Assessment of the pelvic and body interface pressure during different recumbent and semi-recumbent birthing positions.

Background: Childbirth, a multifaceted physiological event, undergoes dynamic changes influenced significantly by the chosen birthing position, impacting comfort and maternal and neonatal outcomes among other factors. This study aimed to investigate the bed-body interface pressure across five commonly adopted birthing positions, particularly focusing on their influence on pelvic expansion biomechanics during labour.

Methods: Twenty healthy participants, aged between 18 and 49 years, were evaluated.

Assessing safe and personalised maternity and neonatal care through a pandemic: a case study of outcomes and experiences in two trusts in England using the ASPIRE COVID-19 framework.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in profound and far-reaching impacts on maternal and newborn care and outcomes. As part of the ASPIRE COVID-19 project, we describe processes and outcome measures relating to safe and personalised maternity care in England which we map against a pre-developed ASPIRE framework to establish the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for two UK trusts.

Methods: We undertook a mixed-methods system-wide case study using quantitative routinely collected data and qualitative data from two Trusts and their service users from 2019 to 2021 (start and completion dates varied by available data).

Views from women and maternity care professionals on routine discussion of previous trauma in the perinatal period: A qualitative evidence synthesis.

Background: Over a third of pregnant women (around 250,000) each year in the United Kingdom have experienced trauma such as domestic abuse, childhood trauma or sexual assault. These experiences can have a long-term impact on women's mental and physical health. This global qualitative evidence synthesis explores the views of women and maternity care professionals on routine discussion of previous trauma in the perinatal period.

Making maternity and neonatal care personalised in the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the Babies Born Better survey in the UK and the Netherlands.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on women's birth experiences. To date, there are no studies that use both quantitative and qualitative data to compare women's birth experiences before and during the pandemic, across more than one country.

Aim: To examine women's birth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the experiences of women who gave birth in the United Kingdom (UK) or the Netherlands (NL) either before or during the pandemic.

Resilience and post-traumatic growth in the transition to motherhood during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploratory study.

Most perinatal research relating to COVID-19 focuses on its negative impact on maternal and parental mental health. Currently, there are limited data on how to optimise positive health during the pandemic. We aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring how women have adapted to becoming a new parent during the pandemic and to identify elements of resilience and growth within their narratives.

The United Kingdom and the Netherlands maternity care responses to COVID-19: A comparative study.

Background: The national health care response to coronavirus (COVID-19) has varied between countries. The United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands (NL) have comparable maternity and neonatal care systems, and experienced similar numbers of COVID-19 infections, but had different organisational responses to the pandemic. Understanding why and how similarities and differences occurred in these two contexts could inform optimal care in normal circumstances, and during future crises.

Companionship for women/birthing people using antenatal and intrapartum care in England during COVID-19: a mixed-methods analysis of national and organisational responses and perspectives.

Objectives: To explore stakeholders' and national organisational perspectives on companionship for women/birthing people using antenatal and intrapartum care in England during COVID-19, as part of the Achieving Safe and Personalised maternity care In Response to Epidemics (ASPIRE) COVID-19 UK study.

Setting: Maternity care provision in England.

Participants: Interviews were held with 26 national governmental, professional and service-user organisation leads (July-December 2020).

Associations Between Mode of Birth and Neuropsychological Development in Children Aged 4 Years: Results from a Birth Cohort Study.

The aim of this prospective longitudinal study was to examine the association between Cesarean section (CS) and child development and behavior. The sample consisted of 256 children who were born at term without serious perinatal pathologies. Their development and behavior was assessed at the age of four using Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3), Children's Behavior Questionnaire and Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire.

Thermal imaging of the fetus: An empirical feasibility study.

Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) has much potential in the field of maternal-fetal health and wellbeing research. The fact that it is totally non-invasive is particularly important in this context. The purpose of this study was, for the first time, to assess DITI's ability to record fetal presentation and position, and other pregnancy-related physiological factors, via their superficial thermal prints.

A computational fluid dynamics modelling of maternal-fetal heat exchange and blood flow in the umbilical cord.

Human fetal thermoregulation, maternal-fetal heat exchange, and the role of the umbilical cord in these processes are not well understood. Ethical and technical limitations have restricted current knowledge to animal studies, that do not reflect human morphology. Here, we present the first 3-dimensional computational model of the human umbilical cord with finite element analysis, aiming to compute the maternal-fetal heat exchange.

Inner Ear Malformations in Congenital Deafness Are Not Associated with Increased Risk of Breech Presentation.

There is speculation that an immature vestibular system may be associated with breech presentation at delivery. Our aim was to determine whether syndromes with congenital inner ear malformations were accompanied by a higher frequency of breech presentation/malpresentations than in the general population (2%-3%). A review was conducted for published literature using PubMed/MEDLINE (1936-2016), to determine frequency of breech presentation and transverse lie in cases with congenital deafness (Michel aplasia, Wildervanck syndrome, Mondini-Alexander dysplasia, Waardenburg syndrome, CHARGE syndrome, Large vestibular aqueductal syndrome, Pendred syndrome, Oculo-aurico-vertebral spectrum, Jervel and Lange-Nielsen syndrome, Usher syndrome, and Scheibe dysplasia) and vestibular nerve aplasia.

Thermal imaging applications in neonatal care: a scoping review.

Background: In neonatal care, assessment of the temperature of the neonate is essential to confirm on-going health, and as an early signal of potential pathology. However, some methods of temperature assessment involve disturbing the baby, disrupting essential sleep patterns, and interrupting maternal/infant interaction. Thermal imaging is a completely non-invasive and non-contact method of assessing emitted temperature, but it is not a standard method for neonatal thermal monitoring.

Appearance of fetal pain could be associated with maturation of the mesodiencephalic structures.

Fetal pain remains a controversial subject both in terms of recognizing its existence and the time-frame within which it appears. This article investigates the hypothesis that pain perception during development is not related to any determined structures of the central nervous system (CNS), on the contrary, the process of perception could be made with any structure satisfying conditions that the perception of pain is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment. According to this definition, chronic decerebrate and decorticate experimental animals, anencephalic, and hydranencephalic patients demonstrate that the basic, most general, appropriate interaction with the environment can be achieved with a functional mesodiencephalon (brain stem, and diencephalon) as the hierarchically highest structure of the CNS during development.

Posterior Decompression and Fusion: Whole-Spine Functional and Clinical Outcomes.

The mobility of the spine and the change in the angle of the curvatures are directly related to spinal pain and spinal stenosis. The aim of the study was the evaluation of morphology and mobility of the spine in patients who were subjected to decompression and posterior fusion with pedicle screws. The treatment group consisted of 20 patients who underwent posterior fixation of lumbar spine (one and two level fusion).

Evaluation of the reliability of a new non-invasive method for assessing the functionality and mobility of the spine.

Unlabelled: For the evaluation of the functionality and mobility of the spine, several methods have been developed. The purpose of this study was to estimate the test-retest reliability of the Spinal Mouse, a new, non-invasive, computer-assisted wireless telemetry device for the assessment of the curvatures, the mobility and the functionality of the spine.

Materials And Methods: the test-retest reliability was evaluated in 50 adults with back or low back pain.

Limb salvage after gas gangrene: a case report and review of the literature.

Gas gangrene is a necrotic infection of soft tissue associated with high mortality, often necessitating amputation in order to control the infection. Herein we present a case of gas gangrene of the arm in an intravenous drug user with a history of intramuscular injections with normal saline in the shoulder used to provoke pain for recovery after drug induced coma. The patient was early treated with surgery and antibiotics rendering possible the preservation of the limb and some of its function.