British Mothers Research Articles

John Erichsen's Tonsillectomy Scissors

Removal of the tonsils is reported by Celsus in the first century AD when he recommended working a finger round them before extraction with same finger or alternatively elevation with a hook and excision by scalpel. Cultivation of a long index finger nail for tonsillectomy and umbilical cord division, and of a thumbnail for circumcision, etc. is authenticated in certain communities. (1) As I Moore’s historical account indicates, tonsillectomy was eventually avoided when the organ was inflamed and vascular due to post-operative haemorrhages. Fear of the latter also induced partial tonsillectomy by scalpel, sometimes after ligaturing the base; by the 18th century the scalpel was substituted by scissors and in the 19th century by the guillotine first introduced by Benjamin Bell for the uvula. (2) Meanwhile scissors were modified to both incise and prevent the remnant falling into the pharynx, as evident in Erichsen’s variations (Figure 1(g) and (h)). Sir John Erichsen FRS, FRCS (1818–1896), born in Copenhagen of a Danish father and English mother, was educated in London and qualified in 1839. After teaching anatomy and writing ‘An Essay on Asphyxia’ to win the Fothergillian Gold Medal, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon at University College Hospital in 1848 and Professor of Surgery there in 1850. He established a reputation for sound judgement and vast experience, becoming President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1880 and Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen. He attracted men of talent as house surgeons including Joseph Lister and wrote widely, including a treatise ‘Concussion of the Spine’ based on his experience of railway accidents. Importantly his textbook ‘The Science and Art of Surgery’ of 1853 achieved fame with 10 editions, plus American versions, and German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese translations. 3 Apart from ophthalmic cases, Erichsen was a complete general surgeon, operating initially without the aid of anaesthesia. Curiously, despite accepting Schimmelbusch’s work on post-mortem prophylaxis, initially he failed to embrace phenol wound antisepsis, a product of his pupil Lister. References

Personality, Behavior and Environmental Features Associated with OXTR Genetic Variants in British Mothers

Personality, Behavior and Environmental Features Associated with OXTR Genetic Variants in British Mothers

Are Chinese Children More Compliant? Examination of the Cultural Difference in Observed Maternal Control and Child Compliance

Children themselves play active roles in shaping their developmental trajectories. The constant interplay of a wide range of biological, familial, social, and cultural factors shapes development. In this study, we examined the links between maternal control and 5- to 7-year-old children’s compliance in a cross-cultural sample ( N = 89: 30 Chinese in Taiwan, 30 Chinese immigrants in the United Kingdom, and 29 nonimmigrant White English in the United Kingdom) using observational data. The results showed that the English mothers used less negative control and were more responsive than the Chinese immigrant mothers, and that the English mothers also showed more positive affect than both the Chinese immigrant and Taiwanese mothers. The Taiwanese children showed more situational compliance than the Chinese immigrant children, whereas there were no significant cultural differences in committed compliance and oppositional behaviour. Further regression analyses showed that committed compliance, situational compliance, and oppositional behaviour were associated with different predictors. Converging evidence from both observational tasks showed that committed compliance, moderated by surgency, appeared to increase as children grew older and was negatively influenced by maternal negative control. Different trends emerged for child opposition or noncompliance in the two tasks. In the Etch-a-Sketch task, noncompliance was accounted for by child age and temperament, but not by any maternal behaviour, whereas opposition in the clean-up task was not predicted by child age or temperament but was associated with maternal use of force. Finally, situational compliance could not be predicted by child age and temperament alone, but the addition of cultural group and maternal control significantly increased the prediction of situational compliance. These results suggested different pathways for the development of committed compliance, situational compliance, and opposition.

MOTHERHOOD AND THE MEDIA UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: THE BACKLASH AGAINST FEMINISM AND THE MOMMY WARS

Despite the passing of sexual discrimination legislation, the difficulty of combining work and motherhood repeatedly hits the headlines. This paper looks at the American media phenomenon known as the ‘mommy wars’ and asks if British mothers can expect to face the same issues and attitudes as their American sisters.

Lone mothers and paid work: the ‘family-work project’

When a mother starts work, her daily life changes in various ways: time, money, relationships, quality of life, and well-being are all subject to modification and potentially greater uncertainty. This is also true for her children, who must adapt to changed circumstances and perhaps play a different role within the family as a consequence. Sustaining work and care over time means that the situation of being a working family must become part of the everyday and regular practice of the family, and this actively involves all family members. This article explores this concept of a ‘family-work project’ through a qualitative longitudinal study of British lone mothers and their children, starting as the mothers took up work and following the families for four to five years. The research captured the experiences of the families as they negotiated the demands of sustaining employment while living on a low, but complex, income.

