Women's suggestions on how to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care: A qualitative analysis from the IMAgiNE EURO survey in Italy during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Collecting women's views and suggestions for improving quality of maternal-newborn care (QMNC) is a crucial aspect of maternity care evaluation often overlooked in Italy and globally. Childbearing women experienced numerous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic including the rapid and significant reorganization of maternity services and care. Their perspective on what to prioritize for QMNC improvement is hence pivotal.

Exploring the Role of Birth Environment on Italian Mothers' Emotional Experience during Childbirth.

The physical environment is one of the factors that affect mother's experience of childbirth and psychological health. A woman's childbirth experience has been found to influence not only the mother's own health and future births but also the well-being of her child and family. The present study's objective was to investigate mothers' perceptions of spatial-physical humanization, affective quality of place, and emotions during childbirth.

Volunteering in an emergency project in response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: the experience of Italian midwives.

Objectives: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Region of Lombardy in Italy and its Regional Emergency Service (Azienda Regionale Emergenza Urgenza [AREU]) created a dedicated 24/7 free phone service to help the Lombard population. After an invitation from their professional order, local midwives collaborated on the AREU project as volunteers to address the needs of women from antenatal to postnatal periods. The aim of this article was to explore the experiences of midwives who volunteered in the AREU project.

How much synthetic oxytocin is infused during labour? A review and analysis of regimens used in 12 countries.

Objective: To compare synthetic oxytocin infusion regimens used during labour, calculate the International Units (IU) escalation rate and total amount of IU infused over eight hours.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: Twelve countries, eleven European and South Africa.

Midwife-to-newborn ratio and neonatal outcome in healthy term infants.

Aim: To assess the effect of midwife-to-infant ratio on healthy term infant outcome.

Methods: Infants were enrolled in an inhospital midwife-led centre and an obstetrician-led centre with different midwife-to-infant ratios (1:2.5-1:5 vs 1:7-1:15).

TREC and KREC in very preterm infants: reference values and effects of maternal and neonatal factors.

Objective: T-cell receptor excision circles (TREC) and kappa-deleting recombination excision circles (KREC) assays have been used for severe combined immunodeficiencies newborn screening (NBS). We assessed TREC and KREC NBS values in preterm infants and investigated if perinatal characteristics affect their values.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study collecting data from TREC and KREC NBS database and from mothers' and infants' medical charts.

The Impact of the Physical Environment on Intrapartum Maternity Care: Identification of Eight Crucial Building Spaces.

Objectives, Purpose, Or Aim: This article investigates whether the physical environment in which childbirth occurs impacts the intrapartum intervention rates and how this might happen. The study explores the spatial physical characteristics that can support the design of spaces to promote the health and well-being of women, their supporters, and maternity care professionals.

Background: Medical interventions during childbirth have consequences for the health of women and babies in the immediate and long term.

Optimal settings for childbirth.

Many studies highlight how health is influenced by the settings in which people live, work, and receive health care. In particular, the setting in which childbirth takes place is highly influential. The physiological processes of women's labor and birth are enhanced in optimal ("salutogenic," or health promoting) environments.

Optimal outcomes and women's positive pregnancy experience: a comparison between the World Health Organization guideline and recommendations in European national antenatal care guidelines.

Background: The publication of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on antenatal care in 2016 introduced the perspective of women as a necessary component of clinical guidelines in maternity care. WHO highlights the crucial role played by evidence-based recommendations in promoting and supporting normal birth processes and a positive experience of pregnancy. This paper aims to explore and critically appraise recommendations of national antenatal care guidelines across European countries in comparison with the WHO guideline.

Humanities in the undergraduate medical and midwifery curriculum: a descriptive Italian comparative study.

There is an increasing emphasis on humanized care in obstetric and midwifery practice. The goal of this paper is to investigate if and how medical humanities content was present in the undergraduate medical syllabus and how similar or different this is from the undergraduate midwifery program in Italy. A review of the 2017-18 curriculum for Italian Schools of Medicine and of Midwifery was carried out through institutional websites or mailing requests.

Findings from the Italian Babies Born Better Survey.

Background: The most recent WHO recommendations "Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience" highlight the need to identify women-centered interventions and outcomes for intrapartum care, and to include service users' experiences and qualitative research into the assessment of maternity care. Babies Born Better (B3) is a trans-European survey designed to capture service user views and experiences of maternity care provision. Italian service users contributed to the survey.

Variation in caesarean section rates in Cyprus, Italy and Iceland: an analysis of the role of the media.

Introduction: Cyprus has Europe's highest rate of births by caesarean section (CS). In 2015 56% of all babies were born by CS. This compares with 36% in Italy, and 16% in Iceland, which is among the lowest rates in Europe.

Computerized Cardiotocography Analysis: Comparison among Several Parental Ethnic Origins.

 We speculate that genetic racial disparity exists in fetal life and can be detected by modern computerized cardiotocography (cCTG).  This is a retrospective study comparing the results of the cCTG of pregnant patients at 37-42 weeks according to the parental ethnicity (black versus white). A cCTG was performed to analyze the variables of fetal heart rate (FHR).