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In 2015, the stillbirth rate after 28 weeks (late gestation) in Australia was 35% higher than countries with the lowest rates globally. Reductions in late gestation stillbirth rates have steadily improved in A...
Most women use some method of pain relief during labour. There is extensive research evidence available of pharmacological pain relief during labour; however this evidence is not readily available to pregnant ...
Health care providers have an important role to share evidence based information and empower patients to make informed choices. Previous studies indicate that shared decision making in pregnancy and childbirth...
Out of a total of 5084 articles resulting from the search only 58 qualified for systematic review. Programs integrating multiple interventions were more likely to have significant positive impacts on maternal out...
Every year an estimated three million neonates die globally and two hundred thousand of these deaths occur in Pakistan. Majority of these neonates die in rural areas of underdeveloped countries from preventabl...
In the past decade, countries worldwide aimed to evaluate the quality of childbirth care and reduce the high rates of disrespect and abuse during childbirth. Few studies have attempted to identify providers’ c...
An effective continuum of maternal care ensures that mothers receive essential health packages from pre-pregnancy to delivery, and postnatally, reducing the risk of maternal death. However, across Africa, cove...
Babies born very preterm (before 30 weeks gestation) are at high risk of dying in their first weeks of life, and those who survive are at risk of developing cerebral palsy in childhood. Recent high-quality evi...
Worldwide, an estimated 2.9 million neonatal deaths occurred in 2012, accounting for 44% of all under-five deaths. In Pakistan, more than 200,000 newborns die annually and neonatal mortality rates are higher t...
Third and fourth degree perineal tears, or obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASI), sustained during childbirth can result in anal incontinence and psychosocial problems which require ongoing treatment. Withi...
There is no validated evidence base on predictive ability and absolute risk of preterm birth by gestational age of the previous pregnancy.
It is estimated that 18.5 million Caesarean Sections (CS) are conducted annually worldwide and about one-third of them are done without medical indications and described as “unnecessary”. Although developed co...
A growing body of evidence is beginning to highlight how mass incarceration shapes inequalities in population health. Non-Hispanic blacks are disproportionately affected by incarceration and criminal law enfor...
Currently one-fifth of women in the UK are obese. Obese, pregnant woman are at an increased risk of experiencing complications of labour and serious morbidity. However, they are also more likely to undergo med...
In many countries, planned vaginal breech birth (VBB) is a rare event. After the Term Breech Trial in 2000, VBB reduced and caesarean section for breech presentation increased. Despite this, women still reques...
The Perineal Assessment and Repair Longitudinal Study (PEARLS) is a national clinical quality improvement initiative designed to improve the assessment and management of perineal trauma. Perineal trauma affects a...
A recent systematic review identified very few studies on women’s views on how to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care (QMNC). This study aimed at exploring the suggestions provided by women, after...
The United States is currently facing a maternal morbidity and mortality crisis, with the highest rates of any resource-rich nation. In efforts to address this, new guidelines for postpartum care suggest that ...
Antenatal care (ANC) attendance is a strong predictor of maternal outcomes. In Nigeria, government health planners at state level and below have limited access to population-based estimates of ANC coverage and...
Well-developed critical thinking skills are required to provide midwifery care that is safe, evidence-based, and woman-centred. A valid, reliable tool to measure is required the application of critical thinkin...
Woman-centred care is recognised as a fundamental construct of midwifery practice yet to date, there has been no validated tool available to measure it. This study aims to develop and test a self-report tool t...
Maternal and perinatal mortality continue to be a high priority problem on the health agendas of less developed countries. Despite the progress made in the last decade to quantify the magnitude of maternal mor...
In India, the neonatal mortality rate is nearly double the Sustainable Development Goal target with more than half of neonatal deaths occurring in only four states, one of which is Bihar. Evaluations of immedi...
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can result in a range of adverse neonatal outcomes, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to investigate the effectiv...