Indian mothers' perceptions of their roles in their daughters' university course choices

This paper presents new findings on the experiences of Indian mothers in the roles they play in their daughters' higher education (HE) subject choices. Whilst there are existing studies on White British mothers and parents more generally in terms of parental involvement in education, and a growing number of papers presenting results on Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents, evidence on Indian parents (and students) is relatively sparse. In particular, there is a lack of research where Indian parents are given space to voice their own narratives in their own words. In the main, existing studies focus on parents from the viewpoint of their children as students. This qualitative study involved semi‐structured interviews with nine Indian mothers from different areas in England. Commonalities and disparities between the experiences of Indian mothers presented here and accounts of White mothers of similar class and educational backgrounds presented in existing literature are analysed using an intersectional lens. Results show that working class Indian mothers could be making up some of their disadvantage in terms of social and cultural capital through family and community networks. Furthermore, mothers regard younger relatives as potential sources of important knowledge and resources that could help them and their daughters navigate the HE landscape. This has not been found in studies on White mothers where the emphasis instead has been on the exchange of knowledge from adults to the younger generation. This article arises out of an ESRC funded doctoral study of choice at university for British South Asian women.

Qualitative Feasibility of Using Three Accelerometers With 2–3-Year-Old Children and Both Parents

Purpose: This study assessed mothers' opinions about the feasibility and acceptability of using the ActiGraph GT3X+, Actiheart, and activPAL3 with their 2- to 3-year-old children, as well as with themselves and their husbands/partners, for an 8-day period. Method: Six focus groups were run with Pakistani and White British mothers (n = 17), in English or Urdu, at Children's Centers in Bradford, United Kingdom. Each accelerometer was shown to the mothers while its characteristics and wearing procedures were explained. Mothers were then asked about their opinion on the feasibility of use with their toddlers, themselves, and husbands/partners, as well as their monitor preference. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through thematic analysis. Results: The ActiGraph was the most preferred accelerometer for use with children, while the Actiheart was the least favorable. The ActiGraph was also the most preferred accelerometer for use with both mothers and fathers. Main issues raised included unsuitability of the Actiheart for fathers due to chest hair, discomfort due to the large size of the activPAL3 in relation to children's thighs, and children pulling off the Actiheart or tampering with the device if its presence was noticed (ActiGraph/Actiheart). Conclusion: The most preferred/accepted accelerometer overall was the ActiGraph GT3X+ for both children and parents. Issues raised with the devices have potential to impact recruitment and compliance rates of studies targeting this population, which highlights the importance of assessing the feasibility/acceptability of different devices with the target population ahead of planning research involving physical activity measurement.

Child anxiety and parenting in England and Italy: the moderating role of maternal warmth

Parenting factors have been implicated in the aetiology and maintenance of child anxiety. Most research has been correlational with little experimental or longitudinal work. Cross-cultural comparison could be illuminating. A comparison of Italian and British children and their mothers was conducted. A sample of 8- to 10-year old children, 60 Italian and 49 English, completed the Spence Child Anxiety Scale. Mothers also completed two questionnaires of parenting: the Skills of Daily Living Checklist (assessing maternal autonomy granting) and the Parent-Child Interaction Questionnaire (assessing maternal intrusiveness). Parenting was assessed in two video-recorded blindly rated mother-child interaction tasks, the 'belt-buckling tasks and the 'etch-a-sketch', providing objective indices of overcontrol, warmth, lack of autonomy granting, and overprotection. There were no differences between the children in overall anxiety and specific forms of anxiety. Parenting, however, was markedly different for the two countries. Compared to English mothers, on the two questionnaires, Italian mothers were significantly less autonomy granting and more intrusive; and in terms of the observed indices, a significantly greater proportion of the Italian mothers displayed a high level of both overprotection and overcontrol, and a low level of autonomy granting. Notably, Italian mothers evidenced significantly more warmth than English mothers; and maternal warmth was found to moderate the impact of self-reported maternal intrusiveness on the level of both overall child anxiety and the level of child separation anxiety; and it also moderated the relationship between both observed maternal intrusiveness and overall child anxiety and observed maternal overprotectiveness and child separation anxiety. Although, compared to the British mothers, the Italian mothers were more likely to evidence high levels of parenting behaviours previously found to be anxiogenic, the high levels of warmth displayed by these mothers to their children appears to have neutralised the adverse impact of these behaviours.

