PARENTS can now lodge claims for government paid parental leave, but won't be eligible for payments unless their child is born after January 1.

Families Minister Jenny Macklin said parents will be able to lodge their claims to receive the benefit up to three months before their baby's due date, meaning applications open today.

The scheme will provide eligible parents of babies born or adopted from January 1, 2011 with 18 weeks of leave paid at the minimum wage, which is currently $570 a week before tax.

Ms Macklin, who today attended the Baby and Toddler Show in Sydney, said working parents without access to employer-funded programs would benefit the most from the government's scheme.

“We expect those mums and dads to be the big beneficiary of this first national parental leave scheme,” she said.

“If you have paid parental leave from your employer you'll be able to add that to the government's scheme.”

Parents will be able to lodge their claims for paid parental leave online and can pick up application forms from Medicare or Centrelink.

Ms Macklin said the opening of applications would “make it that little bit easier for parents so they can get the paperwork done in advance of their baby coming”.

“This is really aimed at supporting those parents who currently don't have access to employer-funded paid parental leave - so casuals, part-timers, the self-employed, contractors,” she said.

Ms Macklin said that the principal carer would be eligible for the scheme if they had been working “for around a day a week for 10 months of the 13 months before your baby comes along”.

The Greens are continuing to push to provide parents an extra two months' paid leave from work and want the government to up its scheme from 18 to 26 weeks at the minimum wage.

The opposition's scheme to provide 26 weeks of leave paid at the mothers' salary for those earning less than $150,000 a year remains unchanged since the election.

Source:   The Australian - October 01, 2010

05:30 AEST Fri Nov 13 2009

Source: Nine MSN - http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/970582/breastfeeding-strategy-urges-mums-to-ditch-the-bottle 

Source: The Daily Telegraph

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,24921405-5007185,00.html

By Lisa Davies The Daily Telegraph January 17, 2009 12:00am

IT is the question every couple going through IVF wants to know, and now doctors can give provide the answer following the world's longest study.

What is the chance of having a baby?

For women undergoing IVF aged up to 35, chances of success are between 65 and 86 per cent.
But Australian fertility experts believe the success rate could be as high as 95 per cent due to the past decade's technological advances.

More than 6000 American women undergoing IVF were followed by researchers between 2000 and 2005.

The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, will help doctors worldwide give more accurate advice to couples.

It found women aged over 40 have between a 23 and 42 per cent chance of a successful birth.

Up until now, doctors have only been able to estimate pregnancies per IVF cycle, not the patient's chance of having a baby.

Associate Professor Peter Illingworth said patients could now be better informed.

"The results are very, very encouraging for young women,'' he said.

"What it shows is the vast majority of women who go on with IVF (up to six cycles) will end up having a baby.''

Infertility affects about 6 million people in Australia, similar to overseas rates.

Sydney IVF has already begun to track the success of its couples and has produced results supporting the new research.

Medical director Mark Bowman said Australia led the way in the field of fertility treatment.

"It is the No.1 question people ask,'' Dr Bowman said. ``What the data also shows is if you are the type of person IVF can help, then you are most likely to have a baby very quickly and you won't have to keep going on with treatment.''

When Eva Barbaro, of Ryde, began fertility treatment two years ago, doctors were unable to give her a strong indication of her chances of conceiving.

Then aged, 29, Mrs Barbaro suffered from polycystic ovaries and underwent intrauterine insemination, where a concentrated preparation of her partner's sperm was placed into the womb at the time of ovulation. She fell pregnant straight away.

Now expecting her second child, Mrs Barbaro used IVF and again fell pregnant with the first attempt.

Now 25 weeks pregnant and nursing her one-year-old daughter, Monique, Mrs Barbaro counts herself lucky.

Source: Science Daily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090114092844.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2009) - Adelaide researchers have made a world breakthrough in treating premature babies at risk of developmental disorders.

A six-year study led by Dr Maria Makrides from the Women's & Children's Health Research Institute and Professor Bob Gibson from the University of Adelaide has demonstrated that high doses of fatty acids administered to pre-term infants via their mother's breast milk or infant formula can help their mental development.

Researchers found that a major lipid in the brain - the omega-3 fatty acid known as Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) - is not developed sufficiently in babies born before 33 weeks' gestation, leading to possible impaired mental development.

To counter this, increased doses of DHA (1000mg per day) were administered to lactating mothers with pre-term infants, in the form of tuna oil capsules. If required, infants were given supplementary formula with matching DHA levels.

Of 657 premature babies tested in a trial involving five Australian hospitals, about 50% fewer infants on high-DHA diets had significantly delayed mental development compared with low DHA diets.

Premature girls in particular who were exposed to DHA-rich diets showed much better mental development than girls fed the low DHA diet.

Professor Gibson said his team was at a loss to explain why premature male babies - who are more susceptible to cognitive problems - did not respond to the same extent, with no obvious differences in mental development between the control group and those administered high doses of DHA.

"Boys may have a faster metabolic rate than girls and need higher doses of DHA to make a difference," he said. "We need to do a lot more work in this area to find out why."

Infants weighing less than 1250gm (about a third of a full-term baby's weight) who were fed a high-DHA diet also scored better on the mental development scale, with a 40% reduction in the incidence of mild mental delay.

The project was primarily funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, with the University of Adelaide and Women's and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) now in the process of formalising a joint venture agreement in the area of food, nutrition and health.

The findings were published January 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).