Doctors have hit back against a controversial study that linked diet soda to autism.

Research by the University of Texas (UT) found boys diagnosed with autism were three times as likely to have mothers who drank diet soda daily while pregnant or breastfeeding.

They theorized that aspartame, the popular sugar substitute found in Diet Coke, may release toxins that cause oxidative stress in cells and tissues — a process linked to autism. 

But Dr Deirdre Tobias, a nutritionist at Harvard University who was not involved in the research, told DailyMail.com it was ‘shocking that the authors would feel confident enough in this design to draw those conclusions.’

Dr Rachel Moseley, principal academic in psychology at Bournemouth University in the UK, told DailyMail.com: ‘It would be highly premature and irresponsible to suggest a relationship between aspartame and autism based on this study. As every scientist knows, correlation between two things does not mean that the one causes the other.’

Dr Tobias said the study was ‘extremely flawed’ because the data was collected retrospectively and based on the mother’s memory of how much aspartame they consumed.

Dr Moseley added that the sample size is small and was recruited from a panel of parents with an autistic child.

‘Since autism has a large genetic component, having one autistic child is already associated with a higher risk of having another autistic child,’ she said.

‘Moreover, the authors did not rigorously confirm whether either or both of the parents were themselves autistic.’

In the study, the diets of mothers of 235 children with autism spectrum disorder were compared to a control group of mothers of 121 children who didn’t have autism.

The mothers completed questionnaires that asked: ‘While you were pregnant or breastfeeding your child, how often did you drink diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners?’

Diet Coke, Diet Dr Pepper, Diet Sprite, Crystal Light, sugar-free Kool-Aid, and Slim-Fast were suggested as prompts.

Each mother was also asked: ‘While you were pregnant or breastfeeding your child, how many little packets of low-calorie sweeteners (such as Sweet ‘N Low, Equal or Splenda) did you use in your coffee, tea, or other foods and beverages?’

Intake of the three leading sweeteners — Equal/Nutrasweet (blue), Splenda (yellow), and Sweet’N Low (pink) — was recorded. 

The researchers found that males diagnosed with autism disorder were between 3.1 and 3.5 times more likely to have mothers who reported an aspartame intake equivalent to one or more diet sodas a day during pregnancy or breastfeeding, compared with male controls. 

The association was greatest among males with non-regressive autism — where the condition is apparent before 18 months, also known as early onset.

The study did not find a statistically significant trend in autistic girls.

Conditions such as obesity and diabetes in mothers are associated with an increased risk of autism in children and may also influence a decision to use diet products. 

The researchers did not collect data on these risk factors, nor smoking, drinking, birth weight, prematurity, or the age of the parents. They did have data for household income, educational attainment, and ethnicity, which they adjusted for in the results.

Dr Tobias added that the three artificial sweeteners they examined are ‘completely different compounds, metabolized very differently in humans, and have been extensively evaluated for their safety. 

‘Thus, the fact that the signal for aspartame was essentially the same as the other chemicals further points to the bias in this study, perhaps due to errors in the mothers’ recall or other factors related to women who chose diet sodas.

‘It is extremely unlikely that any association they are observing has anything to do with the chemical aspartame itself.’

The study was published in the journal Nutrients.

During pregnancy, aspartame can cross the placenta and accumulate in fetal tissue. 

The substance can also cross into breastmilk, but other studies have suggested the mother’s body rapidly breaks it down.

Autism affects one in 36 children, meaning that more than 90,000 children are born annually with the developmental disorder in the US.

It is characterized by problems with social communication and interaction, difficulty expressing oneself and repetitive behaviors and interests.

Autism is a lightning rod issue and often comes up in antivaxxer messaging. 

In a recent poll, one-quarter of American adults said they believed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism – a widely studied and discredited claim that emerged in the 1990s.

Claims that shots can lead to autism have been peddled by anti-vaxxers for almost 25 years, but the link has been repeatedly disproven.

The disgraced British physician Andrew Wakefield made the claim in a now-retracted 1998 Lancet study.

Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, publicly described the research as ‘fundamentally flawed’ in 2004 – nine years after it was published.

Dr Horton alleged that Andrew Wakefield, the gastroenterologist behind the paper, was paid by a group pursuing lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.

The prestigious medical journal finally retracted the paper in 2010.

Just three months after his paper was pulled, Wakefield was banned from practicing medicine in Britain by the General Medical Council.

