BACKGROUND: Pregnancy loss that includes both miscarriage and stillbirth cause significant psychological distress for women including anxiety, depression, and grief that persist long after physical recovery. This study focuses on the experiences of women in Pakistan, where pregnancy loss rates are high.
OBJECTIVE: To explore how pregnant women with anxiety symptoms and a history of pregnancy loss perceive their past experiences with the loss and how it affects overall well-being in their current pregnancy.
METHODS: Qualitative methods were used to explore the impact of previous pregnancy loss on the well-being of pregnant women.
METHODS: This qualitative research was embedded within a randomized control trial conducted in a tertiary care facility in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
METHODS: Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 18 pregnant women who had experienced pregnancy loss. Data was analyzed using Framework Analysis.
RESULTS: The findings revealed several factors influencing participants\' well-being during pregnancies that resulted in a loss, such as unsupportive and abusive environments, unintended pregnancies, certain superstitious beliefs, poor health, and lack of access to quality healthcare. The study also highlighted the adverse impact of previous pregnancy loss on the ongoing pregnancy, including deterioration of physical and mental health and aversion of healthcare services. However, some participants reported positive changes in medical and self-care practices and an enhanced faith and reliance on destiny in their subsequent pregnancies.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights the lasting impact of past pregnancy loss on subsequent pregnancies, affecting overall wellbeing and leading to healthcare avoidance. We identified persistent anxiety along with positive outcomes like enhanced medical practices and strengthened faith. Results suggest the need for culturally responsive interventions to support the overall well-being of anxious pregnant women with a history of pregnancy loss in resource-constrained settings.

Unplanned or unwanted pregnancies and births are linked to adverse maternal outcomes, but the extent to which such relationships hold for all racial/ethnic groups remains unknown. In this paper, I use large-scale data to estimate unadjusted and inverse propensity weighted associations between a five-level measure of pregnancy intention and six indicators of maternal well-being among separate samples of white, Black, and Hispanic mothers. I find substantial racial/ethnic variation. White and Hispanic mothers who reported that their pregnancies were mistimed, unwanted, or that they were unsure how they felt were significantly more likely to experience adverse outcomes than same-race/ethnicity mothers who reported that their pregnancy was intended, but the pattern was much more tenuous for Black mothers. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, relationships between pregnancy intentions and adverse outcomes remain substantial only for white and Hispanic mothers.

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UNASSIGNED: Both mental maternal health and breastfeeding difficulties impact maternal and infant health. The present study analyses the association between psychosocial and breastfeeding variables and maternal mental health.
UNASSIGNED: The participants were 107 first-time mothers from Chile. Sociodemographic variables and breastfeeding difficulties were assessed at 6 weeks postpartum. Depression and anxiety symptoms, parental self-efficacy, and perceived social support were measured using validated, self-report questionnaires at 6 weeks and 5 months postpartum. This study is a secondary analysis of an intervention trial.
UNASSIGNED: 76% of the women reported having experienced some breastfeeding difficulty in the first postpartum weeks. The number of breastfeeding difficulties was associated with maternal mental health symptoms at 6 weeks postpartum and parental self-efficacy at both assessment times. Women who did not experience breastfeeding difficulties presented significantly fewer depressive (t(102) = 2.5, p = .015) and anxiety symptoms (t(50) = 2.3, p = .028) at 6 weeks postpartum than those who did. Mothers who exclusively breastfed at 5 months postpartum presented significantly higher parental self-efficacy (t(94) = 2.4, p = .044). A higher number of breastfeeding difficulties and low perceived social support contributed to higher depressive symptoms (R2 = .30; F(3,103) = 14.6, p < .001), anxiety symptoms (R2 = .32, F(3.103) = 17.27, p < .001) and lower parental self-efficacy at 6 weeks postpartum (R2 = .39; F(2,103) = 9.4, p < .001).
UNASSIGNED: Breastfeeding difficulties and social support are associated with fewer mental health symptoms and higher parental self-efficacy during early postpartum in first-time mothers.

This study aims to measure acceptability, feasibility, and satisfaction with self-traction during mechanical cervical dilatation to induce labour and to explore its effects on pain and the process of labour and delivery. 60 parturients were randomly assigned to self-traction or regular traction. Participants completed questionnaires about sociodemographic characteristics, acceptability, and satisfaction. Self-traction participants reported significantly higher acceptability (P = 0.026), and adequacy (P = 0.018). They also reported satisfaction with the procedure. A group comparison regarding feasibility, pain, and the process of labour and delivery showed no significant difference. Self-traction is an acceptable and feasible intervention for full-term parturients.

