AOGS EDITORS MESSAGE Strength of women REYNIR T ´ OMAS GEIRSSON & TORBJØRN MOE EGGEBØ DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01347.x As men spending a life-times work on looking after the health of women, we are so well aware of the tremendous strength that women have. Calling us men the “stronger” sex is wrong, – we just have a different kind of strength. To make it fully possible for women to share equally in the constant task of building a good society is a prime challenge in this 21 st century, not least in the many parts of the world where female emancipation is still far behind compared with the situation in western countries. Yet this is the key to a better and more just world and to tackling overpopulation, food and water shortages, even peace. The NFOG Congress in Bergen in June is drawing closer and should be a celebration of our achievements in this direction in the Nordic countries, as well as a show of strength of Nordic obstetrics and gynecology, – a time for flexing our scientific and professional muscles for the benefit of women, referring to the front cover this month. We start this issue with a commentary from the strong London, UK, group working in evidence-based medicine, writing on the need to ensure adequate vitamin D status in pregnancy. Vitamin D has been receiving increasing atten- tion in recent years as a major contributor to health, even through effects in pregnancy and with breastfeeding on later health. Sarah Finer and colleagues (pp. 159–163) go in a clear way through the main issues now in the limelight. Even at northerly altitudes changes in diet do necessitate that we as medical practitioners ensure an adequate supply of ingested vitamin D. Riika Korja and colleagues from Turku, Finland, present on pp. 164–173 a good review of the evidence surrounding preterm birth and bonding. This is an area where obstet- rics and neonatology interact and where support from the obstetric side is vital through adequate organization and a supportive attitude within both postnatal and neonatology wards. As so often one can be surprised at the limited prospec- tive evidence available where it would seem possible to gather this in a better way than in many other fields. In medicine we must not only be knowledgeable about our own sometimes narrow specialist field, but be reason- ably updated on major developments within the speciality as a whole, to be able to answer questions from our patients and others. This will give us credibility as specialists. Sentinel lymph nodes and the importance of getting at these for guid- ing treatment in gynecologic cancer management is reviewed by Noortje van Oostrum and colleagues from Antwerp and Ghent, Belgium (pp. 174–181). This is an approach which obstetricians/gynecologists need to know about, even if they are not themselves involved in such surgical procedures, since this has altered the way surgery is conducted in cervical, en- dometrial and vulvar cancer. Here it is well explained, with a view to state-of the-art and to where knowledge is still in- sufficient. Gynecologic oncologists have in many ways been exemplary in how they have organized large-scale random- ized studies and it is to be expected that in this field we will see solid evidence emerging to close the knowledge gaps. We have in the last few months had articles and discussion items on the fetal T-QRS ratio or ST-analysis on our pages in AOGS (1,2,3). Jeroen Becker and colleagues, from several centers in the Netherlands, have again investigated aspects of the method on pp. 189–197. The material is reasonably large, but retrospective. End-points such as suspected fetal distress and adverse neonatal outcome are moreover loose terms. While we frequently suspect fetal distress in clinical practice or admit babies to neonatal intensive care units, the severe instances resulting in death or serious disability are not common. Therefore the added value of a method like ST- analysis will easily appear as marginal and not easy to prove or disprove. Further prospective studies on the method are still needed to establish its value. A similar contentious issue is liberal induction policies at term. Rosalie Grivell and colleagues in Adelaide, Australia (pp. 198–203), using a large dataset, caution against too lib- eral policies. Epidemiological studies using registry data are immensely valuable, as we know from the Nordic birth reg- istries, but there are also drawbacks in such studies which often are only resolved prospectively. In the meantime it may be best to hold a moderate and open-minded attitude and let nature take its own course where possible, but keeping a low threshold for intervention when adverse signs are detected. Another Australian study this month, from Lindsey Watson and colleagues in Melbourne and neighboring Prahran C  2012 The Authors Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica C  2012 Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology 91 (2012) 157–158 157 A C TA Obstetricia et Gynecologica