In 2011, the British Medical Journal conducted a damning probe into the findings of Wakefield’s original study.

Its investigation found only two of the 12 children included developed autistic symptoms after being vaccinated – as opposed to the eight Wakefield claimed.

Since then, studies involving millions of children have failed to find a link between the MMR vaccine and the neurodevelopmental disorder.  

•  People eating high-quality snacks were more likely to have a healthy weight

By Shaun Wooller

Published: 16:37 EDT, 24 September 2023 | Updated: 17:50 EDT, 24 September 2023

Biden leaves for New Delhi as polls raise questions about his 2024 run

By Nikki Schwab, Senior U.S. Political Reporrter In Charleston, South Carolina

Published: 08:13 EDT, 8 September 2023 | Updated: 08:13 EDT, 8 September 2023

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President Joe Biden departed Thursday for the G20 Leaders‘ Summit in New Delhi, India after days of speculation over whether the president would catch COVID-19 from his wife and scrap the trip. 

The maskless commander-in-chief didn’t take questions from the press as he boarded Air Force One through the smaller steps.

His trip begins just 24 hours after the Department of Justice warned they would seek to indict his son Hunter on gun charges by the end of the month, and he faced criticism from 9/11 families for marking Monday’s 22nd anniversary of the attacks in Alaska.

And more poll results released by CNN on Thursday morning show the majority of voters – including Democrats – think he is too old to run, and he is neck-and neck with Donald Trump.

While press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that there were no ‘contingency plans’ being made if Biden had to skip, the White House didn’t reveal too much of Biden’s schedule either. 

He’s expected to meet with the G20’s host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after Air Force One lands Friday and then attend G20 sessions Saturday and Sunday before jetting off to Vietnam. 

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wouldn’t say Tuesday if Biden planned to hold bilateral meetings with two of the most controversial leaders expected to attend –  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is skipping the meeting of the world’s richest economies amid the Ukraine invasion – sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his stead – while Chinese President Xi Jinping is sitting the summit out amid tensions with host country India. 

Last week, China and India got into a diplomatic tiff over an ‘official map’ released by China that claimed lands along the Himalayas that Indian officials say belong to them. 

Xi is sending Premier Li Qiang in his place, Beijing announced Monday. 

At the briefing Tuesday, Sullivan encouraged the Chinese delegation to still play ball, despite Xi’s summit snub.

‘As far as the question of tensions between India and China affecting the summit: Really, that’s up to China,’ Sullivan said. ‘If China wants to come in and play the role of spoiler, of course, that option is available to them.’ 

Sullivan encouraged the Chinese to come to the summit ‘in a constructive way’ and work with other nations on the issues of ‘climate, on multilateral development bank reform, on debt relief, on technology’ and ‘set aside the geopolitical questions.’ 

One of the top summit agenda items for the U.S. is World Bank reform, scaling up the lender to provide funds for climate and infrastructure projects.

This move is strategic in that it could move some developing economies toward Western nations and away from the Chinese Communist Party’s lending practices, which the White House called ‘coercive and unsustainable’ when asking Congress in late August for $3.3 billion in additional funding. 

At the G7 in May in Hiroshima, Japan, some of the planned topics of discussion were overshadowed by the Ukraine war. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the summit, meeting with Biden and the other leaders of the top industrialized nations. 

The dynamic will be slightly different at the G20 – in part because Zelensky wasn’t invited by India. 

India has not condemned the Ukraine war as harshly as the United States and its top allies, as Russia is an important trading partner, though Modi did meet with Zelensky on the sidelines of the G7 in Japan. 

Also while Russia was expelled from the then-G8 in March 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, territory previously held by Ukraine, it remains a member of the G20.

Lavrov will be filling in for Putin during this weekend’s Leaders’ Summit, as the Russian leader hasn’t traveled outside the country since the International Criminal Court in March issued a warrant for his arrest over war crimes, including the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia. 

Lavrov has been on a world tour this week, appearing at the ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Indonesia – which was also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Sullivan predicted there would be a ‘continued focus on how the G20 deals with Russia’s illegal and ongoing war in Ukraine.’ 

‘The reality is that Russia’s illegal war has had devastating social and economic consequences, and the poorest counties on the planet are bearing the brunt of that,’ Sullivan pointed out. 

No major headway is expected from the full G20, with Lavrov on Friday already saying that Russia would block the final declaration from the summit if it didn’t reflect Moscow’s views on Ukraine. 

