Midwifery
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Despite being ranked number one globally in terms of health care cost per capita, the United States (US) has ranked as low as 37th in the world in terms of health care system performance. This poor performance for one of the most developed nations in the world has been reflected in the underachieved attempts of the multiple US health care systems at improving maternal and newborn health, according to the goals set in 2000 by the United Nations with Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) 5: Improve Maternal Health, and 4: Reduce Child Mortality. ⋯ Using data collected from national, state, and city health agencies, trends concerning pregnancy care will be presented and compared to the target goals of MDG-5 and MDG-4, as well as Healthy People 2020, a US government-based initiative to improve health care of all Americans. Findings will demonstrate that urban areas such as Philadelphia are on a path of not reaching goals that have been set by the United Nations and the US government, and by some indicators are moving away in a negative direction from these goals.
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over the last decade Afghanistan has made large investments in scaling up the number of midwives to address access to skilled care and the high burden of maternal and newborn mortality. ⋯ the depth of midwives' contribution in Afghanistan - from increased maternal health care service utilisation to changing community's perceptions of women's education and professional independence - is overwhelmingly positive. Lessons learned can serve as a model to other low resource, post-conflict settings that are striving to increase the workforce of skilled providers.
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aim of this study was to investigate current knowledge and practice regarding AMTSL in midwifery practices and obstetric departments in the Netherlands. ⋯ the evidence for prophylactic administration of uterotonics is convincing for women who are at high risk of PPH. Regarding the lack of evidence of AMTSL to prevent PPH in low risk (home) births, further research concerning low-risk (home) births, supervised by midwives in industrialised countries is indicated. A national guideline containing best practices concerning management of the third stage of labour supervised by midwives, should be composed and implemented.
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to assess the level, type and content of pre-service education curricula of health workers providing maternity services against the ICM global standards for Midwifery Education and Essential competencies for midwifery practice. We reviewed the quality and relevance of pre-service education curricula of four cadres of health-care providers of maternity care in Northern Nigeria. ⋯ although the midwifery curriculum most closely reflects the ICM global standards for Midwifery Education and Essential competencies for midwifery practice, a revision of the competencies and content is required especially as it relates to the first year of training. There is an urgent need to modify the JCHEW and CHEW curricula by increasing the content and clinical hands-on experience of MNCH components of the curricula. Without effecting these changes, it is doubtful that graduates of the CHEW and JCHEW programmes have the requisite competencies needed to function adequately as skilled birth attendants in Health Centres, PHCs and MCHs, without direct supervision of a midwife or medical doctor with midwifery skills.
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to examine perceptions of mothers experiencing postpartum depression utilising the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), to explore relationships between illness perceptions, depression severity and perceptions of maternal bonding, and to assess the psychometric properties within this population. ⋯ the IPQ-R was shown to be a reliable measure of illness perceptions in mothers experiencing postpartum depression. The maternal illness perceptions endorsed in this study have implications for clinical practice. Interventions aimed at developing a more coherent understanding of depression may enhance beliefs of personal control over symptoms, reduce the number of perceived symptoms and associated emotional distress. Educating mothers regarding the benefits of interventions may be important in increasing the number of mothers accessing support for postpartum depression.