OBJECTIVE To evaluate the maternal and perinatal outcomes of Alberta's regionalized system of care. In particular, to compare the outcomes of communities with limited or no local intrapartum care with those of regional and tertiary care centres. METHODS We conducted a population-based retrospective study of all Alberta deliveries in 1999 and 2000. Maternal outcome measures were rates of patie...

The pattern of birth weight is described among births recorded in rural maternity homes in coastal areas of Udupi taluk in South Kanara district in Karnataka state, India. Literacy of the study area was 78.5%, and female literacy was 73.0%. The mean age at marriage was 21.4 years. Over 90% of mothers received some prenatal care. Contraceptive prevalence was 43%. The study area had six rural mat...

The South African government implemented a compulsory one year community service strategy to address the shortage of human resources in the health sector since 1998. Medical practitioners (1999), dentists (2000) and pharmacists (2001) and other seven professional groups followed in 2003 and in July 2004. The nursing profession followed after the Health Minister’s announcement, the processing of...

Substantial State Government funding has been committed in Victoria for the enhancement of maternity services. The funding is intended to improve the quality of care for women and meet consumer expectations for choice and continuity of care in maternity services. This paper reports on a mid-term review (the 'Review') of the Victorian Maternity Services Program, which was conducted by the author...

There has been a precipitous decline in the number of rural communities across Canada providing local maternity care. The evidence suggests that the outcome for newborns may be worse as a result. There is also an emerging understanding of the significant physiological and psychosocial consequences for rural parturient women. Because they cannot plan for birth with any certainty, many of them ex...

The last half century has seen significant changes to Maternity services in England. Though rates of maternal and infant mortality have fallen to very low levels, this has been achieved largely through hospital admission. It has been argued that maternity services may have become over-medicalised and service users have expressed a preference for more personalised care. NHS England's national st...

Methods: All patients admitted for delivery to Salmaniya Medical Complex together with the other satellite maternity units from the 1 January, 2001 until 30 April, 2002 were reviewed. Since none of the peripheral Government maternity hospitals would deal with such complicated cases, the four cases reported are truly representative of the incidence of HELLP syndrome in the Government Maternity H...

A new Milbank Report focuses on the potential to greatly improve maternity care in the United States through greater fidelity to evidence-based practice. The report, authored by Carol Sakala and Maureen Corry, was developed collaboratively by Childbirth Connection and the Milbank Memorial Fund along with members of the Reforming States Group. Childbirth Connection is a national, notfor-profit o...

experts have found that natural environment could have positive impacts on patient’s treatment process. the impact of natural environment on mental state and lowering the stress level of the patients is undeniable. in this study, the impacts of natural environment on patient women in tehran general hospitals were investigated. after conducting a topical study of the issue on hand, using field o...

BACKGROUND Improving adherence to care standards is one way to improve quality of delivered care. This study aimed to determine the degree of providers' adherence to maternity care standards from the perspective of pregnant women. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted on 185 pregnant women in their ninth month of pregnancy who received maternity care from health centres in Tabriz, ...