abstract background: despite the scientific and medical advances for management of complicated health issues, the current maternity care setting has increased risks for healthy women and their babies. the aim of this study was to conduct an overview of published systematic reviews on the interventions used most commonly for management of normal labor and delivery in the first stage of labor. ma...

BACKGROUND There is increasing demand for trainers to shift from traditional didactic training to innovative approaches that are more results-oriented. Mentorship is one such approach that could bridge the clinical knowledge gap among health workers. OBJECTIVES This paper describes the experiences of an attempt to improve health-worker performance in maternal and newborn health in three rural...

BACKGROUND While international guidelines for intrapartum care appear to have increased rapidly since 2000, literature suggests that it has only in few instances been matched with reviews of local modifications, use, and impact at the targeted low resource facilities. At a Tanzanian referral hospital, this paper describes the development process of locally achievable, partograph-associated, and...

INTRODUCTION There are many non-pharmacological methods for relieving labor pain. The preferable method is certainly the one that is effective and harmless. Therefore, we decided to compare the efficacy of massage therapy and breathing techniques on pain intensity, physiological responses to labor pain, labor type and the outcomes. METHODS A quasi-experimental study was conducted in Alzahra H...

background: misoprostol, a prostaglandin e1 analogue compared to prostaglandin e2, has the advantage of being inexpensive and stable at room temperature, with its proven efficacy and safety. however studies on the effect of ph on the efficacy of misoprostol have yielded conflicting results. thus its use in the induction of labour in patients with premature rupture of membrane requires further i...

OBJECTIVE Delivery by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) serves as an indicator of progress towards reducing maternal mortality worldwide -- the fifth Millennium Development Goal. Though WHO tracks the proportion of women delivered by SBAs, we know little about their competence to manage common life-threatening obstetric complications. We assessed SBA competence in five high maternal mortality set...

BACKGROUND Proper monitoring of labor and childbirth prevents many pregnancy-related complications. However, monitoring is still poor in many places partly due to the usability concerns of support tools such as the partograph. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the development and evaluation of context-adaptable electronic health solutions to health challenges. Computerized...