BACKGROUND Women's satisfaction with childbirth is an important measure of the quality of maternity care services. This study aims to address factors related to women's childbirth satisfaction in physiological and routine childbirth groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS This descriptive-analytical study was conducted among 340 women in physiological and routine childbirth groups in 2012. Women were s...

BACKGROUND Childbirth is a demanding event in a woman's life. The aim of this study was to explore whether a brief intervention in the form of an antenatal course in self-hypnosis to ease childbirth could improve the childbirth experience. METHOD In a randomized, controlled, single-blinded trial, 1,222 healthy nulliparous women were allocated to one of three groups during pregnancy: A hypnosi...

Many developing countries periodically face large adverse shocks to their economies. We study two distinct types of such shocks large declines in the price of a country’s commodity exports and severe natural disasters , both of which have occurred frequently in the recent past. Unsurprisingly, adverse shocks reduce the short-term growth of constant-price GDP and we analyze which structural poli...

In 2003, the Japanese Diet passed legislation to abolish part of the special deduction for spouses (Haigusha Tokubetsu Kojo) which would take effect in the 2004 tax year. This paper investigates the impact of this tax reform on female labour supply in Japan. A number of earlier studies have shown that married women are likely to adjust their labour supply in order for their husbands to become e...

Not all eligible women use the available services under India's Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), which provides cash incentives to encourage pregnant women to use institutional care for childbirth; limited evidence exists on demand-side factors associated with low program uptake. This study explores the views of women and ASHAs (community health workers) on the use of the JSY and institutional del...

Humans everywhere cooperate in groups to achieve benefits not attainable by individuals. Individual effort is often not automatically tied to a proportionate share of group benefits. This decoupling allows for free-riding, a strategy that (absent countermeasures) outcompetes cooperation. Empirically and formally, punishment potentially solves the evolutionary puzzle of group cooperation. Nevert...

In antagonistic symbioses, such as host-parasite interactions, one population's success is the other's loss. In mutualistic symbioses, such as division of labor, both parties can gain, but they might have different preferences over the possible mutualistic arrangements. The rates of evolution of the two populations in a symbiosis are important determinants of which population will be more succe...

This paper provides a critique of governmentally inspired accounts of urban regeneration and partnership working. Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias and prominent figurational sociologists, it discusses the changes taking place within and through the many partnerships set up by New Labour around the notion of ‘community safety’. Whilst recognising the important insights provided by accounts o...

OBJECTIVES To describe the association between fear of childbirth and social, demographic and psychological factors in a cohort of 30 480 healthy nulliparous women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies. DESIGN Nationwide population-based study. SETTING The Danish National Birth Cohort. POPULATION Healthy nulliparous women (n= 30 480) with singleton pregnancies. METHODS Data from comp...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the prevalence of fear of childbirth in a nationwide sample and its association with subsequent rates of caesarean section and overall experience of childbirth. DESIGN A prospective study using between-group comparisons. SETTING About 600 antenatal clinics in Sweden. SAMPLE A total of 2,662 women recruited at their first visit to an antenatal clinic during three p...