Substantial State Government funding has been committed in Victoria for the enhancement of maternity services. The funding is intended to improve the quality of care for women and meet consumer expectations for choice and continuity of care in maternity services. This paper reports on a mid-term review (the 'Review') of the Victorian Maternity Services Program, which was conducted by the author...

There has been a precipitous decline in the number of rural communities across Canada providing local maternity care. The evidence suggests that the outcome for newborns may be worse as a result. There is also an emerging understanding of the significant physiological and psychosocial consequences for rural parturient women. Because they cannot plan for birth with any certainty, many of them ex...

The last half century has seen significant changes to Maternity services in England. Though rates of maternal and infant mortality have fallen to very low levels, this has been achieved largely through hospital admission. It has been argued that maternity services may have become over-medicalised and service users have expressed a preference for more personalised care. NHS England's national st...

Methods: All patients admitted for delivery to Salmaniya Medical Complex together with the other satellite maternity units from the 1 January, 2001 until 30 April, 2002 were reviewed. Since none of the peripheral Government maternity hospitals would deal with such complicated cases, the four cases reported are truly representative of the incidence of HELLP syndrome in the Government Maternity H...

A new Milbank Report focuses on the potential to greatly improve maternity care in the United States through greater fidelity to evidence-based practice. The report, authored by Carol Sakala and Maureen Corry, was developed collaboratively by Childbirth Connection and the Milbank Memorial Fund along with members of the Reforming States Group. Childbirth Connection is a national, notfor-profit o...

experts have found that natural environment could have positive impacts on patient’s treatment process. the impact of natural environment on mental state and lowering the stress level of the patients is undeniable. in this study, the impacts of natural environment on patient women in tehran general hospitals were investigated. after conducting a topical study of the issue on hand, using field o...

BACKGROUND Improving adherence to care standards is one way to improve quality of delivered care. This study aimed to determine the degree of providers' adherence to maternity care standards from the perspective of pregnant women. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted on 185 pregnant women in their ninth month of pregnancy who received maternity care from health centres in Tabriz, ...

BACKGROUND Small Canadian rural maternity services are struggling to maintain core staffing and remain open. Existing evidence states that having to travel to access maternity services is associated with adverse outcomes. The goal of this study is to systematically examine rural maternal and newborn outcomes across three Canadian provinces. METHODS We analyzed maternal newborn outcomes data t...

BACKGROUND midwives have traditionally had an important role in providing public health messages to women. The range and diversity of the public health remit within maternity services has expanded rapidly over the past decade and maternity support workers as well as midwives are now engaged in public health work in many areas. Given these changes a review of current practice was indicated. OB...

BACKGROUND In 2009 the Australian government announced a major program of reform with the move to primary maternity care. The reform agenda represents a dramatic change to maternity care provision in a society that has embraced technology across all aspects of life including childbirth. METHODS A critical discourse analysis of selected submissions in the consultation process to the national r...