Assessment of knowledge and practices of exclusive breastfeeding among rural women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt: a cross sectional study.

Background: Worldwide exclusive breastfeeding is still recommended as a successful strategy even during the COVID -19 pandemic to lower infant morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and practices of exclusive breastfeeding among rural women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at EL-Morabeen Family Medicine Center in rural Damietta, Egypt among 178 lactating women who were chosen by using the purposive sampling technique.

Implementation of a labour companionship model in three public hospitals in Arab middle-income countries.

Aim: To assess the feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness and cost of the integration of a tailored labour companionship model in three public hospitals in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.

Methods: Phased implementation research using mixed methods. Implementation strategies consisted of steering committees in hospitals, seminars for healthcare providers, information, education and communication materials, and adjustments in labour rooms.

Women's satisfaction and perception of control in childbirth in three Arab countries.

Women's satisfaction and perceived control in childbirth are important attributes of the childbirth experience and quality of care indicators. This article presents findings from the pre-intervention phase of a multi-centre implementation study in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, to introduce a labour companionship model in these countries. A sample of 2620 women giving birth in three public teaching hospitals from November 2014 to July 2015 in Beirut and Mansoura, and from November 2014 to April 2015 in Damascus were interviewed by trained field workers.

Perceptions about labor companionship at public teaching hospitals in three Arab countries.

Objective: To explore the perspectives of women, female relatives, and healthcare providers on labor companionship.

Methods: In a qualitative study, data were collected from women giving birth, female family members, and healthcare staff via semi-structured interviews in three large public teaching hospitals in Beirut (Lebanon), Damascus (Syria), and Mansoura (Egypt) between May and December 2012. Focus groups were conducted with midwives, nurses, and medical residents.

The effect of aromatherapy abdominal massage on alleviating menstrual pain in nursing students: a prospective randomized cross-over study.

Dysmenorrhea is a common cause of sickness absenteeism from both classes and work. This study investigated the effect of aromatherapy massage on a group of nursing students who are suffering of primary dysmenorrhea. A randomized blind clinical trial of crossover design was used.

A multicenter study of the awareness and attitudes of Egyptian faculty towards research ethics: a pilot study.

The awareness and attitudes of faculty towards research ethics committees (RECs) and research ethics practices are largely unknown. Accordingly, we conducted a cross-sectional survey study involving various faculties (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry) from four universities in Egypt. A large majority (> 85%) held positive attitudes towards RECs, but almost a third thought that RECs would delay research.

'She would help me from the heart': an ethnography of Egyptian women in labour.

This article reports an ethnographic study of the intrapartum care of women who were expecting normal births in an Egyptian hospital. The study involved observations of labouring women, and interviews with them shortly after they had given birth. The data were synthesised into three themes: the epistemology of hospital care, characterised by 'technical touch'; women's experience of hospital childbirth, which was contrasted unfavourably with home birth experiences; and women's epistemology of birth, which was characterised by 'helping from the heart'.