Parents are expected to evolve tactics to care for eggs or offspring when providing such care increases fitness above the costs incurred by this behavior. Costs to the parent include the energetic demands of protecting offspring, delaying future fecundity, and increased risk of predation. We used cost-benefit models to test the ecological conditions favoring the evolution of parental care, usin...

background  the aim of this study was determine the effect of kangaroo mother care (kmc) immediately after delivery on mother-infant attachment 3-month after delivery. materials and methods: in this rct study, 72 mother-infant pairs were randomly divided in to kangaroo mother care and routine care groups.the intervention group received kangaroo mother care (kmc) in the first two hours post birt...

BACKGROUND Regular utilization of maternal health care services reduces maternal morbidity and mortality. This study assessed the maternal health care seeking behavior and associated factors of reproductive age women in rural villages of Haramaya district, East Ethiopia. METHODS Community based cross sectional study supplemented with qualitative data was conducted in Haramaya district from No...

Evolutionary transitions among maternal, paternal, and bi-parental care have been common in many animal groups. We use a mathematical model to examine the effect of male and female life-history characteristics (stage-specific maturation and mortality) on evolutionary transitions among maternal, paternal, and bi-parental care. When males and females are relatively similar - that is, when females...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess factors affecting substandard care and probable medical errors associated with obstetric hemorrhage and HDP at a Northwestern Iranian health care system. METHODS In a community-based descriptive cross-sectional study, data on all maternal deaths occurred at West Azerbaijan Province, Iran during a period of 10 years from March 21, 2002 to March 20, 2011 wa...

The government of Ghana and key stakeholders have put into place several interventions aimed at reducing maternal deaths. At the institutional level, the conduct of maternal deaths audit has been instituted. This also contributes to reducing maternal deaths as shortcomings that may have contributed to such deaths could be identified to inform best practice and forestall such occurrences in the ...

Millennium Development Goal 5 has not been universally achieved, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding whether maternal deaths occur during pregnancy, childbirth, or puerperium is important to effectively plan maternal health programs and allocate resources. Our main research objectives are to (1) describe the proportions and rates of mortality for the antepartum, intrapartum, and p...

BACKGROUND Understanding the strategies that health care providers employ in order to invite men to participate in maternal health care is very vital especially in today's dynamic cultural environment. Effective utilization of such strategies is dependent on uncovering the salient issues that facilitate male participation in maternal health care. This paper examines and describes the strategies...

BACKGROUND In the past decade, a body of animal and human research has revealed a profound influence of early-life experiences, ranging from variations in parenting behaviour to severe adversity, on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation in adulthood. In our own previous studies, we have shown how variations in early-life parental care influence the development of the hippocampus and mo...

BACKGROUND Maternal health care provision remains a major challenge in developing countries. There is agreement that the provision of quality clinical services is essential if high rates of maternal death are to be reduced. However, despite efforts to improve access to these services, a high number of women in Tanzania do not access them. The aim of this study is to explore women's views about ...