Maternal Sepsis: Presentation, Course, Treatment, and Outcomes.

Purpose: The current adult definition of sepsis and septic shock, as developed in 1992, does not adequately define sepsis in the pregnant and peripartum women due to the alteration of sepsis presentation in the maternal population. The purpose of this study was to determine potential causative factors for sepsis with the aim of prevention and reducing morbidity and mortality.

Study Design And Methods: A descriptive observational design via a retrospective medical record review was used with a convenience sample of 22 women who were identified after admission as having sepsis.

Rural mothers experiencing the stress of intimate partner violence or not: their newborn health concerns.

Pregnancy and the postpartum period is a time of great physical, psychological, and emotional upheaval. Women who experience intimate partner violence experience more depression and anxiety and a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (such as those related to the abuse). While the literature supports the presence of increased health care utilization for abused women, there is little information on the way that these mothers seek medical care for their infants.

Comparative analyses of stressors experienced by rural low-income pregnant women experiencing intimate partner violence and those who are not.

Objective: To describe the daily lives of rural pregnant women who smoked during pregnancy, with a focus on their sources of stress and the compounding effects of intimate partner violence.

Design: A qualitative study using content analysis of research nurses' telephone logs from a large smoking cessation randomized controlled trial (N=695) in which 33% of the sample (n=227) experienced intimate partner violence in the past year.

Participants: Fifty pregnant women, 25 who had experienced intimate partner violence in the past year and 25 who had never experienced intimate partner violence, were randomly selected from those who received a nurse-delivered telephone intervention for smoking cessation (n=345).