Cause

Female scabies mites burrow under the surface layer of the skin, forming small tunnels in which they lay their eggs. The mites can only live for 2-3 days outside the human body, so infection is usually through direct skin contact. Scabies is not a result of poor hygiene. It often occurs in outbreaks in kindergartens or schools.

It may take up to a month after infection for the rash to appear, as it takes this long for the eggs to mature. Typically red lumps and threadlike ‘tracks’ appear on the skin, especially between fingers and toes, on the insides of wrists, on the backs of elbows, in the armpits, the groin region, and on the buttocks. The itch is intense, and is worse at night or after a hot bath or shower. Scratching can often lead to secondary infection.

Investigation

These are usually unnecessary, but skin scrapings may be done to confirm the diagnosis.

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Most women choose to wear a supportive maternity bra while breastfeeding. Make sure that you choose one that fits well, with wide adjustable straps and convenient front openings.

You do not need to use special creams while breastfeeding. If you express a little breastmilk at the end of each feed and rub it into your nipples, it will help prevent soreness and cracking, because it is rich in fat. Alternatively, rubbing a little wheat-germ oil onto your nipples after each feed can be quite soothing. If your nipples become cracked, speak to your doctor or maternal and child health nurse who will recommend a medicated cream for you to use.

Clothing

Choose clothing which is comfortable for you; loose fitting clothes are often best. To save yourself time and trouble, choose garments which you can undo quickly in front, and which are easily washable. Don’t throw out your maternity clothes — it often takes several months to return to the same weight you were before pregnancy.

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Place all of the pillows you bought for your private place into two wedge-like piles about one body length from each other. When the pillows are all arranged, each of you sit with your back to one of the two wedges, face to face, nude. Test them for comfort and support. The wife’s wedge can be a little lower and she can be a little more on her back than the husband as they face each other in this seated position. Both of your genitals should now be next to each other, the legs of one partner comfortably over the legs of the other.

In this position, the wife can reach forward or the husband can reach down and move the penis into contact with the vaginal area. Erect or not, the man can now contact the F area or the R area with the Ñ area and use his finger in the G area if his wife desires. Face to face, partners can now communicate with each other, insert the penis if desired, or continue to contact the F and Ñ areas, the two most sensitive genital areas. Each partner can caress the other. Adjust the posture so there is no stretching or muscle tension involved. Look in each other’s eyes, talk together, rest, move closer and embrace, move back and feel. Use artificial lubrication if desired. Use lotion and caress the legs of your partner now at your sides. You are sitting face to face, legs spread, comfortably resting against your own pillows.

Look at each other completely. Think about each other, about the tests you have taken to this point, about your feelings for one another. Feel the physical and emotional sensations of intimacy. Feel the contact of the two most sensitive physical areas of the body without the pressure or tension of thrusting or working for orgasm. Talk, share, and feel for as long as you choose.

Sitting face to face, embracing at will, with genitals positioned next to one another, learn and experience the fourth perspective of human sexuality. This is the perspective of pressure-free sex, intense physical intimacy without imposed expectations of erection, lubrication, or orgasm. It is a perspective of freedom to feel one another, merge with one another without the “foreplay, do it, and stop” sequence. And most important, it is a perspective of love, a love of commitment and a marital sex of male and female equality in the opportunity for personal fulfillment.

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WIFE

An important part of learning about the sexual problems brought to my clinic was to have the couples describe their typical premarital sexual pattern. It became clear that the large majority of their problems originated during the bonding phase of their relationship.

Typically, the sexual interaction was male-instigated and female-dictated. Men sought out the sexual encounter, and women determined when and if sex took place. This pattern seemed to be a type of obligatory date dance that was not reflective of individual preferences. There was little verbal communication during the sex of courtship, and the women reported rare or inconsistent orgasmic experience. The men reported problems with ejaculatory control and sometimes erective problems due to drinking or feelings of pressure to perform. Sex during courtship was intense and exciting, but characterized by the same type of sexual problems reported in marriage.

I did not find that men or women selected future marital partners on the basis of sexual prowess. In fact, both men and women reported that sex with someone they did not marry was better than with the person they finally chose. It seems that people marry for a system, not just a person, that they are actually marrying not only a person but accepting how they themselves are with that particular person. Good sex is never enough.

