Hospitals, even five years past the events of September 11, with their unguarded front doors and unlocked patient rooms have conspicuously failed to implement even basic security procedures to protect the society's most vulnerable against violence. The degree of complacency is so great that even hospitals that have experienced shootings refuse to institute basic security measures such as metal ...

The telling of birth stories (i.e. stories that describe women's experiences of giving birth) is a common and important social practice. Whereas most research on birth narratives reflects the stories of middle-class, 'adult' women, we examine how the birth stories told by early-age mothers interconnect with broader narratives regarding social stigma and childbearing at 'too early' an age. Drawi...

PURPOSE This work is an attempt to evaluate the extent of knowledge concerning patient's rights and chances to execute these rights in everyday hospital reality. We have collected opinions of the patients from the maternity ward of Independent Central Public Clinical Hospital of Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. We also interested in participation of medical staff in respecting and rea...

OBJECTIVES To audit the knowledge and application of internationally recommended newborn resuscitation (NR) guidelines among delivery room (DR) caregivers of Spanish hospitals. METHODS A questionnaire-type survey on NR equipment and practices was performed in hospitals of the Spanish National Health System classified according to level of care provided. RESULTS 88% of the questionnaires wer...

Four case histories are presented to illustrate that haemodynamic monitoring is a useful guide in the acute management of severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. The application of intensive monitoring and therapy to patients in the delivery room is both feasible and of great help to the clinician managing fluid therapy and/or anaesthesia.

APPROXIMATELY 6 per cent of the infants born at Sloane Hospital for Women in New York have severe respiratory depression at birth. To treat these babies successfully, everyone in the delivery room should be familiar with sound principles of resuscitation. “Everyone” includes the obstetrician, the anesthesiologist, the pediatrician, the medical students and the obstetric nurses, both graduate an...

This study was conducted to determine whether or not simultaneous use of additional measures to prevent heat loss and efficient training of caregivers influenced the incidence of hypothermia at birth. Two cohorts of term/late-preterm and preterm infants were compared before (Group IA and IB) and after (Group IIA and IIB) the introduction of additional measures and a specific training of caregiv...