Childcare choices and voices: using interpreted narratives and thematic meaning-making to analyse mothers’ life histories

This paper focuses on the methodology of a study that asked what factors English mothers of very young babies consider when making employment decisions and childcare choices, and sought their views on the idea of carers in day care settings ‘loving’ their children. After a characterisation of life historical study, a four-staged process of analysis demonstrates how meaning was made from data created with six mothers. The discussion ‘voices’ their stories through excerpts from their expressions of emotion. The conclusion acknowledges insights generated into the dilemmas of mothers’ choices, but importantly points up how the careful listening and critical attending required by life historical study themselves generate stories that ‘go awry’ to reveal something of personal and of social importance. The paper concludes that using life story methods is a difficult process which may create discomfort for researcher and ‘researched’ long after the study is finished.

Self-reported maternal parenting style and confidence and infant temperament in a multi-ethnic community

Ethnic minority children in the United Kingdom often experience health disadvantage. Parenting influences children's current and future health, but little is known about whether parenting behaviours and mother's perception of her infant vary by ethnicity. Using the Born in Bradford (BiB) birth cohort, which is located in an ethnically diverse and economically deprived UK city, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of mother's self-reported parenting confidence, self-efficacy, hostility and warmth, and infant temperament at six months of age. We examined responses from women of Pakistani (N = 554) and White British (N = 439) origin. Pakistani mothers reported feeling more confident about their abilities as a parent. Significantly fewer Pakistani women adopted a hostile approach to parenting, an effect that was attenuated after adjustment for socioeconomic status and mental health. Overall, women with more self-efficacious, warm and less hostile parenting styles reported significantly fewer problems with their infant's temperaments. Of women with higher self-efficacy parenting styles, Pakistani mothers were significantly more likely than White British mothers to report more problematic infant temperaments, although absolute differences were small. It is unlikely that the ethnic variation seen in children's cognitive and behavioural outcomes in childhood is attributable to differences in parenting or infant characteristics reported at six months.

Ethnic Differences in the Initiation and Duration of Breast Feeding – Results from the Born in Bradford Birth Cohort Study

Initiation of breast feeding and duration of any breast feeding are known to differ by ethnic group, but there are limited data on differences in exclusive breast feeding. This study aimed to determine if there are ethnic differences in the initiation and duration of any and exclusive breast feeding. Breast-feeding data were obtained from a subsample of 1365 women recruited to a multi-ethnic cohort study (Born in Bradford) between August 2008 and March 2009. Poisson regression was used to investigate the impact of socio-economic, life style and birth factors on ethnic differences in the prevalence of breast feeding. Compared with white British mothers, initiation of breast feeding was significantly higher in all ethnic groups and this persisted after adjustment for socio-economic, life style and birth factors [Pakistani: prevalence rate ratio (PRR) = 1.19 (95% confidence interval 1.10, 1.29); Other South Asian: PRR = 1.29 (1.18, 1.42); Other ethnicities: PRR = 1.33 (1.21, 1.46)]. There were no differences in exclusive breast feeding at 4 months [Pakistani: PRR = 0.77 (0.54, 1.09); Other South Asian: PRR = 1.55 (0.99, 2.43); Other ethnicities: PRR = 1.50 (0.88, 2.56)]. Any breast feeding at 4 months was significantly higher in mothers of all non-white British ethnicities [Pakistani: PRR = 1.27 (1.02, 1.58); Other South Asian: PRR = 1.99 (1.52, 2.62); Other ethnicities: 2.45 (1.86, 3.21)]. Whilst women of ethnic minority groups were significantly more likely to initiate breast feeding and continue any breast feeding for 4 months compared with white British women, the rates of exclusive breast feeding at 4 months were not significantly different once socio-economic, life style and birth factors were accounted for.

The hyperarticulation hypothesis of infant-directed speech

Typically, the point vowels [i,ɑ,u] are acoustically more peripheral in infant-directed speech (IDS) compared to adult-directed speech (ADS). If caregivers seek to highlight lexically relevant contrasts in IDS, then two sounds that are contrastive should become more distinct, whereas two sounds that are surface realizations of the same underlying sound category should not. To test this prediction, vowels that are phonemically contrastive ([i-ɪ] and [eɪ-ε]), vowels that map onto the same underlying category ([æ- ] and [ε- ]), and the point vowels [i,ɑ,u] were elicited in IDS and ADS by American English mothers of two age groups of infants (four- and eleven-month-olds). As in other work, point vowels were produced in more peripheral positions in IDS compared to ADS. However, there was little evidence of hyperarticulation per se (e.g. [i-ɪ] was hypoarticulated). We suggest that across-the-board lexically based hyperarticulation is not a necessary feature of IDS.

