The trend of choosing natural birth at home without proper supervision is gaining more attention and popularity in Malaysia. This is partly due to wrong beliefs of modern medical care. It prompts the need to explore further into other myths and wrong beliefs present in communities around the world surrounding pregnancy and childbirth that may lead to harmful consequences. A total of 25 literatures were selected and reviewed. The most reported wrong belief is the eating behaviour such as avoiding certain nutritious fruits besides eating saffron to produce fairer skinned babies which in fact contains high doses of saffron that may lead to miscarriage. The most worrying myth however, is that unregulated birth attendants such as doulas have the necessary knowledge and skills to manage complications in labour which may well end up in perinatal or even maternal death. Other myths suggested that modern medical care such as vaginal examinations and baby's heart monitoring in labour as unnecessary. A well-enforced health education programme by well-trained healthcare personnel besides sufficient number of antenatal care visits are needed to overcome these myths, wrong beliefs and practices. In conclusion, potential harmful beliefs and practices in pregnancy and childbirth are still abound in today's communities, not just in least developed and developing countries but also in developed countries. Women and children are two very vulnerable groups, therefore debunking myths and eliminating harmful practices should be one of a healthcare provider priority especially those in the primary care settings as they are the closest to the community.
Rice plant population density is a key indicator in determining the crop setting and fertilizer application rate. It is therefore essential that the population density is monitored to ensure that a correct crop management decision is taken. The conventional method of determining plant population is by manually counting the total number of rice plant tillers in a 25 cm x 25 cm square frame. Sampling is done by randomly choosing several different locations within a plot to perform tiller counting. This sampling method is time consuming, labour intensive and costly. An alternative fast estimating method was developed to overcome this issue. The method relies on measuring the outer circumference
or ambit of the contained rice plants in a 25 cm x 25 cm square frame to determine the number of tillers within that square frame. Data samples of rice variety MR219 were collected from rice plots in the Muda granary area, Sungai Limau Dalam, Kedah. The data were taken at 50 days and 70 days after seeding (DAS). A total of 100 data samples were collected for each sampling day. A good correlation was obtained for the variety of 50 DAS and 70 DAS. The model was then verified by taking 100 samples with the latching strap for 50 DAS and 70 DAS. As a result, this technique can be used as a fast, economical and practical alternative to manual tiller counting. The technique can potentially be used in the development of an electronic sensing system to estimate paddy plant population density.