In some areas just one in five of children there with a fractured limb were given medical aid within one hour.

One baby with a snapped thigh was left for THREE HOURS without help. The child was screaming in agony and its parents had to beg staff to provide pain relief. The startling picture emerged from the first survey of England’s A&E units by watchdog the Healthcare Commission. It discovered that the quality of emergency care varies greatly throughout England.

The report does not name and shame individual A&E units but groups them together under their local Primary Care Trust. Visits to A&E and urgent care clinics soared from an annual rate of 16.5million in 2003 to 2004, to 19.1million in 2007 to 2008. The rise has been partly blamed on poor out-of-hours services provided by GP surgeries. The report also raised fears over how quickly patients taken to A&E by ambulance start receiving care.

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FOUR children were removed from their grandparents' care and put into separate foster homes, allegedly because the grandmother smacked one of them on the bottom after the child tried to climb into a drain.

The children had lived on and off with their grandparents for six years while their mother battled drug addiction. The children were removed in December by the NSW Department of Community Services and have been living in foster homes, separated from each other.

Details of the case are included in a submission to the Wood inquiry into child welfare, kept secret by inquiry staff but obtained by The Australian. The inquiry is investigating the system of child welfare in NSW, but intends to keep secret 90per cent of the submissions it receives.

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This misconception fails to acknowledge that for many working women, trying to juggle unpaid work in the household, paid work, as well as parenthood, has created an inevitable "time squeeze" or "care crunch".

Combining paid employment with the demands of providing care to others is a growing workplace concern.

 The number of women entering the labour force has increased. There has also been an increase in the number of people in need of care: young children needing early childhood care, the elderly and infirm, and -- as a result of HIV/Aids -- those orphaned or ill. The state, with employers, has been slow to respond to the needs of employees as caregivers.

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When a brother and sister earn their pocket money each week, they put some of it towards their family’s sponsored child.But Orin and Zanthe Harper do it happily because they know they are helping someone less fortunate. 

By participating in a new World Vision child sponsorship initiative it has helped them to be understanding towards others and appreciative of the things they have.World Vision has launched the Worldbuddies programme that encourages children to get to know their family’s sponsored child through ongoing letters and activities.

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Here are 10 tips to consider whether you have a cat and are expecting a new baby, or have kids and are thinking of adopting a new cat:

1. Be choosy. A sociable, confident, sturdy cat (or kitten over four months old) is a good choice for families. It's best to steer clear of cats that are fearful, aggressive or overly sensitive to noise (i.e. they'll need to survive the cacophony of play dates with multiple kids).

If possible, adopt from an agency that does temperament testing (read about the ASPCA's new "Feline-ality" program) and has knowledgeable, trained staff to help you. Kittens, in addition to being difficult to read in terms of personality and temperament, also require more supervision and training than most parents have time for when they're juggling the needs of a newborn babe. If your heart is set on a kitten, it's best to wait until your kids are a bit older.

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The former owner of a nursery in Gloucester where a toddler died faces an unlimited fine after she admitted breaching health and safety laws. Sixteen-month-old Molly Cunliffe strangled herself on a drawstring clothes bag attached to her cot at Tiddlywinks nursery in October 2005.

Rosemary Meadows, 45, from Oldbury Orchard, Churchdown, owned the Worcester Street nursery at the time. The case has now been transferred to crown court by Gloucester magistrates. Prosecutor Bernard Thorogood advised magistrates that a case of such gravity would be better dealt with by a crown court judge.

Unlawful killing -The maximum financial penalty at their disposal is £20,000, whereas a judge has the power to make an unlimited order. Meadows entered a guilty plea to one count of breaching health and safety regulations. The charge claimed she failed to ensure "that babies and toddlers were not exposed to risks to their health and safety by failing to ensure that no cord or loop was allowed in proximity of babies and toddlers".

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Early this year, the Supreme Court ruled that a married Hindu woman cannot adopt a child even with the consent of her husband. The ruling did not present any surprises as that is what the Hindu Adoption Maintenance Act (HAMA) 1956, says. But child adoption specialists felt that perhaps the apex court could have used this case to call upon the government to amend the antiquated law.

“Even though the ruling was in accordance with the law, the court could have observed that HAMA was an obsolete law that was simply not gender just. Even today, the husband has to file the request for adoption. The wife virtually has no say in the matter,” says Bharti Das Gupta, chief advisor, Catalyst for Social Action, an NGO that deals with adoption issues. Given that the law allows a single or divorced woman to adopt a child, it is absurd that a married woman is denied that privilege unless the husband petitions for the adoption, say experts.

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 The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed men living with children overwhelmingly perform the traditional role of breadwinner, spending an average of eight hours each week of "quality time" with their kids in 2006.

According to the figures, some 4.6 million men aged 18 and above reported having one or more children.Of the 1.72 million fathers living with children aged 15 and under, 92 percent were employed, with 29 percent of those working 50 hours or more each week.

According to the figures, Australia is home to more than 4.5 million fathers.ABS spokeswoman Heather Crawford said more men were becoming stepfathers and many don't live with their kids at all, debunking the image of the typical Australian father having two kids with one life partner.

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The results of the study, to be published today in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggest that vaginal delivery (VD) mothers are more sensitive to own baby-cry in the regions of the brain that are believed to regulate emotions, motivation and habitual behaviours.

CSD is a surgical procedure, in which delivery occurs via incisions in the abdominal and uterine wall. It is considered necessary under some conditions to protect the health or survival of infant or mother, but it is controversially linked with postpartum depression. In the US the occurrence of CSD has increased steeply from 4.5% of all deliveries in 1965 to a recent high in 2006 of 29.1%.

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This isn't your average day care. There will be babies and toddlers, but you won't find a crib, jar of baby food or sippy cup in the place. The absence of these common items is rooted in the Early Childhood Enrichment Center's Montessori philosophy, which strives to teach children independence and mastery over their environment.

For that reason, babies sleep on mats on the floor rather than in the confines of a crib. Children drink from glasses rather than spill-proof cups as one of the many ways that their motor skills are challenged. "If they don't make a mistake, they don't learn," said Diane Zimmerer, the center's director.

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