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Early modern medical literature described miscarriage as an especially dangerous process for women's health. Recipe books, diary entries and personal correspondence show that some women experienced significant pain and complications, including retention of the foetus and placenta, fevers, haemorrhaging, headaches, and fertility issues. This article illuminates the management of the bodily process of miscarriage and the means used to promote women's recovery after the event. It considers the interventions that were necessary to combat the complications associated with pregnancy loss allowing the two-stage process of recovery to take place. In doing so it underlines the gendered nature of treatment in this area. It also reveals that married women who desired pregnancies configured even early miscarriages as losses and emphasized the need for the body to recover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early modern medical literature described miscarriage as an especially dangerous process for women's health. Recipe books, diary entries and personal correspondence show that some women experienced significant pain and complications, including retention of the foetus and placenta, fevers, haemorrhaging, headaches, and fertility issues. This article illuminates the management of the bodily process of miscarriage and the means used to promote women's recovery after the event. It considers the interventions that were necessary to combat the complications associated with pregnancy loss allowing the two-stage process of recovery to take place. In doing so it underlines the gendered nature of treatment in this area. It also reveals that married women who desired pregnancies configured even early miscarriages as losses and emphasized the need for the body to recover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To provide estimates of visual impairment in people with diabetes attending screening in a multi-ethnic population in England (United Kingdom). Methods: The Diabetic Retinopathy In Various Ethnic groups in UK (DRIVE UK) Study is a cross-sectional study on the ethnic variations of the prevalence of DR and visual impairment in two multi-racial cohorts in the UK. People on the diabetes register in West Yorkshire and South East London who were screened, treated or monitored between April 2008 to July 2009 (London) or August 2009 (West Yorkshire) were included in the study. Data on age, gender, ethnic group, visual acuity and diabetic retinopathy were collected. Ethnic group was defined according to the 2011 census classification. The two main ethnic minority groups represented here are Blacks (''Black/African/Caribbean/Black British'') and South Asians (''Asians originating from the Indian subcontinent''). We examined the prevalence of visual impairment in the better eye using three cut-off points (a) loss of vision sufficient for driving (approximately ,6/9) (b) visual impairment (,6/12) and (c) severe visual impairment (,6/60), standardising the prevalence of visual impairment in the minority ethnic groups to the age-structure of the white population. Results: Data on visual acuity and were available on 50,331individuals 3.4% of people diagnosed with diabetes and attending screening were visually impaired (95% confidence intervals (CI) 3.2% to 3.5%) and 0.39% severely visually impaired (0.33% to 0.44%). Blacks and South Asians had a higher prevalence of visual impairment (directly age standardised prevalence 4.6%, 95% CI 4.0% to 5.1% and 6.9%, 95% CI 5.8% to 8.0% respectively) compared to white people (3.3%, 95% CI 3.1% to 3.5%). Visual loss was also more prevalent with increasing age, type 1 diabetes and in people living in Yorkshire. Conclusions: Visual impairment remains an important public health problem in people with diabetes, and is more prevalent in the minority ethnic groups in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the early modern period, medical writers described a plethora of remedies designed to provoke menstruation. This article will address the close relationship these substances had with provokers of lust. Historians have often viewed emmenagogues as covert expressions of abortive drugs. While they acknowledge that some women utilised these treatments for their intended purpose, to restore a regular menstrual cycle, they have more frequently asserted that they were more likely to be employed to remove an unwanted pregnancy. This article asserts that this understanding is in need of reappraisal and argues that these substances can be viewed as a key component of early modern fertility and sexual health care. This article demonstrates that provokers of venery and emmenagogues shared similar humoral virtues and that many compound remedies designed to restore purgation contained potent aphrodisiacs. By promoting a healthy menstrual cycle these substances ensured that the female reproductive system was fecund. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Philip Barrough wrote in 1590 that barrenness 'is caused of the womans part or of the mans part'. By the eighteenth century, however, barrenness was perceived as a female disorder distinguished from male impotence. Few historians have addressed the uncertainty surrounding early modern definitions of infertility, choosing instead to adopt set terms that fit comfortably with modern ideas. This article will highlight the difficulties surrounding the gender distinction of the terms 'barrenness' and 'impotence' during this period. Moreover, the discussion will examine the role of gender in diagnosing these disorders to sufferers. The article will argue that ideas of gender were more central to diagnosis of poor sexual health than to effectual treatment. Although it appears that barrenness and impotence were treated with separate remedies, many treatments were described as effectual for both sexes. Additionally, the ingredients used in such recipes were often sexual stimulants explained without reference to gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we ask `how can we judge whether a policy initiative produces innovation?'. We focus first on the concept of innovation, touching on some aspects of its recent development, noting a resurgence of interest in it over the past few years in the schools policy field in England and proposing a tentative definition. We then refer to the national initiative known as Diversity Pathfinders (DP), of which we are conducting an evaluation, and briefly consider the implications of the idea of `pathfinding' and related notions. Finally we describe some possible examples of innovations from our DP case studies and draw some conclusions for thinking about and researching innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined the change in uptake of interventions to reduce transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from mothers to infants from January 1994 to July 1997 in central London, England. Review of mother-infant pairs presented for infant diagnosis of HIV infection; Interventions examined; Results obtained.