Women's choice of home or hospital birth

In the current professional debate over the relative advantages and disadvantages of birth in hospitals vs birth at home, chief concern has been given to issues of medical risk. However, little is known about how lay women as consumers of maternity care assess the risks of birth location. This paper briefly reviews the social literature examining the factors that influence women's obstetric plans in a variety of social and cultural contexts. Two important considerations emerge. First, women's perceptions of medical risk frequently do not conform to mainstream obstetrics doctrine, and second, women's birth plans are based on evaluations of social as well as medical risks and benefits connected with place of birth.

Zinc deficiency: a complication of Crohn's disease

Twenty-one of 52 patients with regional enteritis had low serum zinc concentrations on initial testing. Fourteen of 31 patients followed longitudinally had low serum zinc concentrations. Two patients are presented as case reports who developed acrodermatitis skin lesions that responded to zinc therapy. Hypogonadism, growth retardation, and abnormalities in taste were frequent complications in Crohn's patients with low serum zinc levels. Certain complications of regional enteritis may be due, in part, to zinc deficiency.

The effects of chronic and acute alcohol administration on fetal development in the rat

The effects of chronic alcohol administration and acute maternal oral alcohol intake on fetal development in rats were investigated, both regimens causing substantial increase in fetal mortality. Decrease body, brain, heart, kidney, and liver weight did not appear to be due to zinc deficiency.