PURPOSE To describe the characteristics of mothers and children and to evaluate the factors associated with discontinuation of exclusive breastfeeding. METHODS A cross-sectional study on infants under six months of age who attended the vaccination campaign in 2008. In the sample design, vaccination units were selected by drawing lots and infants were similarly selected later at each unit syst...

In a wide variety of species, a female's age of first reproduction influences offspring size and survival, suggesting that there exists an optimal timing of reproduction. Mothers in many species also influence offspring size and survival after birth through variation in parental care. We experimentally separated these effects in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides to test for coadaptati...

BACKGROUND The risks of not breastfeeding for mother and infant are well established, yet in Australia, although most women initiate breastfeeding many discontinue breastfeeding altogether and few women exclusively breastfeed to six months as recommended by the World Health Organization and Australian health authorities. We aim to determine whether proactive telephone peer support during the po...

BACKGROUND Egypt's longstanding commitment to safe motherhood and maternal health has paid off in substantial declines in maternal mortality ratio and significant improvement in the levels of many maternal health indicators. The current study aims to monitor trends of maternal health indicators and their socioeconomic inequities among Egyptian women over ten-year period (1995-2005). It poses th...

OBJECTIVE To identify the social psychological factors affecting women's evaluation of care provided in Czech maternity hospitals using following criteria: satisfaction with intrapartum and postpartum care, willingness to return to a given hospital and to recommend the hospital to others. METHODS 762 women completed a 71-item original Czech questionnaire KLI-P designed to measure the psychoso...

Traditionally Chinese and Taiwanese postpartum women conducted postpartum ritual practices, called "doing the month," at home. Today, many Taiwanese women undertake this ritual in postpartum nursing centers. However, little is known about how the traditional practices are being transformed in relation to contemporary health care in Taiwan. In this ethnographic study observations were carried ou...

BACKGROUND Postpartum Family Visits (PFVs) have been advocated as a way to improve health outcomes for puerperal women and their newborns. This study aimed to identify individual factors associated with the utilization of PFVs in rural Jiangsu Province, China. METHODS We employed responses of the household survey in Jiangsu province, part of the National Health Service Survey (NHSS), a nation...

In Bangladesh, high proportions of infant deaths (two-thirds) and deaths among children aged less than five years (38%) occur in the neonatal period. Although most of these deaths occur at home due to preventable causes, little is known about routine domiciliary newborn-care practices and care-seeking for neonatal illness. As an initial step in strategic planning for the implementation of inter...

1 Dear Editor, We read the paper entitled ‘Postpartum modern contraceptive use in northern Ethiopia: prevalence and associated factors,’ written by Abraha et al. [1], which was published in Epidemiology and Health in March 2017. The aim of the study was to assess postpartum modern contraceptive use and associated factors among postpartum women in northern Ethiopia. A multivariable logistic regr...

BACKGROUND Postpartum is the most risky period for both mothers and newborn babies. However, existing evidence suggests that utilization of postnatal care is relatively lower when compared to uptake of other similar health care services. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of parents toward the postpartum period and postnatal care in order to deepen our understanding...