Meanwhile Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise trip to Kyiv earlier this week.  

With Putin and Xi skipping the G20, no meeting of Biden’s will be more closely watched than if he decides to sit down with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the summit.

Late last month, Axios reported that Biden was considering meeting with MBS, according to four sources in the know. 

Sullivan wouldn’t cement anything when asked about MBS – and Erdoğan – on Tuesday. 

‘I’m not going to speak to how the schedule will shape up over the course of the coming days,’ the national security adviser said. 

Sullivan said there was a ‘certain dynamic element’ to G20 scheduling, meaning that some of the meetings ‘will likely be announced at the last minute.’ 

‘And we will do our darndest to make sure that they are done in a way where the U.S. press has the ability to participate in them,’ he told the reporters in the briefing room. 

On the table, potentially, is a ‘mega-deal’ between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. that could lead to Saudi and Israel normalizing relations. 

It would be a historic breakthrough for Mideast peace. 

Officials told Axios that the administration is trying to finish its diplomatic push before the 2024 presidential election ramps up. 

While those sources pointed to how much of Biden’s time his reelection campaign will eat up, Saudi relations are not popular among swaths of the U.S. 

Besides the country’s poor treatment of women, there was the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

And timing of an MBS meeting could also be awkward for Biden – who has decided to skip the traditional 9/11 ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks Monday in Alaska on his way home from India and Vietnam. 

For years, 9/11 families have gone after the Saudi government, as 15 of the 19 terrorist hijackers were Saudis. 

Fears of a fresh Covid resurgence were today heightened after the discovery of a new variant thought to be the ‘real deal’.

Scientists have already called for the return of face masks because of the spin-off strain — yet to be officially named but dubbed BA.6.

Others, however, warned it is far too early to panic and argued that pandemic-era restrictions won’t be needed.

Covid hospitalisation rates are already starting to shoot up, sparking concern that the UK is on the brink of being hit by another wave. 

The increase in infections follows the arrival of another variant, nicknamed Eris. It already makes up one in seven new Covid cases in Britain, health chiefs say. 

Experts have speculated the bad weather and the ‘Barbenheimer effect’ – referring to the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer – might have also contributed to the rise in infections, as well as waning immunity. 

Booster vaccines will be offered to over-65s and the vulnerable later this year. 

There are no signs the newly discovered variant, which is different to Eris, known scientifically as EG.5.1, poses any more of a danger than others, including its ancestor Omicron. 

Virus trackers say it has already been spotted in Denmark and Israel, suggesting it has started to circulate. 

Experts believe the variant has over 30 mutations in its spike protein, the part of the virus that latches onto human cells and causes an infection. 

However, it still remains unclear if it will succeed in spreading efficiently or if it will just fizzle out like many other heavily mutated variants.

Dr Trisha Greenhalgh, an internationally-renowned expert in primary care, based at the University of Oxford, tweeted that ‘it looks like it’s once again time to MASK UP’.

The professor, who is also a member of Independent SAGE, a group of academics that called for No10 to adopt an Australian-style Covid elimination strategy early on in the pandemic, acknowledged that she understood ‘little of the detail’, however.

Meanwhile, Professor Christina Pagel, a mathematician from University College London who sits on Independent SAGE, said: ‘To everyone else — very very early days but this coronavirus variant (now in 2 countries) has a LOT of new mutations that makes it v different to previous Omicron strains.’

It is ‘potentially more able to cause a big wave’, she added. 

The strain was originally highlighted by online Covid variant tracker Ryan Hisner, who tweeted ‘this is the real deal’. 

He wrote: ‘Two more sequences of this 2nd-generation BA.2 lineage just showed up in Denmark. 

‘This is the real deal. There are slight differences between the three sequences, but they are nearly identical.’  

Professor Stephen Griffin, an infectious disease expert at the University of Leeds, told MailOnline the variant ‘represents a far greater change in the genetic makeup of the virus’ and is ‘reminiscent of the first emergence’ of Omicron in late 2021.

He added: ‘It is too early to tell whether this “jump” in evolution will lead to a virus “fit” enough to dominate in the same way as BA.1 and BA.2 and other variants of concern once did, but there are a number of mutations that may cause concern if it does start to spread. 

‘These types of changes typically take a long time to become established in concert, but the source of these new viruses is not immediately clear. 

‘Of course, our limited surveillance now makes this job much harder.’

