OBJECTIVES To assess recent hospital caesarean section (CS) rates in New South Wales, adjusted for case mix; to quantify the amount of variation that can be explained by case mix differences; and to examine the potential impact on the overall CS rate of reducing variation in practice. DESIGN AND SETTING Population-based record linkage study of births in 81 hospitals in New South Wales, 2009-2...

Article info: Received: 9 November 2012 In revised form: 29 November 2012 Accepted: 30 November 2012 ABSTRACT Optimization of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) has become the main goal of contemporary reproductive medicine. The main aspiration of scientists working in the field is to use less intervention to achieve more, and, if possible, in a more cost-effective way. A number of direct...

Placental abruption complicates about 1% of pregnancies and is a leading cause of vaginal bleeding in the latter half of pregnancy. It is also an important cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. The maternal effect of abruption depends primarily on its severity, whereas its effect on the fetus is determined both by its severity and the gestational age at which it occurs. Risk factors for a...

Awassi and Assaf are local Israeli sheep breeds with prolificacies of ~1.30 and ~1.65 lambs born/ewe lambing (LB/EL), respectively. Introgressing the B (Booroola) allele of the FecB locus into these breeds led to the formation of prolific strains designated 'Afec Awassi' and 'Afec Assaf', in which lamb production under both intensive and semi-intensive conditions is higher than in the respectiv...

Umbilical cord blood gas and acid-base assessment are the most objective determinations of the fetal metabolic condition at the moment of birth. Moderate and severe newborn encephalopathy, respiratory complications, and composite complication scores increase with an umbilical arterial base deficit of 12-16 mmol/L. Moderate or severe newborn complications occur in 10% of neonates who have this l...

we report a spontaneous unilateral live tubal twin pregnancy in a patient with a history of previous ectopic pregnancy (ep) and tubal surgery. transvaginal ultrasound showed one pregnancy sac containing two fetal poles with cardiac activity, which appeared to be sited within the right adnexum. the right tubal ep was removed by salpingectomy. ultrasound findings of suspected adnexal mass and fre...