BACKGROUND Current Iranian perinatal statistics indicate that maternity care continues to need improvement. In response, we implemented a multi-faceted intervention to improve the quality of maternity care at an Iranian Social Security Hospital. Using a before-and-after design our aim was to improve the uptake of selected evidence based practices and more closely attend to identified women's ne...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare obstetric outcomes and maternal satisfaction in nulliparous women in spontaneous labor who used patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) vs continuous epidural infusion (CEI). STUDY DESIGN We conducted a double-masked trial of 270 nulliparous women who were assigned randomly to 3 groups (with a concentration 0.1% bupivacaine and 2 μg/mL f...

OBJECTIVE To assess the outcome of external cephalic version for routine management of malpresenting foetuses at term. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Tertiary teaching hospital, Malaysia. PATIENTS From September 2003 to June 2004, a study involving 41 pregnant women with malpresentation at term was undertaken. An external cephalic version protocol was implemented. Data we...

Background and Purpose: Afghanistan has high maternal mortality that woman's empowerment and social support could reduce. This study aimed to determine the relationship between empowerment and social support in pregnant women who came to governmental hospitals in Kabul City, Afghanistan. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 4 governmental hospitals in Kabul, Afghanis...

background: rooming-in, motivated by world health organization (who) strategies and baby-friendly hospital policies, is a practice followed in many maternity hospitals of iran. mother-infant dyad may easily be damaged by the separation caused by medical and surgical problems, which result in hospital stay. regarding this, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the rooming-in pr...

Infant massage programs have proved to be effective in enhancing post-natal development of highly risk infants, such as preterm newborns and drug or HIV exposed children. Less studies have focused on the role of infant massage in supporting the co-construction of early adult-child relationships. In line with this lack of literature, the present paper reports on a pilot study aimed at investigat...

In a community sample of mothers (N = 763), each with a focal child aged 4.5 years, anxiety levels were high. Only 54% of mothers had anxiety scores within the "normal" Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) range, compared with 85% for depression. A subsample (N = 116) was selected for two-parent families, one to three children, and mothers spread over low, medium, and high anxiety level...

CONTEXT Birth and immediate postpartum period pose many challenges for the newborn. The neonatal mortality rates are high in India, whereas the breastfeeding rates are still low. Hence, need exists for a simple and easily applicable intervention, which may counter these challenges. AIMS The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of very early skin-to-skin contact (SSC), in term ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of pre- and postdischarge interventions on breastfeeding outcomes and weight gain among preterm infants. DATA SOURCES PubMed and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) database were searched for study selection using MeSH terms infant/premature, breastfeeding, weight gain, patient discharge, postnatal care, and counseling. S...