During the postpartum period, women experience significant changes in their neuroendocrine profiles and social behavior compared to before pregnancy. A common experience with motherhood is a decrease in sexual desire. Although the lifestyle and peripheral physiological changes associated with parturition might decrease a woman's sexual interest, we hypothesized that there are also hormone-media...

OBJECTIVE To examine predictors of health care providers perceiving intrauterine devices (IUDs) as unsafe for nulliparous women and of infrequent provision of IUDs to nulliparous women. METHODS We analyzed questionnaire data obtained during December 2009 to March 2010 from 635 office-based providers (physicians) and 1,323 Title X clinic providers (physicians, physician assistants, certified n...

The neuroendocrine state of new mothers may alter their neural processing of stressors in the environment through modulatory actions of oxytocin on the limbic system. We predicted that amygdala sensitivity to negatively arousing stimuli would be suppressed in postpartum compared to nulliparous women and that this suppression would be modulated by administration of oxytocin nasal spray. We measu...

Background & aim: The enhancement of childbirth self-efficacy to manage the labor pain can help the nulliparous pregnant women to make informed choice about vaginal delivery. Regarding the relationship of the childbirth self-efficacy with psychological antecedents, the present study aimed to explore the meditating role of alexithymia in the relationship of attachment styles and childbirth self-...

Long-acting reversible contraceptive methods (LARC) are considered important to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. Winner et al. found that women using oral contraceptives, a transdermal patch or a vaginal ring had a risk of contraceptive failure that was 20 times as high as the risk among those using LARC [intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants]. In the CHOICE cohort study of acceptan...

Nulliparity is an established breast cancer risk factor, particularly when compared with parity at young ages. The authors aggregated data from 4 US prospective studies (1979-2006) including 32,641 nulliparous (1,612 breast cancers) and 204,270 parous (8,180 breast cancers) women to examine the hypothesis that nulliparity may increase susceptibility to established postmenopausal breast cancer r...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of childbearing and maternal breastfeeding on a woman's subsequent risk of developing type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using information on parity, breastfeeding, and diabetes collected from 52,731 women recruited into a cohort study, we estimated the risk of type 2 diabetes using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS A total of 3,160 (6.0%) wom...

OBJECTIVES To compare the value of transvaginal ultrasonographic measurement of the cervical length versus the Bishop score, prior to induction of labour, in predicting the mode of delivery within four days. MATERIALS AND METHODS This longitudinal study included 110 women (at term, singleton, vertex presentation) in whom induction of labour was performed at 37-42 weeks of gestation. Cervical ...

Background and Objectives: Pregnancy is one of the important periods of life in women and it is essential to have mental health. Spiritual constructs and life skills play an important role in explaining the psychological empowerment of people. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of spiritual health and emotional regulation in mental health of nulliparous women. Methods: In...