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Motherhood in Western Europe

Insights from Western European Mothers

The changing face of motherhood — Western Europe

The accompanying reports combine a review of existing literature with an analysis of original quantitative data derived from a poll of 9,582 mothers from 12 countries in Western Europe, making it one of the largest studies of this kind ever conducted

Child Obesity and Health

An analysis of the latest available data from the Health Survey for England (HSE)

Child Obesity and Health — download the full report in pdf format

In this ‘National Childhood Obesity Week’, the SIRC report, Children, obesity and heath: Recent trends, holds up a true mirror, accurately reflecting the trend towards slimmer, healthier children. more

The Future of Freemasonry

An examination of the role of Freemasonry in the 21st century

Freemasonry

This report is, as far as we know, an account of the first ever study that has been commissioned by Freemasons from a non-Masonic body. None of the SIRC members involved in the project are Freemasons, a fact that evoked surprise and welcome in equal measure from the Lodge members we met. more

The Changing Face of Motherhood

Insights from three generations of mothers

Motherhood

The report seeks to answer some specific questions about the changing face of motherhood and determine the extent to which modern ‘solutions’ to motherhood are more or less beneficial than the solutions of the past. more

Shining examples

In contrast to the current Warning Season epidemic of unfounded health scares and alarmist or preachy 'education' campaigns, two initiatives stand out as useful and sensible.

First is the Department of Health's advertising campaign to persuade people to take their minor coughs and colds to the chemist, rather than to already overworked GPs and A&E departments.

Second is the Brooke Advisory Centre's provision of free emergency contraception to teenagers – a pragmatic response to the inevitable unprotected sexual encounters which will occur during the extended Christmas and Millennium celebrations.

These are realistic damage-limitation exercises which represent rational, practical anticipation of genuine problems. A glance at SIRC's Media Watch 'panics and scares' column, however, suggests that GPs and hospitals will not have much time to be grateful for these isolated outbreaks of sanity, as they will be busy dealing not only with real illness and disease but with the victims of irresponsible scaremongering.