He said: ‘Ultimately, whether or not humans declare that a public health emergency is over, the virus will carry on its course, regardless. 

‘The best way to future proof against this is a combined vaccine and mitigation-based approach. Worryingly, in the UK, we are currently winding both of these aspects down.’

Experts also told MailOnline the emergence of a new variant ‘is not surprising’ and repeated calls cautioning it was too early to panic. 

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, said: ‘With a soup of different Omicron variants virus continuing to infect people around the world, the emergence of a more infectious variant is not surprising. 

‘Not much known about this variant. We will continue to see new variants popping up as the virus continues to spread and adapt. 

‘This might all be manageable as long as these are all variants on the Omicron background, as many people have already been exposed to infection with different Omicron variants and the vaccine booster is likely to have been adapted to cover the Omicron family.’ 

He added: ‘The biggest worry is that a Covid variant from a different background — delta or completely new lineage — will re-emerge as a new variant and this could really be problematic.’

Meanwhile, Professor Paul Hunter, a respected infectious disease specialist at the University of East Anglia told MailOnline: ‘If it is BA.6 that means it probably isn’t that different from what as gone before and so unlikely to be an important threat but time will tell.’ 

He added: ‘Since Omicron the balance of evidence is that masking no longer is associated with much if any reduced infection rates either in hospitals, schools or the community. 

‘Masking may still have value in reducing the severity of infection in particularly vulnerable people.’

It comes as the UKHSA declared EG.5.1, dubbed Eris, a new Covid variant earlier this month, with World Health Organization (WHO) chiefs last week listing it a ‘variant of interest’. 

It has now been recorded in 51 countries, the UN health agency confirmed.

It has quickly become dominant in America, accounting for one in five infections, while in Japan it is estimated to account for up to 46 per cent of all cases. 

However, in a risk evaluation last week the WHO concluded: ‘Collectively, available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 has additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages.’  

The Government has insisted it will never revert back to pandemic-era measures unless a doomsday variant emerges.

Experts say fluctuations in case numbers will happen forevermore. 

Professor Hunter told MailOnline that while it is necessary to monitor EG.5, ‘it will likely not drive up hospitalisations much’. 

He added: ‘EG.5 will have played only a minor role in the recent wave we have seen in July. 

‘But we may see cases rising a bit more over coming weeks because of this variant. There is no indication that we need to change our practices at present.’ 

Meanwhile Professor Young told MailOnline: ‘The boosters should be a good match for this and any newer variants – assuming that this will be the available vaccine in the UK. 

‘However, the delay in vaccinating the most vulnerable until October and the current increase in infections stresses the immediate need for additional public health and social measures. 

‘This is particularly important before children return to school, students start back at university and folk return to work after their summer holidays.’

He added: ‘Encouraging the wearing of facemasks in crowded and poorly ventilated spaces, and improving ventilation in indoor spaces are simple measures which we know are effective at limiting the spread of the virus. 

‘Some public health messaging emphasising the value of these measures in protecting the population from widespread infection and in helping the NHS through what will be another challenging winter would be welcome.’

NHS hospital data also shows daily Covid admissions in England have increased by a third in a week, rising from 171 on July 28, to 229 on August 4, the latest figures available. 

Hospitalizations had been freefalling nationally since March, from a peak of almost 1,200. 

The beginning of July however, saw these numbers begin an uptick, rising slightly. 

But, current admission levels are nowhere near levels seen earlier in the pandemic, when a high of 4,100 admissions were logged per day. 

And, as time has worn on, fewer and fewer admissions are directly down to the virus. Instead, many patients are just coincidentally ill. 

House Democratic campaign arm raises $41m in last quarter with mass shootings helping propel them ahead of GOP fundraisers in June – as Raphael Warnock nearly triples Herschel Walker with his own $17m haul

• The DCCC raised $40.7 million the second quarter of FY2022 
• Party also raised the RNCC by just $500,000 in June despite claims there will be a Democratic bloodbath in November’s midterm
• The fundraising haul came after a series of mass shootings and the Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade last month 
• Georgia is a good example of Democrats out raising Republicans in the midterms
• Democrat incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock raised $17.2M from April-June compared to his Republican rival Herschel Walker, who brought in $6.2M

By Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:13 EDT, 13 July 2022 | Updated: 20:01 EDT, 13 July 2022

Intermittent fasting has been all the rage in recent years, but a new study suggests skipping breakfast could lead to long-term health issues. 

