BACKGROUND Low birth weight continues to remain a major public health problem in Ethiopia in contrast to what is observed in many developing countries. OBJECTIVES To assess some of the predisposing factors to low birth weight among deliveries in Jimma hospital. DESIGN Cross-sectional case referent study. SETTING Maternal and child health clinic and maternity ward of Jimma University Hospi...

The aims of the study were (1) to establish the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) in the community sample, (2) to determine the stability and (3) the longitudinal pattern of elevated depression from pregnancy to postpartum. A sample of 272 women filled out the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) on three occasions: in the third trimester of pregnancy at the prenatal clinic, 2 da...

A 23-year-old gravid Ugandan female at 26 weeks was admitted to the maternity ward with sweats, abdominal pain, feeling of apprehension and palpitations. A diagnosis of pre-eclampsia was made and treatment with magnesium sulphate initiated. She was later transferred to intensive care unit for monitoring and control of blood pressure. Due to her labile blood pressures despite intravenous hydrala...

Health care task planning process is fundamentally a collaborative task that requires the participation of many health care professionals with different skills working simultaneously on same cases. However, most recent healthcare research has focused on methods mainly based on communication, rather than collaboration supports. We followed then a collaborative-based planning approach which const...

Subcapsular hematoma of the liver represents an unusual clinical phenomenon in the pregnancy and postpartum period with serious complications in terms of fetal and maternal mortality. Here we report a case of a 32-year-old primiparous female at 36 weeks of gestation, admitted to a maternity ward of a private clinic for preeclampsia. The woman underwent an emergency caesarean section with the ex...

OBJECTIVES to identify women with cardiovascular risk, five years after a pre-eclampsic episode (PE), and identify the follow-up of these women within the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde--SUS), in the city of Natal/RN. METHODS a quantitative and exploratory study conducted at the Januário Cicco University Maternity Ward/RN. The sample consisted of 130 women, 65 with a PE episode...

Reliably diagnosing pregnancy in women presenting with nonspecific abdominal pain can be lifesaving. If diagnostic tests are unreliable, however, valuable time and resources can be wasted pursuing unnecessary and potentially harmful interventions. After four false positive-urine pregnancy tests in one week, we began investigating the laboratory's entire process involving the UPreg tests. We dis...

Resumen This study aimed to assess the nurses’ perception on the nursing care provided to women facing the diagnosis of fetal death. Research with qualitative approach carried out in a maternity school in Fortaleza-CE, Brazil, from September to October 2009. The sample was composed of nine nurses who worked in the service of high-risk pregnancy. The results showed that the focus of assistance o...

A survey is reported of infant feeding practice at the time of discharge from a single maternity ward. It is shown that a change in the attitude of nursing staff increased the number of mothers breast feeding their infants and eliminated the practice of giving the infants formula feed complements. This change in attitude, however, did nothing to prevent the rapid decline in lactation after leav...

That was a convergent-care study, carried out in a maternity ward in the Southern Region of Brazil from April to May 2009, with the purpose to comprehend the meanings of premature mother-child skin-to-skin contact and relevant nursing contributions. Data were collected through participant observation and interviews involving nine mothers. Four categories were identified: a) predelivery orientat...