Life in the baby boomer library world : a survival guide

According to Australian Job Search, just 14% of librarians are under the age of 35. As a Generation Y librarian, flexibility is a key factor to ensuring survival in the Baby Boomer library and overcoming employment, promotion and in particular stereotype barriers. This paper draws upon generational and library workforce research, coupled with industry experience to provide practical advice and strategies to break through both personal and professional barriers for the Generation Y librarian in the Baby Boomer library world. Industry understanding, drawn from personal experiences of working in public, education and special libraries, utilises my journey as a librarian since graduation in 2005 to discuss barriers faced and methods for breaking through. In my previous position as Teaching and Learning Librarian at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE from 35 library staff I was the sole member under 30. In addition I was the youngest member of the Library Management Team by 20 years, providing a perfect example of the Generation Y librarian within a Baby Boomer environment. This experience provides the platform for exploring strategies for understanding and overcoming ageist ideas, generational stereotypes, and employment barriers. Discussion regarding the need to develop sound industry knowledge for survival within the library world will also be raised.

'You can name her' : ritualised grieving by an Australian woman for her stillborn twin

The stillbirth of an Australian infant in the mid-20th Century was an event often left unacknowledged. Mothers of stillborn babies were often told to 'forget about it and have another baby.' Siblings of these babies were often not encouraged to discuss them, and were even left unaware of their birth and death. This paper explores this phenomenon in an Australian case study. When Nancy was born in 1937, her twin sister was stillborn. As was customary at that time, the deceased baby was buried unnamed in an unmarked plot without ceremony. Little was said of her thereafter. Seventy-three years later, Nancy finally undertook a number of activities with ritualised features that acknowledged, named, mourned and honoured her sister.

An intervention to discourage Australian mothers from unnecessarily exposing their babies to the sun for therapeutic reasons

Parents play a key role in children’s sun-protective behaviour, with good sun-protective habits established early tending to be sustained. We designed a maternity hospital-based educational intervention to reduce myths that could result in mothers intentionally sunning their babies. Interviews were conducted with two cross-sections of healthy post-partum inpatients in the maternity ward of a large regional public hospital. The first group (n¼106) was recruited before the commencement of educational in-services for maternity nursing staff; the second group (n¼203) was interviewed after the last staff in-service session. More pre-intervention than post-intervention women reported they would expose their baby to sunlight to: treat suspected jaundice (28.8% vs. 13.3%; p<0.001) or help their baby’s skin adapt to sunlight (10.5% vs. 2.5%; p¼0.003). Fewer post-intervention women indicated they would sun themselves to treat breastfeeding-associated sore/cracked nipples (7.6% vs. 2%; p¼0.026). This educational intervention should be used to educate parents, health professionals and students

Postpartum sleepiness and sleepy driving in Australian mothers

This paper reports on a prospective study investigating the prevalence of maternal postpartum fatigue and sleepiness and highlights the potential increased crash risk faced by mothers when driving in the postpartum period. Twenty-four mothers from across Australia completed a sleep and driving diary for seven consecutive days at three time points; when their baby was 6, 12 and 18 weeks old. The results showed that the mothers’ sleep varied within the sample, however on average sleep disruption and lack of sleep consolidation was experienced. A high proportion of the mothers reported fatigue and sleepiness impacting their functioning early in the postpartum period, with sleepiness being more enduring throughout the period. Of concern, a high proportion of driving journeys undertaken by the mothers were during high levels of sleepiness, particularly early in the postpartum period and during late night and early hours of the day. These findings have highlighted the need to educate mothers about the potential increased safety risk of driving during the postpartum period and identified key information that should be conveyed.

Feeding a baby (FAB) study. Reducing childhood obesity : influencing parental infant feeding practices

Background National and international rates of obesity are escalating, and programs to modify established eating habits are having limited success. Almost one in four 2-4 year old Australian children are overweight or obese. Interventions to prevent obesity in early childhood are on the rise. However, recruitment and retention issues and outcomes to date suggests a gap in meeting participant needs. Parents need both the knowledge and skills to establish behaviours that enable children to develop healthy food preferences and eating habits early. AIM To develop intervention recommendations to reduce childhood obesity by improving the infant feeding practices of parents, focusing on the transition from a milk diet to family foods.

Nine year changes in sitting time in young and mid-aged Australian women: Findings from the Australian longitudinal study for women's health

- Objective To examine changes in sitting time (ST) in women over nine years and to identify associations between life events and these changes. - Methods Young (born 1973–78, n = 5215) and mid-aged (born 1946–51, n = 6973) women reported life events and ST in four surveys of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health between 2000 and 2010. Associations between life events and changes in ST between surveys (decreasers ≥ 2 h/day less, increasers ≥ 2 h/day more) were estimated using generalized estimating equations. - Results Against a background of complex changes there was an overall decrease in ST in young women (median change − 0.48 h/day, interquartile range [IQR] = − 2.54, 1.50) and an increase in ST in mid-aged women (median change 0.43 h/day; IQR = − 1.29, 2.0) over nine years. In young women, returning to study and job loss were associated with increased ST, while having a baby, beginning work and decreased income were associated with decreased ST. In mid-aged women, changes at work were associated with increased ST, while retiring and decreased income were associated with decreased ST. - Conclusions ST changed over nine years in young and mid-aged Australian women. The life events they experienced, particularly events related to work and family, were associated with these changes.