takes just 4.5 days because of...
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