Sir: As a mother of three months' standing, perhaps I may be permitted to share my insights into the turf war between midwives and obstetricians.

`Harmless' bug kills mother, twins

Sir: The comments of Louise Silverton, representing the Royal College of Midwives (letter, 14 May), qualifying those of Ishbel Kargar (11 May), are welcome.

Patricia Craig is disappointed by a melancholy chronicle of migrant life in the Smoke: The Water Star by Philip Casey Picador, pounds 14.99, 434pp

Checks on locums

Sir: Annabel Ferriman's article "The pregnant pause" (9 March) provides a balanced view of antenatal screening tests. It does, however, highlight an important contradictory aspect of such testing.

Health Check

MIDWIVES yesterday delivered a petition of 90,000 signatures to 10 Downing Street and warned of a major crisis in the profession unless the Government takes swift action.

NEW MOTHERS throughout the country are being routinely discharged hours after giving birth, and their requests for pain-killing drugs during labour are being denied, the Royal College of Midwives said yesterday.

PREGNANT WOMEN should be allowed to choose to have their babies by Caesarean section if they wish to avoid the problems associated with a normal labour, an article in the British Medical Journal says today.

Postnatal depression is a woman's problem, isn't it? Wrong. It also hits new fathers. By Heather Welford

MANDY ALLWOOD, the woman who attempted to have eight babies at the same time but who lost them all, is pregnant again and may be carrying twins.

Crees v Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Ltd; Greaves v Kwik Save Stores Ltd; Court of Appeal (Lord Woolf, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Aldous and Lord Justice Mummery) 27 February 1998

A spate of recent tribunals suggests that maternity leave, far from being a right that can be taken for granted, is riddled with loopholes that allow employers to avoid re-employing new mothers. Kathy Marks reports,