pregnancy and childbirth group

Benefits of antenatal education for childbirth, and the best educational approaches to use, remain unclear. Antenatal education aims to help prospective parents prepare for childbirth and parenthood. Prospective parents often look to antenatal education to provide important information on issues such as decision making about and during labour, skills ...

Mental illness during pregnancy and the postnatal period can consist of a short period of mood swings, crying spells, irritability (baby blues), depression and postnatal psychosis. Postnatal depression (PND) falls along this spectrum. The morbidity caused by PND is enormous. Possible symptoms can include depressive mood, loss of interest or pleasure ...

Immunisation of Rhesus negative women with anti-D after the birth of a Rhesus positive infant reduces the chances of developing Rhesus antibodies. Mothers and babies may have incompatible blood characteristics (such as Rhesus positive babies and Rhesus negative mothers). After the birth of a Rhesus positive infant, Rhesus negative women are given an ...

Not enough evidence to say if local anaesthetics applied to the perineum help to relieve perineal pain after childbirth. The perineum is the area between a woman's vagina and rectum, which may be traumatised during childbirth following a tear or a surgical cut (episiotomy). Local anaesthetics are easy to use and inexpensive, but their effectiveness ...

Rectal suppositories give short-term pain relief for perineal trauma after childbirth. Women often suffer pain if their birth involves trauma to the perineum (area between the vagina and the anus). This trauma can result from an episiotomy (surgical cut) or from a tear that requires stitching. There are ways to reduce the possibility of trauma, but ...

Continuous support in labour increased the chance of a spontaneous vaginal birth, had no harm, and women were more satisfied. Historically women have been attended and supported by other women during labour and birth. However in many countries, as more women are giving birth in hospital rather than at home, continuous support during labour has become ...

Women naturally gain weight during pregnancy and many gradually lose it afterwards. Some women, though, find it difficult to lose the pregnancy-related weight during postpartum and there is concern that this may be a health risk. The retention of weight gained during pregnancy may contribute to obesity. Obesity in the general population increases the ...

Women's experiences of pain in labour are variable and complex but the intensity of pain can be made worse by fear, tension and anxiety. Techniques such as hypnosis have been proposed as ways to help deal with these fears and anxieties. Hypnosis is an altered state of conscious awareness that involves, in part, a focus of attention to reduce awareness ...

Approximately 70% of women who have a vaginal birth will experience some degree of damage to the perineum, due to a tear or cut (episiotomy), and will need stitches. This damage may result in perineal pain during the two weeks after the birth, and some women experience long-term pain and discomfort during sexual intercourse. The impact of perineal trauma ...

Almost all maternal deaths occur in the developing world. Bleeding during labour is responsible for at least a quarter of these deaths, with the majority due to postpartum haemorrhage. Failure of the muscles of the uterus to contract properly with separation of the placenta is the most common cause of postpartum haemorrhage. One of the leading causes ...