Griffith James Edwards CBE

Formerly Emeritus Professor, National Addiction Centre ![Figure][1] Professor Griffith Edwards, one of the world’s leading experts on alcohol problems, was born in 1928 in India to an English mother and a Welsh father. He was educated at Andover Grammar School and went up to Balliol

Using the Microcomputer to Bridge the Language Gap

English mother tongue speakers begin second language learning with a built-in disadvantage, namely their mother tongue. It contains no concept of gender in the grammatical sense; its verb system uses multiple instead of single forms; grammatical inflection is reduced to who/whom/whose.
 This paper will address firstly the problem of language distance and the implied necessity to create new cognitive processes; secondly it will analyze some simple, yet seemingly effective, computer programs available on the UK market for FLL; thirdly it will suggest that the micro computer can help students develop necessary process of thought and analysis that are absent in their own language but which are needed for a "natural" mastery of a second language.

Northern British Columbian Aboriginal Mothers

This interpretive ethnographic study describes the experiences of northern British Columbian Aboriginal mothers raising adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and provides an understanding of how the mothers interpreted and responded to their adolescents' FASD. The all-encompassing theoretical perspectives of postcolonialism provided the conceptual guide for this study. This ontological stance facilitates discourse on the social and historical context of this research focused on northern British Columbian Aboriginal mothers. Using semistructured interviews and participant observation, eight participants were interviewed three times over a period of several months. Data were analyzed using an interpretive analysis to generate an overarching cultural theme, Mothering from the Margins. The theme conveyed how study participants understood FASD and how they were raising their adolescents within the social and historical context unique to postcolonial societies.

Durational Interaction of Stops and Vowels in English and Korean Child-Directed Speech

The current study observes the durational interaction of tautosyllabic consonants and vowels in the word-initial position of English and Korean child-directed speech (CDS). The effect of phonological laryngeal contrasts in stops on the following vowel duration, and the effect of the intrinsic vowel duration on the release duration of preceding stops in addition to the acoustic realization of the contrastive segments are explored in different prosodic contexts - phrase-initial/medial, focal accented/non-focused - in a marked speech style of CDS. A trade-off relationship between Voice Onset Time (VOT), as consonant release duration, and voicing phonation time, as vowel duration, reported from adult-to-adult speech, and patterns of durational variability are investigated in CDS of two languages with different linguistic rhythms, under systematically controlled prosodic contexts. Speech data were collected from four native English mothers and four native Korean mothers who were talking to their one-word staged infants. In addition to the acoustic measurements, the transformed delta measure is employed as a variability index of individual tokens. Results confirm the durational correlation between prevocalic consonants and following vowels. The interaction is revealed in a compensatory pattern such as longer VOTs followed by shorter vowel durations in both languages. An asymmetry is found in CV interaction in that the effect of consonant on vowel duration is greater than the VOT differences induced by the vowel. Prosodic effects are found such that the acoustic difference is enhanced between the contrastive segments under focal accent, supporting the paradigmatic strengthening effect. Positional variation, however, does not show any systematic effects on the variations of the measured acoustic quantities. Overall vowel duration and syllable duration are longer in English tokens but involve less variability across the prosodic variations. The constancy of syllable duration, therefore, is not found to be more strongly sustained in Korean CDS. The stylistic variation is discussed in relation to the listener under linguistic development in CDS.

English Adaptation versus Mother Tongue: Reliability of the English Version of Moddi—F Administered to Hong Kong Chinese College Students

Two samples of Hong Kong college students completed the English and the Chinese version of the Multidimensional Orientation Toward Dying and Death Inventory (MODDI-F), respectively. Results show substantially lower coefficients of internal consistency in the English version when compared with its Chinese counterpart. The construct validity of the instrument, i.e., the statistical relationships between its subtests, was confirmed. Whenever available, the use of a questionnaire that is worded in the participants' mother tongue is recommended.

Pulse oximetry screening for congenital heart defects in newborn infants: an evaluation of acceptability to mothers

BackgroundIntroducing neonatal screening procedures may not be readily accepted by parents and may increase anxiety. The acceptability of pulse oximetry screening to parents has not been previously reported.ObjectiveTo assess maternal...

