EMGO+ Midwifery researchers respond in BMJ to a paper in that journal questionning the Dutch maternity care system

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Dr. Ank de Jonge from the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research and colleagues wrote a rapid response in the British Medical Journal to the paper by Evers et al. in the BMJ on perinatal mortality and morbidity in the Utrecht region. Evers et al.’s study is the first study in the Netherlands ever to show a higher mortality rate among births that started in primary care compared with secondary care. Ank de Jonge et al., argue that given the limitations of the study, the conclusion that labour starting in primary care carries a higher risk of delivery related perinatal death compared to labour starting in secondary care is premature from a scientific point of view.

A writing workshop to report the first results of the ENERGY project.

From 3 to 5 November, representatives of the EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth (ENERGY) project meet in Amsterdam for a ‘writing workshop’. A group of researchers from Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands meet in a meeting room in the Amsterdam Library to write the first scientific papers to report the first results of the ENERGY project. Two review papers, secondary analyses papers based on earlier studies, but also the first papers based on the ENERGY cross sectional study in 7 countries across Europe are prepared and pursued. The ENERGY cross sectional data set has become ready for analyses just a few days ago. The first analyses indicate that overweight prevalence among schoolchildren differs considerably between countries, with exceptionally high prevalence rates in Greece, and much lower rates in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. Also very large differences in behaviors that may contribute to risk for overweight and obesity, such as intakes of sugared drinks, breakfast habits, active commuting to school, are observed.