Background: Many factors affect exclusive breastfeeding, include method of delivery, parity, maternal age and education, smoking, ethnicity, pregnancy complications, infant health, and environmental factors such as hospital practices, and social support. Recently, maternal obesity has been suggested as a risk factor for poor breast-feeding practices whose role has not...

BACKGROUND There is dearth of evidence on provider cost of contracted out services particularly for Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH). The evidence base is weak for policy makers to estimate resources required for scaling up contracting. This paper ascertains provider unit costs and expenditure distribution at contracted out government primary health centers to inform the development of optimal...

background: health literacy includes the ability to understand instructions come from health workers and units, cognitive and social skills and the competence to use such information and services in ways, which are health-enhancing. antenatal care is an important key for a healthy maternity. maternal health literacy and particular cognitive and social skills required for healthy maternity inclu...

Non-communicable diseases now account for the majority of the global burden of disease and an international campaign has emerged to raise their priority on the post-2015 development agenda. We argue, to the contrary, that there remain strong reasons to prioritize maternal and child health. Policy-makers ought to assign highest priority to the health conditions that afflict the worst off. In vir...

BACKGROUND There is increasing demand for trainers to shift from traditional didactic training to innovative approaches that are more results-oriented. Mentorship is one such approach that could bridge the clinical knowledge gap among health workers. OBJECTIVES This paper describes the experiences of an attempt to improve health-worker performance in maternal and newborn health in three rural...

introduction preterm birth is still a major health problem throughout the world. preterm birth results in 75% of neonatal mortality. we sought to identify risk factors which cause preterm birth. materials and methods this cross-sectional study assessed all preterm neonates born in asali hospital in khorram abad (either by nvd or c/s) during the first 6 months of 2007. sampling method was census...

backgroundseveral studies have examined the relationship between human development index (hdi) and various health outcomes. the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between hdi, and infant mortality rate, mortality rate of children under one year and under 5 years, maternal mortality rate, and total fertility rate.materials and methodsin this ecologic study, data on hdi, total ...

Background:Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with multiple organ involvement and periods of relapse and remission that mainly affects young women of childbearing age. In this regard the reproductive health is an important issue. Although diagnosis, treatment and management of pregnancy in SLE women have been improved recently, but the main concern is effects of SLE on ...

BACKGROUND Reducing neonatal mortality is a major public health priority in sub-Saharan Africa. Numerous studies have examined the determinants of neonatal mortality, but few have explored neonatal danger signs which potentially cause morbidity. This study assessed danger signs observed in neonates at birth, determined the correlations of multiple danger signs and complications between neonates...