OBJECTIVES To explore the views of maternity service users and professionals towards obstetric consultant presence 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. DESIGN Semistructured interviews conducted face to face with maternity service users and professionals in March and April 2016. All responses were analysed together (ie, both service users' and professionals' responses) using an inductive thematic a...

BACKGROUND More mothers are choosing to return to work during the first 2 years of their child's life with an uncertain impact on early developmental outcomes. AIMS To determine the association between duration of maternity leave and motor and social development of toddlers. STUDY DESIGN Population-based, retrospective cohort study. SUBJECTS The Canadian National Longitudinal Survey on Ch...

BACKGROUND Out-of-hospital maternity care in Norway is randomly organised and not properly formalized. We wished to examine the extent, organisation and quality of this service. MATERIAL AND METHOD We obtained information from the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry on all unplanned out-of-hospital births in 2008. A questionnaire was sent to all maternity institutions, municipalities and emergen...

This paper evaluates the association of maternal variables and of variables related to prenatal and delivery care with cesarean sections at a public and at a private maternity. A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed at a public maternity clinic (2,889 deliveries) and at a private maternity clinic (2,911 deliveries) in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, Brazil. The prevale...

BACKGROUND Through the World Health Assembly Resolution, 'Health of Migrants', the international community has identified migrant health as a priority. Recommendations for general hospital care for international migrants in receiving-countries have been put forward by the Migrant Friendly Hospital Initiative; adaptations of these recommendations specific to maternity care have yet to be elucida...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The studies measured Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) for hospital births previously suffer from serious data limitations. To overcome such limitations, we designed a hospital-based study for measuring the levels and factors of OOPE on maternity care for hospital births by its detailed components. METHODS Data were collected from women for non-complicated deliveries 2...

Regular health care during pregnancy, birthing and the postnatal period is recommended for improving maternal and neonatal outcomes and accessing such care has become a common expectation for Australian families. Studies have highlighted the relative safety of birthing in rural hospitals even though these units are typically associated with low volumes of deliveries. Yet, in Queensland, the loc...

BACKGROUND Despite the provision of maternity leave offered to mothers, many American women fail to take leave. METHODS We developed an evidence-based maternity leave educational tool for working women in California using participatory design. We tested its short-term efficacy with a randomized controlled trial of pregnant English-speakers (n=155). RESULTS Among intervention participants ex...

OBJECTIVE To compare characteristics of family physicians planning to discontinue or stay in intrapartum care. DESIGN Self-administered questionnaire. SETTING Department of Family Practice at Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia. PARTICIPANTS Ninety-five family physicians who attended at least one birth at the Health Centre between April 1997 and August 1998. MAIN OU...

OBJECTIVE To identify parental leave policies and availability of support systems for new parents employed by children's hospitals and compare these benefits with those offered by Fortune 500 companies. DESIGN Telephone or facsimile survey of all (n=118) children's hospitals and pediatric medical centers in the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions 1995 Directo...