Current economic and political climates are posing a threat to women’s sexual and reproductive rights […]
Juliet Dobson: Delivering access to contraception worldwide
Category: Juliet Dobson
Juliet Dobson: How gardens can improve health
We are lucky in BMA House to have a beautiful and well looked after garden. It is all the more of a luxury for being in the very centre of London. It was this garden that provided the venue for two talks that formed part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival. I attended one of them, […]
Juliet Dobson: Cutting support services for new mothers is a false economy
I was sad to hear that support services for new mothers are going to be cut across England. The Guardian reports that breastfeeding classes, home visits from midwives, and “babyfeeding cafes”—where mothers can drop in and talk to feeding advisers as well as other parents—are increasingly being scaled back or cut owing to pressures on […]
Juliet Dobson: Understanding Ebola in Africa
What has the recent Ebola outbreak shown us about West Africa’s development? Did it reveal Africa’s weaknesses or its strengths? On 23 March, Hans Rosling, from the Karolinska Institute, and Margaret Lamunu, the World Health Organization’s Ebola expert, discussed how West African health systems tackled the Ebola outbreak, and what we can learn from the […]
Juliet Dobson: Breast may be best, but it’s also a huge challenge
News of a new study published yesterday in Lancet Global Health, which shows that breast feeding is linked with higher IQ, was music to my ears. I am the mother of an eight month old, whom I am still breast feeding, and it was encouraging for me to hear that the many months of hard […]
The BMJ Today: Working all hours and alcohol use
You would have thought that working long hours would leave people with little time left for an after work drink, but according to this meta-analysis by Virtanen and colleagues, people who have long working hours are at higher risk of alcohol use. Editorialist Cassandra A Okechukwu says that the findings of this study add impetus to further […]
Juliet Dobson: Probably Nothing
Probably Nothing is a comic by Matilda Tristram about discovering that she had colon cancer when she was 17 weeks pregnant. The comic, initially published online and now as a book, charts her diagnosis and subsequent treatment while pregnant and then looking after a newborn baby. It is a very honest and moving account of […]
Juliet Dobson: MSF scientific day 2013—how can we measure the impact of research?
How can we measure the impact of research? What is impact, and how can we show that research leads to measurable outcomes for patients? On 10 May, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) held their annual scientific day, and the focus of the day was to try and answer some of these questions. There was also a […]
Juliet Dobson: Open journalism and social media
The Guardian is well known for being at the forefront of journalism and for pushing forward ever more innovative ways of covering the news. A talk at King’s Place on Friday 14 September looked at how journalism is changing and how social media, particularly Twitter, are changing the way news is reported and read. The […]
Juliet Dobson: Freedom of the press v privacy rights. Is it time for parliament to draw the line?
The seventh UCL/Bindmans Debate on 8 February tackled the question of press privacy. Should parliament regulate the press? One side of the argument is that freedom of expression is too important to be regulated. But on the other hand, is the press now too immoral to regulate itself? Tessa Jowell, Labour MP and shadow minister […]