Many pregnant women are exposed to radiation either as a patient or as an employee. Ignorance of the issues surrounding the radiation exposure of pregnant females is encountered among medical and other professionals, often leading to undue concern. The exposure of pregnant patients has to be justified and the risk/benefit ...

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether preconception and pregnancy could be an occasion triggering women's interest, search and need for both general and pregnancy-specific nutrition-related information, in order to: (i) provide a greater understanding of the life course perspective (in this case on nutrition behaviours and pregnancy) and (ii) to contribute to ...

BACKGROUND: This study investigated whether 'unwanted pregnancy' (i.e. a negative or ambivalent attitude towards the pregnancy/reproduction) is associated with schizophrenia-spectrum and affective disorders in the offspring in adulthood, and if so, whether other pregnancy, perinatal, childhood or genetic-risk factors account for this association. METHOD: In a prospective study beginning during ...

In this paper, we examined two aspects of recent increases in marriage preceded by pregnancy (bridal pregnancy) in Japan. Using information on 28,973 respondents to the Japanese National Fertility Surveys, we first demonstrated that increases in bridal pregnancy between 1970 and 2002 were concentrated among women without postsecondary education. We ...

OBJECTIVE: to determine the relationship between pregnancy planning and antenatal behaviours. DESIGN AND METHOD: a descriptive study using a questionnaire completed during face-to-face interviews. SETTING: the obstetric and gynaecology department of one public hospital in Turkey. PARTICIPANTS: 1355 postpartum women. FINDINGS: of the pregnancies among these women, 71.3% were planned, ...

Healthy People 2010 goals set a target of 90% of mothers starting prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy. While there are questions about the value of prenatal care (PNC), there is much observational evidence of the benefits of PNC including reduction in maternal, fetal, perinatal, and infant deaths. ...

As antiretroviral treatment becomes more available, community home-based care (CHBC) clients may begin to resume normal daily activities including the resumption of sexual relationships. This study examines sexual behavior, contraceptive use, unmet need for family planning and attitudes toward pregnancy in the context of HIV among CHBC participants (clients and ...

Few women currently meet revised WHO recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months postpartum. In this prospective study we aimed to determine the influence of socio-demographic, psychosocial, and perinatal factors on the length of exclusive breastfeeding among 189 Canadian primiparous mothers. A majority of the participants did not meet their ...

OBJECTIVE: childbearing is a significant transition, especially for first-time mothers. The objectives of this study were to explore the maternal transition from womens' perspectives and to identify any unmet needs for support. DESIGN: grounded theory was chosen as the most appropriate method of analysis due to its ability to identify ...

The condom is the only known method that provides simultaneous protection against unplanned pregnancy and some sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, among sexually active people. Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys from 18 Sub-Saharan African countries, this study examined condom use and reasons for using the method ...

Despite increasing interest in the role of the father in pregnancy, birth, and parenthood, little attention has been given to the expectant father's experience of coping with a high risk pregnancy and the hospitalization of his partner. This study was undertaken to further understanding regarding the experience of the expectant ...

Antenatal care (ANC) services have the aim of monitoring the course of pregnancy, in order to promote favourable outcomes. In spite of the fact that its components have been found to improve pregnancy outcomes, maternal/infant morbidity and mortality still remain public health problems in most developing countries including Nigeria. These ...

OBJECTIVE: To review the research literature on the parental experience of pregnancy, primarily maternal, subsequent to perinatal loss. DATA SOURCES: Computerized searches on CINAHL and PubMed databases. STUDY SELECTION: Articles from indexed journals relevant to the objective were reviewed from January 1997 to December 2007. Only research-based studies in English ...

This study examines the relationship between male-to-female physical domestic violence and unwanted pregnancy among women in three economically and culturally diverse areas of India. A central methodological focus of the study is the examination of retrospective and prospective measures of pregnancy unwantedness, contrasting their usefulness for specifying levels of unwanted ...

OBJECTIVE: This study compares several parameters of sexual life and course of labor in women with planned and unplanned pregnancy. METHODS: 339 primiparas participated in our study; they filled in a questionnaire concerning their sexual life during pregnancy on the second or third day after the delivery. One question also ...

CONTEXT: Although pregnancy ambivalence is consistently associated with poorer contraceptive use, little is known about the sexual, social and emotional dynamics at work in pregnancy ambivalence. METHODS: During in-depth sexual and reproductive history interviews conducted in 2003, 36 women and men were asked about the relational and emotional circumstances surrounding ...

