asthma is considered to be the most common respiratory disorder complicating pregnancy. seventy-six asthmatic and 152 non-asthmatic pregnant women were studied. maternal asthma was significantly associated with adverse infant outcomes, including prematurity, low birth weight and the need for cesarean delivery. the results of this study could indicate that pregnant women with asthma were at subs...

the prevalence of physical violence during pregnancy varies widely in different societies. to assess the incidence of self-reported physical, emotional and sexual violence in pregnancy and describe the association with maternal complication and birth outcomes, 3275 women who gave birth to live-born infants from october 2002 to november 2003 were assessed for self-reported violence in postpartum...

background: various studies have come to contradictory results regarding the relationship between maternal hemoglobin (hb) level and adverse pregnancy outcomes. the present study aimed to investigate the birth outcomes among pregnant women who had normal hemoglobin levels in the first trimester of their pregnancy. patients and methods: in this prospective study, 108 healthy pregnant women with ...

Maternal depression relates to child internalizing outcomes, but one missing aspect of this association is how variation in depressive symptoms, including mild and moderate symptoms, relates to young children's outcomes. The current study examined a moderated mediation model to investigate how maternal behaviors may mediate this association in the context of child temperament and gender. Mother...

Turkey has successfully introduced health system changes and provided its citizens with the right to health to achieve universal health coverage, which helped to address inequities in financing, health service access, and health outcomes. We trace the trajectory of health system reforms in Turkey, with a particular emphasis on 2003-13, which coincides with the Health Transformation Program (HTP...

The proportion of women and children receiving health care in the poorest countries is increasing [1]. Unfortunately, markers of improved health outcomes, such as falling maternal or newborn mortality, have not matched expectations from the gains in the coverage of care. Robust evidence exists for one explanatory factor: the poor–rich gaps in coverage found along the continuum of care for women...

Mental health is a crucial public health and development issue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region where little progress has been made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this paper we argue that not only will limited progress in achieving these targets have a significant impact on mental health, but it will be impossible to achieve some of these aspirations in the a...

BACKGROUND The concept of 'early life programming' considers the importance of very early environmental exposures throughout the gestational period on the subsequent health outcomes of offspring. The role of maternal dietary intake, specifically, has been highlighted after recent studies have shown maternal diet quality to predict mental health problems in offspring. Even in the pre-conception ...

For several decades Sri Lanka has shown better health outcomes compared to countries with similar income levels. These outcomes are mainly for infant and maternal mortality rates (IMR and MMR respectively) and life expectancy at birth. The country is often hailed as a model to achieve ‘good health at low cost’ [1, 2]. However, the apparently ‘good’ figures are average values that conceal wide v...