Sometimes there’s good news. And this particular piece of good news proves that occasionally individuals can make a difference. Way back in March, angels & urchins blog learned that, due to cuts in Government spending, some of which affected the NHS, the Royal Brompton Children’s Cardiac Unit was slated to close. This was despite the fact that the unit had better results than other similar units elsewhere in the UK; it was felt that London also needed to ‘feel the pain’ of austerity Britain. We blogged about it here.

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Yesterday, Monday 7th November, a High Court review ruled that the initial consultation process was unlawful. This means that, while a final decision won’t be made until the Spring, signs are that the unit will stay open.

I’m not suggesting that the post kept the unit open. But it is cheering to see what massive public support can achieve. A petition exceeded 45,000 signatures, a Facebook campaign is still going strong, and fundraising events continue apace. The NHS is a bottomless pit in which all tax payers are constantly shovelling cash. But at least occasionally we can help sway decisions that are made on services that affect all of us.

Save the Children – please join this petition – no money required

I’ve just been over to Not a Nottinghill Mum, whose intense account of being treated for malaria while in Ghana makes you realise how lucky we are to have our NHS. It’s not always perfect; indeed, there’s been a lot of concern recently about the current and future shortage of midwives in the UK. It’s a valid worry; every parent blogger has a birth story, and not all of them are happy ones. Fortunately, the majority of times births in the UK happen without mishap to mother or child. It’s a very different story in much of the rest of the world.

Not a Notting Hill Mum is spreading the word about Save the Children’s No Child Born to Die campaign. According to the charity, half of the 8 million children who die each year are in Africa, yet Africa has only 3% of the world’s doctors, nurses and midwives. And children are dying from causes we know how to prevent or treat.

Save the Children is campaigning to increase the number of health workers in Third World countries, and so save children’s lives.

When world leaders meet at the UN in New York, this Tuesday, Save the Children will be asking them to commit to filling the massive shortfall in midwives, nurses and doctors in the poorest countries.

And they will be calling on David Cameron to play his full part in solving the health worker crisis which is costing millions of children’s lives.

We have 24 hours to publicise this – please click here to sign the petition, repost this article or just this Save the Children link…

http://bornto.savethechildren.org.uk/get-involved

Link to it on facebook or write your own blog or retweet and do leave your comments here.

Many bloggers are involved in this – please help spread the word

I’m a bit nervous about writing this post. And not just because I live in London and distant plumes of smoke in the sky are probably not caused by backyard barbecues. Until the riots started I’d been ignoring the news for a bit. We’d been away a week with no access to UK newspapers or English news, and returning back felt like a mental assault. Amy Winehouse checking out. Horrific atrocities in Syria. Millions threatened with starvation in Somalia and Kenya. The la-la-isn’t-life-peaceful holiday bubble popped, leaving a vague feeling of survivor guilt. So I withdrew from the fray, unconsciously thinking I’d take the world back on board little by little.

London is now a-burning, something even holiday mode me can’t ignore, so the news has been switched back on. In between the footage of running battles on our streets, I caught the tail end of a news item about a government initiative about the ideal ‘five-a-day’ for children. I’ve also caught some of it on Twitter and blog posts.

Are daily computer sessions one of 'five a day'?

Is there a formula for perfect parenting? Can you break down childhood into modules, ensure your child gets one of them on a daily basis, and 18 years later out pops a model citizen? As I said, I haven’t read the five-a-day plan so have no idea what the government is intending us to do. So I decided to guess what the five modules are. And I’m a bit stumped, because I can only think of four.

1. Food. Nutritious and varied food, three times a day, washed down with water and the odd glass of fruit juice. Nothing contentious there. I’m no expert, and reckon my children do pretty well, give or take the odd packet of Hula Hoops, Swizzels lolly and possibly too many fish fingers. But you don’t know unless you know. A mother at the nursery my sister’s daughter attended would regularly hand over two packets of crisps for her two-year-old’s lunch. ‘Two of her five a day!’ she’d say happily. As I said, you don’t know unless you know.
2. Exercise. Running around, jumping, and as much time outside as possible. Climbing stuff. Jumping around. Running. Mine certainly run rings around me, but is that going to be enough?
3. Mental stimulation. Kung Fu Dino Posse will probably get me all kinds of bad marks, but we have a bedtime book every day. This often ends in fisticuffs as the four-and six-year-olds don’t necessarily enjoy the three-year-old’s choice of In the Night Garden. Agga pang - I can sympathise. But perhaps there has to be 30 minutes of daily storytelling, plus a jigsaw, the occasional maths quiz and lots of Join the Dots. What Iggle Piggle got up to with Upsy Daisy may not tick enough boxes.
4. Sleep. And boy, wouldn’t all us parents like a little more of it? But I’m guessing the government will be laying down the law on the exact number of hours a child of every age needs for optimum brain rest. At the back of my mind I have a 12 hours a night figure for children aged eight or younger. Some of the time mine get this. That is when they’re not careering round the house after 7pm like turbo-charged piglets, or waking before 6am looking and acting annoyingly sleep sated.

But what the heck is number five? And how close have I got with 1, 2, 3 and 4? You can see why I’m nervous. Perhaps I’m a two packets of crisps for lunch mum after all.