Perceptions, attitudes and beliefs on antenatal exercises among primiparous pregnant women: a qualitative study in Sri Lanka.

Background: Even if promoting antenatal exercises is an evolving concept worldwide, there is a scarcity of qualitative exploratory studies which directly focus on pregnant mothers' views about exercises. So, this study was designed to (1) explore pregnant women's perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about antenatal exercises, and (2) provide significant annotations prior to constituting interventions for antenatal exercises.

Methods: A qualitative survey was carried out with 19 primiparous pregnant women using stratified purposive sampling at the antenatal clinic, in a tertiary care hospital, Sri Lanka.

Impairment of caprine oocyte maturation in vitro and alteration of granulosa cells functions by widely used fungicide mancozeb.

Mancozeb is classified as an endocrine disruptor; thus the present study was carried out to investigate the impact of mancozeb on mammalian ovarian functions using in vitro caprine oocyte maturation and granulosa cell culture models. Caprine cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) and granulosa cells were cultured under standard culture conditions and treated with mancozeb concentrations of 0.3, 3, and 30 μg/ml along with a control for 24 h and assessed.

Novel non-invasive in-house fabricated wearable system with a hybrid algorithm for fetal movement recognition.

Fetal movement count monitoring is one of the most commonly used methods of assessing fetal well-being. While few methods are available to monitor fetal movements, they consist of several adverse qualities such as unreliability as well as the inability to be conducted in a non-clinical setting. Therefore, this research was conducted to design a complete system that will enable pregnant mothers to monitor fetal movement at home.

Exposure rate of VZV among women attending antenatal care clinic in Sri Lanka - a cross sectional study.

Background: Varicella or chickenpox was not a notifiable disease until 2005 in Sri Lanka and only a few studies have been conducted on the epidemiology of VZV infection in the country. The anti-VZV IgG sero-prevalence among antenatal women is extremely limited and thus a selected group of antenatal clinic attendees were chosen to determine the exposure rate to VZV infection.

Methods: Women attending the antenatal clinic at Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka were selected for the study and 3 mL of venous blood was collected from 181 participants and the demographic data was obtained through a pre-tested questionnaire.