Changing times and continuing issues

This edition of the journal marks a change of editors. Over a five year period and more Olga van den Akker has seen the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology develop, using her energy and enthusiasm to consolidate its position as a valued publication in which to present new findings. Her place has been taken by Colin Martin and we will jointly work to take the journal forward. The selection of papers in the current edition of the journal is both diverse and challenging, a pleasing reflection of the unique area of academic and clinical endeavour we call reproductive psychology. Karen Goodall and colleagues’ paper on mother’s perceptions of the influence of health care professionals on their choice of second child delivery mode following a previous Caesarean section is timely and topical given the increasing rates of Caesarean section in the UK. Their paper illuminates the salient issues of abdication of control over the mode of second delivery when faced with a perceived lack of knowledge to make their own choice over delivery mode. Changing Childbirth (DH, 1993), which was published more than fifteen years ago and The National Service Framework for children, Young People and Maternity Services ( DH, 2004) and Maternity Matters (DH, 2007) published more recently, all emphasise the need for more flexible and individualised woman-centred care. This paper raises important concerns about women’s perceived self-efficacy and the role of health professionals in relation to their birth choices. Surgical procedures to reduce the size of the labia minora are becoming increasingly popular, though the psychological dimension to this concerning development, in what may be generally perceived as cosmetic surgery, remains poorly understood. Good psychology in this area requires the use of reliable measures with good face validity and Ros Bramwell and Claire Morland’s paper seeks to address this fundamental issue with the report of the development of a genital appearance satisfaction scale. Importantly, self-esteem was found to be a significant predictor of genital satisfaction and raises fundamental concerns as to how a surgical procedure may appropriately address an issue intrinsically related to this important psychological domain. The evergreen Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) continues to be a screening tool of choice for the detection of possible cases of postnatal depression. Consistent with the utility of this short self-report measure, translation and validation of the instrument into languages other than English continue to contribute to the evidence base regarding the psychometric properties of this scale. Leonardou and colleagues report the validation of the EPDS in a sample of Greek mothers. Validation and translation of instruments such as the EPDS are extremely useful in highlighting the fact that subtle, but possibly clinically relevant nuances exist in the way different populations respond to these questionnaire measures. This interesting paper reveals just that, good validity of the tool but also subtle differences Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 1, February 2009, 1–3