OBJECTIVE To investigate women's own labour pain perception, experiences and satisfaction with health care providers at a referral hospital of Sindh. METHODS A descriptive study conducted on 400 labouring women at Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department Unit-II and IV Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad/Jamshoro from January 2006 to July 2006. Four hundred full term labouring women in first s...

The growth of the Malaysian economy has gone through several phases and strategies from inputdriven to productivity-driven and knowledge-based-driven, which is in line with the world scenario. The knowledge-based-driven of economic growth is crucial as it will raise level of competitiveness of the country, especially in facing the world challenges. This paper attempts to observe to what extent ...

BACKGROUND In developing countries such as Pakistan, poor training of mid-level cadres of health providers, combined with unregulated availability of labour-inducing medication can carry considerable risk for mother and child during labour. Here, we describe the exposure to labour-inducing medication and its possible risks in a vulnerable population in a conflict-affected region of Pakistan. ...

• Most of the urban poor in developing countries spend their lives in insecure, poorly paid jobs • They participate in economic growth, and adjust to economic change, through urban labour markets • Pro-poor urbanisation requires labour intensive growth, supported by labour protection, flexible land use regulation and investments in basic services U rbanisation is taking place on a massive scale...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the impact of caesarean delivery on the incidence of selected neonatal outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS A 15-year, population-based, cohort study (1988-2002) using the Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database compared neonatal outcomes in term newborns born by spontaneous and assisted vaginal delivery, with newborns born by caesarean delivery, with and without labour, using mu...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of a birth ball exercise programme conducted by physiotherapists on pain relief, psychological care, and facilitation of the labour process at a labour ward in a regional hospital. DESIGN Case series with before-after comparisons. SETTING Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS Chinese women admitted to the labour ward for spontaneous vaginal delive...

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is the primary cause of the neonatal mortality and morbidity. There will be no preterm birth without a cervical softening. Nitric oxide (NO) is shown to be a mediator of term cervical ripening. The aim of this study was to investigate mRNA expression of the three isomers of NO synthases (NOS) and to identify them by immunohistochemistry in the human cervix at preterm bi...

This paper addresses labour market aspects of new immigrants in host countries with a specific emphasis on the Netherlands. In general, it can be stated that in the Netherlands immigrant groups have not been absorbed very wel1 in the labour market and that to some extent the dual labour market approach is applicable to the Dutch situation. Furthermore, future labour market developments in weste...

The transitions from a predominant manufacturing sector to a dominant service sector, from a male dominated labour market to an increase of female workers, and from a stable employment structure to a flexible one are the three most prominent characteristics of labour market changes in advanced economies. This paper has three objectives: i) to empirically examine labour market transitions in dei...

To investigate labour-associated changes in production of activin and related hormones by gestational tissues we prepared extracts from amnion, choriodecidual and placental tissues delivered at term before labour (TNL; n=15), at term after spontaneous labour (TSL; n=15) or preterm (PTD; n=31) and measured concentrations of inhibin A, activin A and follistatin by ELISA. Activin concentrations in...