The Voices of Limited English Proficiency Latina Mothers on Pediatric Primary Care: Lessons for the Medical Home

The objective of this study is to inform medical home implementation in practices serving limited English proficiency Latino families by exploring limited English proficiency Latina mothers' experiences with, and expectations for, pediatric primary care. In partnership with a federally-qualified community health center in an urban Latino neighborhood, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 38 low-income Latina mothers. Eligible participants identified a pediatric primary care provider for their child and had at least one child 3years old or younger, to increase the probability of frequent recent interactions with health care providers. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed through an iterative and collaborative process to identify participants' satisfaction with and expectations for pediatric primary care. About half of the mothers interviewed were satisfied with their primary care experiences. Mothers suggested many ways to improve the quality of pediatric primary care for their children to better meet the needs of their families. These included: encouraging providers to invest more in their relationship with families, providing reliable same-day sick care, expanding hours, improving access to language services, and improving care coordination services. Limited English proficiency Latina mothers expect high-quality pediatric primary care consistent with the medical home model. Current efforts to improve primary care quality through application of the medical home model are thus relevant to this population, but should focus on the parent-provider relationship and timely access to care. Promoting this model among practices that serve limited English proficiency Latino families could improve engagement and satisfaction with primary care.

The Voicing of Desire: The Quest for History in Heremakhonon and The Women of Tijucopapo

The Voicing of DesireThe Quest for History in Heremakhonon and The Women of Tijucopapo Laurie Corbin (bio) What is . . . important for me as a writer is that the language one writes in must be forced open, subjected to a certain violence, made strange, so that it becomes the writer’s own singular language [une langue à lui]. Maryse Condé, “Crossover Texts/Creole Tongues” Am I talking? Or do I think I’m talking? Maryse Condé, Heremakhonon Is it possible that you can’t hear me? Marilene Felinto, The Women of Tijucopapo Carole Boyce Davies states in her introduction to Black Women, Writing and Identity that “Black women’s writing . . . should be read as a series of boundary crossings and not as a fixed, geographical, ethnically or nationally bound category of writing” (4). The image of texts as boundary crossings is useful when trying to understand the commonalities and differences of women’s lives across the world in that boundaries can sometimes be fluid yet still mark important distinctions in identity. Two works—Heremakhonon by Maryse Condé, a Guadeloupean writer known for her novels, plays, and essays, and The Women of Tijucopapo, by Marilene Felinto, a Brazilian writer who has published both as a journalist and a writer of fiction—have interesting similarities yet important distinctions in their representations of women’s experience of the power structures that support gender, race, and class differences in the Antilles and Brazil. Condé is an internationally known writer who grew up in a bourgeois black family in Guadeloupe, leaving her home for France in the 1950s and living for many years away from Guadeloupe in France, various African countries, and the United States. In recent decades she has re-established herself in Guadeloupe but has also taught at universities in the United States. Felinto was born in the northeast of Brazil in a lower-income family who moved to São Paulo when she was still young and has lived in Brazil her entire life. The two texts that I am comparing were published within several years of each other, Heremakhonon in 1976 and The Women of Tijucopapo in 1982. However, the main characters [End Page 425] are quite different: Veronica in Heremakhonon is an educated Guadeloupean who has been living in Paris for some years and has decided to take a teaching position in Africa essentially to “return to her roots” or, as she says, to find her ancestors; Risia in The Women of Tijucopapo is a lower-class mestiza1 whose family moved from a small village in the northeast of Brazil to São Paulo and throughout the text is walking back to her home region. There are some significant resemblances between the two texts: both make use of a first-person narrative. Risia seemingly speaks to herself but occasionally addresses her mother or other people who are important to her, and Veronica’s voice is an interior monologue that might be addressed to a person with whom she is interacting, yet it is not generally clear whether she is speaking aloud or thinking her responses to comments addressed to her. Related to the attention to the narrative voice is a focus on the language used: although The Women of Tijucopapo is written in Portuguese, Risia repeatedly states that she will write this monologue as a letter to her mother in English; Condé’s text is in French with her main character highly aware of her ambivalent relationship to France, her own cultures and heritages (French, Antillean, African), and the ways that her language must reflect these various legacies. Another important commonality is the theme of “return”—for Risia, a return to her homeland, for Veronica, a “return” to Africa, and the ways that these voyages succeed or do not succeed. This quest is linked to the imagery of the mother that is interwoven with these characters’ attempts to relocate their identities and the ways in which these searches require a resituating of the self in history. Further, each character’s thoughts and actions related to her sexual desires have been categorized by some literary critics as unsuited to the representations of women that have been looked for since the political...