BACKGROUND An effective emergency referral transport system is the link between the home of the pregnant woman and a health facility providing basic or comprehensive emergency obstetric care. This study attempts to explore the role of emergency transport associated with maternal deaths in Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh (UP). METHODS A descriptive study was carried out to assess the causes of a...

Background Motherhood is a time of anticipation of joy for a woman, her family, and her community. In spite of this fact, it is not as enjoyable as it should be because of numerous reasons. Insufficiency or lack of birth preparedness and complication readiness is the most common reason. The aim of this study was to assess the practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness and associa...

OBJECTIVE To define the contribution of maternal variables which influence the measured level of maternal serum placental growth factor (PlGF) in screening for pregnancy complications. METHODS Maternal characteristics and medical history were recorded and serum levels of PlGF were measured in women with a singleton pregnancy attending for three routine hospital visits at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6, 19 ...

BACKGROUND Neonatal encephalopathy (NE) is a major predictor of death and long-term neurologic disability, but there are few studies of antecedents of NE. OBJECTIVES To identify antecedents in a large registry of infants who had NE. METHODS This was a maternal and infant record review of 4165 singleton neonates, gestational age of ≥ 36 weeks, meeting criteria for inclusion in the Vermont Ox...

Despite the dramatic decline in maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality over the past few decades, controversy still exists regarding the care of pregnant women with both pregestational and gestational diabetes mellitus. Carbohydrate intolerance is the most common metabolic complication of pregnancy. A review of the literature over the last two decades indicates that the incidence of ges...

The remodeling of maternal uterine spiral arteries (SAs) is an essential process for ensuring low-resistance, high-capacitance blood flow to the growing fetus. Failure of SAs to remodel is causally associated with preeclampsia, a common and life-threatening complication of pregnancy that is harmful to both mother and fetus. Here, using both loss-of-function and gain-of-function genetic mouse mo...

Objective. Asthma is a common clinical complication of pregnancy and women with asthma are at greater risk of having complications. This study compared adverse maternal outcomes between women with asthma and women without asthma in Nevada. Methods. A total of 64,664 hospital discharges of delivery were abstracted from the Nevada 2003-2004 hospital discharges and thirteen adverse maternal outcom...

OBJECTIVE Adipose tissue dysfunction, characterized by dysregulation of adipokines production and/or secretion, has been implicated in the pathophysiology of type-2 diabetes mellitus, a metabolic complication closely related to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Recently, an association between circulating maternal visfatin, a novel adipokine with metabolic and immunoregulatory properties, an...

OBJECTIVE to develop and validate a questionnaire on severe maternal morbidity and to evaluate the maternal recall of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. DESIGN validity of a questionnaire as diagnostic instrument. SETTING a third level referral maternity in Campinas, Brazil. POPULATION 386 survivors of severe maternal complications and 123 women that delivered without majo...

BACKGROUND Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) have been a subject of discussion in the provision of maternal and newborn health care. The objective of this study was to assess the role of trained traditional birth attendants in maternal and newborn health care in Afar Regional State of Ethiopia. METHODS A qualitative study was used where 21 in-depth interviews and 6 focus group discussions w...