One-company towns, characterized by the presence of a large employer in a local labor market, are a frequent legacy of state-led development strategies. How will downsizing or closing unprofitable state-owned enterprises affect these towns? This article develops a simple model combining monopsony power in the labor market with a Keynesian closure of the product market and uses it to interpret t...

James Young Simpson was one of the first obstetricians to administer anesthesia during childbirth in nineteenth century Scotland. Before his work in the 1800s, physicians had few ways to reduce the pain of childbirth. Simpson experimented with the use of ether and chloroform, both gaseous chemicals, to temporarily relieve pain. He found that those chemicals both successfully inhibited the pain ...

BACKGROUND Women's satisfaction with childbirth is an important measure of the quality of maternity care services. This study aims to address factors related to women's childbirth satisfaction in physiological and routine childbirth groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS This descriptive-analytical study was conducted among 340 women in physiological and routine childbirth groups in 2012. Women were s...

BACKGROUND The fertility behavior of Iranian women and their reproductive needs is changing and consequently, for providing good services, it is critical to monitor their reproductive behavior at a national level.  METHODS This study was carried out by Avicenna Research Institute in the urban and rural parts of Iran between 2010 and 2011. Using cluster sampling, the reproductive history of 17...

BACKGROUND Childbirth fear is linked with lower labor pain tolerance and worse postpartum adjustment. Empirically validated childbirth preparation options are lacking for pregnant women facing this problem. Mindfulness approaches, now widely disseminated, can alleviate symptoms of both chronic and acute pain and improve psychological adjustment, suggesting potential benefit when applied to chil...

Investigating childbirth, one of the biggest moments of a woman’s life, this thesis examines the reasons behind women’s preferred birthing methods. This research explores the fundamental decisions women make during the birthing process: the amount of prenatal care mothers will receive, the type of health care provider they will use, picking the place of delivery, views on technological and medi...

BACKGROUND Childbirth is a demanding event in a woman's life. The aim of this study was to explore whether a brief intervention in the form of an antenatal course in self-hypnosis to ease childbirth could improve the childbirth experience. METHOD In a randomized, controlled, single-blinded trial, 1,222 healthy nulliparous women were allocated to one of three groups during pregnancy: A hypnosi...

Annually, many women become pregnant worldwide; however, pregnancy and childbirth is not a pleasant event for all them. In fact, more than 90% of maternal anxiety could be related to the delivery process. It should be noted that delivery is also a stressful event that sometimes, due to different reasons and in order to avoid its potential hazards which could threaten the lives of mother and bab...