Born too soon? SCIENCE

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showed prematurity to be nise this and to avoid repeating linked to aspects of the every- the effort. And when the day life, a major factor being right time for the birth had heavy working conditions. come, she could use her knowThey found that clear warning ledge to actually encourage signs appeared in pregnancy contractions to start. . Thus well before miscarriage or women could start to regain premature birth took place, control over the course of their and advising women to rest pregnancies. allowed the pregnancy to prematurity rate is now only Daltry had a go at making solo albums but specialised in becoming an international film star. Townshend also made a few solos - and a couple with other musicians. His last solo album, Empty Glass, contained an excellent. tribute to Keith Moon. Entwhistle surprised everyone by writing pleasant, tuneful albums.

Moon's death could well have been what finally split the band - some 4 years later. But the last album he's on - 'Who are you' is reported to have been made bit by bit.

Of course there have been last concerts before, but judging by the looks on Daltry's and Townshend's faces they have had enough.

SCOTLAND Class or deaf.

And yet the huge majority of babies that suffer death or damage from prematurity would have been perfectly normal if born at the right time. The degree of prematurity is important - after only 6 months gestation, a baby has a low chance of survival, but after 8 months, most will survive.

Preventing prematurity would therefore save lot of unnecessary misery and suffering.

The French newspaper, Le Monde, recently ran an article describing a successful prevention programme, started in the '70s with the support of the Health minister, aimed at reducing the risk of premature birth.

The result has been a drop nationally from 8% to 5½% of all births over a decade, with only 3% premature in some hospitals. Some 6,000 normal births per year would otherwise have been premature.

Of course, there is a class aspect to this problem, with working class women running a much greater risk than middle-class women, but even this differential • has been reduced, though not abolished.

How has this been achieved? The article looked at the work of a research team at a hospital in Clamart, near Paris. The team started by looking at the inequality between poor and well-off women. They following these signs often resume its normal course.

Furthermore, women attending ante-natal clinics were asked about their work and home conditions and advised to stop doing heavy jobs.

Another initiative of the team was to make use of women's mutual aid networks and their knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth. Isolated women, such as young women living in tower blocks on council estates, often do not have access to this knowledge and support. So, for example, they might have no idea what a contraction felt like and therefore be unable to interpret its meaning.

Traditional health knowledge l'old wives' tales') points to the dangers of such activities as heayy lifting, hanging up wet sheets, etc. The Clamart team felt such knowledge should be spread not by formal health education lessons but by reintroducing the traditional 'wise woman' as a community midwife.

Contraction

This would help women regain the skill of relating what they did with the way their bodies felt. Thus, if a certain type of effort caused a contraction, the pregnant woman could learn to recogThe Clamart hospital's 3%, well below the national average.

Paradoxically, this achievement, initiated under conservative government, is now threatened by the austerity (for workers) programme of the so-called socialists. There are fear that the mortality rate for the new-born could creep up to the level of..: Britain!

Record

: for the British record is a sorry one, apart from isolated examples, and is soon to get even worse. And yet, so much more could be done.

As the Clamart team point out, the damage that can lead to prematurity, to do with the development of the placenta and the position of the baby, takes place between 6 and 7½ months of pregnancy. But French women only get ante-natal leave • from 7½ months.

Capitalists are unwilling to pay for extra leave which would benefit the whole of society and women rightly fear the increased discrimination in jobs that would follow an increase in leave. Giving up heavy work is most difficult precisely for the poor woman, and the woman who goes out to work will usually have the second job to do in the home.

How can these women be able to stop doing heavy work without being penalised? And legislation about workplaces alone will not help those doing heavy work in the house.

This is an example of how 'new' biological knowledge needs : new social conditions for it to be put to.use.

• Southwark/Lambeth. Meets