The primary objective for prenatal care has not changed in the past 100 years: to have the pregnancy end with a healthy baby and mother. By identifying risk factors for pregnancy complications or other maternal health concerns that need to be addressed, the provider hopes to optimize pregnancy outcome. By ...

BACKGROUND: The authors examined and compared dental services used by women before, during and after pregnancy. METHODS: In their study, the authors combined medical and dental claims data for 3,462 pregnant women in Minnesota with commercial dental insurance who had been pregnant between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2005. ...

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to explore the needs of first-time fathers in relation to the care, support and education provided by healthcare professionals during the antenatal period, particularly in relation to preparing them for the transition to fatherhood. BACKGROUND: Pregnancy and transition to parenthood are ...

AIMS: Through a novel synthesis of the literature and our own clinical experience, we have derived a set of evidence-based recommendations for consideration as guidance in the management of opioid-dependent pregnant women and infants. METHODS: PubMed literature searches were carried out to identify recent key publications in the areas of ...

The age of the pregnant population and the number of pregnant women with medical issues are increasing. It is widely recognized that internists have the unique opportunity to identify potential pregnancy issues and address them before a problem arises. Therefore, it's important that we become aware of how to approach ...

OBJECTIVES: Culturally embedded attitudes and beliefs affect people's lifestyle and health. Traditional practices such as bathing the baby in salt water to prevent him from smelling bad, regarding pregnancy as a shameful situation, and concealing pregnancy, may cause harm. This descriptive study aimed at identifying potentially harmful practices of married ...

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to generate experiential data about the decision-making process encountered by 12 women with cystic fibrosis (CF) considering pregnancy. DESIGN: This study uses a qualitative grounded theory methodology to analyse the data and develop a conceptual hierarchical model of salient issues. METHODS: Twelve women completed a semi-structured ...

BACKGROUND: Social support is important during pregnancy and childbirth and the partner is usually the main source of support. Lack of partner support is associated with less emotional well-being and discontinuation of breastfeeding. RESEARCH PROBLEM: The purpose of the study was to investigate the proportion of women dissatisfied with partner ...

Research on pregnancy and sexual health among homeless youth is limited. In this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with 41 homeless young injection drug users (IDUs) in Los Angeles with a history of pregnancy. The relationship between recent pregnancy outcomes, contraception practices, housing status, substance use, utilization of prenatal care, ...

AIM: To determine the prevalence of violence to pregnant women within 12 months prior to and during the current pregnancy. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 534 pregnant women attending three secondary and one tertiary health facility in Abeokuta, Nigeria using semistructured interviewer-administered questionnaires. RESULTS: Prevalence of violence within 12 months prior ...

AIM: To explore the extent of intimate partner violence during pregnancy and its association with pregnancy intendedness and pregnancy-related behaviours among a representative sample of New Zealand women. METHODS: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a representative sample of 2391 women who had ever been pregnant, aged 18-64 years old in ...

PURPOSE: There are no clinical practice data regarding collecting information on consanguinity as part of family history, despite its relevance for identifying at-risk pregnancies. We determined current practice and influencing factors in documenting consanguinity as part of pregnancy assessment by midwives, key health professionals in socialized medicine. METHODS: Data were ...

OBJECTIVES: The study was designed to assess the views and knowledge of healthcare providers in general medicine and other specialties on the association between oral health and pregnancy outcomes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two hundred and fifty physicians practicing in northern Jordan hospitals and healthcare centers were asked to complete a ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess middle-aged Australian women's retrospective reports of how intended and wanted were their pregnancies, and the degree of happiness associated with these pregnancies. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 1000 participants in the Mid-Age cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. RESULTS: Responses from 811 ...

Obesity is rising in the obstetric population, yet there is an absence of services and guidance for the management of maternal obesity. This systematic review aimed to investigate relationships between obesity and impact on obstetric care. Literature was systematically searched for cohort studies of pregnant women with anthropometric measurements recorded ...

This study examines the association between history of violence, attitudes toward pregnancy, and initiation of prenatal care (PNC). Pregnant women receiving their first PNC visit at a public prenatal clinic in Monterrey, Mexico, were enrolled in the study. Structured interviews collected information concerning demographics, reproductive history, current pregnancy, attitudes toward ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and report the diet quality of young Australian women by pregnancy status. DESIGN: Pregnancy status was defined as pregnant (n 606), trying to conceive (n 454), had a baby in the last 12 months (n 829) and other (n 5597). The Dietary Questionnaire for Epidemiological Studies was ...