The global research found that those who ate breakfast later had a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Whereas the Spanish and French researchers noted that those who opted for breakfast before 8 am reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 59 percent. 

What’s more, eating a later dinner also appeared to increase the likelihood of the condition. 

The study appears to clash with recent research, which has pointed to intermittent fasting, one of its hallmarks being skipping breakfast, lowering the risk of several chronic health conditions, including diabetes. 

Intermittent fasting has also been linked to lower blood sugar, which helps burn fat and reduce disease risk. 

‘We know that meal timing plays a key role in regulating circadian rhythms and glucose and lipid control, but few studies have investigated the relationship between meal timing or fasting and type 2 diabetes,’ said Dr Anna Palomar-Cros, first author of the study. 

The research team evaluated more than 100,000 adults, 79 percent of whom were women.

It’s unclear if they had underlying risk factors for diabetes, such as age, weight, and other health conditions.  

Participants recorded online what they ate and drank over a 24-hour period across three non-consecutive days, as well as when they ate each meal. 

Researchers then averaged these for the first two years of follow-up and looked at participants’ health over an average of seven years. 

The researchers recorded nearly 1,000 new cases of type 2 diabetes during the study. They found that the risk was 59 percent higher in the group who regularly ate breakfast after 9 am compared to those who opted for an earlier mealtime.

‘Biologically, this makes sense, as skipping breakfast is known to affect glucose and lipid control, as well as insulin levels,’ Dr Palomar-Cros said. 

Eating dinner after 10 pm also carried a greater risk, and those who ate more frequently, on average five times a day, had lower disease incidence. 

This could suggest that popular intermittent fasting plans, which involve skipping entire meals, namely breakfast, could lead to adverse health outcomes. 

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or resists insulin, a hormone that regulars the amount of glucose, or sugar, in the blood. 

While type 1 diabetes is believed to be caused by an autoimmune reaction and develops early in life, type 2 diabetes develops over the course of several years from modifiable lifestyle factors, such as diet and weight. 

The research goes directly against other recent studies that have suggested intermittent fasting can lower the likelihood of developing diabetes. 

In a study published last year in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, for example, researchers studied 36 diabetic participants over the course of three months. They found that nearly 90 percent, including those taking insulin, were able to lower the amount of diabetes medication they took. 

Additionally, a 2017 study found that two weeks of intermittent fasting led to significant weight loss, as well as improved glucose levels. 

This new study was published last week in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Matrescence 

by Lucy Jones (Allen Lane £25, 320pp) 

Confinement

by Jessica Cox (History Press £25, 320pp) 

Queen Victoria was unequivocal about the ‘trial’ of pregnancy and childbirth.

In 1840, newly expecting her first child (little Victoria), she wrote to her grandmother: ‘It is spoiling my happiness . . . I cannot understand how one can wish for such a thing, especially at the beginning of a marriage.’ She went on to bear nine children, all of whom (unusually) survived.

In fact, Victoria was only able to ascend the throne because of the death from internal haemorrhaging of her cousin and heir presumptive, Princess Charlotte of Wales, after giving birth to a stillborn son.

As historian Jessica Cox points out, in her excellent, compassionate and shocking study of maternity in Victorian Britain: ‘Money could not purchase protection from infection, medical negligence or ignorance, or unforeseen complications.’

It was true then and (I know from my own distressing obstetric history), in spite of all improvements, it’s true now. The groans, screams and traumas of women in travail have helped make Call The Midwife one of the most popular dramas on television.

‘Confinement’ was the word once widely used for the period of childbirth and immediately afterwards. Cox (a specialist in the 19th century) writes: ‘It reflects, too, the wider social and cultural confines that were imposed on women: the expectations to which women were subject . . .; the restrictions placed on the pregnant, birthing and lactating body; and the lack of opportunities to discuss and understand the experiences of pregnancy and childbirth.’

It’s those very confines, expectation, and lack of opportunities in the 21st century which preoccupy the author of Matrescence — the word meaning ‘the process of becoming a mother’.

Lucy Jones is a stylish writer with a particular interest in science, ecology and culture. This deeply personal book on the life-changing experience of pregnancy and new motherhood is an original, occasionally exhilarating mix of creativity and cliché, of powerful sincerity and posturing self-indulgence, of real feeling and misplaced revolutionary fervour.

Both authors take their own fraught experiences of having babies (three each, which itself sparks interesting questions) as their starting point.

