The results of medical negligence – or clinical negligence as it is sometimes referred to as – can be devastating both or the patient directly affected by it, but also for their families. Illness or disease itself is hard enough to cope with without the additional emotional strain and possible physical impact caused by failures in diagnosis or treatment. Medical negligence refers to any part of the care or treatment of a patient, from the initial diagnosis stage to the actual treatment and then the after care, where medical staff fails to meet the required standards of service. Should this apply to your case you are entitled to seek and explanation at least, and possibly even financial compensation.

Once you are confident that you have a legitimate claim for negligence and have decided to proceed with the claim, you will need to look into obtaining legal representation to help you with your compensation case. Ideally, you should look to secure a lawyer specialising in this area of the law, as there are a number of these available and many of them take cases on a no-win no-fee basis. It is important that you have proper legal representation, because claims for medical negligence are resisted very strongly by the medical profession.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is “development of any degree of glucose intolerance, which is recognized for the first time during pregnancy”. Most of the women who develop gestational diabetes revert to normal after delivery. The risk of developing diabetes is high among women who develop gestational diabetes, even if they revert to normal after delivery. 30-60% of women, who develop gestational diabetes, may develop diabetes in later life.

Hirsutism is male pattern of hair growth (like growing of beard, mustache, hairs in chest, back, thighs etc.) in females, which is generally due to androgen excess. When androgen excess is very high it can cause additional signs and symptoms (other than hirsutism) like deepening of voice like males, increased muscle mass, enlargement of clitoris, atrophy of breasts and increase in libido; this condition is called virilization.Virilization generally suggests there is an underlying cause which may be potentially serious like tumor of adrenal glands or ovaries. The tumors may be benign or malignant (cancerous).

The first week of August i.e. 1-7 August every year is celebrated by World Health Organization and UNICEF as “World Breast Feeding Week”. The same is followed in most of the member countries (more than 120 countries) of WHO in the world. World Breast Feeding Week is celebrated to popularize and encourage breastfeeding and improve health conditions of the babies across the globe, especially in developing countries where malnutrition is a common problem due to poverty and lack of health awareness.

“Exclusive breast feeding” can be defined as “feeding infant with breast milk only (even water is not given) from birth to up to 6-8 months of life”. Only medication, vaccination, vitamins and mineral supplementation can be given if required. Other nonhuman milk like cow’s milk or buffalo’s milk is also not given. Breast milk can provide adequate energy, nutrients and water that are required by a baby for first 6-8 months of life. The water requirement of infant is also met from breast milk.

What is “sleep hygiene”?

Sleep hygiene can be defined as “control of all the environmental and behavioral factors that precedes sleep and help in sleeping well if maintained well”. Sleep hygiene is non pharmacological measures which are tried by most doctors before prescribing medication for sleep (commonly known as “sleeping pills”) or it may also be advised along with medication, to have better effect.