This study was conducted to assess the potential impact of an unintended pregnancy on women's quality of life. We asked 192 nonpregnant women to report how they would feel if they learned that they were pregnant using a visual analog scale (VAS), a time trade-off (TTO) metric, a standard gamble ...

OBJECTIVE: This study systematically reviewed the published evidence regarding chiropractic care, including spinal manipulation, for pregnancy-related low back pain (LBP). METHODS: A multimodal search strategy was conducted, including multiple database searches along with reference and journal hand searching. Studies were limited to those published in English and in a peer-reviewed ...

This article provides a review of the determinants of healthy eating in pregnancy by synthesizing current research findings and offers strategies to promote healthy eating during pregnancy. This article is guided by the ecological model for health promotion that suggests the determinants of healthy eating as intrapersonal or collective determinants ...

We present a cross-sectional survey of the pattern of high-risk pregnancies in randomly selected primary health-care facilities in Enugu, Nigeria, using the World Health Organization's classifying form. None of the 10 maternity homes studied had a standard risk screening tool. The age of the 299 women studied ranged from 16 ...

Undetectable maternal serum unconjugated estriol levels in the second-trimester screening test have been associated with congenital pathology and an adverse pregnancy outcome. We reviewed outcomes of pregnancies with undetectable levels of estriol (<0.25 ng/ml) in the triple-marker screening test and assessed the clinical value of this finding. We studied estriol ...

The study investigates the effects of pregnancy intentions on the physical, nutritional and health status of babies aged 0-4 months. Anthropometric measurements (obtained according to standard procedures of WHO and calculated into z-scores by the use of National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population) and energy and protein intakes ...

Pregnancy affects the physiology of the pregnant woman particularly the endocrine, cardiovascular and the renal systems. This work was therefore set to ascertain the state of electrolytes in pregnancy and how it affects blood pressure using multiparity as a factor. One hundred and twenty (120) women were used in this ...

Antenatal care is a form of preventive medicine that pregnant women to allows maintain a state of good health throughout pregnancy, and to improve their chances of having a safe delivery of healthy infants. To achieve this aim, it is a widely held belief that pregnant women need to book ...

The effect of military deployment and perceived availability and source of community support on women's acceptance of pregnancy were examined in each trimester of pregnancy at four military bases. The sample was 503 primigravida or multigravida women eligible for care in the military medical system. Military deployment and community support ...

The importance of nutrition during pregnancy with regard to pregnancy outcome has long been acknowledged. This importance has only been further emphasized by the recent changes in food quality and availability, lifestyle changes, and a new understanding of fetal programming on adult outcomes. The impact of the recent obesity epidemic ...

BACKGROUND: Little research has focused on men and women's reproductive intentions before pregnancy and their perceived personal and social motivations to prevent an unintended pregnancy. METHODS: To assess the reproductive intentions of low-income men and women in California, we asked individuals seeking reproductive health services about their plans for childbearing, ...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine whether a history of unplanned pregnancy was a risk factor for a subsequent unplanned pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed 542 women aged 14-35 years, enrolled in Project PROTECT, a randomized clinical trial to promote dual-method contraception use to prevent sexually transmitted ...

To explore pregnant women's use, attitudes, knowledge and beliefs of complementary and alternative drugs (CADs) defined as products manufactured from herbs or with a natural origin. A preliminary survey was conducted among 172 pregnant women in their third trimester of pregnancy, consecutively recruited in two obstetrical settings; 15 women were ...

Screening for fetal anomalies in the second trimester of pregnancy is increasingly becoming a part of antenatal care. As a consequence, more pregnant women are learning that the child they are expecting has an anomaly. This article derives from anthropological research in a hospital in Hanoi, Viet Nam, from 2003-2006 ...

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this systematic review were first, to describe how breastfeeding is professionally supported during pregnancy, at maternity hospitals and during the postnatal period. Secondly, to find out how effective interventions are in supporting breastfeeding. BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding is an effective way to promote the health of infants. In ...

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence is a major public health problem; surveys report that 3%-17% of pregnant women suffer from it during their pregnancy, endangering fetal and maternal health. First, we aim (1) to estimate the prevalence of domestic violence in women who had been admitted to the maternity department of a ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Family medicine obstetrics and maternal-child health fellowships offer family physicians additional training in pregnancy care. Our objectives were to assess the content of these fellowship programs, the clinical practices of fellowship graduates, and factors associated with inclusion of cesarean delivery in practice after fellowship training. METHODS: A ...