The decision to have an abortion from both partners' perspectives: a dyadic analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Male partners are often involved in induced abortion although they have no legal rights. It is, however, unknown how women's thoughts and feelings regarding the decision for abortion are associated with the decisional experiences of the involved male partners and vice versa. METHODS: Flemish women and their involved male partners (IMP) filled out a questionnaire on abortion motives and feelings of decisiveness in the abortion centre waiting room (N = 106 couples). Actor Partner Interdependence Models investigated whether the decisiveness of one partner was associated with a subjective feeling of autonomy (high internal, low external abortion motivation) and decisiveness of the other partner, above and beyond the own feeling of autonomy and personal vulnerabilities for being uncertain. RESULTS: Partner congruence in motivation and decisiveness was substantial (r= 0.23 to 0.42), especially for cohabiting partners. The IMPs were less internally motivated for the abortion than the women but both partners reported more internal than external motives, and they both tended to feel certain. In contrast to the women, a higher subjective feeling of autonomy in the IMPs was not associated with feeling more certain. When accounting for partners' living situation, levels of uncertainty were not only associated with personal vulnerabilities for being uncertain, but were also related to the degree of uncertainty and subjective level of autonomy of the other partner. CONCLUSIONS: Partners' thoughts and feelings regarding the decision for abortion partially have an interpersonal basis and mostly run parallel despite an inherent gender difference in level and importance of decision autonomy.

Pre-abortion counselling from women's point of view.

OBJECTIVE: The value of mandatory pre-abortion counselling for women seeking abortions has been repeatedly questioned. The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives and feelings of almost 1000 women regarding pre-abortion counselling in Flanders. METHODS: Participating women (N = 971) - all requesting an abortion at one of the five Flemish abortion centres - were offered a questionnaire prior to the counselling session and immediately afterwards. Both questionnaires measured their emotional and cognitive state as well as aspects of the content and the perceived value of the counselling session. RESULTS: Prior to the counselling, women are hesitant regarding the value of the sessions, feel distressed, yet decisive about their abortion. After the counselling session, women assign an increased value to the counselling, are very satisfied, and experience less distress and greater decisiveness. During counselling the abortion procedure (89%), the use of contraceptives (83%) and the individual decision-making process (81%) are nearly always addressed. The sessions are tailored to each woman and to the needs they expressed with regard to the content of the counselling. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-abortion counselling in Flanders is standardised as well as personalised. The women in this study positively valued it.

Fusarium head blight and associated mycotoxin occurrence on winter wheat in Luxembourg in 2007/2008.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is among the major causes of reduced quality in winter wheat and its products. In addition, the causal fungi produce a variety of toxins. A relatively high FHB infection rate in winter wheat was observed in 2007 and 2008 in Luxembourg. A fusariotoxin survey was carried out in 17 different geographical locations. Three groups of Fusarium mycotoxins (trichothecenes A and B and zearalenone) were analysed by a multi-detection HPLC-MS/MS method. Fusarium strains were also investigated by morphological and molecular methods. In addition, questionnaires relating to cultural practices were sent to the farmers managing the 17 fields investigated. FHB prevalence ranged from 0.3 to 65.8% (mean: 8.5%) in 2007 and from 0 to 24.5% (mean: 8.3%) in 2008. Results of morphological and molecular identification showed that the most common species isolated from diseased wheat spikes was F. graminearum (33.1%), followed by F. avenaceum (20.3%) and F. poae (17.8%). The chemical analysis revealed that 75% of the investigated fields were contaminated by deoxynivalenol (DON, range 0-8111 microg/kg). The preceding crop was highly and significantly correlated to the number of grains infected and had a significant impact on disease prevalence (p = 0.025 and 0.017, respectively, Fisher's F-test). A trend was found for maize as the preceding crop (p = 0.084, Tukey's test) to predict the amount of DON in the fields. This is the first report on the occurrence of DON and ZON in naturally infected wheat grains sampled from Luxembourg.