Normal birth rates before and after the merging of mixed-risk and low-risk maternity wards in Iceland: A retrospective cohort study on the impact of inter-professional preventative measures.

Background: In 2014, the National University Hospital of Iceland (NUHI) merged a mixed-risk birth unit and a midwifery-led low-risk unit into one mixed-risk unit. Interprofessional preventative and mitigating measures were implemented since there was a known threat of cultural contamination between mixed-risk and low-risk birth environments. The aim of the study was to assess whether the NUHI's goal of protecting the rates of birth without intervention had been achieved and to support further development of labor services.

Being in charge in an encounter with extremes. A survey study on how women experience and work with labour pain in a Nordic home birth setting.

Problem: There is a knowledge gap regarding women's experiences of coping with labour pain when not soliciting or not having access to pharmacological pain relief.

Background: How women manage labour pain is complex, multifaceted and only the woman giving birth can assess the experienced pain. Women in the Nordic countries planning for a homebirth have little or no access to pharmacologic pain relief during labour.

Midwives' care on a labour ward prior to the introduction of a midwifery model of care: a field of tension.

Purpose: There is a need to deepen knowledge about midwives' care in obstetric-led labour wards in which midwives are responsible for normal births. This ethnographic study explores the content and meaning of midwives' care of women in a hospital-based labour ward in Sweden prior to the introduction of a theoretical midwifery model of care.

Methods: Data were gathered through participant observation, analysed through interpretation grounded in reflexivity discussions and are presented in the form of ethnographic descriptions.

Health professionals' perceptions of a midwifery model of woman-centred care implemented on a hospital labour ward.

Background: Theoretical models as a basis for midwives' care have been developed over recent decades. Although there are similarities between these models, their usefulness in practice needs to be researched in specific cultural contexts.

Aim: To explore whether, when adopted by midwives on labour wards, a midwifery model of woman-centred care (MiMo) was useful in practice from the viewpoint of a variety of health professionals.

Midwifery in Iceland: From vocational training to university education.

Midwifery education is a foundation for health professionals' competence in providing quality healthcare for the benefit of women, their families and society. This paper describes midwifery and the development of midwifery education in Iceland. It examines policy and extensive reforms, from hospital-based vocational training in midwifery to an academic university education, and the impact on the scope of midwifery practice in Iceland.

Contraindications in planned home birth in Iceland: A retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: Icelandic national guidelines on place of birth list contraindications for home birth. Few studies have examined the effect of contraindication on home birth, and none have done so in Iceland. The aim of this study was to examine whether contraindications affect the outcome of planned home birth or have a different effect at home than in hospital.

Predictors of women's positive childbirth pain experience: Findings from an Icelandic national study.

Background: Pain in childbirth has been identified as one of the major components in the childbirth experience and an important topic that needs to be addressed during pregnancy, birth and the after-birth period.

Aim: The aim of the study was to describe women's childbirth pain experience and to identify predictors of women's positive childbirth pain experience.

Method: A population-based cross-sectional cohort study design was implemented, with convenient consecutive sampling, stratified according to residency.

History of violence and subjective health of mother and child.

Objective: To study the self-reported prevalence of experienced violence among a cohort of women about two years after giving birth, their health during pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and their experience of their child's health.

Setting And Subjects: In 2011, a total of 657 women participated in phase III of the Childbirth and Health Cohort Study in Icelandic Primary Health Care, 18 to 24 months after delivery. The women had previously participated in phase I around pregnancy week 16 and phase II 5-6 months after delivery.

Perineal injuries and birth positions among 2992 women with a low risk pregnancy who opted for a homebirth.

Background: Whether certain birth positions are associated with perineal injuries and severe perineal trauma (SPT) is still unclear. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of perineal injuries of different severity in a low-risk population of women who planned to give birth at home and to compare the prevalence of perineal injuries, SPT and episiotomy in different birth positions in four Nordic countries.

Methods: A population-based prospective cohort study of planned home births in four Nordic countries.

Transfers to hospital in planned home birth in four Nordic countries - a prospective cohort study.

Introduction: Women planning a home birth are transferred to hospital in case of complications or elevated risk for adverse outcomes. The aim of the present study was to describe the indications for transfer to hospital in planned home births, and the proportion of cases in which this occurs.

Material And Methods: Women in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland who had opted for, and were accepted for, home birth at the onset of labor, were included in the study.

Maternal attitudes towards home birth and their effect on birth outcomes in Iceland: A prospective cohort study.

Objective: to examine the relationship between attitudes towards home birth and birth outcomes, and whether women's attitudes towards birth and intervention affected this relationship.

Design: a prospective cohort study.

Setting: the study was set in Iceland, a sparsely populated island with harsh terrain, 325,000 inhabitants, high fertility and home birth rates, and less than 5000 births a year.

Pregnant women's expectations about pain intensity during childbirth and their attitudes towards pain management: Findings from an Icelandic national study.

Background: Pregnant women expect childbirth to be painful. However, little is known about their expectations of the intensity of pain in childbirth (EIPC) and their attitudes to pain management.

Method: The design was a cross-sectional survey, with self-reported questionnaires used to collect data from low-risk pregnant women (N = 1111) early in pregnancy at 26 of the largest primary health care centres in Iceland.

How Long Is a Normal Labor? Contemporary Patterns of Labor and Birth in a Low-Risk Sample of 1,612 Women from Four Nordic Countries.

Objective: Normal progress of labor is a subject for discussion among professionals. The aim of this study was to assess the duration of labor in women with a planned home birth and spontaneous onset who gave birth at home or in hospital after transfer.

Methods: This is a population-based study of home births in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).

Autonomy in place of birth: a concept analysis.

This article examines one of the relevant concepts in the current debate on home birth-autonomy in place of birth-and its uses in general language, ethics, and childbirth health care literature. International discussion on childbirth services. A concept analysis guided by the model of Walker and Avant.

Outcome of planned home and hospital births among low-risk women in Iceland in 2005-2009: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: At 2.2 percent in 2012, the home birth rate in Iceland is the highest in the Nordic countries and has been rising rapidly in the new millennium. The objective of this study was to compare the outcomes of planned home births and planned hospital births in comparable low-risk groups in Iceland.

Attitudes of Registered and Licensed Practical Nurses About the Importance of Families in Surgical Hospital Units: Findings From the Landspitali University Hospital Family Nursing Implementation Project.

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses about the importance of the family in surgical hospital units before (T1) and after (T2) implementation of a Family Systems Nursing educational intervention based on the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models. This study was part of the Landspitali University Hospital Family Nursing Implementation Project and used a nonrandomized, quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent group before and after and without a control group. There were 181 participants at T1 and 130 at T2.

Praxis and guidelines for planned homebirths in the Nordic countries - an overview.

Objective: The objective of this overview was to investigate the current situation regarding guidelines and praxis for planned homebirths and also to investigate possibilities for comparative studies on planned homebirths in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden).

Design And Setting: National documents on homebirth and midwifery and recommendations regarding management and registration of planned homebirths in the included countries were investigated.

Findings: Guidelines regarding planned home birth were found in four of the included countries.