Each highly intelligent woman discovered for herself (with some surprise) what their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers knew before them: that combining the emotional and physical overturning of selfhood that usually accompanies new motherhood, with the ongoing desire/need to express that self in work, can plunge you into an emotionally ambivalent hell.

Cox admits: ‘Each time I returned to my work as a lecturer following maternity leave, I struggled with the sense that motherhood has simply drained away my capability to perform this role.’

Much more dramatically, Lucy Jones confesses her own shock-horror. ‘I thought early motherhood would be gentle, pacific, tranquil: bathed in a soft light. But actually it was hardcore, edgy, gnarly. It wasn’t pale pink: it was brown of sh*t and red of blood. And it was the most political experience of my life, rife with conflict, domination, drama, struggle and power.’ Phew.

Jones writes like a novelist, capturing wild swings of emotion, doubt, the adoration of a new baby, and (always) the tension between what she thinks is expected of her and the pressure of her own mixed-up feelings.

Inventively, she intersperses her chapters with exquisitely-written observations of natural phenomena, which serve to place the changes during ‘matrescence’ within a wider ecology, pointing to ‘the psychic and corporeal reality of our interdependence and interconnectedness with other species’.

Those who found new motherhood difficult may grimace in recognition at Jones’s vivid account of baby spiders which eat their own mothers.

Where Cox’s impeccably researched history of Victorian matrescence inevitably becomes a litany of woe — examining mortality, abortion, morality, standards of care, wet nurses etc — Jones’s personal story of modern motherhood is equally well-researched, drawing on biology, neuroscience, psychoanalysis and lashings of existential woe as well.

Her rabidly ‘political’ rage might come as a surprise to the millions of women who get pregnant, enjoy the experience, happily receive presents from friends and, instead of seeing matrescence as ‘a major, traumatic life crisis’, are totally thrilled to feel uniquely in love for the very first time.

Cox’s afterword jumps from Victorian Britain to the modern age, when ‘the experience of pregnancy and childbirth was transformed by developments in medical knowledge and technology’. She herself benefited from ‘shared parental leave, flexible working and subsidised childcare’ — yet still felt guilt and says, ‘we are not so far removed from the attitudes and practices of the 19th century as we might think or hope’.

The reader who has admired her calm, authoritative history, and winced compassionately at the suffering it describes, will surely raise an eyebrow at that.

For Jones, the twin wicked fairies looming ghoulishly over the cradle are ‘patriarchy and late-stage capitalism’ — blamed for conventional ideas about motherhood, the nuclear family, problems with breast-feeding, ‘a culture of increasing busyness . . . which corrodes social relations’, commercial baby products, and ‘care work and creativity’.

She says we need to see ‘the oppressive nature of the institution of motherhood for what it is’, but (here’s the good news) ‘creative motherhood can itself be a vehicle for social change, as well as a sphere of social transformation … there is power in parenting that teaches children to challenge the harms of the status quo’.

There’s much that’s sensible, even inspiring, in Matrescence, and just as much to drive you mad. We must all agree that there’s plenty of room (beyond finance) for vast improvement in our maternity services, but I’m not sure how ‘tearing down’ the system will provide it.

The best place to have a baby these days is Norway, a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. On the other hand, socialist Venezuela sees pregnant women leaving the country in their thousands in search of adequate maternal health care.

My problem with the fervent political rhetoric of Jones is that it reduces ‘matrescence’ to an angst-ridden stereotype which diminishes women’s individuality.

Since both she and Cox draw so heavily on personal experience, here’s just two glimpses of my own painful history: the stillbirth of my second son at term, after an appalling 16-hour labour, and the birth by Caesarean section of a daughter with lifelong congenital problems, accompanied by my own life-threatening septicaemia. Both with the best of care in London teaching hospitals.

In the 19th century, the phrase ‘an act of God’ might have been used to console my grieving husband. Today, that seems just about as useful as blaming ‘patriarchy and late-state capitalism’. Having a baby can bring joy and depression, sometimes simultaneously. Some women will proudly identify as ‘earth mothers’; for others, things will go badly wrong. One thing is for sure — motherhood usually means labour, from cradle to grave.

MARKET REPORT: Cheers! Investors raise a glass as pubs bounce back after HSBC says sector ‘looks well set to grow profits’

By John Abiona For The Daily Mail

Updated: 17:14 EDT, 31 May 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

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