OBJECTIVE: Intraoperative warming is recommended for surgical patients under anesthesia, but there are insufficient studies on this topic in cesarean delivery patients under spinal anesthesia. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of active warming on the mother and newborn during elective cesarean section.
METHODS: This research was carried out in an experimental design with a pretest-posttest randomized intervention and control group.
METHODS: The research was conducted with 34 women (17 intervention and 17 control), who gave birth by cesarean section. The study examined outcomes for both mother and newborn. Women in the intervention group were heated by both active (warmed with carbon fiber resistive underbody heaters during surgery) and passive heating (preoperative- socks, nonelectrified wool blankets, etc). Only passive heating methods were applied to the women in the control group (preoperative). Neonatal Activity - Pulse - Grimace - Appearence - Respiration (APGAR) score, body temperature, cortisol, and blood glucose levels in the intervention and control groups were evaluated, while body temperature and shivering conditions were evaluated in the mother.
RESULTS: Body temperature and first minute APGAR score of the infants in the intervention and control groups after cesarean section were 36.88 ± 0.27, 36.52 ± 0.32 (P = .002); 7.00 ± 0.36, 7.47 ± 0.64 (P = .009), respectively. Cortisol and blood glucose levels in the intervention and control groups were 3.55 ± 1.09, 4.51 ± 0.70 (P = .010), 77.94 ± 7.07, 72.47 ± 10.24 (P > .05), respectively. The body temperatures of the women in the intervention and control groups at 15, 30, and 45 minutes were significantly different (P < .05), while they were similar (P > .05) at 60 minutes. Oxygen saturation measured at 30 minutes during the operation was 97.10 ± 1.41 in the intervention group and 95.20 ± 1.78 in the control group (P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS: Active warming before, during, and after cesarean section affected body temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation of women, and while it increased the body temperature and APGAR score of newborns, it decreased cortisol level.

In recent years, the concept of quality of life (QoL) has gained significant importance within health care and clinical research, e.g., as in patient-reported outcomes. In gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) care, enhancing QoL through reasonable interventions is considered equally important as achieving metabolic control and preventing complications in the treatment process, leading to the suggestion that QoL assessment should be implemented as a clinical standard in GDM care. Although a considerable number of questionnaires for the measurement of general as well as health-related and diabetes-specific QoL are frequently used in GDM research, a validated QoL questionnaire tailored to women with GDM does not exist in German-speaking countries. To develop and test such an instrument, we plan to conduct the following steps: (a) translate the Persian questionnaire GDMQ-36, the only GDM-specific questionnaire to date; (b) conduct expert ratings as well as pretests featuring cognitive debriefings and structured interviews with women suffering from GDM for evaluating comprehensibility, face and content validity; (c) pilot and validate the preliminary questionnaire in terms of testing its psychometric performance (e.g., via confirmatory factor analysis). The resulting GDM-specific questionnaire will facilitate a broader perspective of the pregnant women\'s expectations, needs, impairments, and burdens related to their disease, and its treatment. This enables physicians and other health professionals to establish an individualized treatment plan and to provide customized information, support, and psychological counseling, which helps to optimize the provided care.

The ventricular septal defect (VSD) represents the most common congenital heart defect (CHD). The diagnosis of and cardiac surgery for their child\'s VSD are highly stressful experiences for parents; especially mothers, who are at risk of developing long-lasting stress-related symptoms. This study examined long-term alterations in maternal stress including self-reported psychological and biophysiological stress levels in a case-control design. We investigated 24 mothers of children with an isolated, surgically corrected VSD compared to non-affected controls. Maternal self-reports on psychopathology, everyday stress, parenting stress and hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) were measured during children\'s primary school age (6-9 years, t1) and early adolescence (10-14 years, t2). In maternal self-reports, psychopathology and stress symptoms in the VSD-group and controls were comparable at t1, whereas at t2, mothers in the VSD-group even showed a decrease in psychopathology. Maternal HCC levels in the VSD-group were significantly lower (hypocortisolism) than HCC levels of controls at t1. This effect was no longer observed at t2 reflecting an approximation of HCC levels in the VSD-group to controls\' levels. This study highlights the potential for improved stress hormone balance and psychological well-being in mothers following their child\'s surgical VSD repair. However, the need for parent-centered interventions is discussed, particularly during peri-operative phases and in early child developmental stages.

Approximately 27% of female breast cancer patients are diagnosed before the age of 55, a group often comprising mothers with young children. Maternal psychosocial well-being significantly impacts these children\'s psychosocial well-being. This study assesses the well-being of children with mothers who have early-onset breast cancer.
We examined the eldest child (up to 15 years old) of women with nonmetastatic breast cancer (<55 years old, mean age: 40) enrolled in the mother-child rehab program \'get well together\'. Using maternal reports on children\'s well-being (the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; SDQ), we describe the prevalence of abnormally high SDQ scores and identify protective and risk factors via linear regression.
The mean SDQ scores of 496 children (4-15 years old, mean age: 8) fell below the thresholds, indicating psychosocial deficits. However, most SDQ scores deviated negatively from the general population, especially for emotional problems, with one in ten children displaying high and one in five displaying very high deficits. Female sex, more siblings, a positive family environment and maternal psychosocial well-being were protective factors for children\'s psychosocial well-being.
Children of mothers with breast cancer may benefit from improved maternal well-being and family support. Further research is needed to identify appropriate interventions.

Depression occurring during pregnancy, often known as antenatal depression, is a significant mental illness with negative impacts on the mother\'s health, the health of the unborn baby, and the general welfare of the family. The condition is linked to various negative pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, elevated risks of gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia. The signs and symptoms of depression in pregnancy do not differ from depression at any time. Another condition that may resemble symptoms of antenatal depression is hyperthyroidism, which is characterized by increased levels of thyroid hormones. Excessive levels of thyroid hormones can impact mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. It is crucial to differentiate between symptoms related to thyroid function and clinical depression. This case report could serve as a comprehensive approach addressing the management of antenatal depression with hyperthyroidism. This often involves a multidisciplinary approach, which includes collaboration between obstetricians, endocrinologists, and mental health professionals.