WITHDRAWN: Periconceptional supplementation with folate and/or multivitamins for preventing neural tube defects.

Background: Neural tube defects arise during the development of the brain and spinal cord.

Objectives: The objective of this review was to assess the effects of increased consumption of folate or multivitamins on the prevalence of neural tube defects periconceptionally (that is before pregnancy and in the first two months of pregnancy).

Search Strategy: We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group trials register.

Mothers' AdvocateS In the Community (MOSAIC)--non-professional mentor support to reduce intimate partner violence and depression in mothers: a cluster randomised trial in primary care.

Background: Effective interventions to increase safety and wellbeing of mothers experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) are scarce. As much attention is focussed on professional intervention, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of non-professional mentor support in reducing IPV and depression among pregnant and recent mothers experiencing, or at risk of IPV.

Methods: MOSAIC was a cluster randomised trial in 106 primary care (maternal and child health nurse and general practitioner) clinics in Melbourne, Australia.

Modelling sequence of prior pregnancies on subsequent risk of very preterm birth.

The prevalence and intractability of preterm birth is known as is its association with reproductive history, but the relationship with sequence of pregnancies is not well studied. The data were from a population-based case-control study, conducted in Victoria, Australia. The study recruited women giving birth between April 2002 and April 2004 from 73 maternity hospitals.

Modelling prior reproductive history to improve prediction of risk for very preterm birth.

In published studies of preterm birth, analyses have usually been centred on individual reproductive events and do not account for the joint distributions of these events. In particular, spontaneous and induced abortions have often been studied separately and have been variously reported as having no increased risk, increased risk or different risks for subsequent preterm birth. In order to address this inconsistency, we categorised women into mutually exclusive groups according to their reproductive history, and explored the range of risks associated with different reproductive histories and assessed similarities of risks between different pregnancy histories.

Interventions for promoting smoking cessation during pregnancy.

Background: Tobacco smoking in pregnancy remains one of the few preventable factors associated with complications in pregnancy, low birthweight, preterm birth and has serious long-term health implications for women and babies. Smoking in pregnancy is decreasing in high-income countries and increasing in low- to middle-income countries and is strongly associated with poverty, low educational attainment, poor social support and psychological illness.

Objectives: To assess the effects of smoking cessation interventions during pregnancy on smoking behaviour and perinatal health outcomes.

MOSAIC (MOthers' Advocates In the Community): protocol and sample description of a cluster randomised trial of mentor mother support to reduce intimate partner violence among pregnant or recent mothers.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent globally, experienced by a significant minority of women in the early childbearing years and is harmful to the mental and physical health of women and children. There are very few studies with rigorous designs which have tested the effectiveness of IPV interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of abused women. Evidence for the separate benefit to victims of social support, advocacy and non-professional mentoring suggested that a combined model may reduce the levels of violence, the associated mental health damage and may increase a woman's health, safety and connection with her children.

COSMOS: COmparing Standard Maternity care with one-to-one midwifery support: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: In Australia and internationally, there is concern about the growing proportion of women giving birth by caesarean section. There is evidence of increased risk of placenta accreta and percreta in subsequent pregnancies as well as decreased fertility; and significant resource implications. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of continuity of midwifery care have reported reduced caesareans and other interventions in labour, as well as increased maternal satisfaction, with no statistically significant differences in perinatal morbidity or mortality.

Birth then and now.

Halfway through the 20th century, views on pain in labour encompassed almost everything from women's self-blame to blaming nurses, midwives, doctors or partners for 'bad experiences'. Soon after that, giving birth came to be seen - in some settings and by some caregivers - as a 'natural' and thus benign event which women could 'master'. In their recent systematic review of women's expectations and experiences of pain relief in labour, Joanne Lally, Madeleine Murtagh, Sheila Macphail, and Richard Thomson show that there is wide variation in women's expectations and knowledge about the first birth.

Oestrogen treatment for tall stature in girls: estimating the effect on height and the error in height prediction.

Objective: To determine the effect of oestrogen treatment on attenuating the growth of tall girls after adjusting for error in height prediction.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Patients: Tall girls assessed by Australian paediatric endocrinologists between 1959 and 1993.

Hospital ethics approval for a population-based case-control study of very preterm birth.

Aim: To describe the process involved in obtaining ethics approval for a study aiming to recruit women from all maternity hospitals in Victoria, Australia.

Design: Observational data of the application process involving 85 hospitals throughout Victoria in 2001.

Results: Twenty-three of the 85 hospitals had a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) constituted in accordance with the National Health and Medical Council requirements; 27 agreed to accept decisions from other hospitals having HRECs and 27 relied on ethics advisory committees, hospital managers, clinical staff, quality assurance committees or lawyers for ethics decisions.

Recruitment to research studies in maternity hospitals: an example from the Early Births Study.

Objectives: to present issues associated with recruitment of women in maternity hospitals to a population-based case-control study of very preterm birth.

Design: a descriptive study of the recruitment process.

Setting: all maternity hospitals, including three providing neonatal intensive care services, in Victoria, Australia from April 2002 to April 2004.

Women's views and outcomes of an educational intervention designed to enhance psychosocial support for women during pregnancy.

Background: Identification of psychosocial issues in pregnant women by screening is difficult because of the lack of accuracy of screening tools, women's reluctance to disclose sensitive issues, and health care practitioner's reluctance to ask. This paper evaluates if a health professional education program, a new (ANEW) approach, improves pregnant women's ratings of care and practitioner's listening skills and comfort to disclose psychosocial issues.

Methods: Midwives and doctors from Mercy Hospital for Women, Melbourne, Australia, were trained from August to December 2002.

A descriptive study of mastitis in Australian breastfeeding women: incidence and determinants.

Background: Mastitis is one of the most common problems experienced by women who are breastfeeding. Mastitis is an inflammation of breast tissue, which may or may not result from infection. The aims of this paper are to compare rates of mastitis in primiparous women receiving public hospital care (standard or birth centre) and care in a co-located private hospital, and to use multivariate analysis to explore other factors related to mastitis.

Is the organisation and structure of hospital postnatal care a barrier to quality care? Findings from a state-wide review in Victoria, Australia.

Objective: to describe the structure and organisation of hospital postnatal care in Victoria, Australia.

Design: postal survey sent to all public hospitals in Victoria (n=71) and key-informant interviews with midwives and medical practitioners (n=38).

Setting: Victoria, Australia.