Couples fell into bad habits, rushing sex, using it for negotiation, feeling guilty, trying to sneak to have sex at all, and sometimes cheating on a partner for sex while staying with the courting partner for a relationship. Since all of this was in the past, it is impossible to verify, but two patterns emerged in the interviews.

Men tended to remember focusing on performance, on giving their partners orgasm, or “their best time ever.” All the same, however, the men reported feeling somehow incomplete, wanting more. “I did it an awful lot, and sometimes pretty awful. I could do it with three different women at three different times in the same evening. It just lost something. Finally I just felt that it was becoming like a good-night kiss, only this was good-night intercourse.” This report by one of the husbands was typical and was a forewarning of the “doing to or for” instead of “with” orientation that can take place in marriage. Remember, “to” and “for” are not systems words. “With” is the key word in a lasting super sex system.

Women reported a tendency to “negotiate” sex in courtship. They felt they somehow were in charge of sex, allowing it to take place in exchange for evidence of true feelings of caring or commitment. “It’s not that I didn’t love sex. I really think I wanted to have it more than most of the men I went out with. They seemed to do it out of a sense of duty, expectation, sort of the automatic next step or last step to a date. I just got so used to worrying about ‘after’ that I lost sight of the ‘now.’ ” So reported one wife as she looked back on her courtship.

“It just seemed that things changed after we had sex,” this woman continued. “Most of the men would act different, like they sort of owed me something and that frightened them. I always thought that sex in marriage would be so much more free, without the game-playing. It didn’t work out that way. You still get a lot of help getting your clothes off, but not so much getting them back on again.”

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Some regard it as a pleasure, others a chore, and a few, perhaps many, do it badly.

We need it as much as we need food and drink, yet sleep is something we know little about.

When we drop off to sleep we go through four stages of gradually deepening sleep, when all the body processes slow down.

In the fourth stage the blood pressure is lowered, the breathing slow and regular, and it is difficult to rouse a person.

Then after 60 or 70 minutes of this pattern, we suddenly change and enter what is known as REM, or rapid eye movement sleep.

This is the time of dreaming.

After about 20 minutes we slip back into the non-REM cycle, gradually going down through the four stages.

REM appears to be necessary for normal physical and psychological function.

Those who are deprived of REM sleep do suffer some physical irritability and fatigue with poor work performance and a variety of psychological upsets.

How much sleep do we need? That varies.

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Crash diets are of little use. Many people do lose weight at the start, but within weeks or months are right back where they started.

A good reducing diet should contain around 3200 kJ to 5000 kJ a day. The diet should be balanced and have an adequate intake of vitamins and the essential food factors. It should be low in carbohydrate, high in bulk and moderate in fat and protein.

Carbohydrate is easily digested, rapidly absorbed and rapidly cleared from the blood into the tissues. You may feel full immediately after a meal of carbohydrate, but will feel hungry again soon after.

Carbohydrate is easily converted to fat in the body. Fat on the other hand, while it is high in kilojoules, is more slowly absorbed and cleared from the blood. It is therefore more satisfying than carbohydrate and you may not feel hungry for hours after a high fat meal. Protein is difficult for the body to convert to fat and burns up energy in doing so.

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Triple antigen vaccine immunises against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough or pertussis. It is now recommended that the first injection be given at two months of age, which is earlier than before. This is to provide some protection during the early months of life when mortality from whooping cough is highest.

Because of the risk of adverse reactions to the pertussis or whooping cough vaccine, which become more likely with increasing age of the child, this part of the triple vaccine is not given after the age of 18 months.

From this age on, complications from whooping cough are not life-threatening as they are in the young infant.

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The main advantage of endoscopic methods is that they are safe. They may be uncomfortable but they do not involve radiation, surgery or (usually) general anaesthetics. The main disadvantage is that they require sophisticated, expensive equipment and experienced people to operate them. This means that they are not always available. Like all methods they are also not foolproof— abnormalities may be missed, even by experienced operators. Endoscopic methods are not available for every part of the body. One way and another, it is often necessary to use other methods instead of, or as well as, endoscopy.

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