OBJECTIVES To estimate the cost-effectiveness of a planned birth in a birth centre compared with alternative planned places of birth for low-risk women. In addition, a distinction has been made between different types of locations and integration profiles of birth centres. DESIGN Economic evaluation based on a prospective cohort study. SETTING 21 Dutch birth centres, 46 hospital locations w...

Changes in population birth outcomes, including increases in low birthweight or preterm births, have been documented after natural and manmade disasters. However, information is limited following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster. In this study, we assessed whether there were long-term changes in birth outcomes post-disaster, compared to pre-disaster data, and whether resi...

OBJECTIVES The Republic of Korea (Korea) has experienced a steady increase in the number of births from immigrant women over the last 20 years. However, little is known about the birth outcomes of immigrant women in Korea. This study compared Korean birth data from immigrant and native women who married native men, and explored the factors that affected birth outcomes among immigrant women. D...

INTRODUCTION The birth center, a relatively recent innovation in maternity care, is an increasingly popular location of birth. The purpose of this integrative literature review is to assess the research on maternal outcomes from birth center care. METHODS Using methods by Whittemore and Knafl, we conducted an integrative review of studies of birth centers published in English since 1980. Twen...

OBJECTIVES Previous studies indicate that nulliparous women (i.e., women having no previous births) are at higher risk for adverse birth outcomes than multiparous women (i.e., women having had at least one previous birth). We examined whether part of the difference in adverse outcome rates is attributable to nulliparous women with poor pregnancy outcomes being less likely (through choice or fec...

stress is a word that can be used to explain the way we feel, or it can be used to describe something that happens to someone. for most pregnant woman, pregnancy is a happy and breathtaking time, however, pregnant for some woman can be a source of stress, depression and anxiety. these factors can be risk factors for adverse outcomes for mothers and children. anxiety in pregnancy is associated w...

BACKGROUND Earthquakes and other catastrophic events frequently occurring worldwide can be considered as outliers and cause a growing and urgent need to improve our understanding of the negative effects imposed by such disasters. Earthquakes can intensively impact the birth outcomes upon psychological and morphological development of the unborn children, albeit detailed characteristics remain o...

background: to compare the pregnancy outcomes after two embryos versus three embryos transfers (ets) in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (ivf)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (icsi) cycles. materials and methods: this retrospective study was performed on three hundred eighty seven women with primary infertility and with at least one fresh embryo in good quality in order to transfer at e...

From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes Lower birth weight babies have worse outcomes, both short-run in terms of one-year mortality rates and longer run in terms of educational attainment and earnings. However, recent research has called into question whether birth weight itself is important or whether it simply reflects other hard-to-measure character...