OBJECTIVE To study the implications of policy changes on the demand for antenatal care (ANC), HIV testing and hospital delivery among pregnant women in rural Malawi. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of monthly reports. SETTING Malamulo SDA hospital in Thyolo district, Makwasa, Malawi. METHODS Three hospital-based registers were analysed from 2005 to 2007. These were general ANC, delivery and...

Four years ago Congress made the first appropriation for "medical, nursing, and hospital maternity and infant care for wives and infants of enlisted men in the armed forces of the United States of the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh grades." The following month, April 1943, plans for the operation of the Emergency Maternity and Infant Care (EMIC) program were approved by the Children's Bureau ...

BACKGROUND Canada's diverse society and its statutory commitment to multiculturalism means that a synthesis of knowledge related to the healthcare experiences of immigrants is essential to realise the health potential for future Canadians. Although concerns about the maternity experiences of immigrants in Canada are relatively new, recent national guidelines explicitly call for the tailoring of...

Telling a pregnant woman and her family about a fetal demise is one of the greatest challenges for maternity care clinicians. In this essay, the author reflects on such an encounter in her work as a community health center clinician, maternity care teacher, and mother herself.

Nepal experienced a steep decline in maternal mortality between 1996 and 2006, which had again dropped by 2010. The aim of this study was to investigate any trends in factors that may be responsible for this decline. The study was based on a secondary data analysis of maternity care services and socio-demographic variables extracted from the Nepal Demographic Health Surveys (1996, 2001, 2006 an...

INTRODUCTION This research takes up the standpoint of nurses who provide maternity care to women and families in six different communities of one geographically isolated area of British Columbia, Canada. This first report (phase one of the study) focuses on describing the complexities of rural nursing work and identifies some possibilities for change that would better support nurses in their wo...

OBJECTIVE To review trials of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving communication between health professionals and women in maternity care. SEARCH STRATEGY The electronic databases Medline, PsycLit, The Cochrane Library, BIDS Science and Social Science Indexes, Cinahl and Embase were searched. Final searches were carried out in April 2000. INCLUSION CRITERIA Controlled trial...

BACKGROUND A personal health record (PHR) is an online application through which individuals can access, manage, and share their health information in a private, secure, and confidential environment. Personal health records empower patients, facilitate collaboration among healthcare professionals, and improve health outcomes. Given these anticipated positive effects, we want to implement a PHR,...

BACKGROUND Out-of-hospital maternity care in Norway is randomly organised and not properly formalized. We wished to examine the extent, organisation and quality of this service. MATERIAL AND METHOD We obtained information from the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry on all unplanned out-of-hospital births in 2008. A questionnaire was sent to all maternity institutions, municipalities and emergen...

General practitioners are essential providers of maternity care, particularly in rural and remote locations T hroughout the world, the role of general practitioners in maternity care is changing and being redefined. Over 10 years ago, a decline in GP-led obstetric care in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand was noted, and this trend appears to have continued. 1,2 There were 481 GP ...