Yoga is a popular mind-body medicine frequently recommended to pregnant women. Gaps remain in our understanding of the core components of effective pregnancy yoga programmes. This systematic review and meta-an...
Bangladesh has achieved major gains in maternal and newborn survival, facility childbirth and skilled birth attendance between 1991 and 2010, but excess maternal mortality persists. High-quality maternal healt...
Most women who have a caesarean can safely have a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) for their next birth, but more women have an elective repeat caesarean than a VBAC.
Whether facility-based implementation of Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) reduces neonatal mortality at a population level in low and middle income countries (LMIC) has not been studied. Therefore, we evaluated HB...
Azithromycin is an azalide antibiotic with an extensive range of indications and has become a common treatment option due to its convenient dosing regimen and therapeutic advantages. Human studies addressing g...
The acute respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread rapidly worldwide yet has not been eliminated. The infection is especially deadly in vulnerable populations. The current studies indic...
Criteria-based audits have been used to improve clinical management in developed countries, but have only recently been introduced in the developing world. This study discusses the introduction of a criteria-b...
A husband’s support during childbirth is vital to a parturient woman’s emotional well-being. Evidence suggests that this type of support enables a woman to feel more in control during labour by reducing matern...
Pregnancy among adolescents, whether intended or not, is a public health concern as it is generally considered high risk for both mothers and their newborns. In Zambia, where many women engage in early sexual ...
Knowledge of pregnant women’s and mothers’ viewpoints on midwifery care is crucial for its appropriate delivery and research. In Germany, comprehensive research to more fully understand women’s needs in pregna...
This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 17 Supplement 1
Women in Scotland with uncomplicated pregnancies are encouraged by professional bodies and national guidelines to access community based models of midwife-led care for their labour and birth. The evidence base...
Evidence for the relationship between maternal and perinatal factors and the success of vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC) is conflicting. We aimed to systematically analyze published data on maternal...
When used judiciously, cesarean sections can save lives; but in the United States, prior research indicates that cesarean birth rates have risen beyond the threshold to help women and infants and become a cont...
In spite of government efforts, maternal mortality in Tanzania is currently at more than 400 per 100,000 live births. Community-based interventions that encourage safe motherhood and improved health-seeking be...
Antepartum depressive and anxiety symptoms (ADS and AAS) are prevalent in Malaysia. Prior evidence linking maternal ADS and AAS with adverse birth outcomes and caesarean section (CS) or instrumental delivery i...
There is high-quality evidence supporting induction of labour (IOL) for a number of maternal and fetal indications. However, one fifth of inductions fail to result in vaginal births, requiring cesarean deliver...
Clinically, once a woman has been identified as being at risk of spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) due to a short cervical length, a decision regarding prophylactic treatment must be made. Three interventions h...
Birth stories surround pregnant women. Existing research on childbirth knowledge suggests that personal accounts from family and friends play a foundational role upon which other information builds. However, a...
Electronic-health (e-health) provides opportunities for quality improvement of healthcare, but implementation in low and middle income countries is still limited. Our aim was to describe the implementation of ...
The phenomenon of being ‘with woman’ is fundamental to midwifery as it underpins its philosophy, relationships and practices. There is an identified gap in knowledge around the ‘with woman’ phenomenon from the...
The current study sought to develop a short birth satisfaction indicator utilising items from the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) for use as a brief measure of birth satisfaction and as a possible key...
Prior to the advent of modern obstetric services, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) have rendered services to pregnant women and women in labour for a long time. Although it is anticipated that women in cont...
Two recent recommendations made by the World Health Organization confirm the benefits of companion of choice at birth on labour outcomes; however institutional practices and policies do not always support its ...
In countries where the proportion of births attended by skilled providers is low, maternal mortality is high. According to the 2016 EDHS report, the proportion of births attended by skilled providers was only ...
Circadian rhythm plays an important role as our internal body’s clock that synchronizes behavior and physiology according to the external 24-h light-dark cycle. Past studies have associated disrupted circadian...
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