Maternal characteristics and birth outcomes resulting from births before arrival at health facilities in Nkangala District, South Africa: a case control study.

Background: Risks of severe, avoidable maternal and neonatal complications at birth are increased if the birth occurs before arrival at the health facility and in the absence of skilled birth attendants. Birth Before Arrival (BBA) is a preventable phenomenon still common in modern-day practice despite extensive improvements made in obstetric care and in accessibility to healthcare in South Africa. This study aimed to determine the risk factors and outcomes in mothers and babies associated with being born before arrival at hospitals.

Eclampsia at Ga-Rankuwa Hospital.

Objectives: To study the epidemiology of eclampsia and the maternal and fetal outcome of the disease.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: Ga-Rankuwa Hospital, a tertiary institution.

Sexual behaviour, contraceptive practice and reproductive health among school adolescents in rural Transkei.

Objectives: To determine the patterns of sexual maturation, sexual behaviour, contraceptive practice and reproductive health among Transkeian adolescents.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study, using self administered questionnaires.

Setting: Twenty-six schools in 22 rural districts of the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape.

Adolescent sexual behaviour, knowledge and attitudes to sexuality among school girls in Transkei, South Africa.

Teenagers make up a quarter of all mothers in Transkei, South Africa, and well over 75% of them are unmarried. Such a high rate of teenage pregnancy is indicative of a high level of unprotected adolescent sexual activity. We examined sexual behaviour, knowledge and attitudes to sexuality among adolescent school girls in Transkei, using a self-administered questionnaire, in order to establish the incidence of sexual activity, and associated risk factors.

Clinical presentation of ectopic pregnancy in Transkei, South Africa.

Due to advances in diagnostic techniques, it has become possible to identify and manage ectopic pregnancies before they cause clinical symptoms in many developed countries. However, the situation appears not to be the same in developing countries. We carried out a cross-sectional study at Umtata General Hospital, which serves an underprivileged black South African population in order to document the incidence, risk factors, clinical presentation and complications of ectopic pregnancy.

Surgical waiting lists I: Definition, desired characteristics and uses.

In the first of this two-part series, the authors define waiting lists, review the waiting list situation in Canada, discuss factors affecting such lists, outline their desired characteristics and describe the analysis and use of waiting list data. The manner in which lists are compiled results in significant differences which makes the meaning of waiting lists difficult to determine. From the literature reviewed and interviews with various health service executives, the authors show that waiting lists, as compiled today, are not a valid and reliable measure of the extent of unmet demands for hospital care.