OBJECTIVES To explore women's experiences of early labour care focusing on sociodemographic differences, and to examine the effect of antenatal education, using mixed methods. SETTING England, 2014. PARTICIPANTS Women who completed postal questionnaires about their experience of maternity care, including questions about antenatal education, early labour and sociodemographic factors, include...

Prospective parents widely use education to gain information about, e.g., labour and parenting skills. It is unknown if antenatal education in small classes is more beneficial for parenting stress and parenting alliance compared with other types of antenatal education. In the present randomised trial, we examined the effect of antenatal education in small classes versus auditorium-based lecture...

Adolescent pregnancy and its consequences represent a major public health concern in many low-middle income countries of the world. The World Health Organization has recently developed evidence-based guidelines addressing six areas: preventing early marriage; preventing early pregnancy through sexuality education, increasing education opportunities and economic and social support programs; incr...

BACKGROUND Worldwide, women seldom reach the recommended target of exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months postpartum. The aim of the current study was to update a previously published review that presented a conceptual and methodological synthesis of interventions designed to promote exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months in high-income countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic search of ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether antenatal breast feeding education alone or postnatal lactation support alone improves rates of exclusive breast feeding compared with routine hospital care. DESIGN Randomised controlled trial. SETTING A tertiary hospital in Singapore. PARTICIPANTS 450 women with uncomplicated pregnancies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary outcomes were rates of exclusive br...

BACKGROUND Development of appropriate interventions to increase male involvement in pregnancy and childbirth is vital to strategies for improving health outcomes of women with obstetric complications. The objective was to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences of male involvement in their partners' healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth. The findings might inform interventions for...

BACKGROUND In Myanmar a large proportion of antenatal and intrapartum care in rural areas is provided by skilled birth attendants (SBAs), this study assessed the coverage by these health workers of all births, their adherence to service guidelines, and community opinion on the antenatal and delivery care they give in two rural health centres in Pathein Township, Ayeyarwaddy Region to identify t...

PURPOSE To examine the effect of Taegyo-focused prenatal classes on maternal-fetal attachment and self-efficacy related to childbirth. METHODS Over 4 weeks, 49 women, 20 to 36 weeks of gestation participated in a prenatal program led by the nurse who developed it. In addition to Lamaze content it included; understanding ability of fetus to respond, sharing motivation, purpose of pregnancy, an...

INTRODUCTION Our objective was to understand the perinatal knowledge and experiences of First Nations women from northwestern Ontario who travel away from their remote communities to give birth. METHODS A systematic review of MEDLINE, HealthSTAR, HAPI, Embase, AMED, PsycINFO and CINAHL was undertaken using Medical Subject Headings and keywords focusing on Canadian Aboriginal (First Nations, M...

BACKGROUND Despite the widely documented health advantages of breastfeeding over formula feeding, initiation rates remain relatively low in many high-income countries, particularly among women in lower income groups. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions which aim to encourage women to breastfeed in terms of changes in the number of women who start to breastfeed. METHODS ...